An Artic Blast Quells the Owner's and Winemaker's Jitters

It does come to that - when the weather is as mild as it has been this winter of 2011-2012 - you begin to wonder whether you wasted your time and money netting those vines for ice wine.  If Mother Nature doesn't cooperate, you can end up with a lot of mushy, wasted grapes, and the only salvage possibility is something that is not ice wine.

So, it was with some relief that Fred and Jeff Murphy, winemaker at Johnson Estate, watched the weather forecasts and realized that the artic blast that blew in just after the New Year, might just be the needed window for harvest.  The appointed day January 3rd, arrived with temperatures contuning to drop and the skies gray - in the world of harvesting ice wine, that is good - you don't want those little marbles to thaw any, if you can help it.  We were blessed with plenty of hands from two additional farms which made the work go quickly.  Fred was very pleased with the decision to air-stack the Chambourcins, which then froze more solidly as the temperatures dropped to 7 degrees by evening.

More later - how you harvest and then what do you do with the grapes?