Freyburg (dpa/sa) – After two nights of permafrost in a row, ice wine was harvested on Sunday morning in the wine-growing region of Saale-Unstrut in southern Saxony-Anhalt. A spokesman for the Freyburg-Unstrut winegrowers’ association said a team of sixteen harvested around 690 kilograms of frozen Riesling berries in the Müncherodaer Himmelreich location at minus eight degrees Celsius. From this, 100 liters of highly sweet grape juice were pressed, the quality is excellent with 190 degrees Öchsle must weight.
According to the information, frozen grapes with a must weight of at least 125 degrees Öchsle and a temperature of at least minus seven degrees Celsius are required for the production of ice wine. Permafrost on two consecutive days is considered the ideal prerequisite for the harvest.
An ice wine harvest at the end of November was unusually early, in the previous year the same place had been moved out on Christmas Day. “I have never had such an early appointment in my 20 years of service at the Freyburg-Unstrut Winegrowers’ Association,” said Managing Director Hans Albrecht Zieger, according to the announcement. In 2019 and 2020 there was no ice vintage because of the weather.