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a fake page rip for aesthetic purposes. Winter Harvest Experimental Wine by Tennessee Homemade Winesa fake page rip for aesthetic purposes.

What is Ice Wine? A Look at the Making of Our New Winter Harvest Wine

You’ve come to love the incredible selection of unique wines from Tennessee Homemade Wines. Our newest wine is our most interesting one yet, and it’s not just because of the awesome flavor! From start to finish, the process of making our new Winter Harvest wine is different from any other flavor from Tennessee Homemade Wines. Our Winter Harvest flavor is what’s known as an “ice wine!” Here’s a look at how we make our new Winter Harvest wine:

winter harvest wine by tennessee homemade wines in the experimental series

What is Ice Wine?

You know the difference between a Pinot Noir, Zinfandel, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and more, but what the heck is ice wine?! Ice wine is a type of dessert wine produced from grapes that have been frozen while they’re still on the vine! 

Thanks to cold temperatures that arrive each winter, the grapes we use to craft our Winter Harvest wine naturally freeze while still on the vine! The water inside each grape freezes while the sugars and other dissolved solids do not freeze, making for a more concentrated grape juice as the end product compared to non-frozen grapes. 

Following the freezing process, the grapes are picked and pressed into a wine must. Must is the freshly crushed fruit juice that contains all parts of the grape — skins, seeds and stems. Because of the freezing process, the must ends up being more sweet than it would from grapes that aren’t frozen, eventually making for a more flavorful wine in the end! It’s the difference between you eating a grape straight from the bag vs. throwing the bag in the freezer and then eating the grapes!

The freezing process always occurs before the fermentation process and not after like many other dessert wines that are produced. Natural ice wines need a frost of 17.6 degrees fahrenheit or colder to occur sometime after the grapes ripen. This turns into an exact science for our winemakers, who have to balance making sure the grapes get cold enough to freeze (so they don’t eventually rot) but not too cold that the flavor is destroyed. Too cold of temperatures can mean grapes that are too frozen solid to extract juice.

After the wine must is created, we start the slow fermentation process of our Winter Harvest wine and then filter before bottling and throwing our trademark Tennessee Homemade Wines designs on the bottles!

winter harvest wine in the experiemtnal series in the snow

About Our New Winter Harvest Wine

So what’s all the hype about our new Winter Harvest wine?! This wine has the great taste to match the unique way in which it is created! Winter Harvest is made from thick skinned Vidal grapes that are frozen while still on the vine, then harvested from the vines on a cold Smoky Mountain day!

We press these frozen Vidal grapes into a must that eventually produces a wine that is semi-sweet and features incredible flavors of honey dew melon, golden raisin and peach cobbler! 

Following the traditional French dessert winemaking process from start to finish, Winter Harvest is not only great tasting but provides a special story for you to share with friends and family at your next big gathering!

As you can see, Winter Harvest is a must-try the next time you’re in the Smokies or submit an online order! Winter Harvest is just the beginning of so many great wine choices at Tennessee Homemade wines. Make sure you check out all of our wine flavors before making your way to the Smoky Mountains!

Published:
February 2023
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