Ice wine is a famous dessert wine produced from grapes frozen solid on the vine and harvested at a maximum temperature of -10 degrees Celsius.
The grapes are then pressed under extreme pressure. The result is apricot and honey aromas with a fine overall balance between fresh fruit flavors, sweetness and high acidity. It pours gold color into the glass.
Ice wine is typically made of Vidal and Riesling grapes. Ice wine, properly created, must follow VQA (Vintners Quality Alliance) regulations to ensure the highest quality product. Key amongst these rules is ice wine must be naturally produced - no artificial freezing allowed. This makes ice wine very difficult to create - grapes must be guarded against too extreme temperatures, and because they are the last grapes on the vines, they must be defended vigorously against birds and other animals.
Ice wine grapes must be hand picked and grapes in this condition have a very low yield - often an entire vine only makes a single bottle of ice wine. After this long harvest process, the grapes go through weeks of fermentation, followed by a few months of barrel aging. Ice wine is expensive and often sold in half-bottles.
What, no mention of botrytis cinerea? ;-)