TRANSCRIPT

Interview with Debbie Zimmerman, Grape Growers of Ontario - How The Grape Growers Produce Ice Wine

We (the Grape Growers) do press grapes for ice wine and I think that everybody recognizes ice wine as being a unique product, particularly for Canada, and it is world renowned the ice wine that is grown in Ontario. Our growers do most of the processing of ice wine. They do the picking, or the harvesting, and this is usually done anywhere from minus 18 (degrees Celsius) onwards, so deep cold. It is a difficult job to do; it is done late at night usually. The perfect night is when it is cold and clear, with the moon, so it is the perfect time to pick ice wine grapes. And then the growers will take those in and they will press them a number of times. And then the juice is produced for the wineries they take that and make ice wine.