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Winter Weather Allows Traverse City’s Chateau Chantal to Harvest Grapes for Their Ice Wine

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The chill of the winter weather is the perfect time for workers at in Traverse City to harvest grapes for their Ice Wine.

“We’re at nine degrees right now, so it’s pretty cold,” said Director of Marketing Kyle Brownley. “That’s pretty important for us to be able to do our Ice Wine harvest.”

The process to get the Ice Wine is a gamble every year.

“We basically want the water to freeze in the grapes, but not the sugar,” said Brownley. “Sugar will freeze at a lower temperature than water, and we’re trying to hit that sweet spot where we can then pick and press the grapes while they’re frozen. That allows us to press down with a very very high concentration of sugar.”

For the winery, that “sweet spot” is about 15 degrees Fahrenheit, which must continue for more than two days.

“Temperature is everything when picking this kind of product,” said wine maker Brian Hosmer. “You can’t freeze it and call it Ice Wine, you have to wait until it’s frozen outside in nature.”

Chateau Chantal doesn’t make this wine every year. It all depends on the weather.

“We’ve missed a few years before,” said Brownley. “There are some years where we just don’t have the grapes.”

“You’re relying on nature for it, so it is a little bit dicey at times,” said Hosmer.

But when the winery has a “perfect year” for their Ice Wine, it’s sweet relief.

“It’s one of the things that makes northern Michigan so unique,” said Brownley.

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