Chateau Chantal Begins Harvesting Frozen Grapes for Ice Wine Leave a comment

Temperatures have been below freezing on Old Mission Peninsula and that’s good news for Chateau Chantal.

On Monday, they started harvesting their frozen grapes to make ice wine.

Vineyard and cellar items were picking them in the blowing wind by hand.

After being picked, the grapes are then pressed while still frozen to give the wine twice the sweetness as it would typically have.

“It is a special thing, that’s why we call it ‘liquid cold’ because it is so hard to make and we make such small volumes of it so it is a really special thing when you look at the overall size of what we are and what we do,” said Brian Hosmer, Chateau Chantal Winemaker. “We make 50,000 gallons a year, this might be 100.”

The winery’s annual Ice Wine Festival is the last weekend of Jan.