Ice-wine

Ice-wine is a special kind of dessert wine made from grapes which have been allowed to over-ripen and then freeze solid on the vine during a hard frost. The grapes are hand-harvested before dawn on the first night of the freeze, lest they thaw, ruining the grape. The grapes are then carefully pressed while still frozen. The juice which results from this pressing is extremely high in sugar and low in water content (which remains as ice).

The juice is then fermented and becomes a sweet and delicate dessert wine, which is extremely expensive owing to both the labour-intensive harvest and the financial risk of leaving a sizable portion of the grape crop on the vine while gambling against an early cold snap, which may or may not come before the grapes rot.

Ice-wine is a modern invention and was unknown in period. The Canadian wine industry in the Niagara region (the SCA's Barony of Rising Waters) is renowned for its ice-wine production.

For this reason, ice-wine is highly esteemed by the noble ladies of that Barony, and indeed the ladies of the whole Kingdom of Ealdormere, especially when it is served in chilled silver goblets and accompanied by strawberries. When served thusly, many SCAdian ladies swear that ice-wine is almost equal to the physical act of love, and some claim it surpasses.