From John Warner, Warner Vineyards:
We were just able to finish our Icewine harvest yesterday. It took two cold and chilly nights to harvest approximately 25 metric tons of Vidal ice grapes.

The first night we went out was Christmas Eve and early Christmas morning when the temperature dropped to -11 deg C. Luckily the temperature warmed up by  daylight so the workers had plenty of time to be home for Christmas.

The second harvest night was early yesterday morning (Jan 4, at 3:00am) when the temperatures plummeted to -12.5 deg C and remained there until lunchtime. There was very little snow on the ground during harvest which made harvesting the frozen grapes much easier than our typical late December/early January Icewine harvest. Pressing of the frozen grapes is continuing and we will likely be finished soon.

The resulting Icewine juice is very sweet and thick with some beautiful flavours and aromas. The juice (approximately 4500 liters) is sold directly to local Nova Scotia wineries for fermentation.