The Wine Knows

This week's cold snap means ice wine producers in British Columbia's Okanagan Valley will have a merry - and likely warm - Christmas for the second time in three years.

Mission Hill Family Estate near Kelowna, B.C., reported that it had two crews out picking frozen Riesling and Vidal grapes in both the central and southern Okanagan Valley. They are working through six inches of snow that fell and in temperatures between -12 and -21 celcius.

John Simes, winemaker for Mission Hill, noted that the early blast has been unusual for the past decade and harvesting in January and even February has become more normal.

However, this is the second time in three years in which ice wine harvest has taken place before Christmas - no doubt much to the delight and relief of winemakers throughout the Okanagan Valley.