2024 Ice Wine is a Rarity

In the wine growing regions Pfalz, the Mittelrhein and the Hessische Bergstrasse, only one winery was rewarded for taking the risk of leaving grapes hanging until January. With seven wineries each, the Mosel and Rheinhessen regions were the most successful. In Franken, two producers not only succeeded in harvesting ice wine on January 14, 2025. One winery was already successful on December 28 and November 22, 2024. In the Sachsen and Saale-Unstrut growing regions, the wineries did not keep any vineyards for the ice wine harvest due to the very low harvest volumes caused by the late frosts in April 2024.

Seven degrees below zero

Ice wine production is always associated with a risk. If the minimum required temperature of minus seven degrees Celsius is not reached, this often means a total loss for the winegrowers. Sometimes the grapes can still be used as Auslese or Beerenauslese.

“In times of climate change, it is becoming increasingly difficult to produce ice wine because the heavy frost sets in later and later, if at all, and at the same time the grapes ripen earlier and earlier,” explained Ernst Büscher from the German Wine Institute (DWI). In previous years, it was often only one night in the whole year when it was possible to harvest ice wine grapes.

The vineyards that are held back each year for the ice wine harvest are correspondingly small. In Rhineland-Palatinate, a total of 42 hectares from 50 wineries were used for the current vintage.

Noble sweet specialty internationally in demand

The secret of ice wines lies in the dense concentration of ingredients from grapes that are as healthy as possible. In the frosty temperatures, the water in the berries freezes and remains in the wine press. The sugar-sweet juice then drips from the press. Musts with such a high sugar content can only be fermented into wine with great difficulty by the yeasts. Accordingly, ice wines generally have a very high natural residual sugar content of well over 100 grams per liter, but in contrast to southern sweet wines, only have a relatively low alcohol content - often only around seven percent by volume.

Another special feature of these fine wines is that this enormous residual sweetness is not overpowering thanks to the fresh fruit acidity. As a rarity and specialty, German ice wines also enjoy great international recognition.

Overview of the well-known ice wine producers of the 2024 vintage

*According to the Rhineland-Palatinate State Investigation Office