Luxembourg vintners begin ice wine harvest

Even after the adverse weather conditions in December, it looks as though ice wine may finally work out for Luxembourg’s vintners this year: thanks to the recent frosty temperatures, the ice wine grape harvest started Monday.

In December, the Institut Viti-Vinicole had a pessimistic outlook for an ice wine vintage –weather was simply too mild. In order for grapes to be processed into ice wine in the first place, they require a night’s freeze of at least -7° Celsius (grapes have a lower freezing point than pure water).