Maryland's Delicious History: Ice Wine
I often wonder, "Do Marylanders know how significant their state has been in the history of wine in America?" Are Maryland residents aware of the contributions of figures such as John Adlum (the father of North American viticulture), Philip Wagner (first Maryland winery owner and author of the preeminent book on winemaking in post-prohibition U.S.), and Dr. G. Hamilton Mowbray (first to prove Vitis vinifera can grow in Maryland)?
This entry is to highlight that the first ice wine made in the United States was made here in Maryland. Early in the morning on October 5, 1974, Dr. G. Hamilton Mowbray and his team picked and pressed frozen Riesling grapes with the intent of making an ice wine. This was quite the feat, considering what’s required to make ice wine, as I will now briefly describe...
Quick History of Ice Wine and its Production
Ice wine is an old idea, written about as early as the first century CE. Its story begins with the ancient Romans, but subsequently was lost to history, resurfacing in the late 1700s in what is now Germany. Late harvest sweet wine has long been considered a highly-valued commodity in Germany. Spätlese (late harvest) wine is characterized as being discovered by coincidence. The story goes that a messenger carrying permission to harvest (because the vineyards were owned by the Church at the time) from the prince bishop of Fulda to the Johannisberg monks was delayed for 14 days. One rather comical-ironic theory is that the messenger had been drinking too much along the way, and in his stupor, delivered the message late. This delay resulted in the grapes being affected by Botrytis (noble rot), which reduces the water inside a grape, resulting in a sweet wine. Ice wine is similar to Botryitized wine via the idea that by removing/lessening the water inside a grape, the sugars are concentrated, making a sweeter wine.
To be called ice wine, grapes must be frozen while still on the vine, not post-harvest. As you can imagine, only a few factors, such as latitude and unique geographical situations, allow for grapes to freeze before they begin to rot. Even in the most optimal climates, ice wine wasn’t an easy wine to make. In the 19th century, only six vintages were recorded to have ice wine made. As popularity began to grow and technology advanced, ice wine became a more common occurrence. As global temperatures have begun to rise, regions where making ice wine is possible have shifted north. In addition to climatic difficulties, harvesting frozen grapes requires picking in the early hours of the morning, in freezing temperatures.
Even now, if a winery is small enough to not own a mechanical harvester, the labor comes down to people. This leads to multiple days of harvesting and small levels of production. I hope you have started to realize why ice wine is a difficult and coveted wine.
Once the frozen grapes are picked, the next step in the process is pressing. The product of a pressed frozen grape is a syrupy liquid that can, once fermented, be around 12% ABV and 200 g/L residual sugar. Pressing frozen grapes is labor intensive. If the berries are too cold, they have been known to break presses. That’s not usually a problem, as that has only been observed when the grapes were picked at less than 0 degrees F. In the absence of botrytis, the floral, toasty, caramel, and ginger notes aren’t there. Instead, ice wine commonly shows citrus, tropical fruit, honey, and marmalade flavors.
Maryland Ice Wine
In Maryland, there are a couple of wineries that make ice wine today. The wineries making these wines are, unexpectedly, closer to the mountains than to the Chesapeake. Some of the wineries that advertise making ice wine include Olney Winery, Elk Run Winery, and Big Cork Vineyards. Big Cork even won the 2022 Governor’s Cup with one of their ice wines.
While Maryland has won awards for ice wine, it only seems right to acknowledge the first winery in the United States to make an ice wine was here in Maryland. The following is a story that comes with some controversy...
Who Made it First?
There are multiple claims as to who first made ice wine in the United States. Mount Pleasant Vineyards claims they were first in 1976 based on their application for Certificate of Label Approval (COLA). Hunt Wines claims they made the first in 1981, and in fact, that’s the first thing that came up when I Googled “first ice wine in the United States.” In 1978, an article was published in Wines & Vines about Edmeades Vineyards of California making an ice wine in 1977. That article was picked up by the New York Times, in which they claimed that Edmeades made the first ice wine in America. This was also the introduction of controversy into the story. Dr. G. Hamilton Mowbray, owner of Montbray Vineyards in Carroll County, MD, read that NYT article and objected, referencing his 1974 bottling of 100 bottles of ice wine. Edmeades countered by saying that 100 bottles pales in comparison to their 44 cases (528 bottles) and shouldn’t be considered commercial. Dr. Mowbray responded, saying that any time he could sell a batch of wine for $5,000, it was commercial (he sold his ice wine for $50/bottle). The New York Times responded by publishing a retraction, acknowledging Mowbray as being the first U.S. ice wine maker.
Mount Pleasant Vineyard’s COLA claim does allow for an additional layer to the controversy. When they applied in 1976 for a label that included ice wine as a designation, the BATF (now TTB) had to write regulations around the label and told Mount Pleasant that no one had ever applied for an ice wine label. This fact was also disputed by Dr. Mowbray, in which he claims to have applied for a COLA, but they took so long that he made a separate ice wine label and applied it above the legal label (see image).
Photos by Hudson Cattell from The Pennsylvania Grape Letter and Wine News, Jan. 1980
I hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed researching and writing it. As a matter of fact, I only first tried ice wine as a result of writing this post--a 2020 Big Cork Vidal Blanc ice wine. What I experienced was not what I expected. I was surprised by how balanced it was. The acidity was high enough to keep the sweetness from being overpowering. I drank it very cold, so the experience was more about flavor than aroma, and it had strong tastes of honey and cooked apricot. I would recommend anyone that enjoys port(-style) and sweet sherry wines to try an ice wine. And because you're reading this, I think you should make your next ice wine a Maryland-made one!
