Grapes are a fussy lot. They need just the right amount of sunshine, perfect soil, not too much rain, nor too little. Tinker with any of these factors anywhere else in the world—with say, those wimpy Italian or French grapes—and blowie. No more wine for you. Just whine.

Not here. Not only are our grapes tougher, we harvest some of them in the middle of winter and turn them into icewine. Taste this delicate dessert vino, and you know what they serve in the Great Hereafter. We even celebrate the event. A regular festival, right in the middle of January.

Forget your palm trees and your Mediterranean grape groves. We in Canada put on the Niagara Ice Wine Festival in Ontario. Takes place the second half of January, kicking off with a gala evening at Fallsview Casino right beside a Canadian icon (that’s right, Niagara Falls). Highlights? Winery tours featuring wine bars made out of ice. Chestnut roasting. Sample wine and food pairings. A market event in St. Catherines featuring live entertainment and visual arts. All in the dead of winter.

To make icewine, the grapes must stay on the vines, freezing until it’s at least -8 degrees Celsius (18 degrees F) outside—when it’s colder than a hockey referee’s heart—then picked frozen and turned into some of the world’s best icewine. We may not have invented icewine—that happened by accident in Germany—but we’ve certainly perfected it.

Come January, much of the world whines about winter. In Niagara, they wine—icewine.

www.ontariotravel.net/