Students brave the cold for ice wine harvest at Niagara College

Whether you love the cold or wish it would go away, there’s one thing that absolutely thrives in these frigid temperatures – ice wine grapes.

Niagara College students were getting hands-on experience today harvesting the grapes that will be turned into that sweet ice wine. And they say today’s temperature was perfect.

“Legally, we are supposed to pick and press the grapes at -8 C, it’s the magical number. We reached that yesterday and then there was a crazy snow storm, obviously, so we are out here this morning,” says Allison Findlay, a winemaker at Niagara College.

Students from the Winery And Viticulture Technician Program at Niagara College were out braving the cold at sunrise this morning.

The goal is to harvest these naturally frozen grapes so they can be made into a Niagara Region specialty – sweet dessert ice wine.

Niagara College’s head winemaker says that magic -8 C number makes for the best ice wine.

“That temperature really helps freeze the water inside the grape and all that’s leftover is the beautiful acids and sugars that are naturally there. We are then going to press those hard grapes, they’re hard as marbles right now, we’re going to press them and extract that sweet syrupy juice. Which will then be fermented into ice wine.”

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Students from other programs joined the harvest because of how unique the opportunity is.

“We have our first and second year winery and viticulture technicians. We also have other students from the college – the hospitality programs, our brew program – they all come out because this is a once in a lifetime experience for a lot of people,” Findlay says.

“As an educational facility, this is one of the only facilities in the world that does this every single year,” said Craig Youdale, Dean of Culinary, Hospitality and Beverage Studies at Niagara College.

A valuable experience that students are going to bring with them into their future careers.

Ice wine is rare and intensely sweet. The college says having them in our region is special, so nothing can go to waste.

“Every single berry contains a precious drop of ice wine juice to create this beautiful wine we make in the Niagara Region, so it is very important that we get all of it,” said Gavin Robertson, professor at Niagara College.

Youdale says 2026 marks 25 years of the program in Niagara.

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