It's been a tough season for icewine in Ontario, with unpredictable and fluctuating winter weather meaning a smaller yield this year.
That comes after some producers began the season with a smaller vine crop following a debilitating cold snap last year, while others opted out of making the dessert wine altogether.
The president of Wine Growers of Ontario says swings in temperature have made the icewine grape harvest more challenging in recent years.
Aaron Dobbin says it doesn't look like a lot of icewine was made this season and says changing weather patterns also affect post-harvest work done to prepare for the following year's crop.
The director of viniculture at Pillitteri Estates Winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake says it began the season with ``a diminished crop'' after a January 2022 cold snap.
Jamie Slingerland says the winery then had to delay its harvest as it waited for cold weather, and didn't pick much of its crop until early February.
V-Q-A Ontario, the province's wine regulator, mandates that icewine grapes must be picked in temperatures no warmer than minus eight degrees Celsius.
Slingerland says the chances of losing grapes rises the longer they have to wait to harvest, with warmer temperatures later in the winter causing some varieties to dehydrate and begin to decompose on the vine.
Dan Speck, president of Henry of Pelham Estate Winery, says poor weather and a deteriorating market in previous years played into the winery's decision to not produce icewine this year.
Reif Estate Winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake also opted to not produce any icewine for the 2022-23 season, the first time it has made such a decision since 1984.