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  Quaffers® Feature - February 2002
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 At the far edges of the vinification spectrum lie two techniques which bring the wine world some of its more unusual specimens. While most of the bottles we drink have undergone a conventional wine-making process, there are some which are created by subjecting the grapes or their fermented juice to extremes of heat or cold.
In this month's feature we focus on Madeira and Eiswein (Ice Wine), the former with a long and rather romantic tradition, the latter a much more recent phenomenon. Their respective production methods may be counter-intuitive, but the best of what results is among the most sought-after of connoisseur tasting experiences. However, both styles deserve wider recognition, as alternatives to better-known fortified or dessert wines.
Island in the sun: the wines of Madeira
 The story of wine on Madeira goes back almost as far as the known history of the island itself. When Portuguese mariners colonised uninhabited, heavily-timbered territory in the early 15th century, they carried instructions from their prince: to raze the land in order to plant sugar cane, and vines from Crete. After intensive burning, all that remained of the forest was the island's name (the Portuguese word for wood) and a rich ashen topsoil which proved ideal for crops. A temperate climate and reliable rainfall, later diverted from the volcanic summits through a system of man-made ditches (levadas in local parlance), assisted the establishment of a successful agricultural economy. With both land and labour as precious commodities, the tendency was to concentrate on one crop at the expense of all others. Early sugar plantations succumbed to international competition, leaving the way clear for grape-growing to dominate, despite subsequent ravages of oidium and phylloxera, and fluctuating commercial demand.
For 250 years, the wines produced on Madeira were unfortified. In a vital location for trans-Atlantic shipping traffic en route to the Americas, the island was the logical place for traders to stock up on both water and pipes (barrels) of wine for the voyage ahead. Generally, spirits were added to help preserve the wines on their travels. Nobody could have anticipated that lengthy journeys in hot, stuffy holds would accrue any benefit to the liquid cargo. Yet when tasted on arrival at their destination, the wines had improved to such an extent through fortification and over-heating that soon they were deliberately left until the voyage was over. Eventually Madeira pipes were used as profitable ship's ballast, ultimately returning to their European home port to be sold after a double Atlantic crossing spent subject to the most adverse circumstances imaginable. At the same time, producers on the island were starting to age their finest pipes of wine in uncooled lodges, or even in the open air.
The effect on sea and on land was more or less the same, as the wines underwent a long, slow heating process without protection from oxygen. Instead of spoiling, as the vast majority of wines usually would, the Madeiras developed a brown colour and an oxidised flavour which only served to enhance their character. Indeed the special look and smell of Madeira wines has made it into the wine-taster's vocabulary in the term "maderized", used to describe wine with an oxidised aroma which still tastes acceptable. Soon unfortified, "uncooked" Madeira was a thing of the past. Fortification was easy; the trick was to create a practical method of heating the wine without sending it to sea.
Enter estufagem
From the Portuguese for "hot house" or "stove", estufagem is the name given to the process of heating Madeira to hasten the development of its mature characteristics. Depending on the quality of the wine, this can happen in several ways.
The first method involves concrete tanks, fitted with a central copper or stainless steel coil filled with hot water. This introduces 40ºC-50ºC heat to the wine over a period of at least three months. Wine put into this system is frequently made from the lowest-quality grapes, fermented to dryness but unfortified until after estufagem. The producers save money because none of the costly fortifying spirit is lost through evaporation, but also risk sacrificing both potential profit and reputation. Too much heat over too short a time can cause the wine to take on a baked character, rather than becoming richly caramelised, making it more suitable for use in cooking than for enjoyable drinking. In fact, this kind of Madeira is the main export wine despite the aspirations of purists, and in many respects it underpins the whole industry.
 The Madeira wines destined for more refined tasting experience a less brutal form of estufagem, stored in 600-650 litre wooden pipes inside warm rooms. These rooms are either adjacent to the heated concrete tanks, or are lined with hot water pipes filled with steam. Here, the temperature can be maintained at 35ºC-40ºC over six to twelve months; the wine has already been fortified to 18º with 95% proof aguardente (grape spirit furnished by the Instituto do Vinho da Madeira). 5 or 10 year old "Reserve" or "Special Reserve" blends usually undergo this treatment.
Traditionally, only the finest wines could be kept in the lodges of Funchal, the island's main town. The practice remains today, with bottles from this source labelled vinho do canteiro after the racks on which the 600-litre American oak pipes are kept. Here the fortified wine is gently and indirectly heated by the sun, often for decades, and occasionally topped up to offset the inevitable evaporation which occurs.
Grapes for a grand tradition
Given the steepness of much of the island's topography, vines are cultivated on pergolas or low trellises, with other crops co-existing underneath. Most growers are smallholders who harvest by hand, then sell their grapes to the shipping companies in Funchal. The predominant variety is Tinta Negra Mole, grown all over the island, and used for most Madeira production. There are also other suitable varieties such as Terrantez and Bastardo, but these are now all but obsolete. According to EU regulations, for a Madeira to carry the name of one of the four noble varieties traditionally used to make the wine, it must contain at least 85% of that grape. Shippers compensate for the relative scarcity of the noble varieties by blending Madeira in the style of the Big Four (see table below). As with port, the influence of British shippers is long-standing, mainly through the Madeira Wine Company which includes Blandy's and Cossart in its stable. Of the Portuguese shippers, Henriques and Henriques are well known in the UK.
| Madeira style |
Portuguese equivalent |
Madeira grape variety (min.85%) |
| Dry |
Seco |
Sercial |
| Medium Dry |
Meio Seco |
Verdelho |
| Medium Rich |
Meio Doce |
Bual |
| Rich |
Doce |
Malmsey |
The Big Chill
 The history of wine made from frozen grapes on the other hand, is brief. The first German vintage of note was in 1962; the risk of leaving fruit on the vine in the hope of ideal freezing conditions occurring before the destructive intervention of other natural phenomena is not one that every producer can afford to take. However the rewards can be astonishing, despite the expense of a labour-intensive operation which could so easily fail.
Risk into riches
With German wines classified by the sugar levels of their constituent grapes rather than according to an established appellation system, growers have two options when the fruit reaches a minimum 110º Oechsle. One is to create a highly-prized and lucrative Beerenauslese or Trockenbeerenauslese wine from grapes affected by noble rot; the other is to cover healthy grapes at this level of ripeness, and hope they will stay healthy to be made into even more valuable Eiswein when winter has well and truly hit the vineyard. Some Eiswein is made as late as the year following the bulk of the harvest.
For this to happen, the grapes must stay disease-free, and temperatures sink to an optimum -8ºC to -12ºC to freeze the fruit before hand picking can begin. The grapes are then crushed while still frozen. Ice crystals remain in the press while the juice runs off (sugars in the juice freeze at a lower point than water, hence the ripest grapes only freeze at the lowest temperatures). Flavours and sweetness become highly concentrated, but alcohol levels are sometimes as low as 5.5%. The most suitable grape varieties for Eiswein (for example, Riesling, Scheurebe (known as Sämling 88 in Austria), Rieslaner) also have high natural acidity which helps to balance the wine as well as age it. In both Germany and Austria, the freezing process must be entirely natural for wines to carry the Eiswein label.
New World Ice Age
Canadian Ice Wine is made in the same way, in a climate which is ideal for the process. Production is focused in Ontario near the Great Lakes, generally using Riesling or Vidal grapes, with some Ice Wine also found in British Columbia. Canadian Ice Wine has won international prizes, but until April 2001 it was not available to buy within the European Union. The level of the wine's potential alcohol (actual alcohol plus alcohol obtained if a wine is fermented out to complete dryness) was deemed too high for a table wine. This has now changed, but the wines remain scarce and costly in the UK, although not as prohibitively expensive as German examples!
Alsace, California and New Zealand also make wines from frozen grapes, the last two by laying the fruit on trays to freeze artificially before pressing. Known as cryo-extraction, this process was initiated at Château d'Yquem for Sauternes in poor-quality years, and gave hot zone producers the technology to expand their range of wines. Ever since, the labelling and definition of what constitutes an "Eiswein"/"Ice Wine" has been the subject of much debate between the traditionalists and the innovators. Basically, the warmer the growing conditions, the less likely the wine is to have been made naturally, with attendant differences in intensity and flavour.
Some like it hot, some like it cold: Madeira and frozen wines (whatever their provenance) are proof that stepping beyond the bounds of conventional wine production can yield wonderful results. Whether the finer points of these two vastly different methods of production were discovered by accident or by design, it's worth going to extremes to discover what they have to offer the adventurous wine-lover.
Many thanks to the German Wine Information Service www.germanwinesinfo.co.uk for assistance with Eiswein photographs.
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| Coming up next month: Get to grips with Grenache, aka Garnacha, a crucial ingredient in some of the world's favourite wines - and now becoming a player in its own right. |
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