Not everyone welcomes a Niagara winter with enthusiasm. For many, snow is something to shovel and cold is something to escape. But for students at Niagara College, frigid temperatures and frozen vineyards signal one of the most anticipated moments of the year: Icewine season.
Flurries and cold conditions proved ideal on the morning of Jan. 16, when students set out at first light for the NC Teaching Winery’s annual Icewine harvest. After Wine Professor Gavin Robertson and Winemaker Allison Findlay confirmed temperatures met the VQA-required minimum of minus-eight degrees Celsius, about 40 students headed into the vineyard to hand-pick frozen Vidal grapes.
The harvest is a defining experience for students in the Winery and Viticulture Technician program and a hallmark of Niagara College’s applied learning model. Students harvest grapes in extreme winter conditions and then follow the fruit through pressing, fermentation, and bottling at the Teaching Winery — the first and only facility of its kind in Canada.
For first-year student Rowan McDowell, the long hours in the cold brought a new respect for the craft and the price of Icewine. Second-year student Dakota George, participating for the second time, said the physically demanding work is part of what makes the experience memorable and meaningful.
The grapes harvested that morning will eventually be released as the Teaching Winery’s Dean’s List Icewine, expected to reach shelves next year. According to Findlay, the quality of the growing season points to an exceptional vintage.
For 25 years, the Teaching Winery has served as a living laboratory, producing graduates who have gone on to shape the wine industry in Niagara and beyond. “This is the definition of applied learning,” said Craig Youdale, Dean of NC’s Culinary, Tourism and Beverage Studies division.
While students were harvesting in the snow, Niagara College was also preparing for a historic first at the Niagara Icewine Festival.
For the first time in the festival’s history, a beer will be served at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Icewine Village starting Jan. 17 — and that beer will be NC’s Ice Wine Strong Ale, a collaborative creation from the Teaching Winery and Teaching Brewery.
The hybrid beverage blends the College’s 2023 Prodigy Icewine with a Strong Ale developed by Brewmaster Professor Jon Downing, using a base from his popular Rudolph’s Red Nosed Ale. The final product is a rich, full-bodied ale (7.3% ABV) with subtle caramel notes and a delicate hint of Icewine.
From frozen vineyards to festival streets, the season highlights what has defined Niagara College’s Teaching Winery for 25 years: students learning by doing, in conditions few classrooms could ever replicate, producing wines — and now beer — that carry the unmistakable stamp of a Niagara winter.
