Casa Larga Holds Annual Ice Wine Harvest
By: Stacey Pensgen
Updated: January 3, 2013
Twelve degrees with light snow falling in the middle of the night. It sounds brutal, but it was perfect weather for Steve Richards and his crew from Casa Larga to harvest their ice wine crop.
It starts with paying close attention to the weather forecasts.
"Pretty much identifying a window of time when it'll be below 17 for a 4 hour period of time, and then we get the crew together as quick as we can," says Richards, who is the General Manager of Casa Larga in Fairport.
The crew arms themselves with several layers of gloves, hand warmers, heavy winter gear, and fruit pruners, and head out to pick the frozen grapes.
Once the grapes have all been picked, they're placed on the tractor and brought inside to be pressed.
"The first thing we do is sort through them all and we get the snow that fell into the picking bins, and we also make sure we only get the really nice clusters," says Matt Cassavaugh, wine maker at Casa Larga.
He says temperature is everything for a good ice wine.
"Most juice, any fruit juice is mostly water, and when you pick it at the right temperature, where most of the water is frozen, but some of the really sugary concentrated nectars are still liquid, so that's all you get when you press them at that temperature," says Cassavaugh.
And it seems the team at Casa Larga have just the right touch.
"We have won over 150 awards on our ice wine," says Andrea Colaruotolo O'Niell, Director of Operations at Casa Larga. "We are considered the most winning ice wine in the United States."
So after 4 hours of hard work in the bitter cold, and about 2 years of aging, the award-winning ice wine is ready to drink!
It starts with paying close attention to the weather forecasts.
"Pretty much identifying a window of time when it'll be below 17 for a 4 hour period of time, and then we get the crew together as quick as we can," says Richards, who is the General Manager of Casa Larga in Fairport.
The crew arms themselves with several layers of gloves, hand warmers, heavy winter gear, and fruit pruners, and head out to pick the frozen grapes.
Once the grapes have all been picked, they're placed on the tractor and brought inside to be pressed.
"The first thing we do is sort through them all and we get the snow that fell into the picking bins, and we also make sure we only get the really nice clusters," says Matt Cassavaugh, wine maker at Casa Larga.
He says temperature is everything for a good ice wine.
"Most juice, any fruit juice is mostly water, and when you pick it at the right temperature, where most of the water is frozen, but some of the really sugary concentrated nectars are still liquid, so that's all you get when you press them at that temperature," says Cassavaugh.
And it seems the team at Casa Larga have just the right touch.
"We have won over 150 awards on our ice wine," says Andrea Colaruotolo O'Niell, Director of Operations at Casa Larga. "We are considered the most winning ice wine in the United States."
So after 4 hours of hard work in the bitter cold, and about 2 years of aging, the award-winning ice wine is ready to drink!
