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Warm weather ruins ice wine crop

DPA/The Local
DPA/The Local - [email protected]
Warm weather ruins ice wine crop
Grapes used for ice wine need temperatures of -7C. Photo: DPA

The exceptionally mild winter weather has all but ruined this year’s crop of the German specialty ice wine.

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Known as Eiswein in German, the high-quality dessert wine requires grapes to freeze on the vine.

But highs of 15C mean that the grapes have not frozen this year, all but destroying the crop which needs temperatures of -7C.

A cold spell at the end of November 2013 was enough for a handful of vineyards to produce a small amount of the specialty, but the mild temperatures since then have been bad news for producers.

A spokesman for the German Wine Institute in Mainz said: “We can’t rule out that individual winemakers still have grapes on the vine, but they will be the absolute exception.”

READ MORE: Vinters harvest bumper ice wine

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