United States law allows for wine to be sold as ice wine if the grapes are picked and then artificially frozen, while German and Canadian law dictates that ice wine must be picked only when the grapes are frozen on the vine.
Select Wineries in Northern Michigan put aside a portion of their Riesling grapes each year for the production of ice wine. Ice wine was first produced in Michigan in 1983 by Mark Johnson, who studied at the Federal Research Station and Institute in Geisenheim, Germany. Johnson is currently the head Winemaker at Chateau Chantal. Northern Michigan Wineries continue to follow the German laws that govern what wine qualifies as ice wine. In 2002, 6 Michigan wineries produced over 13,000 half-bottles of ice wine, a record at that time.
