From www.osoyoosdailynews.com

An early ice wine harvest following on the heels of the earliest table wine grape harvest on record in the Okanagan spells good news for BC wine enthusiasts.  The combination of an excellent season in the South Okanagan with the blast of sub-zero weather last night enabled the grapes to reach the desired aroma and flavour intensity that is so coveted in premium ice wine.

The excellent quality and quantity that Jackson-Triggs and Inniskillin Okanagan brought in of their Riesling ice wine grapes in the wee hours of the morning today (from 12:45 to 4:45 am), saw early Arctic outflow temperatures dip at one point to -12C, with very high sugar levels at the time of press for some of the lots reaching 45 brix.

This is one of the earliest ice wine harvests in the Okanagan Valley on record (others in the Kelowna area wineries held Nov. 5, 2003 and Nov. 19, 2011), however it is the earliest ice wine harvest in Canada these two wineries have encountered.*

The two winemakers were delighted with their 14 tonnes of Riesling picked.  Harvesting in November makes a significant difference in the amount of grapes left on the vine, as they can lose up to 25% of the crop for each additional month they have to wait for frigid temperatures to arrive.

The naturally high levels of acidity in Riesling along with the remarkably high brix levels they were able to obtain in the 2013 crop is a good indication for another world class ice wine vintage this year.