Aroma of Icewine: A Review on How Environmental, Viticultural, and Oenological Factors Affect the Aroma of Icewine

The
aroma of a wine is mostly driven by not only the factors in
the vineyard, such as the grape variety and harvest time, but also
the fermentation process. Icewine is a unique, intensely sweet wine
made from late harvested grapes that have frozen naturally on the
vine. Different from normal table wines, the grapes used in icewine
naturally undergo a dehydration process and freeze–thaw cycles,
and the must for icewine making has to be pressed from frozen grapes.
This pressing process leaves water behind as ice crystals and allows
the grape juice to be concentrated with more sugars, acids, and other
dissolved solids, resulting in a slower than normal fermentation.
These special procedures can lead to a unique aroma characteristic
of icewine. This review delves into recent advances in chemical compounds
related to icewine aroma characteristics and addresses how changes
in these aroma characteristics and composition are influenced by environmental,
viticultural, and oenological factors in the vineyard and winery.
Deficiencies in previous studies and future trends related to the
flavor science of icewine were also briefly addressed.