☆☆☆☆☆ It seems quite appropriate that China’s biggest producer of Ice Wine should be encased in snow and ice, in temperatures well below zero when I visited last week.

The vines, of course, were not visible, tucked away underground to prevent damage by the icy temperatures. They will slumber under 30 cm of soil until the harshness of winter is over. Meanwhile in the vat, the sweet syrupy liquid, harvested a month earlier inched closer to fermentation in the cold cellar. I was in the Liaoning Asia Red Winery in Shenyang, over 400☆ miles north east of Beijing where there is new enthusiasm over Ice Wine, a product beloved in the colder parts of Europe and in Canada, where some of the expertise and much of the inspiration for this Chinese venture seems to have been gained. These sweet, sticky wines are the product of grapes left on the vines long after normal harvest to await the first freeze of winter. In Shenyang this is a dry time of year so there is no danger of rot as the grapes, Muscat, Riesling and Chardonnay in the main, gently ripen, desiccate and then are frozen by a blast of cold air coming straight from Russia. Picked by hand and pressed while still frozen, the small amount of juice is packed with concentrated sugars, aromas and flavour.

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☆☆☆☆☆ Once fermented and in bottle there is a ready market for these intense, luscious nectars which are served up at the end of a meal for the newly affluent citizens of the People’s Republic. Prices of 400 RMB (around £27) per half bot

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