A Drink Only Made in Winter 冰酒
——凜冬專屬佳釀

⊙ Jason Lai

⊙ BillyBudd 譯

Here, in northeastern Liaoning Province,winter can be1)harsh. For months, almost nothing grows on these frozen plains, except for one surprising product, more commonly associated with the Mediterranean—grapes.But these grapes make something special,ice wine.

Ice wine’s made from frozen grapes.And the freezing process concentrates the acids and the sugars in the fruit, giving the wine an2)intensely sweet flavour. So, even in this raw state, you can really taste the difference. It’s so much stronger. It tastes like a3)raisin.

Here, summers are warm, but the winters are bitter, perfect conditions for making ice wine. So perfect, in fact, that a third of the world’s ice wine is now produced right here.

Strict rules also surround the harvest.International standards mean that the temperature must be at least -8℃ for 24 hours. And while they wait, the grapes could go4)rotten or be invaded by5)fungus. So,to avoid disaster, they need to be ready to harvest as soon as the conditions are right.

At6)daybreak, it’s7)all systems go. It’s-10℃, so we’re good to go. Now these are the8)crates, they’re from the9)winery and they need filling up. The villagers10)are all keen to help and there’s a real sense of11)urgency in the air.

The grapes grown here are a variety called12)Vidal, chosen for their13)hardy14)properties.

As soon as the grapes are picked, they are transported five kilometres here to the Chateau Changyu Ice Wine Company, the largest producer in China. This is a Europeanstyle chateau that wouldn’t look out of place in15)Bordeaux.

During the harvest this16)plant works 24 hours a day. High-powered presses squeeze out the juice, which is only a fifth of that produced by fresh grapes, and it’s put into17)gigantic18)fermentation tanks where19)yeast is added.And then, all that’s left to do is wait.

Two years after the grapes were picked and the wine is ready to be bottled. Now,each one of these bottles contains the juice of a20)staggering 2.5 kilograms of grapes. These bottles will grace21)connoisseur’s dinner tables across China and increasingly across the world in this22)evermore-international industry.

After my hard day harvesting, I’m more than ready for a glass of wine. So I join Mr. Zhang, the technical manager of the23)plantation, in the bar. I can’t wait.

Oh, that’s really good. It’s sweet, but not too sweet, and it’s really quite24)refreshing.I’ll toast to that. Gambei!

1) harsh [hɑ??] adj. 嚴酷的

2) intensely [?n?tensl?] adv. 強烈地

3) raisin [?re?z（?）n] n. 葡萄干

4) rotten [?r?t（?）n] adj. 腐爛的

5) fungus [?f??ɡ?s] n. 真菌，菌類

6) daybreak [?de?bre?k] n. 破曉，黎明

7) all systems go 萬事俱備，一切就緒

8) crate [?kre?t] n. 板條箱

9) winery [?wa?n?r?] n. 葡萄酒釀酒廠

10) be keen to 熱衷于……，渴望于……

11) urgency [?з?d??ns?] n. 緊急性，緊迫性

12) Vidal 威代爾，一種由歐洲葡萄和美國葡萄雜交而來的白葡萄品種，抗寒能力極強，是極佳的冰酒釀酒葡萄。

13) hardy [?hɑ?d?] adj. （植物）耐寒的

14) property [?pr?p?t?] n. 特性，性能

15) Bordeaux 波爾多，法國西南部港市，被譽為世界紅酒之鄉。

16) plant [plɑ?nt] n. 工廠，車間

17) gigantic [d?a??g?nt?k] adj. 巨大的，龐大的

18) fermentation [fз?men?te??（?）n] n. 發酵

19) yeast [ji?st] n. 酵母

20) staggering [?st?ɡ?r??] adj. 令人震驚的，驚人的

21) connoisseur [k?n??sз?（r）] n. 鑒賞家，內行

22) evermore [ev??m??（r）] adv. 今后，永遠

23) plantation [plɑ?n?te??（?）n] n. 種植園，大農場

24) refreshing [r??fre???] adj. 提神的，使清爽的

百科

◆ ice wine 冰酒：冰酒是一種甜葡萄酒，是在氣溫較低時，利用在樹上自然冰凍的葡萄釀造的葡萄酒。冰酒殘留糖分極高，口感極為甜美。冰酒的釀酒葡萄對氣候的要求極為苛刻，要求種植地區必須具備緯度高、溫度低的條件，因此全球只有幾個國家可以生產冰酒。

參考譯文

在中國東北的遼寧省，冬天當真十分冷酷。接連數月，這些冰原上近乎寸草不生，但也有例外。這是一種出人意料的作物，更多與地中海聯系在一起，那就是葡萄。不過，這些葡萄造就的是一種獨特之物——冰酒。

冰酒采用冰凍葡萄釀就而成。葡萄本身含有的酸跟糖分在冰凍的過程中得以濃縮，讓以此釀成的葡萄酒具備了一種更加濃郁的甜味。因此，即便這些葡萄還處于未加工階段，你也能真切地品嘗到其中的不同。它非常甜，味道與葡萄干類似。

遼寧省的夏天溫度適宜，冬季卻嚴寒無比，為釀造冰酒提供了完美的條件。實際上，這簡直太完美了，以至于當今全球三分之一的冰酒都產自此地。

葡萄采收的條件也非常嚴格。國際標準規定，冰酒的釀酒葡萄必須在不高于-8℃的低溫下持續冰凍24小時。而在等待的過程中，葡萄可能會發生腐爛，或遭到真菌侵蝕。因此，為了避免慘劇，人們必須在時機成熟時盡快采收葡萄。

破曉時分，一切就緒?，F在是-10℃，我們可以動手了。來自釀酒廠的板條箱已擺放到位，接下來就是要讓它們盛滿葡萄。村民們都樂于出一份力，此刻你可以感覺到一種真切的緊迫感。

威代爾因其極強的抗寒能力成為此地種植的葡萄品種。

葡萄一經采摘后便被立即運到五公里之外的張裕黃金冰谷冰酒酒莊，張裕公司是中國最大的釀酒商。這是一座歐式風格的酒莊，即便放在法國的波爾多也會顯得非常和諧。

在采收期內，該釀酒廠會全天24小時不間歇地運轉。大馬力壓榨機榨出果汁，不過榨出的葡萄汁量僅為新鮮葡萄榨汁量的五分之一。隨后，這些葡萄汁被倒進巨大的發酵器中，再加入酵母。接下來就是耐心等待了。

在葡萄采收兩年后，酒終于可以裝瓶了。讓人吃驚的是，每瓶冰酒內所含的葡萄汁量相當于榨取了2.5公斤的葡萄。在這個今后將愈發國際化的行業里，這些葡萄酒將點綴中國，乃至全世界葡萄酒鑒賞家的餐桌。

經過一天的辛苦采收后，我迫不及待想來一杯冰酒，于是我在吧臺與葡萄園的技術經理張先生一同品酒。我都等不及了。

噢，這太棒了。酒很甜，但又不會太膩，相當提神。我要為這個來干一杯，干杯！