(Wines&Vines) - The past week brought cold weather to the Northwest, just days after many wineries finished bringing in the 2014 harvest.

But the opportunity to pick grapes for ice wine trumped fears of frost damage for many vintners, with initial reports suggesting that conditions hit a sweet spot for capitalizing on wintry conditions.

Chateau Ste. Michelle harvested 15 tons of frozen Riesling grapes from its Horse Heaven Vineyard in Paterson, Wash., on the morning of Nov. 15, when temperatures dropped to 6º F.

The block—one of several set aside for late-harvest wines, sits low in the Columbia River Valley and is known for its ability to capture colder air.

“We specifically left some Riesling out in the hope of making some ice wine, because it’s a unique style of wine. You can’t do it everywhere in the world,” winemaker Wendy Stuckey told Wines & Vines. “(The) little area in the Horse Heaven Hills where the vineyard is is a low spot, and when it does get cold, it gets cold enough.”

The grapes harvested will yield about 200 cases of ice wine, marking the eighth time Chateau Ste. Michelle has been able to make the product. Unusually, it is also Washington state’s second straight year of production—the first back-to-back ice wine harvest since 2002-03.

Riesling grapes are the usual variety of choice, though in 2006 a Chenin Blanc ice wine also was produced.

“Chenin has lovely acidity, like Riesling does,” Stuckey said.

British Columbia

Further north, in British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley, temperatures dipped to 10.4º F on the morning of Nov. 12, allowing wineries to gather grapes for the province’s second-earliest ice wine harvest on record.

The industry’s earliest ever ice wine harvest occurred Nov. 5, 2003, with recent years also seeing several harvests starting shortly after the harvest for still wine grapes. In 2011, harvest began Nov. 19, and the year before, picking began Nov. 22.