Botnia Ice Cider is a designation for ice cider produced within the Botnia area as defined by the producers within the designation.
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It delineates both geographical limitations as well as production standards. It is as yet informal, agreed on by three producers, two in Sweden and one in Finland, with the future ambition of applying for and being granted formal protected status for Botnia Ice Cider in the European Union. This website contains information on the designation and the producers behind it.
ABOUT ICE CIDER
Ice cider was invented and developed in the province of Quebec in Canada.
At the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s a French-Canadian ice winemaker, Christian Barthomeuf, at his estate Clos Saragnat south of Montreal was focused on making grape-based ice wines from the wine stocks on the estate.
However, he also had access to local apples-varieties that weren’t suitable for making a dry cider. As a result of the characteristics of his fruit he started experimenting with ice wine-techniques on apples, found that the same techniques were applicable and invented ice cider.
From the first half of the 1990s and onwards the ice cider category, following the lead of the ice wine industry in the same region that had risen to prominence in the preceding decades, grew both in the domestic market as well as in export markets.
Between 2006 and 2008 ice cider production peaked at around 250.000+ liters per year. In 2006 a formal protected status was established by the province government of Quebec.