Home › Wine Notes › Zelkova Winery (젤코바와이너리)
Zelkova Icewine 2016
Red icewineSouth Korea2016
By Daniel Min · Tasted 2020-03-26 · Published 2026-09-30 · Updated 2026-09-30
At a glance
In one line
3.0/5 — the same as Vivino's 3.0 average · An icewine from Zelkova Winery in Sangju, Korea.
Neither Wine-Searcher nor Vivino lists critic scores. The same house's Zelkova Premium was named 'Best Korean Wine' at the 2019 Korea Sommelier Wine Awards (Kyongbuk Maeil, May 2019).
Market note: A Wine-Searcher search for 'zelkova icewine 2016' returns nothing (Sep 2026). As a small-batch wine from a small Korean winery it appears to have no world market price data. Vivino has only one rating.
Father's note — Daniel Min
Original author of the notes“처음 진한 아로마향에서 오. Cabernet Franc 아이스와인 같은 맛에서 오. 퀄리티 괜찮다. 가성비 좋은데? 했는데 시간이 지남에 조금 무너짐. 아쉽다. 묵힐 순 없겠는데?”
Show original
“berry jam cranberry dried rose black raisins 처음 진한 아로마향에서 오~ Cabernet Franc 아이스와인 같은 맛에서 오~ 퀄리티 괜찮다~~ 가성비 좋은데!?? 했는데 시간이 지남에 조금 무너짐ㅜㅜ 아쉽다.. 묵힐순 없겠는데?? ㅜㅜ”
What I learned today: a glass has to be written down twice, not once.
Wednesday. When I got in just before seven, Master Seo had set out a small glass on the counter, about half the size of the usual one. The cloth-wrapped bottle was slim and short, too. He poured barely a sip and told me to smell it now and again in thirty minutes. In between, go turn on the sign.
The first nose was deep: berry jam, cranberry, dried rose, black raisins. In the mouth it was sweet and sticky. I switched on the sign, seated two tables, came back and put my nose in again. The jam was still there, but the middle had sunk a little. Out of the place where that first layer had settled, a spring night came up.
Twenty-one, spring, a Thursday night when we still hadn't turned the heating off, the kitchen table. Dad came home with a slim bottle wrapped in cloth and poured a little into small glasses. I said "oh" at the first sip, and he said "oh" right after me. But when he came back from the dishes and smelled what was left, his face turned a little disappointed. He held the glass under my nose again and asked me what had changed since the start. I couldn't answer. I don't know the name of the bottle.
I opened the notebook to that date. It's three days after the page about the Korean wild-grape wine with two exclamation marks. "Oh" at the deep first aroma, "oh" again at a taste like a Cabernet Franc icewine. He thought it was good value, and then: "fell apart a little as time went on." Three stars. The last line is "can't cellar this one, can I?", ending in a question mark. The bottle was Zelkova Icewine, from the same house as the bottle three days before. I stuck on the wine-name Post-it. Maybe, opening a second bottle from the same house, Dad was hoping it would be as good as the first.
Master Seo said icewine is supposed to be made from grapes that freeze while still hanging on the vine. The water stays behind as ice and only the sweetness is pressed out. But he said he doesn't know whether this bottle was really made that way. He couldn't find the maker's records. When I read him the two noses in order, he cleared the glass and said just one thing: the falling apart is the bottle too.
After closing, I wrote the name on the eighth page of the new notebook. I split the aroma box in two and labelled them "first" and "thirty minutes later". What I learned today: a glass has to be written down twice, not once.
What this wine is
Icewine is said to have begun as an accident. Wine pressed from frost-frozen grapes in Franconia, Germany, in 1794 is thought to be the first icewine since Roman times, and the first well-documented harvest was at Dromersheim in Rheinhessen on February 11, 1830. The principle is simple: press grapes that froze on the vine while they are still frozen, and the water stays behind as ice while only concentrated sugar and acid run out. That is why Canada still only allows grapes picked at −8°C or below to be called icewine, and Germany −7°C. It was Canada that made the wine famous: in 1991 Inniskillin's 1989 Vidal Icewine won the top prize, the Grand Prix d'Honneur, at Vinexpo in France.
Zelkova Winery is in Sangju, North Gyeongsang. Kang Chang-seok, a fermentation microbiologist who had been researching apple fermentation, moved to Sangju in 2006 and planted Chardonnay, but a brutal winter around 2009 killed almost all the vines and he turned to Korea's native wild grape, sanmeoru. The name comes from an old zelkova tree at the entrance to his home village. This icewine comes in a 375ml bottle labelled 13% alcohol. I could not find producer information on which grape it uses, or how it was made — frozen on the vine or frozen after picking — so neither is confirmed. Vivino lists the grape as Muscadine, but that is not the producer's word either.
What the world says
The world has said almost nothing about this bottle. Vivino has exactly one rating for this vintage, and it is my 3. There is none of the community average, aroma keywords or structure data that appear once enough people rate a wine. Wine-Searcher returns no results (Sep 2026). There are no critic scores.
The house's other bottles are a little better known. Zelkova Premium was named 'Best Korean Wine' at the 2019 Korea Sommelier Wine Awards, with silver for Premium 2013 and bronze for Special MV (Kyongbuk Maeil, May 2019). The Zelkova Premium 2013 I drank three days earlier has a 3.7 average from 26 people on Vivino.
So nearly every number in this piece is mine. You can't talk about an average when the sample is one. For this bottle, the record of aroma and time is all there is.
How I drank it
March 26, 2020, 3 stars. I wrote down berry jam, cranberry, dried rose and black raisins.
One "oh" at the deep first aroma, another "oh" at the taste. It tasted like a Cabernet Franc icewine. Four months earlier I had given Canada's Magnotta Cabernet Franc Icewine 2016 a 4 with the note 'strawberry jam, too sweet!', and that memory overlapped. The quality seemed fine and I thought it was good value.
Then, as time passed, it fell apart a little. The deep first nose didn't hold for long in the glass. So I closed the note with "can't cellar this one, can I?" Three days earlier I'd given the same house's Premium 2013 a 4 and two exclamation marks. Two bottles from one house, four days apart, one point between them. My 3 is the only Vivino score this vintage has.
Where this wine shows up
Wine made from frozen grapes in Franconia, Germany, in 1794 is thought to be the first icewine since Roman times, and the 1830 harvest at Dromersheim in Rheinhessen is the first on record. In 1991 Inniskillin's 1989 Vidal Icewine from Canada won the Grand Prix d'Honneur at Vinexpo in France, putting icewine on the world map.
Artwork and stills are not reproduced for copyright reasons; scenes are summarised.
Vivino community data
2016 vintage rating distribution (1 ratings, average 3.0)
| 5★ | 0 (0%) | |
| 4★ | 0 (0%) | |
| 3★ | 1 (100%) | |
| 2★ | 0 (0%) | |
| 1★ | 0 (0%) |
Most-mentioned aromas
| Family | Mentions | Top keywords |
|---|
Structure:
Average by vintage (all vintages: 1 ratings, average 3.0)
| Vintage | Average | Ratings |
|---|
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→Frequently asked questions
What kind of wine is Zelkova Icewine?
A 375ml sweet wine from Zelkova Winery in Sangju, Korea, labelled 13% alcohol. The grape and method (whether grapes froze on the vine) could not be confirmed from producer sources. Vivino lists the grape as Muscadine.
How much does it cost?
It is not listed on Wine-Searcher, so no world average price could be confirmed (Sep 2026). As a small-batch wine from a small Korean winery, there is no overseas retail price data.
What food goes with it?
Vivino has no food pairing data. As a sweet wine with berry-jam and raisin notes, a small glass with fruit desserts or cheese is a safe bet. The aromas faded quickly once opened, so don't keep it long.
How is icewine made?
Traditionally from grapes left to freeze naturally on the vine, picked and pressed while frozen. The water stays behind as ice and only concentrated sugar and acid come out. Canada requires −8°C or below at picking, Germany −7°C. It is said to have started in Germany in the late 18th century and became world-famous when Canada's Inniskillin won Vinexpo's top prize in 1991.
Links & sources
View on Vivino · Prices on Wine-Searcher
- Vivino — wine page and community data
- Kyongbuk Maeil — Sangju's Zelkova wine named 'Best Korean Wine' (May 2019)
- Daegu Ilbo — Visiting strong small farms (79): Zelkova Winery
- Wikipedia — Ice wine
- Inniskillin — Our Story
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Same producerStarmont Carneros Pinot Noir 2014
United States · Napa★★★☆☆Same producerBlack Stallion Cabernet Sauvignon 2016
United States · Napa★★★★☆Same producerZelkova, Premium 2013
South Korea★★★★☆Same producerMagnotta Limited Edition Cabernet Franc Icewine 2016
Canada · Niagara★★★★☆Same producerWilliam Hill Central Coast Chardonnay 2015
United States · Central Coast★★★★★Highly rated by Father