PITTSBURGH — Ice wine makers across the Northeast and Canada are in dire straits because of this winter's mild weather, and some fear there will be no product at all if January doesn't bring icy temperatures.

The sweet, dessert-style drink cannot be called "ice wine" unless the grapes used to make it are harvested and pressed while frozen, according to federal regulations. Stricter Canadian standards that many growers follow call for temperatures below 17 degrees Fahrenheit.

"We can't pick 'em and then freeze 'em," said Bob Mazza, owner and president of Mazza Vineyards in North East, Pa. "If we don't produce anything this year, we won't have anything to sell (next year)."

Tony Debevc, owner of Debonne Vineyards, in Madison, Ohio, predicts a smaller harvest even if the weather turns cold.

"No one that I know of in the whole eastern United States and Canada has harvested any ice wine," he said.

The origins of ice wine can be traced back to the late 1700s in Franconia, Germany, where "eiswein" was discovered after an early freeze. One frozen grape yields but a few drops, but they are rich, sugary and, according to ice wine loyalists, unmatched for winemaking.

Freezing temperatures concentrate the natural sweetness and acidity of the grapes, as does the added time the grapes spend on the vine. Grapes for most other wines in the northeastern U.S. and Canada are harvested in September and October.

On the Brix scale, used to measure wine's sweetness, ice wines regularly register about double to triple the average for a typical bottle of wine, Mazza said. Ice wine lovers sometimes pay more than $80 for a half-bottle of what is sometimes called "honey in a bottle" or "nectar of the gods."

It takes four times as many grapes to produce a bottle of ice wine, growers said. Two tons of grapes may produce just more than 100 gallons of wine.