Inniskillin Vidal Icewine (375ML half-bottle) 2018
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Robert
Parker - Decanter
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Aromatics of tropical fruit including mango and orange dominate, on the palate fruit flavors including peach, nectarine and lemon are balanced by crisp, lively acidity.
Perfect on its own; a variety of cheeses (blue veined, aged cheddar, rich cream cheeses with dried fruits); seared scallops; lobster; rich pates; fruit based desserts.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Vidal Icewine comes in with 245 grams of residual sugar, 10.5 of total acidity and 9.5% alcohol. An early harvest began on December 14 and continued for several consecutive days. With its typical peach and apricot nuances, this shows off strong flavors and a lot of sugar, but it does have some concept of balance as well. In fact, this is a bit lighter and brighter in perception than its 2019 sibling this report, although that may also be because this is a year older. I think the 2018 is a hair better in some ways, but it's pretty close, and we'll see how they stack up over the years. They are both very well done, with the winery maintaining a consistent style over different vintages.
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Decanter
Inviting aromas of caramel, butterscotch and dried apricot lead to a palate of baked white fruit, almond and spiced orange.
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What is Icewine?
VQA Icewine is a highly concentrated dessert wine made by harvesting grapes naturally frozen on the vine at -10 C in December-January. Inniskillin VQA Icewine is internationally awarded and recognized and is exported throughout the world.
Apart from the classics, we find many regional gems of different styles.
Late harvest wines are probably the easiest to understand. Grapes are picked so late that the sugars build up and residual sugar remains after the fermentation process. Ice wine, a style founded in Germany and there referred to as eiswein, is an extreme late harvest wine, produced from grapes frozen on the vine, and pressed while still frozen, resulting in a higher concentration of sugar. It is becoming a specialty of Canada as well, where it takes on the English name of ice wine.
Vin Santo, literally “holy wine,” is a Tuscan sweet wine made from drying the local white grapes Trebbiano Toscano and Malvasia in the winery and not pressing until somewhere between November and March.
Rutherglen is an historic wine region in northeast Victoria, Australia, famous for its fortified Topaque and Muscat with complex tawny characteristics.
With a cool climate suitable for more than just icewine production, Canada is also home to excellent dry, still and sparkling Canadian wines. Most viticulture is based in Ontario on the east coast and British Columbia on the west coast. Because of the high risk of winter freeze and spring frost, plantings are typically centered on large bodies of water to take advantage of their temperature moderating effects.
In Ontario, particularly on the Niagara Peninsula, aromatic white varieties like Riesling and Gewürztraminer are most successful. Many Canadian wineries produce both dry and semi-dry versions. Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Gamay, and Cabernet Franc perform nicely here as well. For icewine, French-American hybrid variety, Vidal, is popular. In British Columbia, many of the same grapes are grown, but there is also a significant emphasis on Bordeaux varieties—especially Merlot.