Wine Recommendation
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Wine Recommendation

Wine:Inniskillin Wines 2003 Sparkling Vidal Icewine  (Niagara Peninsula)

Inniskillin Wines

2003 Sparkling Vidal Icewine
(Niagara Peninsula)



It was the 1989 Inniskillin Vidal Icewine that won a gold medal at Vinexpo in 1991, bringing Canada to the fore as a cool-climate premium quality wine-producing country. The winery, now owned by Constellation Brands, who added it to its portfolio when it bought Vincor in a $1.3 billion deal last year, was originally founded by visionary Donald Ziraldo and his partner Karl Kaiser in 1974.

While the winery produces a mind-boggling array of dry and off dry table wines, it is best known for its luscious, highly perfumed and exquisitely concentrated icewines. Why add bubbles to something so rich and sweet? Why not, when a steady stream of visitors from Japan request so much that a limit must be placed on how many bottles they are allowed to purchase!

Unctuous, very sweet, and softly sparkling, this bright golden yellow nectar has notes of straw, yellow, white, and pink roses, lilies, soft summer breeze, honey, key lime pie, and peach, that classic Vidal marker. The soft sparkle is persistent, giving balance as viscosity, sweetness, and exotic headiness are lifted by the bead. The wine has a long clean lemony/peachy finish.

Reviewed January 9, 2007 by Catherine Fallis.

The Wine

Winery: Inniskillin Wines
Vintage: 2003
Wine: Sparkling Vidal Icewine
Appellation: Niagara Peninsula
Grape: Vidal Blanc
Price: 375ml $54.95

Review Date: 1/9/2007

The Reviewer

Catherine Fallis

Founder and President of Planet Grape LLC, a company committed to bringing the joy of wine, food, and good living into the lives of everyday people, Catherine is creator of the “grape goddess guides to good living,” a series of books, television presentations, seminars, and e-learning programs. The fifth woman in the world to become a Master Sommelier, grape goddess Catherine Fallis is still very much down-to-earth.