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Wine Recommendation
Peller Estates (BC)
2004 Trinity Icewine(Okanagan Valley)
Under its Peller Estates Label, Andrew Peller Ltd. has been producing this singular icewine blend for a number of vintages in British Columbia. It is not the usual practice among icewine producers, where single varietal icewines are the rule. But in winemaking, there is always a good argument that blending creates more complexity. This wine certainly makes that case.
The grapes were harvested on January 3 and 4, 2005, at -12°C – important details that the winery provides in its fact sheet but not on the back label. The picking temperature, which is four degrees colder that the required minimum, means that the water in the grapes was solidly frozen. What came from the press was rich in flavour and high in sugar. In this wine, the must was 42% sugar before fermentation. The finished wine has a remarkable 220 grams of sugar per litre which, happily, is balanced with bracing acidity – classic icewine making.
The wine is brilliantly gold in colour, with intense aromas of pineapples, pears and apricots. On the palate, it delivers lush tropical flavours, including pineapples and tangerines, with a tang of acidity. The wine is so intense that the finish never wants to stop. 90 points.
Reviewed February 12, 2007 by John Schreiner.
Other reviewed wines from Peller Estates (BC)
 2004 Cabernet Franc Private Reserve, Rocky Ridge (Similkameen Valley)John Schreiner 2/6/2007 |
The Wine
Winery: Peller Estates (BC) |
The Reviewer
John Schreiner
John Schreiner has been covering the wines of British Columbia for the past 30 years and has written 10 books on the wines of Canada and BC. He has judged at major competitions and is currently a panel member for the Lieutenant Governor’s Awards of Excellence in Wine. Both as a judge and as a wine critic, he approaches each wine not to find fault, but to find excellence. That he now finds the latter more often than the former testifies to the dramatic improvement shown by BC winemaking in the past decade. |