Great episode Gary, couldn't agree with you more on Canada's ice wines. Where I work, we primarily focus on french wines so i get the opportunity to try alot of the top Sauternes, Barsac etc. I'll tell ya those Canadian ice wines definitely give them a run for their money. The last 2 I had both vidal's, from Inniskillin and Riverview respectively, had quality and finishes to then that were unreal. Then when you compare their prices to the other top dessert wines out there, like Sauternes, there's no reason not to scoop these ice wines up.
qotd: probably ice wines right now actually, although I'm anxious to try a vin de paille from Jura or Rhone.
My fav's change all the time, which brings me to my request for you Gary. I'd like to see you do an episode on the 2 things I'm currently thinking about, a vin jaune episode, and a tasing on different California charbono's.

Great episode Gary! Since you are fan of sparklers and ice wines, I'm sad you didn't try the Inniskillin sparkling vidal, my favorite wine from Canada. I also enjoyed the cab franc from the same producer.

Now that I've living near Piemonte, it's time to expand my wine knowledge with Dolcetto, Gattinara, Ghemme and Barbera!

I have to also admit being let down on the beer choice. Moosehead, Alexander Keith's, Okanagan Springs, and Sleemans are good mainstream choices. Quebec's Unibroue is my favorite producer...they make a great white beer (Blanche de Chambly) and La Fin Du Monde is a surprisingly enjoyable ~10% beer.

Gary,

You should try the Chateau des Charmes Vidal Ice wine. It is literally liquid gold and a finish that lasts forever. There is also an Ice Gewurztraminer from Malvoire in the Beamsville Bench ... wow, absolutely tremendous. It won an award at a dessert wine competition in France. a force to be reckon with!

Hey!
I'm from Niagara and we're all very proud of our wine, especially ice wine. Just a heads up Gary! Henry of Pelham is pronounced Henry of Pell-um. Pelham is a county in the Niagara region with a ton of vineyards and orchards.

How can I see this video about ice wines from Canada? Well, Its Possible to send the response to my email?
Thahks
Juan (Santiago de Chile)

QOTD..In my case it is a tie between the 1976er Langwerth von Simmern Erbach Marcobrunner Riesling Auslese, which was very expensive and had an absolutely sublime bouquet; and, of a much lesser pedigree but still very enjoyable (and I bought a case of it on clearance Thank God), the 1996 Winzergenossenschaft Monchhof Trockenbeerenauslese (Central cooperative of Monchhof, Austria), made from Welschriesling (Gray Riesling), and still improving two days after uncorking. This was a most enjoyable episode as well.

If only you had had a chance at Hillebrand Trius '97 Vidal Icewine, oak aged. And Harbour Estates '99 Riesling. The first was had a nearly unbelievable muscular maturity. The latter was lacy and refined, yet not insubstantial at all. Then there's Pillitteri...

I'm not as much a fan of Inniskillen as others; I respect their heritage and tradition though. I haven't tried the Royal di Maria, whose prices are stratospheric.

QOTD: I've had some pretty good ones from a local vineyard in Little Compton, RI Sakonnet Vineyards. They have a great Vidal late harvest.

Whoops. That was supposed to be a 1995 Henry of Pelham late harvest vidal, not 1996.

Great Episode. Big fan of icewines.

I live in the Niagara area and drive past the vineyards regularly. Visit many of the wineries too.

Fave dessert wine would have to be the 1996 Henry of Pelham late harvest vidal.

Reason being it was the first dessert wine I ever had and it got me hooked. A few years ago my wife and I went to the winery and bought the last case of the 1996 LHV. (at least they told us it was the last case). I think I have one of the few remaining bottles in existence sitting in my cellar waiting for that special day. We split that case with friends, they went throught their share faster than I did. Had a bottle of it as recently as 6 months ago and it was still holding strong if not getting better.

I also have a couple of bottles of Stonechurch vineyards 1995 and 1996 Icewine. These are extremely good as well and seem to be getting better with age.

Any thoughts on ageing icewine?

I actually don't know the name of the first desert wine I tried - but it was the 1st wine that made me think I could actually like wine! It was a German desert wine - or maybe French - it kills me that I don't remember.

I haven't had any icewines - that will be an experience.

That's right....shout it loud and proud about Canadian wine! Nice to also see where my autobody shop shirt sprung from
QOTD - 1996 Tokaji 6 puttanoyos. This stuff is the real deal!

Hey Gary!

I'm new to your site so I'm going back through old episodes. Since I'm from Canada I thought that I'd see which Canadian wines you've tasted in the past... and low and behold here's an icewine episode!

To answer your question: the dessert wine that absolutely blew me away was the Inniskillin Sparkling Icewine. That stuff is AWESOME!

I'm looking forward to watching other episodes where you taste Canadian wines. Thanks for spreading the word on icewines from your neighbours to the north!

I've just started tasting wine & seem to like the dessert wines. This is the first time watching an episode. This is great! I've learned so much. THANKYOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Interesting that you caught the petrol flavour in the Vidal; that tends to come up in the Niagara terroir, particularly Vidal. In one vidal icewine from Reif (2000, probably), the petrol note was considerable -- not overpowering, but unmistakeable. A Cab Franc from Strewn I tasted over the holidays had similar traits.

I grew up in the Niagara Region back when wine in Canada was Brights, Andrés and a few others (I remember when Karl Kaiser first tried icewine in Canada), and I have to echo and add to Jimmy Smokepack here; in addition to his points about Cayve Springs and iceWine (iceVine is how I say "eiswein") I've never heard anyone call it "Pel-hahm". Perhaps the winery does that, I see Daniel Speck didn't raise the issue, but it's just "Pelluhm", at least to us locals.

I recommend the 2005 Peller Estates Oak-aged Vidal they are tasting now (as of Christmas 2006), it has a creme brulée taste to it very similar to that Jackson-Triggs you tasted, but stronger -- and it doesn't just disappear immediately upon the finish like it does in the J-T... it lingers nicely without being cloying. It isn't the fruit bomb Vidal usually is, either. I'm so pi$$ed I couldn't take any home, thanks to homeland security (no fluids on planes, and I didn't want to risk any wine in checked bags after a friend of mine found out what the drop in pressure does to corks)... if you can stock it, do!

It seems like everyone is in love with Cave Springs (Wine Spectator, the perennial Europhiles, consistently rate their Riesling icewine at 90 points), and for good reason; their Rieslings are consistently very well balanced.

One thing I've wondered about: does Canada have some legal monopoly on the term "icewine"? Apart from the Germans with "eiswein", it seems like all the non-Canadian frozen-grape wines are two words "ice wine". I thought at first that two-word "ice wine" was the artificially frozen sort (e.g. the Renwood "Amador Ice" Zinfandel), but I've since discovered Selaks (New Zealand) and Covey Run (Columbia Valley, Washington) ice wines that are nonetheless frozen naturally.

As a wine professional in Canada, I appreciate your comments about Canadian Ice Wine, but it's pronounced ice-wine, not eis-wein, like in Germany. Also, the winery name is Cave Springs, not cave with a French softened pronounciation.
I recommend some of the sparkling icewines from Niagara or BC, truly unreal.
I do enjoy the program, but sometimes the pronunciation is way off. In the Champagne episode, you constantly say Pinot Manure!! Its pronounced Moo-nyay.
I'm not trying to come off snobbish, but accuracy of other languages is important in our profession.

Ice wines and Peter Griffin, Freakin' Sweet!!!
I love ice wines.
Have you tried Neige, the apple ice wine also from Canada?

Keep up the excellent episodes.

Gordon

Hi Gary

Loved the show.

I am one of the owners of Henry of Pelham along with my 2 bros Paul and Matt. Thanks for reviewing the Late Harvest Vidal and Riesling Icewine. While they're great at dessert they're also excellent before a meal with sharp cheeses like aged cheddar or blue. They're also an interesting match with oysters on the half-shell (especially Malepeques from the East Coast of Canada) and especially foie gras.

There's a bar in NYC (the Stir Lounge I believe) that serves a drink called a Frostbite -- it's basically an icewine martini: 2 parts vodka, 1 part Henry of Pelham Riesling Icewine. They're a bit too good (as we used to say in college "a brain dart") but there's also another good way to drink icewine: We make a traditional method pinot/chard sparkling wine called Cuvee Catharine Brut (named after Henry's wife -- Henry and Catharine are our 18th century ancestors). 3 oz of the brut and a dollop of our Henry of Pelham Cabernet Franc Icewine (which leaves a reddish hue at the bottom of the glass, kind of like the sunny side of a peach) and you have a Kir Catharine. Now that's good drinking!

Let me know when you're next in Niagara and I'll show you around.

Cheers!

Daniel Speck
Henry of Pelham Family Estate Winery

Gary:

I was drinking the Twenty Rows 04' Cab last night while watching the game. That is an awsome wine. I'm sitting on 24 bottles of it. I thought the Jets were going to come back and rob me of the free shipping! They look much better than I thought. Go Steelers!

Gary:

I've been on vacation and spent the last hour catching up on last weeks shows. They were all very good. 90-93 points!

Rick

The very first dessert wine I tasted was Quady Essencia and it was like nectar. I was a brand new wine drinker (and, by the way, I was on a first date with a very knowledgeable wine guy) so the experience of it was really memorable. Since that time, though, I've tried Essencia again and it wasn't nearly as magical (and, by the way, over time the wine guy wasn't very interesting either! ...a correlation maybe?!). Anyway, my favorite now is probably Dolce by Far Niente. I love that stuff.

Loved the ice wnie episode. Upstate NY is also coming on board with several ice wines from the finger lakes region. Might be worth looking into.
Lately I have been drinking CA wines from a winemaker named "Joel Gott". He makes a terrific zin as well as a good cab. Have you heard of him? Would you consider a tasting that included him along with a couple of others who fall into that category of "wine maker" that does not own a vineyard.

THANKS,
djm

Besides ice wine, my favorite dessert wine: Castello Banfi Florus

Many years ago my wife and I were at Joseph Phelps and picked up two bottles of late harvest reislings that were only available at the winery, I saved them for some time and opened them on separate occasions and was just as blown away by the flavors as when we first tasted them years before. Nothing has come close to them IMHO but I am willing to try all comers and look forward to the tasting of these canadian wines, the Tokays I have tried are close but no cigar.

I'm a bit surprised at the lack of mention of German botrytised wines. Here's one to try: 1994 St. Urbans-Hof Ockfener Bockstein Trockenbeerenauslese. Essence of nectar.

POST 100 ...YEAH ME I get FREE SHIPPING !!! ;) JK new episode up in a few folks :) Have a great weekend and thank you for all your support. Oh and pass the word, always looking for new WLTV HEADS!

it;s funny - we're all hovering around the site - salivating.. waiting for the episode to post. WAIT IT"S HERE... (kidding)....

Gary,
That episode was a lot of fun to watch. Now I have to go try some ice wine, tonight. My favorite wine is Port and one of my favorite Ports is the "83 Real Companhia Velha. I also enjoy Tokay.

Anyone want a good wine read try "The Accidental Connoisseur" by Lawrence Osborne. It's a light read, like reading someone's journal whose been on several wine tasting trips.

Julius - I read an article this summer that said Macari is for sale. Too bad -- they make some good juice. I just wish I had $9.5m sitting around so I could buy it...

TimF - You really know your s**t! I didn't think anyone would care about the Seibal hybrids. And in regard to one of your earlier comments about Macari, the best wine I ever had from Lomg Island was the Macari Bergen Road. Expensive for LI (~$35) but as good as any from Napa at that price.

**** Tammy #82 - You may be the second person from Iowa watching. I'm the first. I have watched from Ep #1. Your bird question - That has been addressed. I'll let you discover on your own this one and many other things as you watch the episode.

I agree - Iowa may have the WORST selection of any state I have been to, but one good thing is that almost every state will ship to IOWA. I travel for work 2 weeks out of the month, so I either ship in by the case, or pick up bottles while traveling. Note: Even if you can find it at local shops in IA - many times still less expensive to pay ground freight and ship in from NJ, NY, CA - Keep in mind you dont have to pay sales tax on orders from outside state. Just keep weather conditions in mind and also I like to order on Fridays - They tend to fill, and ship order on Monday and it should arrive to you later in the week. Avoid having them ship on Friday - Sit in truck or warehouse over the weekend and then start making the journey. I have ordered 100+ cases in and have only had 1 problem. UPS forklift truck went into side of box. Only one bottle of 2003 Beaujolais ($10.99) broke - all other bottles were fine. Company handled claim, shipped me new bottle and they handled claim with UPS. Freak accident. Anyways - i do tend to let the wines I ship in to "Settle down" for at least a month as I believe that in shipping they can bounce around and show a little awkward right after. Also - since I ship mostly in the spring, fall and even winter - I let the bottles reach room temp very slowly (Many arrive very cool) by opening the top of the box and taking the styrofoam cover off, but leaving them in the box. This some how insulates them and it will take a good day for them to settle in, but I try to avoid any drastic temp changes. Good luck!!!

Grant - It wasn't bad -- it just had no oomph. Not anything you'd expect from a vintage port. Part of the problem may have been that we had a bottle of Old Codger Tawny before we had the 1975. The Old Codger had tons of fruit flavor and the 1975 was a joke in comparison. Supposedly it was well stored -- I bought it from a place with a cellar where they had to go get it for me not a retail store. I've got another bottle of it left to try. I just think the 75s are done...

Tammy #82 - You may be the second person from Iowa watching. I'm the first. I have watched from Ep #1. Your bird question - That has been addressed. I'll let you discover on your own this one and many other things as you watch the episode.

I agree - Iowa may have the WORST selection of any state I have been to, but one good thing is that almost every state will ship to IOWA. I travel for work 2 weeks out of the month, so I either ship in by the case, or pick up bottles while traveling. Note: Even if you can find it at local shops in IA - many times still less expensive to pay ground freight and ship in from NJ, NY, CA - Keep in mind you dont have to pay sales tax on orders from outside state. Just keep weather conditions in mind and also I like to order on Fridays - They tend to fill, and ship order on Monday and it should arrive to you later in the week. Avoid having them ship on Friday - Sit in truck or warehouse over the weekend and then start making the journey. I have ordered 100+ cases in and have only had 1 problem. UPS forklift truck went into side of box. Only one bottle of 2003 Beaujolais ($10.99) broke - all other bottles were fine. Company handled claim, shipped me new bottle and they handled claim with UPS. Freak accident. Anyways - i do tend to let the wines I ship in to "Settle down" for at least a month as I believe that in shipping they can bounce around and show a little awkward right after. Also - since I ship mostly in the spring, fall and even winter - I let the bottles reach room temp very slowly (Many arrive very cool) by opening the top of the box and taking the styrofoam cover off, but leaving them in the box. This some how insulates them and it will take a good day for them to settle in, but I try to avoid any drastic temp changes. Good luck!!!

TimF - so sorry about your'75. I am always very wary about buying old port retail - especially if you find it standing upright. One simply never knows how it has been stored over the last 30 yrs. http://www.thevintageportsite.com/ says that the '75 is close to the end of its viable life and even then only if it has been stored well; they say "This young wine should be allowed to age in its own bottle for at least 15 to 20 years from the time it is bottled to achieve its optimum maturity." so chances are your bottle was over the top. Sorry.

BigBen - THANKS for the link to episode 48!

Grant

great episode, glad to see someone showing some love to Canada.

during your sign-off today, what was that thing you did at the end with your fingers? Were you throwin' the WL gang sign of something?

You're such a gangster.

Thank you Joe. I wish I had another bottle of the '90 Baumard too. We drank the last one about a year ago.
On a different front, I second Arnold's request for an Episode on Chablis! Show us some wet-dog and barnyard funk Gary. You could have some more WWF action figures as co-hosts.
Many folks here love Port, as do I, so an episode on that would be very cool as well. QUESTION for you Gary: Will you please give us a hint and prime our palates on what you will do for Episode 100? We're on the 10-Ep countdown now...

Julius -- You are correct. Vidal Blanc is a French hybrid (mixing American and French grape varietals) created from Ugni Blanc (AKA Trebbiano in Italy -- used as a blending grape in Chianti) and Seibel (hybrid created by Albert Seibel). One of the clones (Seibel 4986) is called Rayon D'Or.

Seyval Blanc (several vines of which are growing in my back yard presently) is a cross between two Seibel hybrids -- one of which just happens to be Rayon D'Or...

BTW - I am regularly humbled by the magnitude of wine information there is...

Great episode. Love dessert wines/ice wine. Would like to hear your idea of the best temperature to serve these wines...

QOD...Kracher #9...tastes like creme brulee...

sheila

BTW, I would like to add that I thought it was a very good episode. You are getting better at describing the wines. I thought it was interesting that the Jackson-Triggs Vidal had the classic Riesling characteristic - Petrol, which none of the Rieslings showed. Also, I thought that Vidal was a cross of Ugni Blanc and Rayon d'Or.

Oops, to continue, 2001 DeBortoli Noble One and a 1999 Royal Tokaji Tokaji Aszu 5 Puttonyos.