Michael Vaughan's Weekly National Post Feature

Ontario's Icewines Shine
The Icewine Oscars for the Best of 2004 ^©
© Michael Vaughan 2006
National Post Weekly Wine & Spirits Columnist
Saturday, January 14, 2006

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This weekend kicks off Ontario's annual weeklong annual Niagara icewine extravaganza. It is hard to believe that it was only 23 years ago that Ontario's first icewines were produced. Today our icewines are revered around the world.

To help readers find the best at upcoming celebratory events, I volunteered my taste buds for a five-day assault by some of the world's sweetest wines. This mother of all icewine tastings focused on the 2004 vintage. A whopping total of 61 bottles were tasted over five days, including 31 bottles of Vidal, Canada's traditional icewine of record. Particularly surprising was the sudden appearance of so many red icewines - 15 in total. This 2006 Canadian Wine Challenge judging was the largest single vintage tasting of Canadian icewines ever. A total of 17 Gold, 19 Silver and 11 Bronze were awarded in this year's Icewine Olympics.

Despite what one might think, sipping your way through so many sweeties isn't fun. To make it easier, they were tasted by grape varietal over a four-day period. Day one saw the onslaught of the immense Vidal group. Most competitions have tasters assign a mark out of 100 points for each wine. With so many intensely flavourful wines, I added a unique tasting score board. It forces the taster to place each glass of icewine into a scoring square. This template, 8-feet-long by 18" wide, enables one to immediately differentiate the scores and taste back and forth, ensuring that the final award is accurate.

Another innovation was to score the bouquet first, prior to tasting anything. Only after this, were the wines tasted, starting from the lowest scoring nose to the highest. The wines were then moved to their final scoring positions. It was leapfrog-styled tasting, back and forth, making sure that the golds were really golds, etc. To check consistency and wine evolution, glasses were tightly covered and everything was repeated the following day. Every icewine was tasted at least six times - over 360 sips and spits!

Before discussing the awards, some words of caution: don't be blinded by gold. Why? Because in isolation, many people would not be able to tell if the medal-winning icewine they are enjoying is gold, silver or bronze. The reason is that the rich, sweet, flavours of all medal-winning icewines captivate your palate. To be delicious, it doesn't have to be a gold medal winner!

Of course, there are noticeable differences between a gold and a bronze. Keys are the intensity/purity of flavour, viscosity (the thicker the better), balance (meaning sweeter and more viscous icewines have to be balanced by higher acidity so they don't become cloying), and length of finish (the longer the better). Also keep in mind that a silver becomes a gold at an arbitrary number meaning that there is almost no difference (and virtually no statistical significance) between a high silver medal and a low gold.

Vidal Icewines

Starting off with the Icewine Oscars for Vidal, 24 of 31 got medals. While a record 77.4% might sound a bit high, it isn't. Forget the vintage charts, I have never tasted as many fine Vidal icewines at any competition. Not only was the climate in 2004 superb for this thick-skinned grape variety, but it winemakers seem to have finally learned how to make it properly.

Of eight Vidal gold medals, highlights included the still youthful Inniskillin 2004 Oak Aged Vidal Icewine (534396) at $110. Just one-half point behind, came the "regular" Inniskillin 2004 Vidal Icewine (551085) at a mere $54.95 at Vintages. Then came the rich, sweet, succulent, caramel-driven Stonechurch 2004 Vidal Icewine (477596), which is very well priced at $29.95 for 200 ml. In terms of value, however, the ready-to-enjoy Lakeview Cellars 2004 Vidal Icewine (522672 Vintages Essentials) at only $19.95 /200ml gets the CWC Best Value 2004 Icewine Award.

Riesling Icewines

Moving on to Riesling, only six made the medal cut. Of the two golds Henry of Pelham 2004 Riesling Icewine (430561) rated first and is a best buy at $54.95, followed by Peller Estates 2004 Riesling Icewine (981175) at $70.00. Another fine buy is the high silver medal winning Coyote's Run 2004 Riesling Icewine, which is $45 at the winery.

Gewurztraminer Icewines

Of the other whites, I was excited by two terrific gold medal winning Gewurztraminers. If you like bright acidity, you will love Malivoire 2004 Gewurztraminer Icewine (542530) at $38.00 for 200 ml. For something softer and loaded with caramel Palatine Hills 2004 Gewurztraminer Icewine is a real steal at $30.00 for 200 ml and winner of the CWC Best White 2004 Icewine Award. Owners John & Barbara Neufeld started producing it in 2001 and it is one of the best buys of the entire release. The Manitoba liquor commission is already selling it - time for the LCBO to wake up!

Red Icewines

Finally, there were 15 red icewines, which varying from light orange to a blush red pink. For the very first time, every VQA red icewine received a medal. Five got gold. Of ten Cabernet Franc, Inniskillin 2004 Cabernet Franc Icewine (623728 - $89.95) was first, with Jackson-Triggs 2004 Cabernet Franc Icewine (593962 - $74.95) just a half point behind. Pilliteri 2004 Merlot Icewine at $50 is a head turning best buy, while winner of the CWC Best Red 2004 Icewine Award is Palatine Hills 2004 Cabernet Sauvignon Icewine at $100 - only 900 bottles are available at the winery store.

This year's CWC Icewine Producer of the Year goes to two wineries, Inniskillin with 3 Golds & 1 Silver (out of 4 entries) and Palatine Hills with 2 Golds (out of 2 entries)

To see the full list of medal winning icewines click here. To see the list of upcoming events click here. Full detailed tasting notes of all medal winning icewines will be made available to FBTI Supporters in the near future.

2001-2002-2003-2004-2005 Tasting Note Database
Our tasting note database from December 31, 2000 to December 2005, covers every Vintages release product for the past 60 months. There are more than 10,000 notes in the database data. Just enter the name of the product, supplier name or CSPC number. Or you can search by type of wine, country of origin, even wine agent! Nothing could be easier. Also you can get information on the agent by clicking on the agent’s name, as well as current LCBO store inventory by clicking on "Check LCBO Availability", which will automatically tell you the number of bottles at LCBO as of last night.

To use our Tasting Notes Database: click here

** For All Visitors **
Vintages Releases
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January 21 release, including In-Store Discovery items,
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February 4 release, including In-Store Discovery items,
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Copyright Food & Beverage Testing Institute of Canada 2006
Prior written permission is required for any form of reproduction
(electronic or other wise) and or quotation.
Contact Michael Vaughan at
mbv@total.net