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Raising
the coldest of spirits
By Michael
Vaughan • Weekly Wine &
Spirits Columnist
National Post • Saturday, January 27, 2001
National Post • Saturday, January 27, 2001
The king of crystal was
holding court in the ritzy rooftop of the Toronto’s Park Hyatt Hotel A
serious task was at hand – to choose the shape of the ultimate glass for
icewine. And who better than the dashing Georg Riedel captain of a glass
making dynasty that spans ten generations.
The “palates” were
all in place – Canada’s leading wine authorities along with specially
invited American guests flown in for this momentous occasion. They stared
seriously at the wide array of glasses that sat in front of them; each
holding precious drops of Canada’s best-known nectar from Inniskillin.
After all, who else but Donald Ziraldo (President of Inniskillin) could
have orchestrated such an auspicious event?
“You see,” explains
Ziraldo “Georg had brought the world a whole new way of looking at, or
at least tasting, wine.” Indeed,
it was Riedel who demonstrated that the configuration and size of a glass
would dramatically affect the way a wine smelled and tasted. He
brilliantly launched a series of premium “stems” each one said to be
the best for a specific wine. Ziraldo realized that this was a marriage
just waiting to happen. And why not, a half bottle of icewine costs more
than a Riedel glass.
Of course, Ziraldo had to
put his money up front by ordering 50,000 stems, an act which made their
debut possible. Non-believers can test the Riedel hypothesis for
themselves without necessarily resorting to ‘R’ glasses, which cost
almost $40 a piece. You can simply put the identical wine (and not just
icewine) into a series of different shaped glasses and judge for yourself
– it’s quite amazing! I am not going to bore you with the
physiological details of why this happens – it simply does. It’s
exciting stuff. You can almost hear wine lovers mutter, “By Georg,
he’s done it!” They are starting to arm themselves with this new set
of indispensable tools.
Riedel’s new Vinum
Extreme icewine glass sells for $38.95 (all prices are tax included) at
selected Vintages stores. It’s also available at Inniskillin and some
Wine Rack shops at $40.19, although it was only $28.69 at last weekend’s
Niagara Icewine Festival). Of course, lots of other less expensive glasses
are available. At Hillebrand winery, for instance, you can buy a fine
Spiegelau icewine glass for only $22.94. Don’t feel that to enjoy
icewine you have to invest in one of these pricey stems. In the words of
one attending wine expert, “icewine tastes so good, you drink it out of
anything!”
You should keep this in
mind because each glass highlights different aspects of a wine. And not
all tasters unanimously agree which of wine characteristic heightened is
the best. Moreover, it’s not just a matter of personal taste. What’s
perfect for Riesling may not work as well for Vidal or Gewurztraminer.
Moreover, a younger icewine behalves differently than a more mature one,
and so on. Thus, a single ideal icewine glass will never exist. What we
really have is a preferred style, one that hopefully will shine a new
light on your palate.
Shining a light is
certainly what you have to do when you trudge out into the bitter cold of
–8 degrees to pick the berries, which are as hard as marbles. This
winter was so cold that almost everything came in before New Years Eve,
certainly in contrast to last year. As
Vintages is releasing a small batch of the new 1999 icewines next
Saturday, here’s the tentative scoop on what’s best. Tentative,
because more than 60 new icewines will eventually be coming on the market
and all will be evaluated side-by-side in the near future.
So of the 25 being
featured in next Saturday’s Vintages release, let me reveal a number of
favourites. Of the two Gewurztraminers, the deep golden coloured Jackson-Triggs 1999 Reserve Gewurztraminer
Icewine at $59.95 (375 ml) takes the cake with its delicious,
sweet, spicy, pumpkin pie, ripe Anjou pear and caramelized baked apple
flavours. It has great balance and harmony plus it’s showing nicely.
There are seven
Rieslings, two of which were released late last Fall. If price is no
object then Inniskillin
1999 Riesling Icewine at $69.95 (375 ml) would undoubtedly be
my first choice. It’s sweet, creamy, slightly smoky, and delicious, pear
purée flavours are quite wonderful.
Of the 16 Vidals, there
seems to be much more variability of quality with some definite
disappointments. This is attributable to the fact that 1999 had an
exceedingly hot summer and a very late winter. In several instances, it
was the latest picking on record! These conditions had a negative impact
on the purity of fruit flavours and acidity. This combined with the fact I
was unable to organize a blind retasting means I am loathe to provide you
with premature judgments.
Ironically, one of the best was also extremely well priced – Pillitteri 1999 Vidal Icewine at $19.95 (200 ml). Initially released three months ago, it has lots of bright, sweet, candied pear and soothing caramel flavours. A very fine icewine, which I believe will even, be better in a year or two. Keep tuned in for further updates.
Copyright
Food & Beverage Testing Institute of Canada 2004
Prior written permission is required for any form of reproduction
(electronic or other wise) and or quotation.
Contact Michael Vaughan at
mbv@total.net