Inniskillin, Gold Label Oak-Aged Vidal Icewine, 2013

Rich, very sweet and yet delicate thanks to acidity lifting the honeyed tropical fruit flavours. A rare example of oak-aged icewine (about four months in barrels), the Vidal fruit is taken from Inniskillin’s famous Brae Burn Vineyard – one of Ontario’s best. About the producer<br /> Donald Ziraldo – dubbed Canada’s Robert Mondavi – founded the winery in Niagara-on-the-Lake in 1975 with a partner, Karl Kaiser. Both are now retired. Inniskillin pioneered Canadian Icewine – a genre that has become a mainstay of the Ontario wine industry and rivals Germany’s eiswein in quality and price, according to many critics. Inniskillin also helped to establish Canada’s modern estate-winery movement and helped put Canada on the international wine map. One of Inniskillin’s defining moments was winning the Grand Prix d’Honneur for its 1989 Vidal Icewine at Vinexpo in Bordeaux in 1991. It has also won several medals at the Decanter World Wine Awards.