Inniskillin Ice Wine 2006

c.$10 / 50 ml

As the Canadians were due the pleasure of the company later on it was evident that Ice Wine for breakfast was the order of the day.

I had received for Christmas a number of ingenious methods of storing wine, but disappointingly little actual wine. The sum total of it comprised a whopping 50cl of a 2006 Canadian Ice Wine from Inniskillin complete with special presentation box-let.

As the better among us will know, Ice Wine is pressed from late-harvested frozen grapes in cool climates, giving a super-sweet, superbly concentrated must.

A cursory inspection of said revealed this to be an oak-aged Vidal, a grape I don't remember having drunk before which meant that I was approaching this little 9am snifter with considerably less information than normal, but bravely I battled on...

The Canadians seem to have lucked out with the grape, as it can be made to taste and smell almost exactly like Riesling, I even got a whiff of rubber on the nose.

The lovely lip-smacking sweetness and lush honeyed fruit almost didn't stand up to the long intensity of the acid finish, though this cut through perfectly the excellent bowl of Special K, with which I had expertly paired it. Heathrow Terminal 3 was gonna be a doddle.

A nicely salty dirty Martini in Toronto airport provided fuel for some shopping and the no-brainer purchase of a magazine about Canadian wine, which had awarded the venerable Inniskillin team runner-up in their 'Winery of the Year' awards. Bravo.