Peller Estates Vidal Icewine is a Canadian dessert wine. It is made from 100% Vidal grapes. Vidal is a hybrid grape variety produced from the Vitis vinifera variety Ugni blanc (also known as Trebbiano Toscano) and another hybrid variety, Rayon d’Or. It is a very winter-hardy grape variety able to produce good sugar levels in cooler climates.
Peller Estates have been making wine in Niagara for three generations. At 43º latitude, the Niagara Peninsula in Ontario, home to Peller Estate, is within the same latitudinal range as Southern France, Rioja in Spain, Chianti Classico in Italy and Oregon in the USA. The Niagara Peninsula is the only place in the world where every single year the summers are so warm red wine grapes can be ripened, but the winters are cold enough to make Icewine (but never so cold that the vines do not survive).
Grapes for Peller Estates Vidal Icewine are always picked at temperatures of at least -10ºC, with the grapes frozen on the vine and hand-picked in the middle of the cold Canadian night. Once picked, the grapes are pressed immediately while still frozen releasing only one drop of pure extract from each grape. Authentic Icewine is very different from other dessert wines; prior to being picked in late December, the grapes freeze and then thaw 8 to 10 times. Each time they freeze, new and more complex flavours are released into the juice from the grape. The wine is aged 100% in stainless steel. The signature of great Icewine is the balancing tension between sweetness and acidity.
This intense, luscious Icewine from Ontario emits a blast of pear, honey and caramel, while peaches, pears and a tangy hit of lemon drops take over the tongue.
The residual sugar for the 2017 is 216g/L.
This icewine is suitable for vegetarians and vegans.