Extra Stop: Ice House Winery

Carrie and I stopped at the Ice House Winery mid way through our riesling tour for a few reasons; it was on the way, it only makes ice wine and its assigned spice was arugula.  I love arugula, but would tend to pair it with pinot noir, which, of course, if you only produce icewine, you just don't have.  The Ice House used the arugula (apparently) in a pasta salad containing multiple fresh spices but the arugula didn't stand out at all in the recipe.

The wine offering, a generous shot of the 2006 Vidal, certainly brought out the fresh spices, and the wine itself took on a peppery background after the food.  On its own, though, its predominant flavours were peach up front and caramel through the finish all on a backdrop of raisin.  It's body is heavier than most of those I've reviewed here, successfully adding to the toasty or smoky flavour that brings it all together.  I suspect this is the result of oak barrel aging, but I'm not sure. 

Here's the problem; for $70 per bottle, there are better icewines out there, beginning with the vidal I bought at Reif the week before for $47.05, or my standby from Inniskillin for $60.15, also available in a sparkling for $10 more.  To be fair, none of these is oaked or aged.  A new friend recently introduced me to Peller's 2010 oaked vidal, which although still lighter in colour and flavour, and a full four years younger, compares at $60.10.  Inniskilllin has held back some of its 2006 oaked vidal, which it now sells for $79.95 per bottle, so I suppose the Ice House isn't too far off the mark after all.  It seems I have just experienced first hand the market crowding and margin squeezing that has begun to plague the Ontario icewine industry.