We continue to rack up the medals worldwide despite the fact our icewine is banned in Europe by a powerful group of decision makers who shamelessly insist their reasons are legitimate. The first taste of icewine is an eye opening experience. Its richness coats your palate with honeyed flavours that taste like something you d find at the end of a rainbow. I know of few people who have tried it who cannot remember that first moment in detail. Yet despite being known as the great Canadian beverage, there are an astonishing amount of Canadian consumers out there who have never sampled this nectar of the gods.
Price has pretty much everything to do with it.
And this goes doubly so when they realize that the average icewine bottle is equal in quantity to half a regular bottle of wine. No matter how pretty packaging is, that s a big ticket. I don t blame people for being skeptical and resistant, but neither do I fault the producers of this wine. At harvest time, there are no Indian summer days where pickers can roll up their sleeves as they comb the vineyards. Instead, there are sub-zero temperatures at the break of dawn and hearty souls bundled in fleece and wool.