Take a look at these tasting notes!!!

Great, I have your attention! Holiday period for many after Thanksgiving so I am celebrating (in mind only) with this delicious white. Twist is you have to try and guess which wine I am talking about...the varietal, area of production and country of course!! So here goes forumites.

12.5% alc, opened 1/2 hour, well chilled to allow me to study wines transition as it warms up. Synthetic cork, tall slender bottle, back label talks about "a damp summer but warm fall which made for late-ripening".

Colour is a dark straw, no viscousity noted. Looks like some crystals here. No green noted.
Nose is ripe pineapple, zesty, peach and some lemon. Appealing, old world it ain`t but delicate nose sure reminds me another varietal from a certain part of Europe.
Initial mouthfeel entry on the palate is crisp, lively, no oak, lip smacking acidity. Like the pineapple, peach, citrussy feel as well as the sweetness in background alongside the fruit forward sensations! Think there is a hint of honeysuckle here.

Cost was under $18 Cdn. So I will be around to see how you make out, good luck!!

Some clues:
- Late Harvest-Slender bottle-some sweetness => an intentional dessert wine but not full on sweet. Serious enough to have balancing acidity
- Honeysuckle => Marsanne for me though it's far from definitive. Too sweet (and wrong bottle/seal - but correct price) for Tahbilk Marsanne.
- Talk of Fall (rather than autumn) suggests a local (Canadian) wine
- Pineapple, peach, lemon perhaps suggests a late harvest chardonnay.

So I'll go for a late harvest chardonnay, no idea on producer and based on a not-too-mature colour, maybe a 2004.

regards

Ian

Good,an early effort from our champ over there in the UK!!!

Yup, `04 vintage.
Chardonnay, nope!
Canadian, right on.

So now we have to figure out the varietal and from which area! Bonus pat on the back if one can get the producer.

[Robin Garr]

So now we have to figure out the varietal and from which area! Bonus pat on the back if one can get the producer.

British Columbia late harvest Vidal Blanc?

BC, nope.
Vidal Blanc, spot on!!

NOTL Vignoles, late harvest but with little or no botrytis.

Which province is that??LOL.

Ok, I am too funny. Ontario is correct!!!! Which winery.........?

Angels Gate.
Inniskillin.
Pelee Island.
Cave Spring.
Hillebrand.

Bob,

Without looking at anyone's guess I'm going with a late harvest B.C. Riesling, or a Riesling Icewine.

"ripe pineapple, zesty, peach and some lemon"

Bob, that is Vidal for sure - excellent, spot-on descriptors you use.

Would this be the '04 Angel's Gate Vidal? It's got to be an '04 - I would recognize that vintage description any day.

Pretty close there Sam, buy wow wie wrong varietal and wrong province!!

"ripe pineapple, zesty, peach and some lemon"

Bob, that is Vidal for sure - excellent, spot-on descriptors you use.

Would this be the '04 Angel's Gate Vidal? It's got to be an '04 - I would recognize that vintage description any day.

Winner!!!!!.....the `04 Angels Gate Vidal Blanc. Cigars all round, Ian got us off to a good start, Robin nailed the grape varietal, you all had a good crack at it and this was fun. Needs to be served quite chilled as it gets flabby if warmish. Clues were good eh, notice I avoided mention of icewine anywhere.
We will do this again eh.

24 hours later, still showing up nicely. The riesling character I had hinted at has been replaced by a marked ressemblance to P Gris!!!
Wonder if Howie`s tastes like this?!!

Pretty close there Sam, but wow wie wrong varietal and wrong province!!

Bob,

I had recently been drinking a late harvest BC Riesling. Perhaps that colored my perception. Kind of like Steve Martin in the Saturday Night Live game show skit; "Gee... all I can think of is Romaine Lettuce".

Sam, I thought it had some characteristics when opening. Think the guys on the east coast more familar with this varietal.

[Robin Garr]

"ripe pineapple, zesty, peach and some lemon"

Bob, that is Vidal for sure - excellent, spot-on descriptors you use.

Ah, but he left out the classic Vidal descriptor: Turpentine.

there are NO vignoles vines in ontario!

Ah, but he left out the classic Vidal descriptor: Turpentine.

Actually, the "turpentine" (or, more plainly, "coniferous") aroma descriptor, which can show up in Vidal table wine, is exceedingly rare if not routinely non-existent in late-harvest and icewine iterations of same. It would be most unusual to find a Vidal icewine with piney aromas! I have found this characteristic most often in the table wine styles of varietal Vidal.

Turpentine? No sign of that `ere matey!

24 hours later, still showing up nicely. The riesling character I had hinted at has been replaced by a marked ressemblance to P Gris!!!
Wonder if Howie`s tastes like this?!!

I'm not very good at identifying tastes in wine. I am doing a late harvest Vidal this year that sould be ready for drinking by next spring. I've heard Vidal referred to as "the poor man's Riesling" and when made in a slightly off-dry style, I believe could replace Riesling in many traditional Riesling food pairings. However, I recently bottled an '05 Vidal, normal ripening harvest, made from the free-run juice - crisp and bone dry with more delicate flavors than what are usually associated with Vidal. Perhaps I could somehow get you a bottle.

Howie, the crisp and bone-dry Vidal you describe evokes an impression that rings true of my own Cayuga this year. I really like the steely acidity and firm sturcture that I got in my '06 dry Cayuga. These dry white hybrids really are indistinguishable from dry white viniferas and I feel that they should be vinified in this manner more often commercially as well.

That said, I think that all grapes - hybrid and labrusca included - can show this same unfettered structure when allowed to ferment to dryness. I really think they are better for it personally.

Thanks for your tip on doing the cold stabilization. I think that since I have had good success with it in the past, there's no reason not to do it again this time. I will be glad to have you try the dry Cayuga once it's bottled.