Paradise Ranch Riesling Icewine VQA 2000

Okanagan Valley, British Columbia

Last spring, I attended a wine festival in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia. Two genres were standouts: pinot blanc and dessert wines made from a wide variety of grapes. The Inniskillin and Mission Hill pinot blancs from British Columbia are delicious, magnificent especially with oysters, and British Columbia dessert wines are hard to beat. I brought home what I could, and I am delighted to discover one of the dessert wines here. Paradise Ranch has just landed in Atlanta with a nice range of dessert wines. The standout among them, in my view, is the Riesling Icewine, a luscious nectar of golden sweetness that shows lovely caramel, honeysuckle and exotic spices in the aromas, and dried apricots, nectarines and citrus in the flavors. Brisk acidity keeps the wine from becoming cloying, and it projects the fruit's deliciousness into a lingering finish. Don't oàverload this gem with a too-sweet dessert, but instead focus on simple cookies, plain cheesecake or poundcake to showcase the wine. VQA stands for Vintners Quality Alliance, a Canadian quality indication. Good stuff, eh?

ä $49/375 ml bottle. Grade: A. Code for wholesale distributor source (from Southern Beverage Journal): NDC