I recently visited Peller estates because I got an invitation to check out the 10 Below Icewine Lounge. When I arrived at Peller I wasn’t sure what to expect. The word lounge conjoured up an image of a private tasting room with couches dedicated exclusively to Icewine. My mental picture was half correct. Peller has built the perfect homage to Icewine just outside their barrel cellar.
The 10 Below Icewine lounge is named as such because of the temperature that Peller has set for when they harvest their Icewine grapes. The VQA standard for an Icewine harvest is minus eight degrees. This information is etched into the walls of the Icewine lounge. The Icewine lounge is set at -10 degrees so visitors to Peller can experience the temperature at which Icewine is picked. The Peller lounge is built into a huge walk in freezer where the walls are made of ice. The walls are etched with all sorts of hashtags and information about icewine. To be frank, I was impressed. I was visiting the lounge in October, I imagine that it must have been a popular place to hang out with the warm days we had leading into the fall. I was told that the lounge is stocked with bottles of Icewine that need to be rotated to keep them from freezing in the cold temperatures.
It is important that the wine industry builds unique experiences for tourists who pass through. I know for some it can get monotonous passing through barrel cellar after barrel cellar (I still don’t see how people find that boring). This is truly a unique experience.
Peller has also gone over the top with a new wine they have released…
2013 Brix 50 Icewine (Vidal) – $500.00 CDN – **** – Winery Only – The price is not a typo… this wine is five hundred dollars a bottle. But first a little background. Brix is the measurement of sugar in the juice extracted from grapes. Generally speaking for table wine you are looking at 20-25 brix in Ontario, and for normal Icewine it is closer to 35. When these grapes were crushed the sugar levels were at 50 brix! The final sugar in the bottle of this wine works out to 340 g/l which is crazy high. So when I saw the stat technical sheet about this wine I was worried about the balance especially given that it’s a Vidal. However, when you get into the wine it tastes like a very well made Icewine. Beautiful balance with everything you would expect from Vidal. Muted Tangerine flavours buried under honey and slight floral notes. What you will notice is from the extreme sugar in this wine you will start salivating right away. The great news about this wine is that at this price point it’s not really meant to be consumed right away. With the natural acidity and high sugar in this wine it should age indefinitely.
