As challenging as the 2007 vintage was, this year’s Icewine harvest was the polar opposite (excuse the pun). On Dec 14^th a cold front moved down and by the morning of the 15^th we were able to harvest the grapes having the rare luxury of picking in the daylight as temperatures were a solid -13C at harvest.

      Earlier harvests like this one tend to favour cleaner fruit characteristics; less of the honeyed characters you might see in years when the harvest is done in later January. Final sugars for the vintage came in at 42 brix which favours a little more residual sweetness in the final wine but given the higher acids in 2008 the wine will be in great balance.

      In the end, I consider Icewine to be a bit of an obligation for Canadian wineries and liken it to the sport of hockey -we are one of the few regions in the world that are capable of producing world class results and so we should. And like the Canadian team winning five straight gold medals at the World Juniors Hockey Championships our success at Nk’Mip has been equally impressive as highlighted below.