Attention-grabbing fruit-salad aromas and mouth-watering orchard-fruit flavours ensure a crowd-pleasing quaff. Off-dry honeyed notes bookend splashes of crisp citrus flecked with fresh herbs. Chill well, then untwist cap to kick-start your patio party. Very green salad–friendly, too.
This softer-textured, best-edition-to-date, Alsatian-inspired blend features Riesling (38%), Gewürztraminer (33%) and Pinot Auxerrois (11%), but also Pinot Blanc (14%) and Schoenberger (4%) this year. Fragrant elderflower, lime and clove aromas. Off-dry, intense flavours of guava, lychee, grapefruit and nutmeg notes. Well-balanced 12.7% alcohol refreshes. Beckons dishes with bacon.
Full ruby. Nose is predominantly on delicious red fruits with a perfumed note. Of medium concentration on the palate, its tannins have a fine grain of good quality. Already providing pleasure in the glass.
Refined, nicely developed dark fruit bouquet reveals plum and blackberry notes with a dusting of cinnamon and a hint of redcurrant. Well-structured, powerfully concentrated and smoothly rounded dark plum and black cherry on the palate, culminating in harmoniously integrated fruit, oak and spice on the finish. A very impressive wine.
This special bottling of sparkling Vidal Icewine has quickly become a favourite of mine, and a style I hope catches on with every Icewine producer in the peninsula. It starts with rousing, invigorating aromatics of sweet apricot, peach tart and exotic tropical fruits. The bubbles from this charmat-method sparkler dance nimbly in the glass but explode on the palate with alluring sweetness and playful effervescence. The flavours are gorgeous with peach compote, orange peel, citrus, mango, apricot and honeycomb all delivered on a racy spine of acidity. Herein lies the future of Icewine. Wow.
Fielding was one of the victors at this year’s Cuvée awards, taking home 3 gold medals. For my money, it is this Cabernet Franc which offers the best bang for the buck. The dark cherry colour leads into a profile of cassis, raspberries, smoky herbs and violets, which are layered on a medium body. The supple tannins and excellent length give the wine staying power. Drink it now or until 2018. A tip of the chapeau to winemaker Richie Roberts!
Panagapka’s Pinots are never ready to drink on release, but being a startup virtual winery, he has to get these wines to market to pay the bills. The wine shows best after several hours of decanting, or better yet, a couple years of cellaring. The first aromas are of earth, sweet oak, warm cherries and forest floor. But as it opens up, it shows more ripe red fruits and less organic notes. It has a silky feel on the palate, with red fruits folding into cedar and spice. Not an overdone Pinot, but rather one that straddles the line between masculine and feminine.