Inniskillin Riesling Icewine 2021 375ml

#65 in Top 100 Cellar Selections 2023. This is a glorious icewine where acidity and sugar are in perfect harmony. The candied orange peel, ginger, straw and toasted walnut and straw are a mere preview of what's to come. These intense flavors of apricot jam, pumpkin pie and lemon drops are matched by electric acidity. Enjoy now until 2035. (Cellar Selection)

A concentrated, yet elegant dessert white highlighted by piercing aromas of dried apricot, kumquat, honeysuckle and lanolin. Features pure apricot and poached peach flavors underlined by vibrant acidity. Drink now through 2033. 1,800 cases imported.

The 2021 Riesling Ice Wine is unoaked and comes in with 219 grams of residual sugar, 10.2 of total acidity and 9.5% alcohol. This is from a year that the winery calls "one of the most challenging harvests on record," due to rainfall around harvest time by table wine standards. The Riesling harvest was a couple of months later, in early January 2022. A strict selection caused lower quantities to be produced, although the winery says with "high quality." Indeed, this seems fresh and lively, with a surprisingly perky feel and a juicy finish. It's on the elegant side this year, not necessarily a bad thing, but it still tastes great. It has the freshness to allow it to age well, so there is no rush. I loved the tangy finish. If you must drink it young, you'll get waves of peaches and apricots (leaning more to peach this year), and it will taste great. A few years of age will allow it to develop some character, though. There were 2,400 cases made.

Sublime aromatics of fresh lime, apricot, grapefruit and peach blossom with a slight minteral edge. A racy interplay of sweet and tart offer up echoing balanced flavours of lemon, lime and candied apricot.