Icewine Festival Tour #1 – Icy Cool!

This past Saturday 36 of us from iYellow Wine Club went to Winter wine country to experience the magic of the Icewine Festival! Our day in wine country was certainly romantic. There was lots of snow on the ground all day, a great amount of sunshine, and lightly falling snowflakes all day. We were definitely a pack of wine loving Canadians celebrating what we do best – ICEWINE! We packed up early Saturday morning and we were off to Reif Estates, Inniskillin winery, Pillitteri to have discovery pass experiences. We were also lucky enough to stop in at the Wineries of Niagara on the Lake Icewine Festival downtown feature over 25 wineries from NOTL and taste more Icewine.

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Our first discovery pass stop at Reif Estates featured a 2008 Vidal Icewine (which was simply divine!) paired with spit-roasted porketta and apple Icewine sauce. We then stopped in at the Icewine festival Wineries of Niagara on the Lake and ran into the every so savvy (and one of the Founding Fathers of Icewine) Donald Ziraldo and everyone was able to taste more Icewine from the 25 wineries that were pouring. After lunch we hoped back on the bus and stopped in at Inniskillin to witness a true moment in Icewine history Taste Inniskillin VQA Riesling Icewine paired with a chèvre and Niagara pear tart with toasted hazelnuts while relaxing in an outdoor area with ice furniture. iYellow Wine Club members were able to see the launch of a new book called “CHEERS!” celebrating Ontario Wines and local flavours by Author Richard Bain. The Godfather of Canadian Icewine Donald Ziraldo and Jim Cuddy from Blue Rodeo (who also wrote a piece for the book) were also there (you can see from the picture to your left that I bought a book and had it signed by all 3). Wine Club members were also able to taste Inniskillin VQA Riesling Icewine paired with a chèvre and Niagara pear tart with toasted hazelnuts while relaxing in an outdoor area with ice furniture – which was a complete blast! Our last stop was at Pillitteri where we were able to taste a sparkling wine outside, and warm up with homemade Belgian-style waffles topped with fresh fruit and drizzled with Pillitteri’s Chardonnay Icewine syrup. This scrumptious dessert will be paired with 2007 Chardonnay Icewine.

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The day was very memorable and everyone on tour had a really fantastic time in the Icewine Festivals Winter Wonderland!