Top Canadian Icewines

The best icewines at the Wine Access 2011 Canadian Wine Awards

(77 entries, 59 medals)

The number of entries bounced back this year for what is arguably Canada’s most successful genre, evidenced by the high medal ratio. There is little new to say about icewine — and the same wineries dominate the medals year after year. Vidal, red and other icewines performed well, but most comments focused on riesling, including disappointment at not seeing more entries. Vancouver’s Sid Cross provided the following summation: “Canada is world-class with riesling, late harvest and icewine, and there seems to be improvement every year in finding that magical balance of ripe fruit and acidity. And if icewine is becoming more difficult to make due to climate warming, please make more late harvest!” It, too, had few entries this year.

Below is a slideshow with the riesling, vidal, white other single variety and red all variety icewine winners at the Wine Access 2011 Canadian Wine Awards.

The slideshow includes wine notes for the riesling and red all variety gold medal winners, and lists of the silver and bronze medal winners in all icewine categories.