Vignoble du Marathonien Vin de Glace
Happy Halloween!! Not that I often (or maybe not ever) do Halloween posts…but this year instead of talking about a dark, broody, red wine of which the Count himself might approve…I’m looking at the other side of Halloween. The sweet side.
It is not often that I get to drink Canadian wine! In fact, several years have passed since my last (and probably first!) one. It was then quite a delight when a friend brought me a bottle from a pre-pandemic trip. While visiting her family in Montreal, she bought a bottle of Canada’s famous ice wine for me.
Vignoble du Marathonien is a family run winery. Founded by Line and Jean Joly in 1990, the Joly family’s winery is located just kilometers from the American border. On their two acres of land, they grow a variety of French hybrid grapes including Seyval Blanc, Cayuga, Vidal, Geisenheim, Marechal Foch, DeChaunac, and Frontenac from which they make three white wines, two reds, a rosé, a late harvest, and an ice wine.
While Canadian ice wine becomes increasingly well-known, it was Vignoble du Marathonien that made the first ice wine in Quebec. An experimental harvest if frozen Vidal grapes in November 1994 created their vin de glace, a wine that would go on to win awards both at home and abroad.
Vignoble Du Marathonian Vin de Glace, 2017
Produced officially as a vin de glace du Quebec IGP, this wine is made with 100% Vidal Blanc (Ugni Blanc x Rayon d’Or). Left beyond late harvest levels to freeze on the vines, grapes get crushed while still frozen. This allows winemakers to separate the water remaining in the grapes from the juice. When you crush a grape, you may assume that all the liquid that leaves is juice. And it is, to a degree. But water makes up 80-84% of a grape so that “juice” is pretty watery. Letting grapes hang long past regular harvest time helps evaporate a lot of that water. But being able to freeze and remove the remaining water molecules…well that doesn’t leave you with a lot. But what you do have is super concentrated JUICE.
Toffeed brown in the glass. Apricot, quince, and golden apple framed by notes of freshly grated ginger, all spice berries, and nutmeg. The flavor intensity, like the aroma, is pronounced, showcasing many of the same flavors as those sensed on the nose. This is a lovely, elegant and rich wine with complex flavors. The fruit sensed on the nose is there but brighter and more fresh while the spices jump out and claim your attention before mellowing into a toffee nuttiness. Unctuous on the palate but with vibrant acidity and that curiously “dry” texture – like the feeling when you bite into a super crisp apple. Only 10% abv.
Absolutely gorgeous.
After my first (but hopefully not last!) Canadian vin de glace, I can now attest to the reputation this country has earned for quality ice wine!