Tropical aromas dominated by pineapple and mango. The palate is tart and piquant but very rich, complex and persistent.

When Hungarian-born Andrew Peller arrived in Canada in 1927, his dream was to persuade his new country to learn to love and appreciate fine wine as much as his fellow Europeans. After numerous setbacks and involvements in the brewing and newspaper industries – and with the financial help of his son Joe, by now a doctor – Peller Family Estates was finally born in 1969.

The Pellers are Icewine pioneers, being among the first families to explore the possibilities of this unique Canadian style of wine. But they went further, planting their Niagara Peninsula vineyards closer to Lake Ontario in an effort to make their Icewine fresher and more food-friendly.

Producing Icewine is an extraordinarily laborious process, involving the thawing and freezing of grapes on numerous occasions, picking them at the perfect moment and, in the winery, a long, slow pressing during which the winery workers have been known to stage a few games of hockey to pass the time.

Niagara’s seasons are very delineated. Summer is warm and autumn is cool followed by a quick shift to winter’s cold; these are the perfect conditions for producing Icewine and Late Harvest wines, and especially so in the Short Hills Bench. When winter arrives the berries are typically harvested at night when they are frozen at -8 ºC (minimum) and when they are at least 36 Brix (% sugar).

Site and grape variety matter here. Vidal is both delicious and a sturdy variety of grape but Cabernet Franc and Riesling are the most elegant. The Short Hills Bench is uniquely situated 7 KM south of Lake Ontario, further away from the moderating effect of the water. This means that the minimum condition (-8 ºC) arrives more consistently than elsewhere in Niagara, allowing for more opportunities to pick, often earlier.

The wines that result – uniquely unctuous but with a piercing streak of lip-smacking freshness – are delicious on their own, but acquire new dimensions alongside food. A trait best showcased by Peller’s in-house chef, Jason Parsons, aka ‘the Willy Wonka of Icewine.’ 

Eye-widening dishes include suckling pig marinated in Icewine, candy floss jelly made with Icewine – and a ‘blue ice dessert’ which involves soaking a wheel of Québec blue cheese in six litres of Icewine for two weeks before serving. Wow.