TNs: MARYNISSEN ESTATES 1993 VIDAL ICEWINE

Berserkers,

As part of a Niagara Icewine Festival Tour yesterday, we stopped at Marynissen Estates, a smaller family-run winery in the Niagara on the Lake region. I’ll give a full report on the tour itself including a stop at the famous Icewine Village, but I had to share a tasting note with everyone first simply because of the incredible “Wow!” factor.

By chance, it turned out that the week before the Festival began, the current owner’s young son Grayson was cleaning out the barrel cellar a bit to make room for the Icewine Festival display and came upon a skid of unmarked boxes hidden in a corner he had never come across before. He opened them and discovered they were full of different vintage icewines that for some reason were tucked away unmarked and never put on sale.

Nobody knows why this was done so he did what any good employee would – tasted them all to make sure they were okay and then put them on sale once he verified they were drinkable. This TN is on on the one incredible standout

MARYNISSEN 1993 VIDAL ICEWINE – Oh. My. God. By all rights, this should have been nothing more than oxidized sugar syrup with little to no fruit. Instead, the dark golden brown color and full body hide a nose of caramel, stewed peaches and a taste of caramel, wild honey, canned peach syrup, lemon and pineapple and a shocking amount of fresh and lively Meyer lemon flavor and acidity!

Icewine usually only has a six year window. 8-9 maybe if it’s an extremely very well made one (like the 02 Daniel Lenko which was drinkingly extremely well in 2011, for example). But 18 years?!? This is just absolutely incredible, basically an icewine miracle and the equivalent of an icewine Vintage Port. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED