2018 Inniskillin Vidal Icewine

The 2018 Vidal Icewine comes in with 245 grams of residual sugar, 10.5 of total acidity and 9.5% alcohol. An early harvest began on December 14 and continued for several consecutive days. With its typical peach and apricot nuances, this shows off strong flavors and a lot of sugar, but it does have some concept of balance as well. In fact, this is a bit lighter and brighter in perception than its 2019 sibling this report, although that may also be because this is a year older. I think the 2018 is a hair better in some ways, but it's pretty close, and we'll see how they stack up over the years. They are both very well done, with the winery maintaining a consistent style over different vintages. Note: This is sometimes colloquially referred to as the "Pearl" bottling, to distinguish it from the lightly oaked "Gold" Vidal, but that is nowhere on the label. It's confusing if you hear it, so take note.