Help please, European perspective on Canadian Icewine

I'm putting together a program on Canadian wines for a group in Rochester NY and I would like to mention any impact Canadian wine might be having in the European market. I know that they export some Icewine and was wondering if any European members here had an opinion on how it is being received. Are ant "regular wines" making an impact over there as well? Any links to (English language) newspaper articles? Many thanks in advance.

I have never seen a Canadian icewine on sale over here. However, on doing a Google search, I did discover one firm not 20 km from here which claims to be the only direct importer of Canadian icewine in Belgium and Luxembourg. As this firm list quite a few unusual (for Belgium) wines, I may pay them a visit shortly.

I guess the UK is the European country most likely to have a fair choice of icewines. If Quebec makes any, the French may offer some out of brotherly sympathy.

I guess the UK is the European country most likely to have a fair choice of icewines. If Quebec makes any, the French may offer some out of brotherly sympathy.

I'm not so sure about regular Ice Wine, but I do know that in Quebec they make a dessert wine from frozen apples. I've never had it.

Re: Icewine from Quebec -

They seem to exist - http://www.winesofquebec.com/quebec-win ... pe=6#liste

Cnandian Ice Wines have only very recently allowed to be imported into the EU, and I have not seen any on supermarket shelves - and supermarkets sell the vast majority of wine in the UK.

So I would say that they are unknown to the general public.

The Wine Society did have an Iniskillen shortly after the import ban was lifted, but doesn't have any Canada icewines on its current list. I bought a bottle of Château des Charmes Vidal Icewine in Dublin in 2006 from Oddbins but they no longer have any Canada ice-wine on their list.

Using wine-searcher you can find a few stockists of Canada ice-wine but it really isn't making an impact.

My interest is that I was impressed with them when I was in Ontario, but the price here is expensive and there's a lot of competition in the dessert wine area.

Waitrose supermarket stocked one for a while, but as far as general impressions go, non-wine enthusiasts would have no idea about them and those interested in wines will often associate Canada clearly with Icewine, but will also be aware that the bottles aren't cheap. Getting them to taste them should be easy enough, but there may be some reluctance to buy 'blind' at the sort of prices these wines command.

regards

Ian

I havent seen them in many shops in the Netherlands to be honest (this doesnt say much because I dont buy to many wines in dutch wineshops).
This year there was a big winetasting event and there was also an importer of these canadian icewines. I expected a lot, the price was pretty high (60-80Euros for half a bottle consumerprice), and I was a bit dissapointed. The wines were thick and sweet but for me they lacked freshness. For me they were to expensive for what they brought quality wise. Normally I would not say anything negative about a region or certain wines based on one tasting of which I cant even remember the wines I tasted. Because you asked for Europeans to give there view on these wines I gave mine based on one experience.

even in the US, Canadian ice wines are more expensive than german ones. they also have the additional problem of having way more RS which leaves them unbalanced by comparison to their german brothers.

Thank you all again for your replies, with so few East Coast of North America wines making it accross the pond, I think my Canadian neighbors should be proud that their Icewine is available in Europe at all.
David, I find your pricing comment very interesting. I checked pricing here and our most expensive bottle of Canadian Icewine is $75, our least expensive German is $99. you seem to have the opposite experience. You must have better German importers or we have better Canadian ones -

i'll not mention the niagara winery owner who said he is not making ice wine anymore. "people always buy one or two half bottles to give to xxxxxxx who will really like it". and if the japanese tourists ever go somewhere else, there goes more sales. someone should be able to figure out that at a minimum they should try ice wine under 15% RS - maybe even 10%. but more importantly, the wineries MUST sell dry wine to be economically viable; and the reputation for ice wine is useless for that.