The 2006 Niagara Icewine harvest to begin
I just spoke with John Neufeld, the grower for Palatine Hills and former chairman of the Grapegrowers of Ontario, and he predicts they'll be picking the first of their icewine fruit tomorrow night. Temperatures have been fairly cold for the last few days and the forcast says it'll drop down to the required -10°C on Saturday.
This is great news, and despite coming late in the season, is still early enough that most grapes won't be raisins and juice yields shouldn't be too far below norm.
Kim and I visited Fielding Estate last week (they make a fantastic Gewurztraminer Icewine) and they had actually given up the idea of an Icewine harvest this year, and had picked and processed all their grapes for to do in Late Harvest style.
Anyway, John says it won't be a problem for me to pick up 20L or so of Vidal, the price will be $28/L for this small a volume. Back in December I had asked about picking up some Gewurzt Icewine juice as well, but I just found out it's going to cost close to $60/L and I just can't do it at that price.
I'm supposed to give John another call early next week to finalize the order and set a pickup date.