Truffle Pig Wine

Kim and I drove down to picturesque Niagara-on-the-Lake today to pick up our order of Vidal Icewine. The Watson's farm is situated right next to the Niagara River and about 10k East of Lake Ontario — the weather moderated by both bodies of water.

We got there just before noon and met Kevin Watson, the grower. He was an amiable guy, and we spent 20 minutes talking about the farm, the growing conditions, his varietals (he grows over 14 on just 40 acres!!), his distaste for Pinot Noir ("if you grow it, you don't like it") and the gist of how to make icewine. He reminded me a little of Kirk Williams, the grower for Fairview Road Ranch in the Santa Lucia Highlands, and seems like a good guy to do business with.

I'd like to see how this batch of icewine turns out, and maybe try some of the commercial wine made with grapes from the vineyard before I make a decision on 2006 vintage sources, but it's been a good start.

For the rest of the day, we toured the Niagara-on-the-Lake region and visited a few estates as part of the Icewine Festival, and got home for about 6:30-7:00.

The wine was then transferred from bucket to the 18 litre carboy using a large measuring cup, and then stoppered with an air lock. The wine needs to warm up to room temperature before I can inoculate it, so I wrapped the carboy in an electric blanket, set it on low and let it sit overnight.