2017 Riesling Icewine

The 2017 Riesling Ice Wine comes in with 268 grams or residual sugar, 9.98 of total acidity and a pH of 3.29. The price applies to a half bottle. Firmer on the finish and showing a lot more tension (which is only a relative term with these wines), this would easily be my pick of the stickies this issue. It's more powerful, more tightly wound and a little fresher. The finish is longer. The Vidals on their own are terrific, but this just seems to add a little something extra. That finish, of course, is delectable and succulent. All of the dessert-wine submissions this issue were retasted the next day. This showed the most energy by far. It was arguably the only one that really improved. Drink it now or age it for a decade to allow it to acquire some more character. I'm told these have multiple bottlings. This has a very faint bottling date stamped on the bottle (not the label). This production stamp, below the label and near the bottom of the bottle, says in tiny print (hold it up to the light) "03 18," supposedly indicating that it was bottled on September 27, 2018—although how that means September 2018 is impossible to know without some insights from the winery.