To ensure wines maintain their dignity as they age, vintners maintain them in environments free of mirrors so they never discover how bald their bottles are or how wrinkled their labels may have become. Get in on wine’s golden years with today’s Groupon: for $99, you get a Secrets of Icewine tour for two at Harbour Estates Winery in Jordan Station (a $237.30 value, including HST). The excursion includes the following:
- Vineyard and winery tour for two (a $140 value)
- Icewine tasting for two (a $20 value)
- Food sampling for two (a $30 value)
- $20 credit toward wines from the winery boutique
- Tax (a $27.30 value)<p>
The waterfront Harbour Estates Winery’s hiking trails roll through acres of specialty-grape plantings that become VQA wines, such as the winery’s award-winning icewines. On the Secrets of Icewine tour, guides greet guests in the winery’s vineyard and walk through the rows, pointing out frosty grapes and their miniature holiday wish lists dangling on the vines. Guests can pluck and taste the ice-bound fruits while guides discuss the grapes’ unique path to wine actualization. Tours spotlight the harvesting process before participants learn about the specialized press for creating icewine and grape-ink newspapers and sample its unfermented juice.
At the tour finale, participants sip samples of finished red and white icewines such as the 2008 riesling or 2008 cabernet franc. Guides discuss proper food pairings for the frosty libation and beckon tongues to interrogate food samples, forcing them to reveal where the icewine is hidden in their recipes. Apply the included $20 credit toward any of the boutique’s wines, then dive into the citrus and honey notes of a 2010 VQA riesling ($11.95 for 750 mL) or through berry- and tobacco-tinged pours of 2005 VQA cabernet blend ($15.95 for 750 mL). Guests can also opt for slender bottles of the Vidal icewine ($47.85 for 375 mL) or cabernet franc ($115 for 375 mL), known to impart a deep craving for croissants in every sip.