Saturday Night – a Surprise, a Request, and an Old Friend (part 3)

Part 2 to this article can be found here –

http://zippysauce.blogspot.com/2008/06/saturday-night-surprise-request-and-old_10.html

For dessert Amy had picked up an apple spiced cake. For the pairing we said goodbye to an old friend for the last time – 1995 Henry of Pelham Late Harvest Vidal.

"A perfect finish to the evening!"

LCBO Information – Henry of Pelham Late Harvest Vidal VQA

LCBO# 395228
375 mL bottle
Price: $ 19.95
Wine, Dessert Wine,
10.8% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : 16
This is a VQA wine
Made in: Ontario, Canada
By: Henry Of Pelham Family Est. Winery

Tasting Note - Bright yellow gold colour; aromas of honey, ripe peach, fig and apricot; sweet with ripe fruit flavour; well-balanced by crisp lemon acidity; rich and luscious without being too cloying.

Serving Suggestion - Serve chilled, a good introduction to dessert wines; fruit flan.

Note – the year listed above is probably 2004-2006 and not the 1995 this blog is about.

"You will be missed!"

The 1995 Late Harvest Vidal from Henry of Pelham will easily go down as one of our top 5 wines of all time. It was one of the first late harvest/ice wines that we tried and is the standard I judge all late harvest wines by. Every year after the 1995 vintage from 1996 to 2003 we have tried the Henry of Pelham late harvests but none have been as good as the 1995.

About 4 years ago I was in looking at wine in my local LCBO and there was this lone bottle of the 1995 sitting on the shelf mixed in with current year (2002 I think?). I picked it up and couldn’t believe it was there, as it had been 7 or so years since it had been initially release. I wondered if the wine was even still good, not having any idea how well or poorly late harvest wines age. I almost put it back and then thought for $20, what the heck.

That following weekend we tried the wine and it was as good if not better than I remembered it to be. Amy absolutely fell in love with this wine and for the next six months every time I broke out a dessert wine I got the same question – “Is it a 95 Henry of Pelham?”

"Is that port?"

About a year later Amy went out to Henry of Pelham and managed to pick up the very last case of 1995 Henry of Pelham Late Harvest Vidal in existence. When she came back both Kathy and I were amazed that she had gotten this as we both figured it was long sold out. We split the case with her and Mick.

Which brings us back to this Saturday, Amy decided to break out the very last bottle of 1995 late harvest. Upon opening the bottle and pouring it out I was shocked at how dark the colour had become. It was very amber and not too far off the colour of Tawny port. I couldn’t detect any off smells so I hoped we were still good.

Here is the 4 person review of the wine –

1995 Henry of Pelham Late Harvest Vidal

Nose – Lychee still present but much of the fragrant and powerful aromas I remembered with this wine had faded over time.

Taste – Heavenly, still tastes relatively fresh, sweet but not too sweet, pear, peach, petrol elements to it.

Ratings – Mick – 91, Mark – 95, Kathy – 90, Amy 95, Overall – 92.75

Interesting note – of the 12 bottles Amy picked up, two were a little past their prime but the other 10 were great.

The wine went extremely well with Apple Spice cake but I found in the end I was happy just slowly sipping it on its own and remembering all the good times that I had enjoyed this wine with friends and family.

Cheers!

Mark