Vidal Blanc

Vidal blanc is a hybrid, created in France by Jean Louis Vidal by crossing Ugni blanc with a Seibel hybrid, and like Baco noir it was bred for Cognac and found its real work in Canada. It is now the grape most closely identified with Canadian icewine, and Ontario is the largest producer of icewine in the world.

The trait that matters is entirely physical. Icewine requires the fruit to hang on the vine into December or January and to be picked and pressed while naturally frozen, at around minus eight degrees or colder. Most grapes rot or drop off the bunch long before that. Vidal has thick skins and a tough stem, so the bunches survive months of freezing, thawing and bird attack.

The wine is intensely sweet and intensely acidic at the same time, because freezing concentrates both sugar and acid, and the balance between them is what makes the style work. It tastes of apricot, mango, honey and lychee. Vidal also makes a dry table white in Ontario, Quebec and the eastern United States, which is pleasant, fruity and rarely memorable.