2017 Inniskillin Cabernet Franc Icewine VQA

The 2017 Cabernet Franc Icewine comes in with 244 grams of residual sugar, 9.15 of total acidity and a pH of 3.27. The price references a half bottle. I don't think this is the best of the group, but it certainly is the most distinctive. The grape gives it some extra weight and a certain earthiness. You can certainly identify this by its Cab Franc character, which manages to shine through—you can taste herbs cutting the sugar, which certainly makes this a lot different than the white dessert wines offered this issue. As eccentric as it originally seemed, some air partly changed that. The next day, it pulled in some of the herbs and seemed a bit more mainstream. Still, it was always a little different, a long way from the more classic white stickies submitted this issue. It also seemed a little less focused and a bit syrupy at that point. These have, I'm told, 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, wipe off the condensation, if any) "20180514 17," indicating that it was bottled on May 14, 2018.