Many moons ago (back in 2004) Steve Kocsis, winemaker and owner of Mountain Road, made a wine of epic proportion and a pricing error of the same size. He produced a Botrytis Affected Riesling that was to die for, bottled it in 750ml bottles and sold it for around eighteen bucks. Those who know and love B.A. Rieslings know this is unheard of. This year Steve released the 2005 version in smaller bottles (375ml) for $25 (I was heart broken), but in truth it is not only half the size, but half the stature of that magnificent ’04. I went to the winery to try it during their open house weekend and found myself gravitating towards this 2003 Special Select Late Harvest Vidal, which is older and has infinitely more character (kinda like Steve himself); a nose of apple and caramel with toffee and poached pear in the mouth. While it too is housed in a 375ml bottle, it just gave me more bang for the buck … half the sugar of icewine (10) and all the flavours you’d expect; that’s why I love these “poor-man’s icewines”.