Ex Nihilo’s high-end Sympathy for the Devil icewine rocks an iconic label.

Okay, three things are a given.

One, icewine is fabulous, in worldwide demand, labour-intensive, and frost-dependent—and therefore expensive.

Two, Canada is (now) the world’s largest producer of icewine. We’re not short of frost where the grapes grow.

Three, the Rolling Stones are (still) the world’s greatest rock ’n’ roll band. Go ahead, bite me.

So what a stroke of marketing genius to bring all three together, here at home, in the Okanagan.

Enter the Harders, Jeff and Decoa, of Ex Nihilo Vineyards in Lake Country, B.C. That’s up near Okanagan Centre, not far from Gray Monk. He’s a former fibreglass-boat builder, she’s an ex–ski instructor, and both are from Alberta. Jeff has a brother who got himself a winery in the Napa Valley, and one day he introduced the couple to a California Cabernet with the Rolling Stones’ famous red-tongue logo etched on the bottle.

Gears meshed, wheels spun, light bulbs went on. Along with business partners Twila and Jay Paulson, they began one of the newer of the pushing-200 wineries in B.C.

Enter one more connection: Marty Erlichman of Los Angeles, operator of a company called Celebrity Cellars, which puts investor celebrities in touch with wine folks.

With me so far?

One other thing: there are actually two Ex Nihilo operations, the one in the Okanagan and another in Napa. And there are five wines right now: Riesling, Merlot, Riesling icewine, Pinot Noir icewine, and a Meritage-style blend.

Ex nihilo means “out of nothing” in Latin, which is a little self-deprecating: certainly there was something there, in a steep-sloped 10-acre parcel overlooking Okanagan Lake, appropriately southwest-facing. The first wines were released in 2005 and 2006 with grapes sourced from Mt. Boucherie Vineyards and made by the Boucherie winemakers.

But there was also some 2004 icewine. That’s where the Stones enter the picture. Erlichman knows celebrities who like good wine and have the cash to indulge in it. What economic downturn? You gotta rock, right?

A little over a year ago, Ex Nihilo announced its licensing partnership with the Stones. While the two icewines—one the traditional white (Riesling), the other the less common red (Pinot Noir)—were the first release (some 2,600 numbered bottles in wooden presentation boxes flew into the cellars of collectors Canada-wide), a couple of fine table wines in both national colours soon followed.

A word or two about price: expensive. And—expensive! The Riesling is a pretty reasonable $22, the Merlot a more Himalayan (at least by B.C. standards) $42. The blend called—had to be—Satisfaction is $44.99, more or less in keeping with the cost of Meritage wines, here and in the States. The two Sympathy for the Devil icewines are $125 each for the regulation half-bottle (375 millilitres), putting them on top of the charts, icewine-wise, for a brief spell. You were expecting supermarket-style deep discounting? Those Stones gotta eat.

If there is such a thing as a bargain in this portfolio, here it is: the Riesling 2006 really is exquisite, with lime flowers for the nose, honeyed apricot for the tongue, and a Mosel-ly floral complexity with just a hint of caramel as the finish unrolls. A wonderful Riesling by any standards, but don’t take my word for it—it won gold this year at the Riesling du Monde competition in France and silver at the Okanagan Wine Festival.

Merlot is found in abundance in the Okanagan, so there’s plenty of competition for the Merlot 2006. About 500 cases of this elegant wine came off the line. And the people of the Okanagan spoke: they gave it the people’s choice nod at the Valley’s spring wine festival. You’ll find plenty to ponder and reflect on—herbs and spices and berries and cherries, plus an exquisite finish. And a corresponding price tag.

Satisfaction 2005 is the Ex Nihilo Napa Valley version of a classic Meritage. It’s a grapey, peppery blend that’s predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon with a small amount of Merlot and even less Petit Verdot, Malbec, and Petite Sirah. It spent almost two years in oak and is ready to rock ’n’ roll right now, but it’s also a keeper to delight you for a decade or longer. I’ve got two in the cellar. (At $45 a hit, that’s all I could afford.)

And finally, the after-dinner experience. The Riesling Icewine 2004 has good acidity (essential in icewine), good fruit, a classic Riesling taste (which was, after all, the grape that started the whole icewine ball rolling a few hundred years ago in Germany), and super-sweet (but noncloying) fruit and all kinds of tropical and nut elements. You know the price. If you want some I wouldn’t put it off too long—so do plenty of other people. Ditto the Pinot Noir (which I haven’t yet tasted), now one of only two Pinot icewines produced in B.C.

As Bob Dylan told us all those years ago, “Everybody must get Stoned!”

Final note referencing the Stones: the Harders teamed up with Kelowna’s wave-making Cabana Bar and Grille and the city’s classic-rock station K96.3 to source some Stones memorabilia. They got a guitar, autographed by everybody in the band, and auctioned it off on-air to benefit the children’s ward at Kelowna General Hospital.

The winning bid was $10,000 from Kelowna’s Kevin Kellerman.

Yes, but can he play the intro to “Goin’ Home” off Aftermath , arguably the best Stones album before Let It Bleed ?