Hillside Estate Pinotage
Hillside Estate Pinotage
Vintage: 2007
Region: Naramata Bench, British Columbia, Canada
Varietal: Pinotage
Price: $34.95
When friends invite you to give some boutique wines a try, it goes without saying that you’ll want to make the effort. Mark Bata from Christopher Stewart Wines got in touch with Reading for New Times to try some of Hillside Estates wines at The Cellar last week. I didn’t know too much about the winery other than they were based on the Naramata Bench near Penticton, British Columbia. Our tour of the wines was guided by Lisa Baxter, Marketing Manager for Hillside Estate who talked the group of 30 through 7 tastes of their latest offerings.
For the most part, I usually find Canadian white wines to be a touch more expressive than the reds. Heading into this tasting, I fully expected the same and I must say there were some wonderful whites presented. I was particularly fascinated by the 2007 Muscat Ottonel with its beautifully fragrant nose of orange blossoms. It was perfectly balanced and ready to be served chilled on a patio with thick slabs of sashimi. Despite this gem, the wine of the night for this writer wasn’t a white but was a red and Ms. Baxter saved it until the end.
The 2007 Pinotage was the last of wines tasted and it did not disappoint. I think Canadian red wines sometimes have a tendency to be a bit on the thin side but this Pinotage was an exception. On the nose, there were notes of fruit, earth, tobacco, and game. I could be nuts but there was some teriyaki beef jerky. In the mouth, this wine displayed cherries and cocoa with a full mouth feel with seamlessly, integrated tannins. The finish on this wine was long and memorable. We enjoyed this wine with rich cheeses and morsels of baguette and it complimented the food perfectly. If I had a qualm, it would be with this wine’s price but coming in at paltry 534 cases produced, I can understand where Hillside Estates is coming from. This wine is in my top 10 Canadian wines, so seek it out at your next market visit.
90 Points
- Hillside Estate Pinotage
- by Adrian Bryksa
- Published on June 3rd, 2009
- Photos:
- Penticton Okanagan British Columbia Canada
- Rating:
- 90 Points
More from Adrian Bryksa:
-
Cork Fine Wine Tasting Series featuring Argyle Wines
Argyle Wines has been called by Wine Spectator as “Oregon’s Premier Winery” and routinely receives ratings in the 90 + rating levels from its critics.
-
Penfolds Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz
It isn’t every day that a new child comes into the world so to celebrate his birth, I decided to dust off a bottle from the cellar of one of my favorite wines.
-
Wyndham Estates Show Reserve Cabernet Merlot
Do rewards come to those that wait? I have had this wine in my cellar for a few years and Sunday was going to be its day of reckoning.
-
Huber Grüner Veltliner Obere Steigen D.A.C.
This is an almost exclusive Austrian varietal that seems to fit in between Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc stylistically and sometimes exhibits some characteristics commonly found in Riesling. It sound like my kind of white.
-
Willow Bridge Estate Sauvignon Blanc Semillon
It has been a while since I have covered a white wine; I suppose the changing of the season has had me thinking more red than white. However, that’s not to say that a vino blanco can’t be enjoyable as fall sets in.
-
Jim Barry The Lodge Hill Shiraz
Jim Barry is one of Australia’s finest producers and has some of the most collectible and desirable bottlings year after year.
Other recent features:
-
Sónar 2010 – Barcelona, Spain
The festival attracts a lot of outsiders, but the Mediterranean, Spanish and more specifically Catalan nature of the people makes the festival what it is. Catalan people are passionate and this passion is infectious. The atmosphere is electric in Barcelona as a city and heightened by music and intoxicants at Sónar.
-
Summer Party Naval Styles at Seven RestoLounge
Oysters, like wine are affected by terroir and these Miyagi’s flavor profiles ranged with one showing a cleaner, almost tropical profile and the other being more salty, marine driven. As I was devouring the seemingly endless plates put in front of us, I sipped on a glass of fine sauvignon blanc.
-
R4NT Radio March 2010
R4NT Radio March 2010 um wow it’s been far too long since the last edition edition, featuring: Hector Hernandez, The Infesticons, Blockhead, Gramatik, Emika, Thunderheist, Parov Stelar, Eddy Meets Yannah, Anti-Pop Consortium, The Slew, Lighterthief, Andreya Triana, Parasyte Woman, Mathon, Venetian Snares, and Funki Porcini.
-
O Restaurant & Lounge revisited
Calgary has a diverse set of urban communities, most of which have the ubiquitous strip mall watering hole. In the South West community of Marda Loop, a reinvention of this paradigm has been established.
-
Predictions 2010.. and beyond!
So 2010 eh? Almost but not quite (no year zero they say) another decade? It seems like just yesterday that the world was waiting for Y2K. R4NT started publishing in March 2001, so we’re not quite 10 years old yet, but in internet years we are already a senior citizen.
-
Invictus
No matter what, the reality of Nelson Mandela is something that deserves screen time. Should this film even remotely intrigue the masses to take interest in this figure, the world would likely benefit greatly from it.
