![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp.michaelpinkuswinereview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Foursome_AllWines.jpg\")
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To see the original reviews – click below<\/strong> (June 1, 2016) … There was some occasion for opening 4 bottles this night, but all I can remember is we had some folks over for dinner and decided to investigate some older Ontario wines, starting with a Featherstone 2009 Gamay Noir. ’09 was a wet, very acid driven vintage, so varieties that benefit from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lost-a-found-taste-it-again"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.michaelpinkuswinereview.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.michaelpinkuswinereview.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.michaelpinkuswinereview.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.michaelpinkuswinereview.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.michaelpinkuswinereview.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3224"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.michaelpinkuswinereview.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7548,"href":"https:\/\/wp.michaelpinkuswinereview.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3224\/revisions\/7548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.michaelpinkuswinereview.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.michaelpinkuswinereview.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.michaelpinkuswinereview.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Featherstone](\"https:\/\/wp.michaelpinkuswinereview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Foursome_Feather.jpg\")
(June 1, 2016) …<\/strong><\/em> There was some occasion for opening 4 bottles this night, but all I can remember is we had some folks over for dinner and decided to investigate some older Ontario wines, starting with a Featherstone 2009 Gamay Noir<\/strong><\/span>. ’09 was a wet, very acid driven vintage, so varieties that benefit from high acidity did really well (ie: Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc); this Gamay had a pretty nose of violets and dried cherry while on the palate the alcohol seemed a little more in your face than expected. Palate showed elements of spice and dried cherry with bits of cranberry. We also saw a dramatic bricking in colour.<\/p>\n![\"Norman](\"https:\/\/wp.michaelpinkuswinereview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Foursome_NormanH.jpg\")
We moved on up the ladder to a Norman Hardie 2009 Cabernet Franc<\/span><\/strong>, same year, different region for winemaking – this might have been Norm’s first Franc under his eponymous label … Sadly vintage did not help with longevity for this wine, nor did the cooler region of Prince Edward County. Tons of old-school Ontario green pepper & green peas on the nose, palate proved to be a bit weedy, and hard to drink. There have been better versions made since.<\/p>\n![\"Nyarai](\"https:\/\/wp.michaelpinkuswinereview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Foursome_Nyarai.jpg\")
Two years earlier was the summer of 2007, which was a much nicer growing season and brought Ontario some gorgeous wines, like this initial red offering from a new (at the time) virtual winery: Nyarai Cellars 2007 Cabernet Merlot<\/strong><\/span> – it has aged nicely with its dark fruit core, spice, and hint of vanilla on the finish. Still holding up well.<\/p>\n![\"Pillitteri](\"https:\/\/wp.michaelpinkuswinereview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/03\/Foursome_Pillitteri.jpg\")
The star of the night was my heavy bottle of Pillitteri 2002 Trivalent<\/strong><\/span>, a blend of Cabernet Franc (50%), 30% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon … I’ve been waiting a long time to drag this one out of the cellar and now, at the 13 year mark, I pulled the trigger: dried dark and red fruit, with both dried and spiced cherry taking center stage, still showing firm tannins … A big, for Ontario, 14% alcohol that still felt relatively young – remarks ranged from ‘great bottle’ to ‘very Bordeaux in style’. Congrats to Pillitteri for putting this elegance in bottle, could probably go another 5 years – but drinking now might be the better way to go.<\/p>\n
Featherstone 2009 Gamay Noir<\/a>
Norman Hardie 2009 Cabernet Franc<\/a>
Nyarai Cellars 2007 Cabernet Merlot <\/a>
Pillitteri 2002 Trivalent – no original review<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"