May Wine: Rosso di Montalcino Frescobaldi

An Italian repast, Vancouver's best Asian chow and a local cocktail that's hard to "beet." Ask an Oenophile The Expert: Mark Taylor, owner of Siena on West 12th Avenue in Vancouver The Dish: Mushroom tagliatelle, $16 The Pairing: Rosso di Montalcino Campo ai Sassi Frescobaldi, 2009, Toscana, Italy, $48

Mark Taylor, Siena | BCBusiness
Mark Taylor brings a touch of chic to south Granville.

An Italian repast, Vancouver’s best Asian chow and a local cocktail that’s hard to “beet.”

Ask an Oenophile

The Expert: Mark Taylor, owner of Siena on West 12th Avenue in Vancouver
The Dish: Mushroom tagliatelle, $16
The Pairing: Rosso di Montalcino Campo ai Sassi Frescobaldi, 2009, Toscana, Italy, $48

We make all of our own pasta in-house, so this is a fresh tagliatelle. It’s beautifully thin and soft. Although it seems like a simple dish, it’s beautifully balanced and quite rich. You’ve got earthiness from mushrooms and charred leeks, you’ve got saltiness from parmesan, you’ve got acidity from onions and you’ve got the richness and sweetness of madeira cream.

When it comes to pairing, the first thing I want to do is balance the richness of this dish, so I don’t want a really light-bodied wine. I want a medium to full-bodied wine. You could go with a white, but I’m going to choose red simply because it’s the kind of mood I’m in. Specifically, the Rosso di Montalcino.

I love this wine. It’s made from 100 per cent Sangiovese grown in the same delineated region as Brunello di Montalcino, but it’s about half the price of Brunello. It’s got enough fruit and body to match the dish, but it also has a nice zip of Italian acidity from that Sangiovese grape that’s going to cut though the richness of the parmesan and cream. And like any good Old World wine, it has some earthiness to it – a perfect complement to the mushrooms and charred leeks.

Every sip of Rosso will freshen your palate for the next bite of tagliatelle. And that’s what we want.


Drink Decoded


 

“With our Feel the Beet cocktail we wanted to showcase what wonderful produce we have at our fingertips,” says Uriah Conti, food and beverage supervisor at Four Seasons Resort Whistler. “Pemberton is bordering on the fruit belt of Canada and produces anything from crosnes, strawberries, beets and even potatoes.” The hotel’s Fifty Two 80 Bistro and Bar’s Feel the Beet cocktail is created using 2 oz of beet-infused Schramm gin from Pemberton, 1 oz Pemberton strawberry purée, 1 oz Township 7 Sauvignon Blanc, a splash of wildflower honey from Lillooet and a swirl of Whistler-based Nonna Pia’s strawberry-fig balsamic reduction. Every ingredient is sourced within a 100-mile radius of Whistler. To make your own, combine all ingredients with ice, shake and strain into a martini glass. For a final flourish, garnish with a goat-cheese-stuffed Pemberton strawberry. $15, fourseasons.com/whistler


Asian Eats


Image: John Sherlock

Since 2009, the Chinese Restaurant Awards have been highlighting Metro Vancouver’s distinct, acclaimed and exciting Chinese culinary scene. Now, co-founder Stephanie Yuen is expanding her reach with a collection of recipes that showcase traditional Asian foods from the Pacific Northwest Coast as well as modern culinary takes inspired by classic Asian flavours and techniques. Yuen’s cookbook, East Meets West, offers an inside look into Metro Vancouver’s nearly 500 Chinese restaurants. Its introduction, a comprehensive and charming history of Asian food in Vancouver, is worth the purchase alone. $29.95, dmpibooks.com