Pair It Up! Canadian Cuisine
I recently attended a wine dinner at Actinolite in Toronto where chef Justin Cournoyer's brand of local, Ontario cuisine was paired up with wines from the great naturalist Trentino producer Elisabetta Foradori. The wines were stunning and the food was creative and delicious (see: candied reindeer lichen with juniper cream), but it was the first time in a while that I was truly wowed by the wine pairings. One dish was a bright and zingy mound of shredded carrots with plums and verbena that was served on kefir, and it was accompanied by a glass of Manzoni Bianco—an obscure, rich grape with tons of bruised apple, lemon and mineral notes. As if symbiotically, the wine and the dish propped one another up to a new level. The best analogy I can think of is when two singers hit the same note—a great wine pairing is harmonic. Continue reading
