Cheese tasting

This past weekend was one for going slow, and I made sure a couple of good dinners were part of the mix. Among the menu items were a couple of cheeses from Oyama Sausage Co. on Granville Island and a bottle of Pinot Grigio from D’Asolo Vineyards. Despite suffering ongoing sensory deprivation thanks to last week’s congestion, I can’t say I didn’t enjoy the various items.

Vacherin Fribourgeois was a raw cow’s milk cheese with an earthy edge. Congestion limited my experience to its more pungent traits, but the texture was what really captured me. Smooth and creamy, the cheese would pair well with sweet apples and pears. That being said, it was adequately matched but not equalled by the Isabella d’Asolo 2003 I’d uncorked, which was a better fit with the milder Brebis Basque. This hard ewe’s milk cheese from France’s Ossau-Iraty region has a smooth texture and salty-sweet nuttiness that’s quite winsome. Yet the best match for the wine was a pork roast I made on Sunday. The fresh fruit flavours of the wine cushioned the savoury meat (which I garnished during roasting with cloves and fresh sage) wonderfully.

Now it’s to work on a handful of stories for my editor over at Western Investor. The current issue of the paper includes my story on the booming Fort St. John region in northern British Columbia, which I first covered for the Fredericton Daily Gleaner in July 1998 as part of a two-month’s peregrination around Western Canada. The past eight years have seen the place explode with activity. But then, we’re all busy in British Columbia these days (or so it seems).