With heart

The latest issue of Northwest Palate is out! The issue profiles a few ‘favorite things’ and includes my account of a heart from one of my brother’s steers we roasted up one night last year and served to friends from Seattle. (Tip: Slice roast heart as thin as possible for a more delicate dining experience.)

The Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival last week was as pleasant an experience as ever, though I could have done with a bit more time to enjoy it. Alas, there’s always next year! Still, I came away with favourable impressions of a handful of wines on show in both seminars and the tasting room. I liked what I tasted from Grès St. Paul, as well as Domaines Ott’s Coeur de Grain (a rosé). Then there were the red wines black as ink from Uruguay’s Pisano winery ... in a word, striking. Retail stock brought to the festival reportedly sold out the first night, but I was fortunate enough to score tastes of an old vines Tannat and a fortified release kept in reserve under the rep's table.