Where Edmonton Magazine January/February 2018 | Page 46

Y WINE, BEER & SPIRITS
Ask The
Expert
JUANITA ROOS
CO - OW NE R , CO LO R D E VINO (B E LOW)
What restaurants would you recommend for their
great wine lists?  So many! One of the best wine
lists is Clementine (pg 39) because it’s a little more
off the beaten path, and I generally choose a favourite restaurant based on
how well curated the list is—but also for the service and knowledge of the
staff. And I’m a big fan of Bar Bricco (pg 43), Uccellino and Corso 32 (pg
43) as a group—Bar Bricco’s where I stop when I don’t have a reservation,
but ultimately, I prefer Corso because I like the consistency of their list and
the food.
Do you have any pairing tips for someone who’s at a restaurant and wants
to impress a client?  Stick to safe bets. If you know you’re ordering fish, order
whites; if you know you’re ordering beef, order reds. Chicken and pork are
white meats and fall under that same soft red. I think an even safer bet is to
order bubbles or a Rosé—they go with almost anything.
Any trends in wine for 2018 that you’re excited about?  I think people are
getting more excited about how wine is made. People are taking a local
approach to wine: they want to know where a producer farmed and how they
farm the products they make. There are more people asking for a story and
wanting to know there’s a face and a farmer behind a bottle.
What’s your go-to bottle to enjoy when you unwind?  For me, I like lighter-
style wines. I like low alcohol. I’m a big fan of anything under 13% with no
residual sugar. I like Le Soula as an orange wine (La Macération du Soula),
which is a conversation that’s coming up. Customers who’ve bought it say,
“It doesn’t taste like white! It doesn’t taste like red!” It’s a white wine made
on the skins—like a red wine but with white grapes—so it’s spent time in
a barrel or a vat, but it gets a tannin-like structure. It comes off as orange
because it’s usually spent time in that barrel, pulling off that colour. They’re
interesting because if you have it by itself, you may think it tastes like cider
because it’s earthy, but if you put it against a