Q: Wine Redux

[Steve Klc]

David--would you speak a bit about your relationship with wine, how you and your Wine Director interact and procure your wines? Is it collaborative? As a chef, do you take more of the lead with wine selection--i.e. do you first create a dish and then try to choose the best wine match for it or the reverse--do you start with a wine and then build a dish around the wine? Or do you turn the whole thing over to him--you create the dish that best represents your thought and feeling and say to him--find a match?

Since your list isn't on your website--I'm curious how you feel Canadian vintners are doing, how well represented Okanagan wines are on your list and which are your current favorites? How well represented are the wines of Ontario and Niagara-on-the-Lake? Do you have an easier time procuring European and Australian wine than American wine from CA/OR/WA?