Lilia
RT: Hello and Welcome to CorkRules!
A podcast where, in each episode, we will review a wine list from your favorite restaurants. I’m your
host Robert Tas along with Rachel Peacock, Sommelier, and cellar worker helping to create some of your favorite wines from Washington state.
Hey Rachel, so nice to have you.
RP: Hi Robert! Happy to be back again. I love helping break down these lists with you.
RT: Well, that's our mission to help demystify wine lists. To help you navigate pairings pairing to find that special bottle, hidden gem or value wines.
So, today we are looking at Lilia in Brooklyn.
RP: Right, and what a fantastic menu. I tend to look at the food before wine when constructing pairings, but their offerings ALL look amazing. The focus is on rustic Italian food.
RT: Lilia is a concept from James Beard award-winning Chef and owner Missy Robbins, centred around wood-fired seafood and handmade pasta. It’s highly regarded so let’s explore some wine pairings a little bit more in-depth.
RP: So, this is a very cool list. All Italian, of course. It’s not huge but carefully curated, and they do have a nice offering of classic Italian cocktails and Amari, but clearly, this is a spot to drink wine. I could see how it might be intimidating for someone not super familiar with Italian varietals though…
RT: Why is that?
RP: Well, Italy has around 350 authorized grape growing varieties that span 20 regions, so there’s certainly wines on here that even I am not all that familiar with.
RT: That’s incredible that there’s that much variety!
RP: I know. I think this speaks to how ingrained wine growing is in the culture. This is certainly a great spot to try some more obscure Italian wine…
RT: What’s standing out to you?
RP: Like you mentioned, the focal point of this menu is woodfired seafood complemented with house-made pasta. But there’s a few exceptions to this and I’m looking at a couple of beautiful lamb dishes. My pick here is the Il Frappato from Arianna Occhipinti. This is a beautiful varietal that goes super well with gamier meats or lean cuts.
RT: Beautiful, but why did you choose this bottle?
RP: Frappato is a grape indigenous to Sicily and you don’t often see it as a lone varietal, but it’s great. If you like Beaujolais, you’ll probably love Frappato. It’s different but still very approachable. And Occhipinti Wines are really a standout of the region. You have a young female winemaker who is using low intervention techniques to really showcase the terroir. Her wines are always a good value.
RT: What an incredible producer, that sounds like an excellent match. What were you thinking to pair with some of the seafood dishes?
RP: There’s lot of options! Like I mentioned, this list strives to offer some less conventional wines, so my goal here is to give you some options that might be new to you but also aren’t too far out… take the 2020 Angelo Negro ‘Serra Lupini,’ Roero Arneis from Piedmont. This is an amazing medium-bodied, bright savory white that always seems to have great structure, so an excellent fish pairing. This particular wine is going to have citrus notes and a lime finish, with hazelnut and a bread dough leesy character
RT: What a lovely offering with the Black Bass or Scallops…
RP: Totally, it will hold its own but not overpower your entree. Another wine and region I really like here, is the 2015 Nusserhof ‘Elda’ Schiava. This is an offbeat varietal from one of the Northernmost regions of Italy, Alto Adige, which contains a lot of Alpine/ Austrian influence. This particular wine is organically farmed, always a plus, and contains a lot of desirable qualities of red Burgundy. It’s earthy, it’s smoky and it’s got bright red fruit. A no-brainer for fish and pasta if you ask me.
RT: All of these sound like amazing pairings…
RP: They definitely are, and nothing that would break the bank. Amazing offerings all around from Lilia.
RT: You said it, Rachel. Thank you for being here with us today.
If you would like us to review one of your favorite restaurants, please send us email to:
Info@corkrules.com or visit our web website where we have a request form available, and we will do our
best to get it in the queue as quickly as possible.
We look forward to being with you on another CorkRules episode soon. In the meantime, please check out our website for other episodes of
your favorite restaurant wine lists. And finally, drink what you love and please make sure you drink responsibly.
END
