Every weekend we round up the highlights from the other websites in the St. Joseph Media family. Check them out, after the jump.
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The comprehensive index of every blog post, magazine story and restaurant review that appears on Torontolife.com
All stories relating to alcohol
Drunkorexia: the latest trend among female university students and/or authors of kids-are-not-all-right stories
Of course, there are ways to combine food and alcohol intake in one package
According to an article in the Calgary Herald, drunkorexia is a growing problem facing university populations in Canada. The term describes the practice of reserving one’s entire daily caloric intake for alcohol rather than food, a problem that apparently mainly affects females. The goal of drunkorexia: to keep weight down while getting drunk. Fast.
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David Lawrason picks nine great, affordable pinot noirs from around the world
(Illustration: Jack Dylan)
Pinot noir is my desert island wine. It’s light and refreshing, and it pairs with just about any food. I adore it. For centuries, Burgundy, with its cool climate and limestone-rich soils, was one of the few places on the planet that could coax great wine from the famously precious, thin-skinned grape. As a result, pinot prices were inflated—one of the world’s most expensive reds is Burgundy’s Domaine Romanee-Conti pinot, which sells for $11,000. In the 1970s, under the disapproving gaze of the French, winemakers started planting pinot in Oregon, New Zealand, California and Ontario. The resulting wines were often exciting, though still expensive. Then 2004’s sleeper hit Sideways chronicled a pinot-swilling novelist’s road trip through California wine country and propelled the wine into the limelight. The heartbreak grape, as it’s known to vintners due to its finnicky nature, is now grown all over the globe and is much more affordable. While some may lament the popularization of the once-elite grape, I’m thrilled it’s more widely available. Here, nine bottles under $25 from Ontario, Australia and everywhere in between.
How a chronic insomniac found a radically simple cure for her sleepless nights
I was living in a co-op on the edge of Regent Park, next to a playground that was invaded by screeching junkies every night. Everything that year was miserable. My mother had been diagnosed with cancer and was receiving radiation and chemotherapy every day for a month. My dad and two brothers and I juggled our schedules to get her to Sunnybrook Hospital from north Scarborough. When I wasn’t scared I was despondent. Even as I tried to keep up my performance at work (I was an editor at Toronto Life at the time), I wasn’t sure if I wanted the job anymore. Then I got insomnia.
How academic pressure may have contributed to the spate of suicides at Queen’s University
Jack Windeler was 18 years old and in his first year of university when he died. (Image: courtesy of the Jack Foundation)
Early one Saturday morning in March 2010, Eric Windeler and his wife, Sandra Hanington, arrived home after a spinning class at the Granite Club to find an urgent message from the police. They called back, and the police said they’d be right over. Windeler and his wife quickly took inventory: grandparents fine, two of their three children safely at home. Only the eldest, 18-year-old Jack, was unaccounted for, away at Queen’s University in Kingston. “We texted him and called him. There was no answer.”
Then a police officer was at their door. “I’ve got terrible news,” he said. “Your son has died…We think it was suicide.” The couple called their other kids into the room and told them what happened. Then the four of them collapsed in a tangled heap in a single chair.
Jack Windeler’s was the first of a string of deaths at Queen’s. In the ensuing 14 months, five more students would die, three by suicide, two by what the cops call misadventure (likely alcohol related). Queen’s, widely considered one of the best universities in the country, is a popular destination for students in the top five per cent of their graduating class. The entrance grade average in 2008 was 87.3 per cent. These were kids who seemed headed for success, which made their deaths all the more shocking. Read the rest of this entry »
Why Greek wines are about to become the next big thing
Greek wines are as intriguing as their popular French and Italian counterparts, and they’re half the price
(Illustration: Jack Dylan)
Pine-scented retsina has left a bitter taste with many wine drinkers, but Greek wine has moved on, and it’s poised to become the next big thing, with more Greek labels making their way into trendy restaurants beyond the Danforth. More than 300 indigenous grapes are grown in the country’s 28 wine-growing appellations, which are home to more than 650 wineries. And the quality and value has only been getting better over the last 10 years. The new Greek wines combine the firm acid and mineral structure of many European wines with the ripe, bright fruitiness often found in hotter New World regions. The country’s core strength is aromatic yet steely whites, like moschofilero and assyrtiko, that will appeal to riesling and gewürztraminer fans. Lighter-weight, complex reds like xinomavro and agiorgitiko are similar to pinot noir and Italian nebbiolo. The LCBO’s selection is still meagre, but Vintages carries some excellent-value bottles, while Kolonaki Group, an Ontario-based Greek wine specialist, offers great buys by the case. Here, nine bottles worth trying, even if you’re not serving souvlaki.
Best of the City 2011: Five top spots for a delicious drink
(Image: Christopher Stevenson)
Rooftop drink Cocktail class Ice Blood orange margarita Wine by the glass
David Lawrason offers nine reasons why garnacha makes for great barbecue wine
(Illustration: Jack Dylan)
Backyard sommeliers bored with the usual summer reds (merlot, shiraz, zinfandel) should try fruity garnacha. It is more commonly known by its French name, grenache, but it originated in Spain and thrives in the hot, arid Mediterranean. Despite once being the world’s most widely planted red grape, it was usually considered unfit for fine wine on its own. Its tannin and acidity are low and its alcohol quite high, so it’s most often blended with syrah, mourvèdre and carignan, or torn out of the ground altogether to make way for merlot and cabernet vines. In recent years, however, such leading winemakers as Alvaro Palacios, Hugh Ryman and Norrel Robertson are reviving derelict garnacha vineyards in Spain. The old, gnarled, low-yielding vines make richly fruity, even creamy reds that are dense enough to match red meat textures, smooth enough to drink without aging, and ripe and peppery enough to handle any barbecue sauce yet invented. If you crave something light, garnacha is the base for dry Spanish and French rosés, and there is even a handful of whites made with garnacha blanca. It’s also affordable, so you can mix a case of different styles to keep your deck and dock guests happy all summer long.
Ontario to (slightly) loosen liquor laws by summer: Attorney General
Ontario’s liquor laws are probably not becoming quite this liberal any time soon (Image: Mike Rychlik from the Torontolife.com flickr pool)
We’ll have that mimosa right about now, please. A couple months ago, we reported that Attorney General Chris Bentley made a point to announce that the province would consider any requests to extend bar hours for Prince William and Kate Middleton’s nuptials. Now, Bentley says that Ontario is on track to further relax its liquor laws over the next couple of months—hopefully by the time real summer weather hits. Due to overwhelming public support, his proposal to loosen Ontario’s liquor laws regarding festivals, weddings, charity events and possibly even boat cruises and patios looks like it’s going ahead.
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Cupcake trend reaches its logical conclusion with new flavoured vodka
(Image: Cupcake Vodka)
Underdog Wine and Spirits, an American alcohol producer, is introducing a new niche market vodka aimed, supposedly, at the adult millennial (and not at 14-year-old girls): Cupcake Vodka. The dessert-inspired spirit comes in a variety of flavours, including Original (which we’re assuming tastes like, um, cake), Chiffon, Devil’s Food and Frosting. Cupcake Vodka is also six-times distilled to “remove impurities while delivering a mouth-feel reminiscent of an indulgent delicious treat.” Given the LCBO’s aversion to booze that might appeal to youngsters, we don’t think we’ll be seeing this in Toronto any time soon.
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The sipper club: meet the city’s competitive cabal of top sommeliers
Will Predhomme belongs to a competitive cabal of top sommeliers who sniff, sip and spit their way through hundreds of bottles a week. They do this to help you decide what to drink with your dinner, while making you think it was your idea all along
One hundred and fifty-one people have reservations at Canoe tonight. Among these are many Bay Streeters, a couple celebrating their 25th wedding anniversary, dozens of people on dates, including the bar manager from Crush, and a young woman who plans to propose to her boyfriend over dinner. The two private dining rooms are fully booked.
Canoe, part of the ever-expanding Oliver and Bonacini empire, is routinely considered one of the finest restaurants in the city. Last summer, in a rigorous competition held by the Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers, known as CAPS, Canoe’s head sommelier, Will Predhomme, was proclaimed Ontario’s best. Predhomme has devoted a third of his life—he’s 29—to wine scholarship. He now knows more about wine than almost anyone in Toronto.
Just after 5 p.m., the bar area begins to fill up with commuters sipping cocktails as they wait for the traffic on the clogged Gardiner, 54 floors below, to dissipate. One of the restaurant’s first guests, a retired trial lawyer, arrives. As a young female host escorts him to his large corner table, he puts an arm around her shoulder. “I don’t like to pay bills,” he says. “I want a fucking account. Last time I was here, I offered those ladies”—referring to the hosts who greeted him at his last visit—“$300 and told them to set up an account for me. And I still don’t have one.” He and his three dining companions, Canoe regulars, have brought in several bottles of their own wine, including a cabernet franc from the ex-lawyer’s private vineyard in Tuscany. When Predhomme arrives at the table to discuss the wine, the ex-lawyer, captivatingly bratty in a way that only the rich and sort-of-powerful can be, repeats his complaint. “Look, I spend about $50,000 a year at Bymark, and I’d do the same here if I had a fucking account.” Predhomme is unmoved, but gracious. “If you give me your contact information,” he says, “I’ll make sure that it gets to the right people.”
“You’ll get me an account?”
“I’ll look into it.”
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Introducing: BYOB, a Queen West shop for everything booze-related (except alcohol)
BYOB: Queen West’s new “cocktail emporium” (Image: Signe Langford)
Boozehounds, start your livers. Queen West is now home to BYOB, a new shop that specializes in cocktail-related accoutrement of every imaginable variety. Owner Kristen Voisey told us, “I went to L.A. last year and came across a shop called Barkeeper. It was in a neighbourhood, Silver Lake, that is very similar to Queen West (Beck lives there). And I thought, I could do this in Toronto.”
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Want to celebrate Kate and Will’s impending nuptials in style? Go ask the attorney general
Ontario’s arbiter of fun, Chis Bentley (Image: ontla.on.ca)
Bring on the (tentative) mimosas: Attorney General Chris Bentley has said that the provincial government would consider any requests to extend bar hours for Prince William and Kate Middleton’s April 29 nuptials. Extended drinking time is sometimes granted for special events—certain Toronto establishments are open until 4 a.m. during TIFF and North By Northeast, and bar hours were extended province-wide to begin sales of alcohol at 10 a.m. for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. However, we’re curious just how early Bentley would be willing to go, considering the wedding ceremony itself is scheduled to start at 11 a.m. in London, which would be 6 a.m. Toronto time.
Bubbly breakdown: LVMH warns of a looming shortage in champagne supply
Buckets of bubbly: a thing of the past? (Image: e_calamar)
LVMH, the luxury goods powerhouse known for its fancy handbags (Louis Vuitton) and highfalutin hooch (Moët Hennessy), has declared that the champers supply is running short. Grape harvests were restricted by the Comité interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne (yes, there’s a committee for this) last year due to a fear of oversupply and falling prices. But with a modest bump in the economy (and bankers feeling free to sip Cristal in the champagne room again), there’s been a spike in demand.
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Justin Bieber: Never Say Never—The Drinking Game
Thought the lovesick teen in your life had finally beat that case of Bieber Fever? Well prepare for a relapse. Today, the long awaited, fervently anticipated 3-D biopic about the little boy with a big dream hits movie theatres across North America, and, OMG, it’s going to be nuts. We managed to fight our way into an advanced screening of Never Say Never earlier this week, where it was hard to hear the movie over a 300-strong chorus of screaming fangirls in the audience.
What is a dutiful parent to do? First off, don’t sweat it. This is not a terrible movie. In fact, it’s kind of awesome to see the entire phenomenon unfold, and you would have to be made of dead puppies not to appreciate the adorable Bieber-as-baby footage. Still not convinced? Far be it from us to suggest smuggling hooch into a wholesome, family-friendly viewing experience such as this, so for entertainment purposes only, we present the unofficial and totally unauthorized Justin Bieber: Never Say Never drinking game.
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