November is no one’s favourite month. It’s dark, cold, wet and gloomy, and it isn’t quitethe month that comes with presents. Maybe that’s why it’s such a great month for drinking. I mean, maybe that’s why it’s such a great month for new product releases and exciting social events, starting with these.
A Cornucopia of cocktails in Whistler
Savour the art of the shaken and stirred at the ski resort’s annual food and drink fest
If you think Whistler Cornucopia is just about wine, think again. Sure, there’s no shortage of Chardonnay, but the annual food-and-drink festival is also about beer, whisky and, above all, cocktails.
In fact, Whistler has generally become a great destination for cocktail lovers. As Mary Zinck, the manager of travel media for Tourism Whistler, says, “I don’t think there is a place that you can go where you can’t get a good drink.”
39 bits of booze lingo every cocktail lover should know
Your primer for the the lexicon of liquor
Cocktails have their own vocabulary, a richly evocative lingo that has evolved over the years from the barkeeps who sling the drinks, the customers who swill ’em and the scribes who take note of it all.
Here are some of the most useful expressions to know.
Old Fashioned refashioned at Wildebeest
Cocktail-forward restaurant serving nine new takes on the classic for its fifth birthday
The Old Fashioned is, arguably, the original cocktail, or at least, the whisky version of it.
Meet Davin de Kergommeaux, Canada’s rye guy
Davin de Kergommeaux and I are lounging in the oak-paneled sitting room of Willistead Manor in Windsor, Ont., ancestral home of the Hiram Walker family, sipping rye and, fittingly, talking about Canadian whisky.
“I’ve got a lot of single malt at home, but preferentially, I drink Canadian whisky,” says de Kergommeaux. “I like the rye spices in Canadian whisky. It’s flavourful, well-balanced and enjoyable.”
It’s time to try Canada’s oldest whisky
Canadian Club 40 Year Old is the oldest whisky ever released by a Canadian distiller
Only in Canada, you say? Pity. Everyone else will have to travel to the True North to get their hands on the oldest Canadian whisky that has ever been poured.
“In Canadian whisky, you’re never going to find a 40-year-old whisky – not until today,” Tish Harcus tells us as we stand outside the Windsor, Ont., warehouse where row upon row of barrels stand stacked upon each other.
Sip your favourite movie as a cocktail with VIFF
Lights! Camera! Cocktails!
Whether it’s the Big Lebowski’s White Russians, James Bond’s Vesper Martini or the French 75s Yvonne knocks back in Casablanca, there’s plenty to drink in when it comes to cocktails and the movies.
So when the Vancouver International Film Festival’s sponsorship manager Morgaine Jennings was looking for a fun new idea for the 2017 festival, which began Thursday, cocktails seemed like the perfect fit.
Foxtrot Tango Whisky for the win
Victoria’s new cocktail lounge evokes the cool retro vibe of 1950s Los Angeles
It’s the cool new cocktail lounge Vancouver has been waiting for. Too bad it’s all the way over there in Victoria.
Sons of Vancouver’s amaretto earns global amore
North Van distillery wins worldwide attention thanks to Kaitlyn Stewart — but many have already fallen in love with its nutty liqueur
What might just be Vancouver’s coolest cocktail lounge isn’t in a fancy hotel or a downtown hipster hangout. Heck, it isn’t even in Vancouver and it isn’t, for that matter, actually a bar.
Drink in some education with fall’s best cocktail books
School days, school days, dear old golden rule days – nope, don’t miss ’em.
But there’s still something about September that makes you want to learn something new. It’s even better if that something new has a boozy kick to it. So why not pick up one of the season’s new cocktail books and drink in some liquid education? Start with these spirited volumes.