FIX MY DRINK
Each week in this space, we better our beverages together.
The late novelist and drinks guru Kingsley Amis once set down some pointers for the skinflint host, which, being British, he called a “mean sod’s guide.” He was actually taking the mick out of hosts who had not produced sufficient drinks to satiate his ample appetite for alcohol over the years; the essay was his satirical revenge.
I, meanwhile, am deadly serious here: Call me a mean sod, but I think I’ve figured out how to keep a crowd happily well- refreshed for something like $8 a head. Here are some of my secrets that can work for you, too, whether on New Year’s or any other occasion.
Cheap table wine No wineproducing country is more of a blessing to the tight- fisted Canadian consumer than Italy, which not only pumps out a torrent of good- if-unsophisticated cheap stuff, it puts much of it into 1.5- litre magnum bottles for truly mind-boggling value. In Ontario, for example, you can pick up a magnum of Luccarelli Primitivo for $19.95, and for that you get approximately 10 (admittedly ungenerous) glasses of fascinatingly aromatic wine ( plums, cherries). It feels fresh and light but offers enough acid and tannin to pair with food — assuming you’re being generous enough to offer any. Cheaper still is the big ’n’ fruity Fantini Fantese Montepulciano d’Abruzzo for $ 13.45. For party whites, try the cheerful, simple Citra Trebbiano d’Abruzzo ($ 13.45) or Ruffino Orvieto Classico (a princely $20.95).
Cheap sparkling wine The popularity of cava, Spain’s sparkling wine, seems established. Terrific. Pass over the stuff in the black bottle and spend the extra dollar or so on Segura Viudas or Codorníu ($ 14ish). Consumers in British Columbia, fill the cart with Pares Balta, which gives you plenty of earthy depth and complexity for $18.99. If the sparkling must be French, crémant offers far more bubble for the buck than proper champagne. There’s a particularly impressive one in Ontario at the moment called Charles Duret Brut Crémant de Bourgogne ($20). Wine-based cocktails cost less to make than spirit-heavy ones Take the seelbach cocktail, for example, which is named for a hotel in Louisville, Ky. The dosage of bitters may seem excessive but somehow carbonated drinks can take more without being overwhelmed. That being said, it is tart, and works best as an aperitif. Most recipes seem to call for champagne. Yet I find a seelbach works just as well with affordable bubbly as long as it isn’t prosecco ( too sweet) — or at least it works well enough to keep old Kingsley from turning in his grave.