Above you see the results about 15 minutes of browsing at what is arguably my favourite place to shop, a well stocked outlet of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), referred to still as the government dairy.
Yesterday afternoon found me tired and worn out after 4 days of training some new co-workers in the ins and outs of doing the work we do. Day 4 included a 3 hour presentation by my good friend Charlie on a field officer’s perspective. A couple of his stories are still hard to listen to. Anyway, I was beat.
Before I headed home I had to get some groceries. I went to two stores where people were acting like it was the last day that food would be available before the apocalypse. In other words it was full contact shopping! And traffic was busy and I had the truck which is not as easy to drive in the city as the car and I all I wanted to do was get home into some really comfortable clothes and veg. I got to thinking that a cold beer would taste mighty fine and that there was no wine at home so I decided to stop at the LCBO and grab a couple of things. Now, I don’t drink a lot, certainly a lot less than I used to and what I drink has changed dramatically in the last 10 years or so.I enjoy a good red wine and my taste ion beer is fairly catholic. I’ll try just about anything.
So in I went with a very open mind, which is how I frequently shop at the LCBO. Right inside the door was a fine display of some higher end imports, most over $20.00. That is not sipping wine where I live. I wandered around for a few minutes and finally settled on a Konzelmann Estate Winery 2007 Merlot Reserve. The tasting notes on the display made it sound very good, I like Merlot wines, I lean towards Ontario VQA wines and the price was reasonable (under $15) so in the basket it went. Then a bottle of Montalto, a Sicilian Cabernet Sauvigon blend at $8.95 and get 5 bonus Airmiles with each bottle. There was aglass of soemthing quaffable for supper. Oh, did I mention that I was I walked through the door intending only to get a couple of cans of something cold I had picked up one of the LCBO’s very deep shopping baskets, subconsciously I guess I knew that I would getting more than I thought I would. Then I headed back to the beer display. Now, two things I like about shopping at the LCBO, they carry a pretty good selection of imported and Ontario craft brewery beers and they sell most of them by the each. The first one that caught my eye was a bottle of Cobra Premium Beer (www.cobrabeer.com) apparently an Indian beer brewed in the European Union.Then I grabbed a can of Holsten Maibock, a German strong beer that I have had before and enjoy, besides it was on sale at $0.50/can off the regular price. Just a little further along on the display I spied a can of Red Baron premium blond beer from Brick Brewery in southern Ontario, sounds good to me. Next was a bottle of Brakspear Oxford Gold organic beer (http://www.brakspear-beers.co.uk/brakspear2006_draught.htm. I don’t think that I have ever had an organic beer, I had better get one. Then I spotted a bottle, a full half litre at that of something called Bitter & Twisted. Given how I was feeling this became in instant “must have”. Seems this comes from a craft brewery in Alva Scotland, wherever that is. According to their website (http://www.harviestoun.com/) this was voted the world’s best ale at the world beer awards in 2007. WWW.ratebeer.com says that it is “very moreish”. Then I spotted what for me was the find of the day. I spied a label that said Spitfire, premium Kentish ale. HMMMMM. I have been to Kent, once. In 1995 Val and I went to England for a holiday and spent part of the time in Kent meeting some distant cousins and being taken to the village where my maternal Grandmother was born, Faversham. We had the lunch and a couple of pints of the local brew, Bishop’s Finger there at a small pub close to where she was born and within view of the local brewery Shepherd Neame, which claims to be England’s oldest brewer. When I looked at the bottle of Spitfire I saw that it is also brewed by Shepherd Neame. I have to have one of these. So there you have it 6 bottles of beer, no two the same and 2 bottles of wine. All of a sudden I was feeling better and was really anxious to get home. On the way I decided that this little adventure was worth a few lines here.
To conclude, just so none of you think that I am turning into some kind of a beer snob when I got home I pulled out the last can of a 6 six pack of Budweiser that I have enjoying and it was cold and tasted just right. I want to savour the the good beers that I have and will probably start that exercise this afternoon. I’ll let you know how it goes.
