Summer Cocktails

The great thing about booze is that it isn't necessarily seasonal. I mean a beer by a lake on a hot summer night is as good as a beer after a sauna after a long cross-country ski. Red wine is great with hearty wintry stews but it's also great with pizza late at night sitting shutting down an August day. Champagne? Goes with everything. Including baths. My personal favourite. My summer white wines are pinot grigio and Burgundian blends and Ontario rieslings whereas my winter whites are mostly gewurtz. and new world chardonnays. Cocktails? Cocktails may be the one drink I hardly venture toward in the winter. Although sweet vermouth on ice with an orange peel is yummy. As is a negroni. My dad makes the best (verified by at least a dozen friends) gin/vodka and tonic/soda drink in Ontario. Maybe even further afoot. It's his exceptional knack for balance of flavour and a deep abiding respectful love of booze. I can do a sangria pitcher on a leafy patio with a girlfriend. I'm not a martini fan. I don't love vodka. But I do love campari. I've found people either adore or despise the bitter syrupy almost pomegranate taste of campari. A shot of campari with a douse of soda and fresh lemon or lime on ice is great sitting in the grass, hanging out in a tree branch, sitting on a mossy stump. I love it because it's full of a complicated simplicity - Dorothy Parker floating down the river in a canoe.