Cracklin' Rosé?

What we imbibed before mixologists and palatable B.C. wines

By Christina Burridge

IN 1967, WHEN VANMAG got its start, Vancouverites were drinking cheap rye, rum and Coke, and pink gin. Not that anyone drank in public, of course. Cocktail lounges were only a decade or so old, and mainly in hotels, like the city’s first, at the Sylvia. Beer parlours still had their “ladies and escorts” entrances with a mainly masculine clientele ordering 25-cent glasses of beer a tray full at a time. Supper clubs like the Cave and Isy’s offered drinks, terrible food, and local bands like the Centaurs or travelling stars like Little Richard. Polynesian restaurants like Trader Vic’s and the Hawaiian Village were new, serving mai tais, daiquiris and exotic cocktails. Restaurants without a licence still poured your brown-bagged bottle of wine into a teapot and served it in cups. A buzzer at the door warned of the imminent approach of the cops.

Respectable people drank at home. Canadian or Kokanee, but no import beers. Canadian Club or one of the other 60-odd rye whiskies available. Scotch—blended, of course, since single malts didn’t exist. Canadian distilled gin and vodka or Beefeater, Tanqueray or Smirnoff if you had pretensions. Lots of rum blended in Canada, or maybe Bacardi. Martinis at lunch and before dinner; it would be another two years before the invention of the Bloody Caesar in Calgary, which quickly became the Canadian cocktail of choice.

Alcohol was also medicinal. Prescriptions for liquor issued by a physician, the 1967 Liquor Control Board price list makes clear, “may be presented at any Government Liquor Store for the purpose of obtaining liquor.” Doctors prescribed stout for nursing mothers, whiskey to help people sleep and brandy as a “tonic.”

Wine had yet to make its mark. Very few people knew anything about wine and those that did didn’t know much. Local jeweller Karl Stittgen recalls that ordering a glass of white wine signalled you were gay. My husband, James Barber, recalls buying Calona Royal Red, decanting it through a Melitta coffee filter to take the edge off, then pouring it for guests who invariably commented on his European sophistication. Stories abound of a local restaurant critic whose favourite meal was “steak, well done, and a bottle of Sauterne—but make sure it’s French.”

The LCB’s price list for August 1967 gives a good picture of what we were drinking. Some 268 listings for Canadian wine—of which more than half are sherry, port, Muscatel, fruit or other sweet wines. The rest are generic—Liebfraumilch, Claret, Riesling, Sauterne, or White Medium Dry or Vino Bianco. Baby Duck, Blue Nun and Black Tower hadn’t arrived yet but we loved our Crackling Rosés, Cherry Cream and Pink Sauterne. A handful are still on sale today—Beauséjour Rich Red, Bright’s 74 sherry, and Calona Royal Red ($8.99 for a bottle today compared to 95 cents then). Mission Hill had started up in 1966 but was about to go bankrupt, while the founding Capozzi family at Calona were busy trying to sell it to U.S. giant Gallo.

Col. Donald McGugan, the martinet who controlled the Liquor Control Board in the 1950s and ’60s, drank only martinis, which partly explains the dismal selection. Imports were few (no Chardonnay, no Merlot, no Cabernet Sauvignon) but almost all were better than the execrable Canadian wines made mainly of sugar, Okanagan Riesling and Concord-type grapes, if you were lucky. The story goes that “Cap” Capozzi on his deathbed revealed the secret of his success: “If you have to, you can also make wine out of grapes.”

THE SWIGGIN’ ’60s

Bottles that stand the test of time


Gonzalez Byass Tio Pepe Fino
1. Vast quantities of sherry were drunk in Vancouver in 1967—20 domestic brands and as many imports. Tio Pepe was the only one not sweet and sticky. Newly stylish once again, it has a salty, pungent astringency that turns a bowl of salted nuts, some olives and a piece of cheese from snack to special, and bites back nicely with ham, chorizo and charcuterie. Specialty listing, $18.99

Charles Heidsieck Brut Réserve Mis en Cave
2. Back then, when Canadian Champagne (as it was allowed to be called) was fit only to launch industrial barges, Charles Heidsieck Extra Dry was a bargain at $6.90. Today the Brut Réserve is still one of the best non-vintage Champagne buys—toasty, creamy and exotic. Specialty listing, $59.95

Château Pontet-Canet 2004
3. In 1967, Château Pontet-Canet, the neighbour of Mouton-Rothschild, was as mediocre as everything else on the LCB list, overpriced at $5.95. A sustained revitalization program has turned it into one of the best values in the hot Bordeaux market, producing dense, dark-fruited, elegantly powerful wines. The classic 2004 is available at Marquis Wine Cellar for about $100 —C. Burridge

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