Once again this year I managed to get myself and a few friends down to the Calgary Co-op’s Grape Escape at the Round-up center. Every year the suppliers to the Coop liquor store (and the main grocery store) put together and all-you-can-eat / all-you-can-drink show and each year it is a ton of fun. This year was no exception with an incredible selection of wines, spirits, liqueurs and beer.
For me the highlights were some of the old world wines from Spain and Italy that Coop has constantly tried to push from their “premium cellar room.” I know this as the Coop liquor store was my first place of employment when I moved to Calgary… Also of note were the new flavoured blends of Vodka made available by Van Gogh Vodkas. Of note were the Double Espresso and the Acai – Blueberry flavours. It was probably some of the most enjoyable “straight-up” vodka I’ve ever had!
Where I spent the most of my night (and a first for me at the Grape Escape) was in the beer area. Every year I’ve been to this event, the beers highlighted consisted of Labatts, Molson, Bavaria, Kokanee etc… Hence the reason I avoided this section entirely. THIS year however, someone was paying attention to sales out of the beer cooler and invited all the local (and not so local-) micro-breweries out to sample their Holiday season creations. I was thoroughly impressed by Wild Rose Brewery’s “Cherry Porter” and Anchor-Steam Brewing Company’s “Christmas Ale.” Of course I spent a good portion of the evening chatting with the boys at Steamwhistle brewing about their brewery in Toronto as it was one of the major highlights of my trip to Ontario in the summer.
All-in-all, Calgary Coop once again pulled off an amazing night of food, drink and fun. I will definitely invite more people in the years to come and help people come to the realization that Calgary Coop really does have the best Liquor Stores in the city.
Cheers!
