Whine about Wine

I'm a big fan of wine. It all started as a childhood curiosity at special family dinners when everyone, except me, being the youngest, had a glass of wine. My sister started getting into wine a few years ago and treated me to Zinfandel, a light, cheap "beginners" wine from California. Since dating a guy whose family are, professionally, wine connoisseurs, I learned a fair bit about wine and gained an appreciation for the unique climate and soil that allows the Niagara region to be one of the only places in Canada where grapes can be grown for wine. The world of wine in Niagara has seen some setbacks recently, however.

The Niagara Wine Festival (or commonly known as the Grape and Wine Festival) is a fantastic shit show that many people look forward to every year. However, the state of the economy has made organizers scale back the event. Corporate sponsorship is down and the festival has to rely on a $100,000 line of credit from the city to keep the gears moving. There are hopes that the festival will receive a $200,000 grant from Industry Canada to support the festival, a prospect that is still unknown.

But I wonder if any festival goes have stopped to consider those "Green Belt Disaster" signs sprinkled across the region. Driving past, it's hard to get the gist of what the signs are implying. Even a simple google search failed to come up with answers. But dig a little deeper and you will find that industry insiders and wine connoisseurs are pissed that wineries are importing grapes from international producers to mix with local wines. Wine makers only have to use 30% local grapes to be considered "cellared in Canada," a label that is misleading to shoppers at the LCBO. The result is cheaper wine, which rattles me even more because I can't comprehend how shipping wine from outside the country is cheaper than growing grapes and producing and bottling wine in our own backyards. It doesn't really make sense.
Anyway, the implication is that lots and lots of grapes are being left on the vines to rot because there is no use for them. Farmers suffer because the wineries don't want their more expensive grapes. And yet, that 30% counts for something. If people were to boycott the "Cellared in Canada" wines the economic implications would make the situation worse, suspects Rick Vansickle who suggests the region should just get serious and plant more grapes, as mass production often leads to a cheaper product. Personally, I'm going to buy more VQA wine... at least Peelee Island makes $10 bottles.

By the way, Grape and Wine starts September 18th and ends of the 27th. Details here.

The Hangover Blues

Today I'm suffering from anxiety brought on by a combination the previous night's binge drinking and today's clothes shopping. Sometimes after I drink I get really sad the next day. One of my roommates told me that she sometimes feels this way as well, but usually when I tell people about my hangover blues they don't quite understand, having not experienced this. On the other hand, I rarely suffer from hangover symptoms that manifest physically, such as vomiting and headaches (I attribute this to drinking at least a bottle of water before bed). "Lucky" is what some of my pukier friends may say. The hangover blues isn't any better though.

Apparently, if someone drinks a lot of alcohol, and often, it is likely that they will experience depressive or anxious episodes frequently after drinking (Shukit, 1996, 81). Why? Because alcohol inhibits the body's production of glutamine, a stimulant which counters the depressive qualities of alcohol. The body has to work overtime during your sleep to replenish glutamine as your blood alcohol level drops. This in turn stimulates the brain, and while you may feel as if you got the best sleep of life after a night of drinking, in fact, you don't get the best kind of sleep your body needs to heal. This leads to fatigue, shakiness, and possibly even anxiety the next day.

Last night I dreamed that I weighed myself and I weighed about 30 pounds more than I weigh now. This is where it all started. And it got progressively worse. My girlfriends and I decided to go shopping. I decided that I was too fat for anything. I fucking hate the mirrors in Winners, they always make me feel fat. I almost cried in the ladies dressing room while my friends, one of which has a model-like body, tried on 12 different items each. I walked away with an oversized shirt with long sleeves which covers up any semblance of curvature, lumps, fat, and bulge exceptionally. More on this body-hate later though, I have a lot to say on this topic and it deserves it's own separate discussion. In the meantime, I'm going to watch Home Improvement and drink apple juice, because both will help my hangover blues.