Edmonton Journal from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada • 126

crika thorkelson reports the drinks are on us Wood Why you chew, when to spit and how often to swallow USlSUQGUgJ dyoiminifDoas swers in wine tasting," says Fong. "Each wine yields something different to each person." Don't limit yourself to typical descriptions of apple, oak or black currant. A refined nose or deranged imagination can identify the glue used in the label, or tell what the bottle's glass-blower had for breakfast. Avoid deep, continuous sniffs, which risk killing your sense of smell and the pleasure of the tasting stage. At this stage, you are encouraged to slosh, gargle and spit.

(Buckets are no manners in wine tasting," Wong confirms. For example: chewing the wine involves taking a third of a mouthful and sloshing it km a around a bit. Inhale slowly through your mouth, over the wine. Exhale through your nose and savour the burn of alcohol in your sinuses before it fades into a pleasant warmth. Since the flavours you detect are personal opinions, here's another chance to get creative: "These grapes clearly come from P.O.S.

hits the stage at The Starlite: Lots of room for the musicians, but intimate enough so the crowds can still get close to their hero. Bands earlier, crowds happier Red's WEM, 481-6420. www.reds.ab.ca the southern edge of the vineyard, near a water spring tainted with the runoff from a hog rendering plant." The other tasters will appreciate your insights, preferably with guffaws that spray their wine across the room. Finally, after Starlite's stellar rock rep is history The Starlite Room 10030 102nd 428-7827. www.starliteraom.ca You can't pass the Starlite Room's gothic-looking brick facade without feeling its history.

Ask around and almost everyone has a story from one of its many incarnations. "One of the original managers of the bar as a kid used to come dance here in something called Disco Days," says booking agent Wayne Jones. Built in the '20s, the building was originally the Salvation Army's headquarters; its best-known incarnation was in the '60s as the home of the Citadel Theatre, but not much remains of those days. Since the early '90s, when the building first became a bar, it's been gutted and revamped at least three times. As the Bronx, the legendary live music venue that introduced Edmonton to grunge in the early '90s, it showcased young upstarts like Green Day, Nirvana, locals SNFU and a little-known Canuck named Matthew Good.

When Jones first worked at the room, it was entering its second incarnation as the Rev, now largely remembered for the insanely low drink prices of its basement counterpart, Lush. The Rev was bustling but neighbours weren't impressed by the pounding music that filtered through the poorly soundproofed room. After a valiant fight, the Rev crumpled under the cost of bringing it up to snuff. From there came a prolonged political battle over whether the downtown core even wanted another bar in that space. In the summer of 2004, after much controversy and serious renovations, the Starlite Room was born.

The newer venue was noticeably larger due to some savvy rearranging of the top floor. As one local musician puts it: "Everything is impressively big big stage, big Sidetrack Cafe 10333 112th St. (Until January, then to 10238 104th St.) 421-1326. www.sidetrackcafe.com a spit or swallow, consider how long the flavours linger in your mouth to determine the wine staying power. Learning how to taste wine is an excellent way to behave like a complete ass.

You can go through your most Christopher Thrall reports You don't need to know a tiling about wine in order to enjoy it. In fact, the less you know, the happier you will be with that $5 screw-cap bottle of fermented grape juice. But if you want to learn about tasting wines, you have come to the right place. Contrary to popular belief, the difference between tasting and drinking is not quantity. "The difference is thinking," says Ed Fong, owner of deVine Wines Spirits.

'Thinking while This gets increasingly difficult as you consume more, so start early. You can tell red, white and blush wines by their colour. Red wines are red, white wines are yellow. The exception is white merlot, which is red. Blush wines are named for the reaction most men have to ordering them.

The most popular of these is the white zinfandel, which is neither white nor yellow, but pink. Confused? Good. Let's continue. Traditionally, wine tastings were held in a country club in a swarm of WASPs. The som-melier was an old fart with a tux and a condescending attitude; the price averaged around the cost of a university degree.

Nowadays, wine tastings are attended by people of all types and ages: my sommelier is a relaxed Asian man with glasses, a shaved head and black leather pants. For as little as $25, 1 can sample French chardonnays or find the best wine to go with a Big Mac. Wine tasting has four stages: looking, swirling, smelling and tasting. (The fifth stage, swallowing, is optional. If you're a gentleman, it always is.) First, assess the wine's colour.

Tilt the glass against a white background and consider the purity of its tint. Make comments like, "I love the ruby depths of this vintage!" or "Who clipped their toenails next to my drink?" Once you have expressed sufficient delight, you can move on to the swirl. Swirling wine is a learned skill. To release the wine's volatile aromas, the glass should be no more than one-third full and you should be no -more than one-third drunk. Watch for the legs or tears to form as the wine flows down the sides of the glass.

Thicker pretentious routine over a glass of house red and then send it back. However, the process can also add to your enjoyment of any glass of wine and will help you find the types that you most enjoy. True connoisseurs use these wine tasting techniques to savour anything, including beer, bottled water or Campbell's soup, and so should you. result. "The crazy tiling about the Sidetrack is that the place works just as well for noisy rock shows as it does for highly nuanced folk music," says Champion Alberta's Rob Wood.

"In some venues the acoustics pretty much dictate what will work and what won't, but at the Sidetrack everything works. There are lots of Edmontonians who go to the Sidetrack with an almost religious regularity and devotion, which is neat because it has the most diverse format in town." In January, Sidetrack Cafe will be moving to the old location of the Mezza Luna Club at 10238 104th Street as the old location like its erstwhile neighbour New City will be swallowed up by condo developments. Oliver, however, promises to maintain the same level of quality and the same early starting times during the week. In the last year the Sidetrack made one change so elegant and smart it revolutionized Edmonton's nightlife: they set the start time for every show, regardless of how pretty the lead singer or how hip the bass player, exactly at 8 p.m. "It was pretty simple," says booking agent Brent Oliver.

"We do live music every single night. Some weeks we could get the same patron wanting to see two or three. Since they will need money, and subse-quendy a job, they probably have to get up early the next day to work." Sidetrack Cafe opened in 1981 and has offered the same mix of good music and good food ever since. The biggest changes on record are renovations and resizing in the early Pool and tunes at the Sidetrack '90s when they added the train car at the back. The bar has managed its longevity by allowing its format to morph with the times.

"In the past, the Sidetrack was known almost as a dinner and dancing joint with acts like Gaye Delorme and Bobby Cameron for five nights in a row," says Oliver. "Those acts just don't work here anymore. Blues and roots were the bread and butter for the Sidetrack for a lot of years; these days we're far more eclectic." And musicians have nothing but praise for the place as a A live venue in a giant mall is as absurd to some musicians as it is to fans but Red's is a big space that is well-equipped to run shows of a huge variety. Blues on Whyte 1 0329 82nd 439-5058 The dance floor is always packed at this venerable Whyte Avenue institution, but its real charm is how young and old celebrate the music that was the unwed mama of rock 'n' roll. Power Plant of 1 1 3th Street and 90th Avenue, 492-3101 The of A's largest bar -might be hard to find but with live shows planned for every Saturday through the school year, it's worth the trek onto campus.

Urban Lounge 81 03 1 05th 439-3388. www.urbanlounge.net If mainstream rock is your thing and the testosterone in your blood is hot enough to make tea for granny, this might be the place for you. The Fox 10125 109th 990-0680 www.thefoxpub.com Features I am a Rockstar Live Local Sundays. 1 A place for the punks to play legs indicate a more viscous wine, possibly sweeter or more concentrated in flavour. An -absence of legs means that some- one finished your wine while you were in the bathroom.

Pour another glass and try the smelling phase. A brief, steady sniff over the glass will reveal a range of odours for you to identify. "There are no wrong an lights, big sound. But despite all the changes, Jones will always hold a candle for the room's history and strives to keep it alive in the acts he books for both the Starlite upstairs and the Victory Lounge downstairs. "To me, I always think of it as the same thing as when I saw the Cadillac Tramps back in the Bronx," he reminisces.

"I remember how the room was set up and flunking this is one of the best live acts that I've ever seen." 10 New City Compound 10081 Jasper Ave. 429-CLUB New City is the kind of live venue that inspires metaphors. It's programming is as diverse and colourful from goth night to punk rock bingo to ultra-cool indie live acts like Blonde Redhead as its clientele. Says Rob Wood, a member of the local band Champion Alberta: "The place has a fun rock 'n' roll energy that is especial ly nice on a -40 degree winter night: when the place fills up you can completely forget how cold it is outside." Since its move from 112th Street to the old Paladium Club building on Jasper its marquee giving the punk rock finger to its Starbucks- and bank-laden neighbourhood New City has become one of the most visible and easily accessible by public transit live venues in Edmonton. Seriously.

The LRT stops right outside. At top, deVine Wine Spirits' Ed Fong shows how to sniff a wine without getting your nose stuck in the glass. Below: Wine tasting sessions are fun for everyone except the person who has to unload the dishwasher. EDMQInITON JOURNAL .1 5 SATURDAY, QCTPPERSj 2QQ5, el.