Bespoke Booze

Grape Witches’ Ontario House Geisy Guy

From Paradise Grapevine   1 For their house wines, the Grape Witches only had to go up the road to Paradise Grapevine’s urban winery. There’s a rosé, a white and a red, plus this hazy orange wine made with Geisenheim, a hybrid Ontario grape. The Geisy Guy is textural, floral and the colour of a Dundas West sunset. $15 a glass, $30 a bottle; grapewitches.com

Related: “We have over 100 cases of American wine trapped at the LCBO”—Toronto’s Grape Witches on what it’s like to run a bottle shop during a trade war

Dreyfus’s Creer Beer Light Lager

From Willibald Farm Distillery   2 The French-ish bistro’s list of small-batch wines is tempting, but trust us: this light lager made in Ayr, Ontario, is thirst-quenching when paired with such indulgent plates as pommes dauphine and pâté. And the dude pictured on the can? That’s Tom Creery, the restaurant’s chef de cuisine, after whom the beer was named. $10, dreyfustoronto.com

Related: Canadian-made substitutes for American beer, wine and spirits

Antler’s Cedar Gin

From Nickel 9 Distillery   3 In line with chef Michael Hunter’s into-the-woods approach to cooking, this wild gin is infused with foraged cedar boughs and tastes like forest bathing feels. It forms the base of Antler’s Cedar Sour, a woodsy take on the classic gin sour. $19, antlerkitchenbar.com

General Public’s General White

From Tawse Winery   4 There are plenty of prime bottles on the wine list at Jen Agg’s new gem, but we suggest starting with this white from Tawse, a winery that sits on the low slopes of the Niagara Benchlands. Fresh and bright, it pairs well with anything from the raw bar, but we suggest splurging on GP’s fully loaded two-tier seafood tower. $15 a glass, $70 a bottle; generalpublic.ca

El Pocho Antojito’s Pocho Dark

From Burdock Brewery   5 This Munich Dunkel brewed with Ontario-grown corn is the Toronto take on Mexico’s Negra Modelo. The dark lager has rich notes of coffee, fried tortilla and toasted nuts, and it’s an excellent match for this Annex taqueria’s elotes, birria poutine and al pastor tacos. $7.50, elpocho.ca

Beast Pizza’s Pizza Crusher

From Blood Brothers Brewing   6 It’s a classic coupling: piping-hot slices and ice-cold beer. Beast tapped Blood Brothers to make an easy-drinking and refreshing lager that cleanses the palate between bites of the avant-garde pizzeria’s tongue-and-bacon pie. $7.20, beast.ambassador.ai

Wynona’s Wyno Forever

From Rosewood Estates Winery   7 When this Leslieville restaurant opened, staff joked about setting up a small shrine to Winona Ryder somewhere in the space. That didn’t happen, but their new house wine is a nod to the ’90s icon (and to Johnny Depp’s altered ink). The Wyno Forever red is a 50-50 split of cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon. It’s crunchy, fresh, chuggable and great with a bowl of mafaldine in rich duck ragù. $13 a glass, $63 a bottle; wynonatoronto.com

Shake Shack’s ShackMeister Ale

From Bellwoods Brewery   8 For its first northern outpost, Shake Shack teamed up with Bellwoods to make a ShackMeister that’s unique to Toronto. The hoppy pale ale is perfect for washing down the Shack’s burgers, which are made using local beef from Beretta, and crinkle-cut fries. $8, shakeshack.ca

Library Bar’s Quill Vodka

From Dillon’s Small Batch Distillers   9 When James Grant, the Fairmont Royal York’s beverage director, was tweaking his house martinis, the bottles on his back bar were all missing a certain oomph—so he turned to Niagara distiller Dillon’s for help. They crafted a grape-and-rye vodka, over-proofed to 50 per cent ABV for a spicy yet velvety Birdbath Martini. $28 for a martini, librarybartoronto.com