What do we hear about China and its wines? That they know little about wine. That they are obsessed with prestige and mix enormously expensive first growth Bordeaux with Coca-Cola. I suspect this may be hogwash but until in China touring their wineries what do I know? As a lawyer I know hearsay evidence isContinue reading “RKS 2026 PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA WINES: Longyu Estate 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon”
Author Archives: Robert K Stephen (CSW)
RKS Literature: An Author Responds to Reviews of His Work (Henry James)
“ I don’t read things in the newspapers unless they’re thrust upon me as that one was-it’s always one’s best friend who does it. But I used to read them sometimes-ten years ago. I dare say they were in general rather stupider then; at any rate it always struck me they missed my little pointContinue reading “RKS Literature: An Author Responds to Reviews of His Work (Henry James)”
“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: AM I LIVING NATALIE IMBRUGLIA’S SONG “TORN”?
AM I LIVING NATALIE IMBRUGLIA’S SONG “TORN”? Some of the lyrics in Natalie Imbruglia’s 1977 hit “Torn” read, “I’m cold, ashamed lying naked on the floor…”. I endured my first grooming yesterday. Fay was telling me I was going to the doggie spa. Alright I thought, cucumber slices on my eyes, a manicure and someContinue reading ““Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: AM I LIVING NATALIE IMBRUGLIA’S SONG “TORN”?”
RKS Literature: Treating Life as a Practical Joke (Herman Melville)
“There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody’s expense but his own. However, nothing dispirits, nothing seems worthContinue reading “RKS Literature: Treating Life as a Practical Joke (Herman Melville)”
RKS Literature: Emotions of the Whale Pursuit (Herman Melville)
“Not the raw recruit, marching from the bosom of his wife into the fever heat of his first battle; not the dead man’s ghost encountering the first phantom in the other world;-neither of these can feel stranger and stronger emotions than that man does, who for the first time finds himself pulling into the charmed,Continue reading “RKS Literature: Emotions of the Whale Pursuit (Herman Melville)”
RKS 2026 EURO WINE: A Cabernet Sauvignon from the Ukraine on the Wine Critic Police Line Up
Aroma: Blackberry, cherry and black currant. Palate: Cherry nectar, pepper, diffuse blackberry, chalky cherry and limp wristed licorice. Lacklustre finish. Moderate tannins and controlled acidity. Short finish. Personality: There can be many faces of Cabernet Sauvignon, but this wine does not seem to be one of those faces I recognize but where a wine isContinue reading “RKS 2026 EURO WINE: A Cabernet Sauvignon from the Ukraine on the Wine Critic Police Line Up”
RKS Literature: The Virtue of Pickled Cucumber (Shen Fu)
“There is dung in every house. The only question is whether one eats it. I don’t like garlic, but I still eat it because you like it. I would never ask you to eat stinking bean curd; but as for pickled cucumber, if you would only hold your nose and eat some you would realizeContinue reading “RKS Literature: The Virtue of Pickled Cucumber (Shen Fu)”
RKS Literature: An Insult to Stinking Bean Curd and Those Who Eat it (Shen Fu)
“Every day Yun would mix her rice with tea. She liked to eat a spicy, salty kind of bean curd that Soochow people call “stinking bean curd”. She also liked pickled cucumber. These last two things I hated all my life, so one day I said to her, ‘Dogs have no stomach, and eat dungContinue reading “RKS Literature: An Insult to Stinking Bean Curd and Those Who Eat it (Shen Fu)”
RKS Literature: Married Couples Gazing at the Sunset Will Not be Talking About it (Shen Fu)
“Yun said, ‘The world is so vast, but still everyone looks up at the same moon. I wonder if there is another couple in the world as much in love as we are.’ ‘Naturally there are people everywhere who like to enjoy the night air and gaze at the moon,’ I said, “and there areContinue reading “RKS Literature: Married Couples Gazing at the Sunset Will Not be Talking About it (Shen Fu)”
“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: I SENSE A NEW CHAPTER? A DAMN FINE DAY!
I SENSE A NEW CHAPTER? A DAMN FINE DAY! We all woke up to an inch of snow on the on the way greening grass this morning. This is 6April! We are too weary in Toronto to give a damn anymore as after all Iran is to be decimated a few hours ago. Was it?Continue reading ““Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: I SENSE A NEW CHAPTER? A DAMN FINE DAY!”
