RKS 2026 WINES OF PORTUGAL: Domini Douro 2023

A blend of Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz and Touriga Francesca.

Grown in schist soil.

Aged three months in American and French oak.

The winery suggests a shelf life of 6 years.

Aroma: Black cherry, blackberry and black raspberry.

Palate: Full bodied. Tannic. Controlled acidity.  Black fruit with a hint of spice and licorice. Tannins pare back on the finish

Personality: Typical Douro grape suspects. Deceptive in that I initially present a tough boy character but go down smoothly.

Food Match: Black eyed peas in a sauce with tomatoes, carrots and celery with Cajun seasoning.

Cellarbility: Give it until 2029 expect marginal softening as its already quite soft.

Price: $18 CDN.

RKS 2026 WINES OF PORTUGAL Rating: 91/100. Roger Voss and Natalie MacLean 90.

Tasted 21April2026.

(J.M. da Fonseca Domini Douro 2023, DOC Douro, J.M. da Fonseca, Portugal, 750 mL, 12.5%).

“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom” :PRESS CONFERENCE OF PRIME MINISTER LAWRENCE WONG AND BOB AT SRI TEMASEK (official transcript)

PRESS CONFERENCE OF PRIME MINISTER LAWRENCE WONG AND BOB AT SRI TEMASEK (official transcript)

Prime Minister Wong: I would like to introduce you to Bob, master of Rory D. Stephen, who has stayed a few days with me and may I say he is a delightful pup. My grandchildren spent hours playing with Rory.

Cuteness and joy aside Southeast Asia faces serious canine abuse issues from illicit dog farming for meat in Vietnam, poisonings in Hong Kong and an increasing number of dog abuse cases in Singapore reaching record highs in 2024. SPCA Singapore receives an average of 80-90 reports of alleged cruelty to animals a month.

I have asked various ministers to form a task force to advise me what the Government of Singapore can do to eliminate animal abuse in Singapore and if governmental funds are necessary, they will be provided.

Rory was exposed to some abuse at Hong Kong’s International Airport by ways of kicks to his cage and threats to send him to Cambodia to sniff for land mines a job normally assumed by rats.

I am pleased to announce Bob’s Dylan the Westie Foundation will be providing a grant to SPCA Singapore of 12 million CDN.

Bear in mind Rory was the victim of primo canine trafficking (PCT) a profitable and somewhat novel form of canine abuse. Dogs of high intelligence and pedigree are sold at enormous prices to purchasers who may or may not have commissioned the trafficking and kidnapping. Let us not kid ourselves. This activity is occurring in Singapore.

This morning the Singapore Police Force (SPF) informed me that Melanie Lau, one of Singapore’s richest citizens, was arrested on charges of “the illegal transportation of animals” under the Animals and Birds Act of Singapore which carries a nominal fine amounting to peanuts for Ms. Lau. I have asked the Prosecutors Office to determine if more serious criminal charges should be laid.

As I stated earlier Rory D. Stephen will shortly be awarded the Singapore Medal of Valour.

Please listen to what Bob has to say now.

Thank you

Applause and Rory barking.

RKS Literature: The Saintly Earth of Maabar (Marco Polo)

“You should also know that a marvel such as I will describe happens here. Now let me tell you that the Christians who come here on pilgrimage gather some of the earth from the place where the saint was killed and take it back to their own country. If anyone falls ill with a quartan or tertian ague or some such fever, they give him a potion made with a little of this earth; and no sooner has the sick man drunk it than he is cured. Messr Marco took some of this earth with him to Venice and cured people with it.

Marco Polo (1254-1324), “Travels in the Land of Serpents and Pearls”

RKS Literature: The Big Sneeze in Maabar (Marco Polo)

“They pay more attention to omens than any other people in the world, and they are better than others in telling good omens from bad. For let me tell you that when a man sets out for some destination and happens along the way to hear someone sneeze, he immediately sits down on the road and will not budge. If the sneezer sneezes again, he gets up and continues on his way; but if he sneezes no more, he abandons his journey and turns back for home.”

Marco Polo (1254-1324), “Travels in the Land of Serpents and Pearls”

RKS Japanese Literature: Mothers of Their “Disappeared” Sons and Daughters Congregate at Las Casa de Gobierno in Buenos Aires : Part Two (Yoshimoto Banana)

“Whenever I caught a cold. My mother would mix up a drink for me, dissolving honey in hot water, adding a splash of whisky, squeezing in the juice of a lemon. She was still doing that for me when I was at high school. On one of those evenings when children were bleeding and being tortured here, I was being pampered by her. Maybe that is what this world is. Precisely that? For some reason my mother called her drink “bee honey”. No matter how many times I pointed out it was really more like ‘honey lemon’’ she said her name was better and kept it. I seemed to feel the hot, sweet taste of it filling my mouth. It’s the same all around the world. A mother’s scent. A whiff of the female body, and something heavy, sweet, endlessly deep. That scent was here now, filling the plaza, circling it, because there was no other outlet, going around and around.”

Yoshimoto Banana, “Bee Honey”, 2000.

“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: BOB, MASTER OF RORY D. STEPHEN ARRIVES IN SINGAPORE: TO MEET WITH PRIME MINISTER WONG AND REUNITE WITH RORY HIS WESTIE

BOB, MASTER OF RORY D. STEPHEN ARRIVES IN SINGAPORE: TO MEET WITH PRIME MINISTER WONG

THE SINGAPORE TIMES (Lok Bok reporter at large and gossip columnist)

Bob, Master of West Highland Terrier Rory D. Stephen, recently liberated by the Singapore Police Force (SPF), arrived early this morning from Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific.

Thoroughly exhausted from flying from Toronto he was just about seeing double and required assistance in completing his Singapore Arrival Card. He refused to be photographed but we did sneak an attempt without much success.

Bob did briefly converse with our “team on the ground” thanking the SPF and Prime Minister Lawrence Wong for their efforts in “busting free” Rory.

Bob was whisked off to the Singapore Shangri-la in an unmarked SPF vehicle. A previous visitor to Singapore and the Shangri-la he said a cold Tiger Lager, Singaporean noodles and a hot bath was a necessity.

Bob is scheduled for reunification with Rory at a private lunch hosted by Prime Minister Wong tomorrow at Sri Temasek.

RKS Japanese Literature: Mothers of Their “Disappeared” Sons and Daughters Congregate at Las Casa de Gobierno in Buenos Aires (Yoshimoto Banana): Part One

“One morning her son, at the height of his teenage cockiness, goes off to school as always, hardly taking a sip of coffee, long and lanky in his favourite jeans. To his mother, he looks the same as he always has, ever since he was a boy. That look is where all her memories reside-it’s only natural. He never mentioned to her that he once participated in a demonstration, just for a little while, and maybe just because his friends were going. What would that feel like? No one can say what happened after the rash of political upheavals that follow in the wake of the coup d’etat. No one tries to help, because everyone is too scared. Terrible rumours keep circulating, throwing her into confusion; there are no good rumuors.”

Yoshimoto Banana, “Bee Honey”, 2000.

RKS Literature: Suicidal Execution in Maabar (Marco Polo)

“When a man has committed a crime that warrants the death sentence and the king has decreed his execution. The condemned man declares he wishes to kill himself in honour and adoration of such-and-such idol. The king replies that he approves of this. Then all the relatives and friends of the man who must kill himself take him and sit him in a chair and give him twelve knives or swords and they carry him around the city proclaiming at every step, ‘This brave man is going to kill himself out of devotion to such-and-such an idol.”

Marco Polo (1254-1324), “Travels in the Land of Serpents and Pearls”

RKS Literature: Warmest Climes Nurse Cruellest Fangs (Herman Melville)

 “Warmest climes but nurse the cruellest fangs: the tiger of Bengal crouches in spiced groves of ceaseless verdure. Skies the most effulgent but basket the deadliest thunders. Cuba knows tornadoes that never swept tame northern lands. So, too, it is. That in these resplendent Japanese seas the mariner encounters the direst of all storms, the Typhoon. It will sometimes burst out from that cloudless sky, like an exploding bomb upon a dazed and sleepy town.”

Herman Melville, “Moby Dick”, 1851.

“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: RORY D. STEPHEN’S OWNER ARRIVES IN HONG KONG: IS THERE A MOVIE ROLE FOR FORMER MISS HONG KONG?

RORY D. STEPHEN’S OWNER ARRIVES IN HONG KONG: IS THERE A MOVIE ROLE FOR FORMER MISS HONG KONG?

NEW TERRITORIES POST DAILY

Bob, owner of recently liberated Rory D. Stephen, currently residing with Singaporean Prime Minister Wong in Singapore, after a daring rescue arrived at Hong Kong International Airport from Toronto connecting to Singapore.

The Post’s reporter’s sharp eyes detected Bob in costume as a Cambodian vacuum cleaner salesman and managed a few words with him.

Bob is most anxious to collect Rory, hold him in his arms and give him a huge hug. Bob stated, “This has been an emotional time for our family and in fact for our neighborhood. Rory is known and loved by dog owners and their pets. His best puppy friend Billy a King Charles Cavalier has been so upset with his disappearance he hardly eats a morsel!”

Bob expressed gratitude to a Cathay Pacific baggage handler at the airport who was instrumental in providing leads to the Singapore Police Force that led to the liberation of Rory. Bob also tipped his hat to THE HONG KONG SOCIETY AGAINST CANINE TRAFFICKING.

Bob noted he is currently contemplating a movie about this event. “I have written a novel “Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog” which won a Nobel Peace Prize for Literature and has resulted in two animated Disney Films of the same name. I have also worked with my former Westie, Dylan the Westie along with Nicole (Kidman) and Russel (Crowe) in “A Dog Saved My Life” who have expressed interest in roles in this possible film. My agent will be contacting former Miss Hong Kong Lisa Marie Tse-Ga-Ye for a supporting role. Lisa Marie knows full well the suffering caused by animal cruelty having lost two of her dogs Peachy and Summer to rampant dog poisoning endemic to Hong Kong.”

Bob had to rush to his connecting flight to Singapore but departed saying call him anytime!