RKS Literature: Kiyaoki’s Nasty Letter to Satoko (Yukio Mishima)

“And perhaps you are smiling contemptuously, secure in the knowledge that my lust for paid women will only serve to enhance my esteem for pure ladies like yourself. No, let me disabuse you of any such notion. Since that night (enlightenment being exactly what it says) I have broken through all these standards into territory where there are no restraints. Geisha or princess, virgin or prostitute, factory girl or artist-there’s no distinction whatsoever. Every woman without exception is a liar and “nothing but a plump, lascivious little animal. All the rest is makeup and costumes. And I must say that I see you just like all others. Please believe that gentle Kiyo, whom you considered so sweet, so innocent, so malleable is gone forever.”

Yukio Mishima, “Spring Snow”, 1968.

RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine: Featherstone’s Gemstone

As for price and quality Featherstone Estate Winery consistently delivers gems! This wine is a Cabernet Franc and Merlot blend.

Aroma: Black cherry, blackberry, cocoa, raspberry, lavender and plum.

Palate: Plummy with dark fruit. It is on the after palate that the fruit and tannin makes a more forceful appearance with heavy duty blackberry, frisky raspberry and cassis. Medium length finish.

Personality: Just because I have the eminent Featherstone pedigree, I hopefully have convinced you with the quality in your glass.

Food Match: Pork tenderloin medallions in Lingonberry Sauce.

Cellarbility: Consume by 2027-year end. One might expect more softness with age.

Price: $17.95 CDN.

RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine Rating: 91/100. Natalie MacLean community score 89. Wine Align community score 86.

(Featherstone 2023 Gemstone, VQA Niagara Peninsula, Featherstone Estate Winery, Vineland, Ontario, 750 mL, 12.5%).

RKS 2025 Canadian Wine: Cooper’s Hawk Talon Red

I have been a fan of wines from the Lake Erie North Shore (LENS) appellation in Ontario for quite some time. I go back so far I remember the first wine from Cooper’s Hawk I reviewed was a Chardonnay and these guys were so new it wasn’t even VQA. Then fame crept up on LENS and samples dried up so my coverage did as well. What a shame so many good wines!

It seems LENS wine could use some allies. The Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) bravely touts in its 2August2025 Vintages release catalogue CANADIAN WINES! As far as red wines are concerned from Ontario there are 7 wines from the Niagara appellation and 2 from LENS. There are none from Prince Edward County. Enough said.

We try a Cooper’s Hawk Talon Red from Cooper’s Hawk in Harrow, Ontario. It is a blend of 60% Cabernet Franc and 40% Merlot.

Aroma:  Black cherry, cocoa, red currant, cactus pear, nutmeg and raspberry.

Palate: Bramble, kirsch, raspberry, rhubarb pie and wet stone. Mildly tannic. Somewhat austere. Reticent with its fruit. Short and smoky finish.

Personality: OK so I am not memorable but I can hold my own with the “big boys” of Niagara so there is no need to denigrate LENS wines by the LCBO ignoring them.

Food Match: The label suggests “fully loaded ballpark franks”. Dicey! I’d pair it with some pizza from nearby Kingsville! I once had a Hester Creek Merlot from British Columbia that was afflicted by a sulfuric hot dog smell so suffering from red wine hot dog PTSD I will not pair red wine with a hot dog!

Cellarbility: Might as well consume this year.

RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine Rating: 87/100. Wine Align Community Rating 88.

(Cooper’s Hawk Vineyard 2021 Talon Red, VQA Ontario, Cooper’s Hawk Vineyards, Harrow, Ontario, 750 mL, 13%).

RKS Literature: Marriage and a Noble Japanese Family on the Decline (Yukio Mishima)

“I wonder what’s the matter with her? Or did they think he was too much beneath her? No matter how noble a family the Ayakuras once were, their present fortunes hardly allow them to turn down a young man like that, with a bright future ahead of him with the Ministry of the Interior. They should have been glad of him, shouldn’t they, without bothering about what kind of family he came from?”

Yukio Mishima, “Spring Snow”, 1968.

RKS Poetry: “Canadian Toronto Blue Jay Fans Caught on Kisscam”!

 Toronto Blue Jay Fans Caught on “Kisscam”

On televised broadcasts of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball games

At stadiums in the United States

Happy Canadian fans in attendance and on camera

Guilt free?

EXPOSED!

Caught in the act violating the majority rule to combat the unspoken one

You’ve been caught in the Kisscam but resigning from Canadian citizenship?

Robert K. Stephen                                                                                                         

RKS 2025 Wine: Corvina Obtains Divorce from Valpolicella Partners

The Corvina grape has been cuddling very close to Valpolicella for many years. Corvina is frequently blended with Rondinella and Molinara to make the whole of Valpolicella. But on occasion it must have a tiff with its blending partners and in a huff divorces itself from the other grapes and strikes its own path solo. Not worthy of a Bunga Bunga reportable scandal.

 Corvina is 100% Corvina Veronese in this wine.

Aroma: Black cherry, blackberry, hazelnut wafer cookie, raisin pie and cherry cola.

Palate: Moderate but persistent tannins. Dry. The interesting bouquet fails to fully materialize on the palate. Peppery, baked cherries and some dried fig.

Personality: I am not one to admit my mistakes but I am regretting leaving my Valpolicella partners this time. I can do better. Really I can. Just give me to another winemaker and/or vineyard manager and you’ll see. Please. Please. Give me another chance!

Food Match: Here in Ontario, Canada fresh vegetables are flooding the market. We can gorge domestically with high quality produce for 4 months and then it is back to vegetable gulag. I made my first pasta sauce this afternoon real nice and simple with field tomatoes, local red onion and garlic, a dash of Ontario red wine with basil/rosemary/oregano over an Italian pasta but on closer inspection made in Kentucky. Oh no!!!!

Cellarbility: If you make the mistake of buying this enjoy with your pasta but don’t store this wine. Drink now.

Price: $17 CDN.

RKS 2025 Wine Rating: 72/100. Luca Maroni 95.

(CA’ de’ Rocchi Corvè Corvina 2023, IGP Verona, CA’ de’ Rocchi, Lazise, Italy, 750 mL, 13.5).

RKS CANADIAN Documentary: “Under the Arbor”: An Explosion of Colour, Song, Music and Healing

A Powwow is a melding of music, song and dance at the very heart of Canadian Indigenous culture all the more significant as such expressions of indigenous culture were at one point illegal in Canada seen as heathen, immoral and Unchristian by the Canadian colonizers also responsible for the Residential School all part of an attempt at Indigenous cultural obliteration.

“Under the Arbor”, shot in Alberta, Canada, offers the viewer a visual and oral explanation of what a Powwow is and its importance to Indigenous culture. It is a testament to Indigenous resilience and resistance. It offers a connection bridge amongst different Indigenous communities and is a grass roots expression of Indigenous culture.

Summer is Powwow season. Singers, dancers and musicians compete for cash prizes but after watching this documentary the conclusion will be there is far more than cash driving the Powwow circuit.

You will hear from dancers, musicians and singers what the Powwow means to them personally and culturally. For the dancers “regalia” worn is elaborate a reflection of pride and offers Powwow spectators brilliant flashes of colour. Part of the entertainment is the role of the emcee, not quite as wild as Portuguese play by play soccer announcer but equally entertaining and at points insightful.

“Under the Arbor” is written, directed and produced by Hayley Morin. It will be premiering Canada-wide on CBC Gem 15August2025 (in Cree and in English) and will be on CBC television on 16August2025 at 20:00 hrs and in the North on Absolutely Canadian.

The Powwow is the “end product”. Why not a Part 2 about the organization, management and funding of a Powwow? Is it a business? A Non-profit? How is revenue generated to pay out prizes?

RKS Literature: The Useless Knowledge of Wine (Yukio Mishima)

“Since the Marquis was fond of Western food, dinner was served in the small dining room of the Western-style house, and he himself had gone down to the wine cellar to choose the wine. He had taken Kiyoaki with him and had gone to great lengths to expound on the characteristics of the various wines cradled in the shelves that filled the cellar. His father had gone on to explain what wine went with what foods, what wine should be served only on the occasion of the visit of a member of the Imperial Family, and so on, beaming all the while. The Marquis never seemed as happy as when dispensing useless knowledge of this kind.”

Yukio Mishima, “Spring Snow”, 1968.

RKS 2025 CANADIAN Film: “Magnetosphere”: Quirky, Cheesy, Tender and Risque

Maggie (Shayelin Martin) is a thirteen-year-old with “an issue” which initially may be having you wandering down the depressing rocky road of a severe neurological disease. Occasionally she sees sparkles and murky clouds around objects and her sensory reception all around seems skewered. And top that off with being an insecure teen with low self esteem. Concerns deepen with her interactions with a sassy Barbie-Buzz Lightyear like doll, Captain Cassiope, incessantly communicating Maggie’s insecurities back to her. Is the film wavering between a comedy or tragedy?

Maggie has just moved to Sault Ste. Marie a small town in Northern Ontario. Although it is fueled by professional opportunities for her nerdy-short sleeved father and mother, Maggie is stuck in a rut with high regrets for the family move. And her younger sister Evie (Zooey Schneider), one of the most quirky and obnoxious but highly delightful characters to hit the Canadian big screen, adds a bit of torment to her life.

Coping with her neurological issues Maggie must deal with bullying at school and a bout of puppy love with Travis (Steven He) an actor in her father’s theatre company. Luckily for Maggie she makes a school chum Wendy (Mikayla Kong) and is under the compassionate wings of her art teacher Ms. Deering (Deborah McGrath).

As the viewer prepares for impending tragedy early in the movie some contra-tragic assurances may be received by the quirky “Nam veteran” handyman Gil (Colin Mochrie) who doesn’t hesitate to use dynamite as a pest control method for a rat!

Colin Mochrie rat hunting!

Maggie is diagnosed with a neurological issue which, believe it or not, may be a blessing in disguise, And you thought a tumour. Whew!

Struggling through a plenitude of cheesy music is poor teen Maggie who receives a shocking knock you off the chair revelation by Wendy superbly managed by director and writer Nicola Rose equally well handling the delicate and imaginary puppy love relationship of Maggie’s with adult Travis.

Deftly aimed at the teen market but with elements that won’t leave adults gagging over maudlinistic messages.

One must note the commanding, warm and earnest performance of Debra McGrath. 

Available Digitally/VOD.

RKS 2025 CANADIAN Film Rating 77/100.

RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine: Hinterbrook Nomad’s 23 Humble

“Humble” can mean having or showing a modest or low estimate of one’s importance. Often it can be seen as a positive attribute; a sort of an underestimation of excellence. Is Hinterbrook telling us succinctly this is an excellent wine but there shall be no bragging about it!

At a price of $20 CDN its price is indeed humble given its quality.

Oh the metaphors and similes swirling about wine labels these days!

The wine is a blend of 47% Merlot and 53% Cabernet Sauvignon and has spent 12 months in oak barrels.

Aroma: Welcoming waft of black cherry, raspberry, blueberry and a wisp of dark chocolate. An initial impression of a wine light on its feet.

Palate: Yes, it is relatively light with humble tannins. Cassis, licorice with somewhat of a peppery midweight finish. Just a short and beguiling and point worthy flash of sweetness on the after finish.

Personality: Yes, I am a good wine but saying I am good is honest and hence not much to be humble about given the confidence I have in myself.

Food Match: Cod Plaki or bacalhau in tomato sauce with a foundation of  Ontario field tomatoes.

Cellarbility: Redlight near the end of 2026.

Price: $20 CDN.

RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine Rating: 89/100.

(Hinterbrook Nomad 23 Humble, VQA Niagara Lakeshore, Hinterbrook Estate Winery, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, 750 mL, 13.6%).