RKS 2024 Wine: The Gentle Whites of Bordeaux?

When I think of white Vin de Graves from Bordeaux I think aromatic, gentle and at times high sophistication. Nothing shouts out to you but instead beckons.

This Château Des Perligues 2022 is a blend of Sémillon and Sauvignon Blanc.

Aroma: Honey, marzipan, mango, peach and lychee.

Palate: Smooth, muted acidity and loaded with peach and mango. Tropical with a moderately long finish!

Personality: No doubt about it I am a smooth operator making New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc resemble a bully.

Food Match: Simply prepared lake and ocean fish or veal and chicken in a cream sauce. No one will hold it against you if you enjoy with a Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey.

Cellarbility: Drink by 2025-year end.

Price: $15 CDN.

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 89/100. Natalie MacLean 88.

(Château Des Perligues 2022, AC Graves, CIE Viticole D’Aquitaine, Beychac-et-Caillau, France, 750 mL, 14%).

RKS 2024 Film: “Charlie Tango”: Sympathy for The Devils?

The movie commences with some “active sex” in the washroom of a club between an angelic and prim rocker vocalist Kim (Stacie Mistysyn) and her ponytailed boyfriend Charlie (David La Haye) both in the “adulterer’s club”. Two morally bankrupt characters….devils?

With the smell of sex in the air Kim goes to her evening shift as an air traffic controller. A tragic midair collision occurs damaging a commercial airliner and bringing down and destroying a smaller plane. An investigation clears Kim of culpability but the investigation itself and threat of litigation lathers up Kim with stress. Kim’s cop husband Jeff (Bruce Dinsmore) urges Kim, without success, to obtain psychological assistance to weather the stress storm. Kim’s therapy would appear to be high risk behavior.

Kim joins Charlie’s real estate investment firm and assumes control of incoming funds while Charlie handles mostly fictional outflows of cash. The investments are a “sure way” to earn high returns. Kim persuades husband Jeff to transfer family savings into this winner of an investment product in a meeting between Kim, Jeff and Charlie. Cheeky and daring and somewhat morally corrupt having a meeting with your squeaky-clean husband and your lover.

Jeff follows Kim to an overnight booze and drug tryst with Charlie who devilishly set up a porno blackmail trap with a sleazy mega obese Tonya (Diana Lewis) a former lover who carries a battery powered cat. Jeff confronts his raunchy hungover wife Kim who spills the beans and admits guilt. Kim also reveals her suspicions from watching and listening to Charlie that he is a fraudster and most of his real estate properties don’t even exist. Kim and Jeff have their money returned and then the fun starts with “crime crusader” Jeff showing he is as devious as Charlie in scamming. A major sting operation stickhandled by Jeff is implemented after a failed hit on Kim. Charlie meets his justice and Kim faces the rage of a man who lost family members in the crash Kim has escaped responsibility for.

David La Haye as a Charlie devil plays the role with both charm and quiet ruthlessness. A loser conning bigger losers than himself. Mistysyn is certainly not short on acting ability but as a rocker and adulterer she is just a bit too “Flying Nun” pristine both in wardrobe and appearance to be a totally believable she devil. Tonya is as “an idea” well cast and superbly wardrobed but her acting is weak.  “B list” casting. “A list” soundtrack.

The writer/director/producer of this Canadian film is Simon Boisvert.

You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rMWXTEiFOjE

“Charlie Tango” will be released digitally 3September2024.

RKS 2024 Film Rating: 73/100.

RKS 2024 Wine: Rosé from Tavel Rarely Disappoints: Tavel La Forcadière

Not a fan of those flinty pale and a bit too acidic pinkies from Provence? Well then in France look to Tavel for consistent quality. Instead of a washed-out pink expect a salmon colored pink where fruit refuses to hide behind acidity and the hype of Jolie/Pitt/Sarah Jessica Parker and Hollywood wine wannabees.

Grenache Noir 30%,Cinsault 25 %,Grenache Blanc15%, Mourvedre 10% and Syrah 5%.

Aroma: Raspberry, strawberry, watermelon and beet juice.

Palate: Cactus pear, lychee, black cherry all with some subtle tannins and minerality creating a wine of substance in the mouth. Good traction on the palate suggests whole cluster pressing.

Personality: Red wine drinkers will love this rosé and white wine drinkers in some acidic funk may prefer a less fruit forward rosé. I am proud of my fruit which is restrained enough to avoid some slander that I am a kiddie rosé.

Food Match: Shrimp Jambalaya.

Cellarbility: Slight improvement in the bottle through 2027.

Price: $25 CDN.

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 92/100. Wine Spectator 90. Wine Enthusiast 93.

(Tavel La Forcadière 2023, AOP Tavel, Domaine Maby, Tavel, France, 750 mL, 14%).

RKS Literature: Beauty and Restless Beagles (Kurt Vonnegut)

“Susanna’s feathery hair and saucer eyes were as black as midnight. Her skin was the color of cream. Her hips were like a lyre, and her bosom made men dream of peace and plenty for ever and ever. She wore barbaric golden hoops on her shell pink ears, and around her ankles were chains with little bells on them.

She went barefoot and slept until noon every day. And as noon drew near, the villagers on main street would grow as restless as beagles with a thunderstorm on the way.”

Kurt Vonnegut, “Miss Temptation”, 1956.

The Fourth Greek International Film Festival Tour (Canada): “Je”: A Devastatingly Effective Short

A young woman (Sabrina Campilii) sits at her desk writing her suicide note placing it in an envelope and then takes a razor blade to her wrist but the radio she had been listening to crackles with the voice of her soul asking her what she is doing.

Her soul (Cassandre Anaya) appears and surprisingly lambasts her for not being herself and trying to pretend happiness and contentment so she fits into the mold. What type of soul is this but thinking of Dicken’s “Christmas Carol” perhaps it is a case of tear down to build a new grateful to be alive person.

Her soul switches from negativity urging the young women to be herself as she is a beautiful and capable person that should be living now and not in the past but in the future. She ends up sobbing on the floor in far worse condition than when her soul started dressing her down. Her final act of her old self is to write “Je suis” ( I am) on a mirror above the desk she wrote her suicide note on. What is her final decision?

This gripping short will drag you down the rabbit hole with its haunting soundtrack and bleak black and white photography. An emotional trip that ends with death staring at you. Don’t expect “It’s a Wonderful Life” finish. Does death or life win? Hold onto to your chair and find out.

In French with English subtitles.

You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwLh9wnF31M

Directed by Zane and written by Cassandre Anaya.

The Fourth Greek International Film Festival Tour (Canada) plays in 11 Canadian cities both theatrically and on-line. To see when this short can be seen check https://gifft.ca  

RKS Literature: The Ethical Suicide Parlor Wants You (Kurt Vonnegut)

“The average citizen moped about around home and watched television, which was the government. Every fifteen minutes his television would urge him to vote intelligently or consume intelligently, or worship in the church of his choice, or love his fellowmen, or obey the laws-or pay a call to the nearest Ethical Suicide Parlor and find out how friendly and understanding a Hostess could be.”

Kurt Vonnegut, “Welcome to the Monkey House”, 1968.

RKS Literature: Brain Control in the Name of Equality (Kurt Vonnegut)

“Hazel had a perfectly average intelligence, which meant she couldn’t think about anything except in short bursts, and George, while his intelligence was way above normal, had a little mental handicap radio in his ear. He was required by law to wear it at all times. It was tuned to a government transmitter. Every twenty seconds or so, the transmitter would send out some sharp noise to keep people like George from taking advantage of their brains.”

Kurt Vonnegut, “Harrison Bergeron”, 1961.

The 4th Greek International Film Festival Tour (Canada): “Smuggling Hendrix”: Absurdist Expose of a Divided Cyprus

The 4th Greek International Film Festival Tour (Canada) will be in 11 Canadian cities 1-31October2024 presenting films theatrically and, in some cases, on-line.

After the 1974 invasion and occupation of Northern Cyprus by Turkey a buffer zone was created between Northern Cyprus and Southern Cyprus and patrolled by United Nations “peacekeepers”. Like the old East and West Berlin, Nicosia is a divided city.

Yiannis (Adam Bousdoukos) is a struggling Greek Cypriot musician in debt to loan sharks and 5 months behind in his rent. Five months ago the love of his life and fellow band member Kiki left him leaving behind her dog Jimi. Jimi escapes and runs into the Turkish sector of Nicosia. Yiannis shows the proper documentation to enter the Turkish sector and searches for Jimi. He finds Jimi and attempts to return to Greek sector of Nicosia but is refused as there can be no importation of live animals between Northern and Southern Cyprus.

Yiannis has yet to visit the Turkish sector of Nicosia and his curiosity dictates a visit to the family home since taken over by settler Hasan (Fatih Al) and his family. “Settlers” are mainland Turks encouraged to “colonize” Northern Cyprus by Turkish state policy similar to a blind eye of the Turks to smuggling Muslim immigrants across the Aegean into various Greek islands. Turkish attempt at destabilizing Greece. Entire homes and villages were uprooted because of the division of Cyprus.

Yiannis must, through the recommendation of Hasan, enlist the help of a Turkish smuggler Tuberek (Özgür Karadeniz). The initial smuggling attempt fails and poor Jimi ends up in a farm and must be stolen by Yiannis with the help of Hasan, Tuberek and Kiki. Then a desperate attempt by boat to land in Southern Cyprus. The Cyprus naval patrol spots the boat and all overboard including Jimi who we last see dogpaddling to land. While the humans survive and return to Nicosia, Jimi is nowhere to be seen.

All the bureaucracy, politics and bullshit involved in simply bringing back a lost dog through the buffer zone. An example of the idiocy of a divided Cyprus. Also an example of Greeks and Turks co-operating in face of the tragic division of Cyprus.

Did you think that Jimi would have drowned? He was involved in narcotics smuggling!

In English, Turkish and Greek with English subtitles.

Here is the trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ACqXDktph0

RKS 2024 Film Rating : 77/100.

Directed by Marios Piperides.

You need more information check out https://gifft.ca

RKS 2024 Wine: Château Saint Cyrgues from Costières de Nîmes

The wine is a blend of 60% Syrah, 30% Grenache and 10% Marselan which is cross between Grenache and Syrah.

Aroma: Blackberry, black cherry with some raspberry and licorice.

Palate: Moderate and broad-based tannins. A bit gravelly but even given that it is smooth with a bit of a peppery finish. The acids hover in the background probably desirable considering the peppery influences. Blackberry with a tad of salinity which is not surprising as the Costières de Nîmes lies proximate to the salty marshes of the Camargue and the Mediterranean.

Personality: I fit in with the assertive red wines of the Costières de Nîmes. And the peppery nature of Southern Rhône Syrah also is a bit of a trademark. I am not elegant but straight forward.

Food Match: Steak et frites. Croque Monsieur.

Cellarbility: It will not improve in the bottle. Drink by the end of 2025.

Price: $15 CDN.

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 89/100. Wine Align 89.

(Château Saint Cyrgues Red 2022, AOP Costières de Nîmes, Chateau Saint Cyrgues, Saint-Gilles, France, 750 mL, 13%).

RKS Literature: Finally Equality in the United States in 2081 (Kurt Vonnegut)

“The year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anyone else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anyone else. All this equality was due to the 211th, 212th and 213th Amendments to the Constitution and to the unceasing vigilance of agents of the United States Handicapper General.”

Kurt Vonnegut, “Harrison Bergeron”, 1961.