“….I will only add, to what I have already written of my perseverance at this time of my life, and of a patient and continuous energy which then began to be matured within me, and which I know to be the strong part of my character, if it have any strength at all, that there, on looking back, I find the source of my success. I have been very fortunate in worldly matters ; many men have worked much harder and have not succeeded half so well; but I never could have done what I have done, without the habits of punctuality, order and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one object at a time, no matter how quickly its successor should come upon its heels, which I then formed.”
From Southern France we try an Arnaud de Villeneuve 2022 Côtes du Roussillon. It is a blend of 65% Grenache Noir and 35% Syrah.
Aroma: Disciplined in the sense it is content in the glass without having to shout out to your nose and slap it silly with excessive alcohol. Black cherry, blackberry, steroidal raspberry and black licorice.
Palate: Makes its presence known with solid black fruits with a very slight perception of sweetness as no big tannins are beating the fruit into ragged submission. Although the finish is not long it coats the back palate with some chocolaty rhubarb pie filling. Bewitching.
Personality: I am a quiet, well made and highly functional wine not besotted by excessive alcohol. Satisfying simplicity. I am a throwback to a Côtes du Roussillon from two decades ago.
Price: $19 CDN (Ontario).
Food Match: Grilled Italian sausage in an egg bun with condiments a la volonté.
Cellarbility: Drink now but consume by end of 2025.
RKS 2024 Wine Rating: /100. Wine Align 91
(Arnaud de Villeneuve 2022 Côtes du Roussillon, AOP Côtes du Roussillon, cave Arnaud de Villeneuve, France, 750 mL, 13.5%).
My first wine show a few years ago was the New York Wine Expo at the Javitz Convention Center. It was something to be excited about. After focusing on Brazilian wines near the end of my few hours there I headed for the exit but being the dedicated newbie, I decided to breeze through the South African reds. It was not so pleasant as almost all the reds had a noticeable funk to them. Brettanomyces? Barnyardy….
I steered clear of South African red wine for some time but those unpleasant aroma days as far as I can taste and smell are behind us but still I brace for that South African funk. PTSD?
Having put this past behind me, thanks to years of mindfulness and a hefty “grant” from “Golly Gee South African Wines Are Damn Good All the Time Foundation” I assure you my past experiences were nothing but some unwarranted phobia as my therapist Dr. Trans Cinsault continually reminds me of. I really didn’t appreciate her botched attempt to hypnotize me as I simply couldn’t agree under the sodium pentothal to rate all South African wines a minimum of 97/100. She said it worked for the Italian wine critic and was puzzled but my integrity was sufficiently strong to block the subliminal suggestions he was trying to force upon my brain.
My psychotherapist Dr. Trans Cinsault off to the annual ANZ Christmas Party!
Embarrassing myself for revealing too much of my medical history without being harassed by an insurance company to do so we move on to a Steenberg Five Lives Red Blend a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec.
Aroma: No funk! High test raspberry. Blueberry and black cherry and some milk chocolate. I also detected some acidic fog drifting up from the fruit.
Palate: Yes the acidity is there and there is brackishness to the wine both of which make this wine less than a 97 point wine! The excessive 14.5% alcohol content steals the fruit. The wine is nothing to write home about. Why the Liquor Commission of Ontario purchased this wine is puzzling but the LCBO is a puzzling organization! Not tainted just poorly made.
Personality: No comment. This wine writer needs more psychotherapy. An insult to South Africa.
Food Match: In true LCBO code a Friday night wine.
Cellarbility: Drink as soon as possible or better yet use in some Chicken Cacciatore!
Price: $23 CDN (Ontario).
RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 68/100. Wine Align 90.
(Steenberg Five Lives Red Blend 2020, W.O. Western Cape, Steenberg, Constantia, South Africa, 750 mL, 14.5%).
George Platt Lynes (1907-1955) is the subject of a documentary shortly to be released in United States theatres entitled “Hidden Master: The Legacy of George Platt Lynes”.
His story is recounted by a former lover, art historians, museum curators, former models, family members, former employees, film directors, gallerists and most importantly his photographs and correspondence by and about him.
Lynes’ father was an Episcopalian minister and his mother a New York high society matron. His parents sent him to Paris in 1925 at 18 years of age. He travelled between Paris and New York until the outbreak of war seemed inevitable in 1934 when he returned to New York an out of the closet homosexual thriving in a steady threesome spiced up by numerous dalliances with the “boys”.
Lynes initial desire to be a writer shifted to photography after his realization he hadn’t the talent to write. In 1932 at MOMA’s initial photographic exhibit “Murals by American Painters and Photographs” his work received critical acclaim. He became a well known and well remunerated fashion photographer in New York moving away from the prevalent “realism style” into a classical one.
A profligate sexually and financially he enjoyed the artistic party life of the wealthy set in New York where at certain levels homosexuality was accepted. Attracting the artistic elite, he became a “cross pollinator” of culture. There was little room in his circle for non-beautiful people. Egotistical and self centred one commentator referred to him as the personification of a grand queen.
His socialization circles and his job as a photographer gave him access to a steady stream of homosexuals particularly as official photographer for the New York City Ballet. At some point his penchant for male eroticism turned into a passion and perhaps it is what he will be remembered for. Remembrance may not be that easy as before his death he destroyed many of his negatives and photographs in his desire to be remembered in a certain way. Large collections of his work can be found at the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University. He had befriended Dr. Alfred Kinsey who in his research of human sexuality found Lynes’ connection into actual real-life homosexuality useful.
How should we see the legacy of Lynes? As one commentator states he was a gay hero both beloved and fascinating and an incredible photographer that still awaits a major retrospective with his “dicey” male eroticism photographic legacy. Female nudity in art has been widely accepted but male nudity…..apparently not.
A staggering rich panoply of photographs and observations and commentary on male eroticism in American photography. Deserving of numerous viewings to soak it all in.
Directed by Sam Shahid. Theatrical and VOD release on 31May2024.
We try a Ellena Nebbiolo from the Langhe region of Piedmonte recognized by UNESCO in 2014 as a World Heritage Site.
Aroma: A plenitude of red cherry perhaps even faint notes of raspberry and strawberry complimented by milk chocolate.
Palate: The aroma may suggest a lighter red perhaps even a cheery light weight. However, a solid tannic streak restrains the lightweight cherry and makes it a more austere than the aroma could have suggested. Some of this austerity retreats with decanting. Perhaps a bit too much oak hanging out in the end palate.
Personality: Perhaps you should consider me as a chameleon. I present myself as a lightweight on the nose then an authoritarian taste profile until at least half an hour of decanting when I soften up and perhaps become a bit more sophisticated.
Kenzaburo (Lily Franky) loses his wife Akiko to a degenerative neurological disease. Her last wishes as communicated in a letter given to Kenzaburo at her funeral ceremony requested that the family scatter her ashes in the waters of Lake Windemere in the Lake District of England, the home of Peter Rabbit and his sister Cotton-tail. Akiko had spent time in England when her father had been transferred there from Japan and she kept and cherished a 1966 photo of her family at the lake. Akiko loved Beatrix Potter’s “Peter Rabbit” so her ash scattering request is grounded on literature and earlier family memories.
Kenzaburo expresses his wishes to go on his own to England but says indifferently have it your way to son Toshi (Ryô Nishikido) when he expresses interest in taking his family, a daughter and his wife, to England. Kenzaburo does not dislike Toshi but is indifferent and lost in his own world. Death can rip apart a family or heal it and that is part of the spiritual journey in the film riding on the back of the physical journey to England. The spiritual journey is punctuated by many flashbacks of Kenzaburo and Akiko’s relationship covering a wide range of human emotions. As the movie progresses the flashbacks become increasingly darker perhaps prompting the question does the fanfare of love turn into poison when grieving for the loss of a loved one?
Inpatient, selfish or perhaps stunned Kenzaburo heads off to Lake Windemere ashes in his JAL travel bag. He has left behind Toshi and his family in their London hotel despite the last wish of his wife the entire family be included in the process. But he is on the wrong train. Stealing a bicycle, he traverses deeper into the English countryside becoming increasingly lost. Stumbling onto an English farm owned by John (Ciarán Hinds) and his daughter Mary (Aouife Hinds) who take him in for a day before driving him to Lake Windemere. John recently lost his wife, like Kenzaburo, and had scattered her ashes with Mary. Having been told by Mary that Kenzaburo is heading to Lake Windemere to spread his wife’s ashes John queries that isn’t this something you should be doing with your family.
Kenzaburo meets Toshi and his family at Lake Windemere and having found the right spot to spread Akiko’s ashes be prepared either for a nuclear meltdown of the family or a grand healing. The appearance of the rabbit at the movie’s conclusion will send shivers down your spine. Akiko is watching the human condition.
In the eighth episode of season 5 of “Postcards From…” showing on the Accessible Media Incorporated television network and streaming service host takes us to Whistler, British Columbia a two-hour car ride from Vancouver. The “village” is somewhat cookie cutter as are “ski villages” in Collingwood, Ontario and Mont Tremblant in Quebec. Neither do we get a clear view of the “village” nor visuals where the locals live.
Couture enjoys her encounters perpetually smiling and laughing and on occasion you might be smiling along. We are treated to some stunning visuals of Whistler and its ever-changing topography affected by the sun and sky. The focus in this episode is her interactions with people she encounters while visiting the beach to prepare crabcakes over an open fire, learns Swiss yodeling and plays the alpenhorn, tries accessible sit skiing, carves ice sculptures and using a champagne saber opens a bottle of sparkling wine at the Barefoot Bistro.
From France we try a Lavau Rasteau. If it had been a Jamaican wine it would have been called “Rasteau Man Vibrations”!
Rasteau is a Southern Rhône variation and principally made with Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre. In this case 50% each of Syrah and Grenache.
Aroma: Well contained aroma of blackberry, black raspberry, blueberry in a light vanilla frame. An impression of high approachability however not the case here.
Palate: Solid and firm this full-bodied wine is. Blackberry, blueberry and a smudge of licorice with a bit of heat and some juiciness on the finish. Sigh…yet another 15 percenter.
In the seventh episode of season 5 of “Postcards From…” showing on the Accessible Media Incorporated television network and streaming service host Christa Couture takes us to Edmonton, Alberta. It is rather lacking in visuals of the city and focuses almost entirely on some Edmontonian activities such as trap shooting, green onion cake cooking, Indigenous hoop dancing, indie wrestling and a visit to the Muttart Conservatory. It is all very interesting but will tell you very little about the actual city and footage of the city is far too scant.
The learning how to wrestle segment is a ribald one and Cuoture is obviously enjoying herself.
In the fourth episode of season 5 of “Postcards From…” showing on the Accessible Media Incorporated television network and streaming service host Christa Couture takes us to Salt Spring Island, British Columbia. It is quaint and relaxing and the drone photography and commentary of Couture makes it a tempting Canadian tourist destination.
Couture takes pains to not only describe and visit some interesting sites but the focus in this episode is more on her interactions with people she encounters while swimming with a well seasoned women’s swimming club making 44 year old Couture feeling like a spring chicken. Couture visits a sustainable farm near Ruckle Provincial Park where she learns how to milk a cow named Allison and gets jabbed in the gut by Allison’s horn! Then another farm growing “craft cannabis” where she is given a tour of the facility and makes a cannabis infused chocolate melt which she gingerly dips a strawberry in and down the strawberry goes down the hatch concluding the Harold and Kumar adventure. Carrying on the agricultural theme it is off to a honey producer. How many times did our host get stung? And since Salt Spring Island has a thriving artist community, she paints with gold leaf.
I must say there is some oenophile discrimination going on here as Salt Spring Island has several wineries which are not mentioned or visited. Cannabis rules over vino in Episode 4!
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