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.

RKS Literature: The Repetitive History of Earth (Kurt Vonnegut)

“If our descendants don’t study our times closely, they will find that they have again exhausted the planet’s fossil fuels, that they have again died by the millions of influenza and the Green Death, that the sky again has again been turned yellow by the propellants for underarm deodorants, that they have elected a senile President two meters tall, and that they are yet again the intellectual and spiritual inferiors of teeny weeny Chinese.”

Kurt Vonnegut, “Slapstick”, 1976.

RKS 2024 Wine: A Red Cuvée from Cox Creek Cellars: Can They Manage a Heartbreak Grape?

Pinot Noir is often referred to as the heartbreak grape due to its thin-skinned delicate nature. In my opinion Baco Noir is also a heartbreak grape perhaps not in the field but in converting its juice into a good wine. In Ontario I am mostly disappointed with Baco Noir that tricks the nose into thinking it is a special wine but it dies on the palate. While in Niagara recently I reluctantly picked up a Riverview Estates Winery Marechal Foch/Baco Noir because I am a fan of the former rather than the latter. It was a winner.

In this case stumbling into Cox Creek Cellars in the hinterland of Guelph, Ontario I decided to be adventurous and try their non-vintage Red Cuvée which is a blend of Baco Noir and Cabernet Franc the percentage of each grape in the blend not revealed on the label nor on their website.

Aroma: The Baco Noir is dominant with resulting “grapey” aroma. Blackberry, black cherry, dates and a smidge of chocolate. The Cabernet Franc keeps the Baco Noir in check and adds some discipline to the wine.

Palate: An enormity of smoothness with soft tannins. The acidity is just right. But is it just a bit too smooth without a bite or defined structure? Lots of blackberry and black cherry yet tinged with a bit of austerity which gives the wine credibility.

Personality: I am a juicy and approachable wine perhaps lacking complexity. But again I am approachable and many will like me and enjoy me and isn’t that what counts?

Food Match: Pork tenderloin medallions in a blackberry jam Red Cuvée reduction sauce. And this will shine with a roast turkey with cranberry sauce on the side.

Cellarbility: Drink by mid 2025.

Price: $16.95 CDN.

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 84/100.

(Cox Creek Cellars NV Red Cuvée, Cox Creek Cellars, 7687 Wellington 22, Guelph, Ontario, 750 mL, 13%).