RKS 2024 Wine: Blackboard Merlot from Washington State: A Berlin Wall Merlot?

Many Washington State Merlots are not afraid to have a little bath in oak. It gives Merlot a pleasing to everyone aura. I had a Konstantin Frank Merlot in the Finger Lakes recently and it had a good dose of oak in it. My dining companion, no lover of red wine, enthused about how “approachable” it was.

This Merlot was from the Conner Lee Vineyard and farmed using sustainable practices. Hand harvested and sorted. It was fermented in stainless steel and aged 3 months in new French oak. 1,253 cases were produced.

Is this Blackboard Merlot everyone’s friend or will it evoke a nails scratching over the blackboard response?

Aroma: Black cherry, cherry liqueur, purple plum and a wisp of black licorice. The close to 14% alcohol is noticeable.

Palate: Black fruit with moderate tannins and some alcohol induced heat on the short finish.

Personality: I will admit to oak influences but you’ll see they are not overwhelming but not enough to completely dumb me down nor make me entirely charming to Gramps, Pops and the rest of the family. I am a Merlot making my own way. I feel a bit like the Berlin Wall caught between two countries.

Food Match: Grilled lamb (rare). The wine is built for food.

Book Match: Nikolai Gogol “Tarus Bulba”.

Music Match: “Hey Hey Woman of Mine” Led Zepplin.

Price: $24 CDN (Ontario).

Cellarbility: Drink now or hold no later than 2026-year end.

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 90/100.jamessuckling.com 90.

(Blackboard 2019 Merlot, Matthews Estate, Benton City, Washington, Columbia Valley AVA, 750 mL, 13.9%).

RKS Travel: That Unplanned Moment May Be the Best: A Glass of Hosmer Riesling on the Shores of Lake Cayuga, Finger Lakes New York

There are certain travellers that plan each moment of a trip. Itineraries are created and checked off like a shopping list. Good planning? Mechanical and unthinking? Perhaps a bit of both.

You might say I recently had one very special unplanned moment on Cayuga Lake in the Finger Lakes District of New York.

Some context. I had a certain mission to accomplish in New York City and in Flemington New Jersey. New Jersey was enjoyable and for the most part beautiful. But then that mission to New York City involved getting in and out of it on The Jersey Turnpike enough to age a quiet Canadian several years. One wrong move and you could be on the Pulaski Skyway! And escaping Manhattan at rush hour via the Holland Tunnel an exercise in massive frustration.

So after all this driving from Toronto heading back to Toronto from Stockton, New Jersey there was a two day stopover in tiny Aurora, New York. Not being a planner of any expertise, my wife made the reservations at Inns of Aurora. We were in the E.B. Morgan House and calling it a house is wholly understated and far too modest but more about that in another article.

Aurora is conducive to relaxation. A small main street with a tiny convenience store, two restaurants, a library and an “opera house” and the impressive collection of inns. The stress ramps down to zero and driver’s leg and neck miraculously disappears. After a few walks on the main street I knew some of the dogs by name and stopped to chat with the locals.

Taughannock Falls: Photo Robert K. Stephen

The next day my planned mission was visiting Hosmer Winery on the Cayuga Lake Wine Trail where I said my hellos as a rare Canadian wine and travel writer. A scenic drive on the shores of Cayuga Lake watching wineries passing by and unfortunately not stopping. Brooke at Hosmer suggested I visit Taughannock Falls” just down the road a bit”. So unplanned and knowing nothing about the Falls off we went and were very glad we did. Spectacular, rugged and unplanned. And then back at E.B. Morgan House on the patio enjoying a glass of Hosmer Riesling with a view of the lake and a beautiful summer afternoon. A exceptionally well crafted Riesling and a calm and serene view of Cayuga Lake. It was one of those unplanned moments and basking in serenity the best moment of the trip

RKS 2024 Film: “Devil Put the Coal in the Ground”: West Virginian Tragedy a la Master and Margarita

If you have watched the seminal 1973 American documentary “Harlan County” about a coal miner’s strike in Harlan County, Kentucky you know coal miners are a tough and proud lot and mine owners are ruthlessly if not murderously driven by profits. In “Devil Put the Coal in the Ground” about coal mining in West Virgina you witness the toughness of coal miners of yesterday but today they are a dying breed as coal is a dirty word and mountain blasting has eclipsed the need for coal mines and of coal miners.

The documentary commences with a clip of a 1987 movie “Matewan” where a coal miner says there are two people: those with jobs and those without. Fast forward to the present day where an interviewee says you are either a coal miner or a drug addict. West Virginia has the greatest number of opiate addicts, opiate deaths and opiate overdoses of any state in the United States. A local judge notes that in a day with 40 cases before him 35 will deal with drug offences and the others are related to the downturn of the coal industry. Opiate use can start at 11 or 12 years of age and hook mothers and fathers and even grandparents.

In the documentary lawyers, coal miners, an opiate addict, a nurse, a doctor, an activist, a pawn shop owner, a politician, a Vietnam war veteran and a mother who is an activist and has an opiate addicted son she can’t trust for a moment all talk about coal, its fall from grace and the destruction it has caused. Most of them are shattered by opiate related deaths and coal related diseases in their families.

All of the commentators, while mindful of the rough life of coal miners, proudly recount their wonderful childhoods and strong sense of community that began to fall apart in the 1970’s with the death throes of coal mining. Without a strong social fabric and the loss of hope for a relatively secure life coal mining afforded communities crumbled, families were shattered and opiate use soared often fuelled by company doctors to get injured workers back to the mine to avoid threats of fines for safety violations. The message is that while coal miners endured a tough life coal mining paid relatively well and could support communities.

As coal mining disappears mountain blasting thrives with devastating ecological and health effects. It is an attractive practice for coal mines are no longer required and the state grants permits desperate to compensate for loss of coal mining jobs and possibly turns a lax eye to mountain blasting.

Coal has always been a dirty business but it offered a decent standard of living and fostered a strong community. Coal has now become a dirtier business destroying communities economically and spiritually. The devil’s work a la “Master and Margarita”.

You can watch the trailer here https://vimeo.com/452308181

It is directed by Lucas Sabean and Peter Hutchison and will be on streaming platforms and VOD on 9July2024.

RKS 2024 Film Rating 96/100.

RKS 2024 Wine: Villa Teresa Organic NV Prosecco

Aroma: Lemon, lime, peach, mango and honey.

Palate: A gentle fizz to the point it resembles a semi-sparkler. Some cantaloupe and pineapple but one expects more fruit with a prosecco than this? Its 11% alcohol makes it a refreshing hot summer day quaff.

Personality: I am not assertive evidenced by my scant bubbles and acidity.

Food Match: Cambozola over a baguette.

Price: $16.95 (CDN). Last year it was $17.95.

Cellarbility: Consume no later than after the Christmas (North American) turkey leftovers are gone.  

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 89/100: RKS 2023 Wine Rating 89.

(Villa Teresa Organic Prosecco NV, DOC, Imbottigliato da V.T. srl, Vittorio, Veneto, Italy, 750 mL, 11%).

RKS 2024 Film: “Alice On and Off”: Misery Justified by the Selfishness of “Trauma”: Sympathy For the Devil?

In this Romanian documentary we follow the life of Alice, her husband Dorian and their child Aristo.

Alice married Dorian aged 53 at 18 years of age due to her pregnancy. Alice has had a traumatic and unloved existence abandoned by her parents and raised by a tyrant grandmother blocking all parental access to Alice and beating her at any mention of her parents. The relationship with Dorian did not last long as they fought like cat and dogs. Alice departs to other parts of Europe leaving Aristo behind and supporting Dorian and Aristo by revenue from her “pornification” chat room.  Dorian is a struggling artist relying on Alice’s porno revenue to support himself and Aristo.

Alice has some talent as an artist but due to her support obligations and her drug habit her dream of attending a fine arts university programme is an impossibility. Her frustration augments as does her bizarre appearance with coloured hair, missing teeth and dotted tattoos on her face.

Eventually she goes missing seen later by police buying junk and living in a slovenly Bucharest ghetto and by “slovenly” that may be an understatement.

Director Isabel Tent filmed this documentary over 10 years very successfully showing how traumatized persons deal with a painful past. Should you have sympathy for Alice? Or is her trauma simply an excuse for her dereliction of duty as a mother. She obviously failed to learn from her own past and turned that against her son or is it but an excuse for her decadence.

My sympathy is for her child Aristo. My scorn is for Alice. Compassion only runs so deep for a selfish and destructive personality looking for an excuse to squander her own life and that of her child.

You can see the trailer here https://vimeo.com/939018909/0ca96c6b18?share=copy

Expect to see this doc in documentary festivals.

RKS Film Rating: 82/100.

RKS 2024 Wine:  Ontario’s Bachelder Bator 2021 Gamay Noir: Bachelder’s Gentle Giant

Aroma: All held in a smoky frame. There is blackberry, black cherry and a bit of sandalwood. Rich, evident, pure and lighthearted.

Palate: Gentle and soft but not lacking in taste. Can I say, “Gentle Giant?”.  Replete with raspberry and almost juicy. Broad based tannins. Short finish.

Personality: I think I have a bit of Ontario Pinot Noir character in terms of colour and raspberry on the nose.

Food Match: Roast duck.

Jazz Match: George Benson “Summer Breeze”.

Cellarbility: Drink by 2025-year end.

Price: $30 CDN (Ontario).

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 91/100. Rick VanSickle 92. Wine Align 91.

(Bachelder Niagara Cru: Single Vineyard Bator Gamay 2021, VQA Four Mile Creek, Bachelder, Beamsville, Ontario, 750 mL, 12.5).

RKS Literature: Tarus Bulba on Women and Vodka (Nikolai Gogol)

“Enough! Enough whining, old woman. Cossacks aren’t Cossacks so they can hobnob with women! Given half a chance you’d hide them under your skirt and sit on them like a hen. Off with you, quick, and get the table ready. Lay out everything we have. No need for fritters  and poppyseed cakes, or any other delicate morsels: just bring out some mutton and some goat, none of that fancy liquor with raisins and other little knickknacks in it. I want my vodka so clear and frothing that it hisses and whirls like it’s possessed”.

Nikolai Gogol, “Tarus Bulba”, 1835.

RKS Literature: Tarus Bulba’s Thoughts on a Seminary Education (Nikolai Gogol)

“You’re a milksop, I see!” Bulba said. “Don’t listen to your mother, my boy. She’s a woman, she knows nothing! What do you need sweetness for? An open field and a good horse, that’s all the sweetness that you need. You see this saber. This saber is your mother! They’ve been filling your heads with filth, that’s what they’ve been doing! The Seminary, and all those books and primers and philosophy and the devil knows what else- I spit on it all!” And Bulba slipped in a word that cannot appear in print.”

Nikolai Gogol, “Tarus Bulba”, 1835.

RKS 2024 Wine: Canadian Pinot Gris From Niagara

Aroma: This platinum-coloured wine has aromas of mango, peach, white grapefruit, pear and wet stone.

Palate: Rather full bodied with some power. It is zippy and a bit cutting but underneath the acidity there is peach, grapefruit and a hint of lychee. Moderate finish.

Personality:  More cutting and sharper than Italian Pinot Grigio.

Food Match: Malpeque Oysters!

Cellarbility: Consume by 2025-year end.

Price: $25 CDN (Ontario).

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 89/100. Wine Align 90/100.

(Closson Chase K.J. Watson Vineyard, 2023 Pinot Gris, VQA Four Mile Creek, Closson Chase Vineyards Inc., Hillier, Ontario, 750 mL, 13%).

RKS 2024 Film: A Freebie from the Visual Communications Archives: “w(HO)”

“w(HO)” is a 2022 American 5-minute mixed media animated short film.

Director Candace Ho relates certain incidents caused by her last name whether it was “Ho.Ho” as a laugh or the insertion  of “izza” between Candice and Ho! But aside from the snickering humour playing on Ho it is also a chronicle of her sexual development.

Cute, lighthearted but insightful with just about as much wisdom a full feature film.

It is available free of charge now courtesy of Visual Communications. Go to https://watch.eventive.org/vcarchives then click on Voices of Pride and scroll to the short to watch for free or for a contribution if you wish.

RKS 2024 Film Rating; 89/100.