RKS 2024 Wine: Deep Purple “Smoke on the Water”

Wildfires rage on in Chile today. The urban area most affected would seem to be Viña del Mar a coastal resort city on the Pacific northwest of Valparaiso. Over 100 people have perished and hundreds are missing. It is too early to determine damage to viticulture but one should remember while fire is a threat to vines one must additionally fret about smoke giving the juice a smoky flavour hence making it a hard sell as the final product, wine.

Keeping our fingers crossed for the 2024 vintage we try a Leyda Pinot Noir from Valle de Leyda.

Aroma: Trying to veer away from generalizations many Chilean Pinot Noirs have a full bodied if not aggressive edge to them. This is not to detract from their quality as their nature may simply reflect winemaking styles and terroir or my limited Chilean Pinot Noir experience.

In this case this Pinot Noir is no seductive softie or a 99-pound ballerina tip toeing around the stage. Whilst many Pinot Noirs have aromas infused with light notes of raspberry and strawberry this one expresses no such fruit but more of a black cherry and blackberry character with some inference of cherry Jello. But if you decant this Pinot Noir for at least half an hour a bit of raspberry and chocolate peer up at you from the glass.

Palate: Full bodied and a bit brackish. Minimal tannins with disciplined acidity. Short finish lacking serious fruit impact.

Personality: I am wine alright but I am an elusive member of the Pinot Noir family. I am somewhat outside the boundary and at $18 please give a chance! Please!

Cellarbility: Drink by the end of 2024.

Food Match: Beef Bourguignon.

Price: $18. CDN (Ontario).

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 85/100. Joaquín Hidalgo 93.

(Leyda 2022 Las Brisas Pinot Noir, D.O. Valle de Leyda, VPST, Santiago, Chile, 750 mL, 13.5%).

RKS Literature: France in 1775 (Dickens)

“France, less favoured on the whole as to matters spiritual than her sister of the shield and trident, rolled with exceeding smoothness down the hill, making paper money and spending it. Under the guidance of her Christian pastors, she entertained herself, besides, with such humane achievements as sentencing a youth to have his hands cut off, his tongue torn out with pincers, and his body burned alive, because he had not kneeled down in the rain to do honour to a dirty procession of monks which passed within his view, at a distance of some fifty or sixty yards.”

“A Tale of Two Cities”: Charles Dickens, 1859

RKS Literature: Every Human Being a Profound Secret (Dickens)

“A wonderful fact to reflect on, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret: that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret: that every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there is in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it!”

“A Tale of Two Cities”, Charles Dickens, 1859

Travels to a Different Time: Travels of My Mother: 28June1971: Panormitis, Symi, Greece: Staying with The Pilgrims in a Monastery: Father Gabriel’s Miracle

Dear Barbara:

You and your roommates would go out of your head as Rhodes is bursting with sailors. I could have a million (at least). We met Harry and Shorty two sailors and on the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Roosevelt we received a private tour and saw a side of the ship the regular visiting public will never see. They took us to the U.S.O. in town and later supper.

We leave for Symi in a half an hour. I hate packing as I can never get it all in and end up with a plastic bag carrying what I could not stuff in. We are travelling deck class and it is very cheap. The way to go. We can’t go in the dining room but no big deal as the trip is only two hours. Our hotel for 11 nights was $43. The hotel owner is driving us to the docks. Must leave.

July 2

We are on Symi in a tiny village Panormitis living in a monastery. Yep you read right. It has 200 rooms. We have a very simple room with 4 beds, 2 chairs and two-night tables. One light bulb hanging from the ceiling, A sink, a toilet and a hot plate. The head monk Father Gabriel is charming and handsome and my age. We bought some eggs and had them soft boiled like home. Robert left at 6 a.m. to go octopus fishing with a fisherman. It is noon and he is still out on the water He will be starved.

Our room is 70 cents a night. There is no other place to stay. There is a bakery, small grocery store and one small restaurant. It is so beautiful here. If you could only see what we have seen on this trip. Imagine staying in a monastery! To think such things still exist it is truly fantastic. The pilgrims are mostly widows who have lost loved ones at sea. Father Gabriel told us his story. During the war he was on a boat that a German U Boat torpedoed. Everyone on board died including his mother. He promised God that if he made it to shore he would give his life to God and so that is why he is here.

Love Mum

RKS Literature: L.A. Gringo Blames the Mexicans

“It was the Mexicans who’d done this. Illegals. Goons with their hats turned backwards on their heads. Sneaking across the border, ruining the schools, gutting property values and freeloading on welfare, and if that wasn’t enough, now they were burning everybody else too. They were like the barbarians outside the gates of Rome, only they were already inside, polluting the creek, and crapping in the woods, threatening people and spraying graffiti all over everything, and where was it going to end? “

“The Tortilla Curtain”, T.C. Boyle, Penguin 1996

“Reggie The Egyptian Rescue Dog” : The Final Cut: A Grisly Blast: Reggie is Kidnapped! John Travolta Asks Me for a Favour! Chapter Forty (40)

Tuckered out from our Stockholm flight our private jet touches down at Toronto’s Pearson Airport. Our pilot comes to say good-bye to us as we take the stairs off the airplane. You wouldn’t believe this but it was John Travolta. He has inside contacts at Disney and is lobbying to be my voice in any Reggie sequel and asked me to keep him in mind for casting calls! We clear customs and Mr. Antonio is waiting for us in his Mercedes van. Sweet home and a bowl of clean and cold Canadian water with a simple chicken kibble and of course the occasional treats we find in our bowls. Dillie and I love watermelon particularly sweet yellow Ontario watermelon. Of course, we love cheese and the morning is not simply a morning without a piece of toast or a bit of bagel…. sesame of course. I can’t stand those Toronto Bagels where bread is made in circles and called bagels. I think of food too much but I am a dog after all!

Do you remember that sense of dread I had in Stockholm? It sits in my stomach as we enter our van to take us home. Penny has her mistress waiting for her and they head home to Beamsville. Kit Kat has been picked up by the Portuguese Consul General to Toronto. Dunny Funkheiser, Ollie’s master is there to pick up Ollie. Ollie is very upset with something. He tells me he smells danger.

We drive on the 401 Highway with Dunny and Ollie behind us and take the Bayview exit to our Bridle Path home. Why is that black Zil with tinted windows following us? As we pass by the Edwards Botanical Gardens and are a few minutes away from our home the Zil cuts us off and three heavily armed men approach the limo and shoot Mr. Antinio in the head before can grab his Dirty Harry Special Edition 357 Magnum. There is blood all over the seats. Dillie the Westie and I are not frightened. We have no guns but we have Scottish and Egyptian bravery in our blood. It is do or die time! Pay the price of our strength and bravery you low life’s. We’ll rip you to shreds!

The Russian 1985 Zil used in Reggie’s kidnapping; Photo Courtesy of the Bulgarian Extortionists Daily

The door of our van opens and Dillie and I take our victims. I jump out and lunge at the neck of one of the attackers. He collapses in a pool of blood. Dillie can’t jump like me so he attacks biting the ankle (his speciality) of another thug who falls screaming in pain but gets up and smashes Dillie the Westie in the head with the butt of his Browning pistol. Ollie jumps in the fray and is clubbed on his flank and is rolling on the ground howling in pain. Bob is in a rage and emitting a horrific scream runs toward the evil man who clubbed Dillie. Bob is shot in the shoulder and spins to the ground. Fay has fainted. One thug throws a Potato Masher and all I see is orange and the smell of burning human flesh. I look over briefly before passing out and see Dunny unconscious on the road his arm hanging by a yellow piece of gristle. Oh Allah, God or Jesus please help. PLEASE HELP REGGIE, DILLLIE, Ollie and Dunny! HELP BOB AND FAY. A wet rag with some horrible smelling chemical is put over my snout and I remember no more.

Dillie is in the best animal hospital in Toronto with a cracked skull and an inflamed brain. He has a 50% chance of living. Bob is in hospital having lost a lot of blood but he will survive. Fay is in a state of shock and does not know where she is. She is heavily sedated and for the time being in a calmer world.

This is an international incident and it is no surprise the “The Brothers of the Correct and Only Islam”claim responsibility demanding a $50,000,000 ransom be paid for my release. There is no religious overtones to the demands as these Bulgarian mobsters simply want money. But do they know who they are dealing with!

These cowards. If I could only escape from the cage they imprisoned me in I would show them NEVER MESS WITH A CAIRO STREET DOG!

Our friend in Washington Joe, oops, President Biden, phoned Bob in the hospital and he is so very angry that three brave dogs have been put in peril and Mr. Antonio murdered. His Federal Bureau of Investigation know much about these Bulgarian extortionists and criminals who launder money for radical fundamentalists in Pakistan. President Biden will send a top FBI operative with a very thick file to help the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in their “recovery operation”. The Pope in the Vatican has said a special mass for Dillie the Westie and me. Our friends Drake and Mr. Gordon Lightfoot have offered whatever help they can give. Bosco and Mr. Gordon Lightfoot are at a bedside vigil for dearest Dylan. Drake is so upset upon hearing of the carnage he cancels a show in Rochester and flies back to Toronto.

Is this all my fault? Would it have been better if that Rottenwhiler had killed me in Cairo? Pardon me for my foul language but these Bulgarian criminals are going to get their ass kicked in.

Travels to a Different Time: Travels of My Mother: 28June1971: Rhodos, Greece: The Town is Lousy with U.S. Sailors

Dear Andrew:

We are sitting in an outdoor café waiting for some service for breakfast. It is 9:30 now and they do not open for dinner until 10. They serve orange juice in a can here. And always buns in the morning. They sure eat lots of bread here. Loads of it at every meal.

Yesterday we visited the U.S.S. Roosevelt and went down to the kitchen. They were baking hundreds of Chelsea Buns. We had them right from the oven with the first milk we have had in weeks. The town is lousy with American sailors. I think every Greek girl here in Rhodes found a boyfriend this week, They leave on July 5th which is day we are planning to return from Symi for which we leave tomorrow. If it is nice and there are things to do we will probably stay for a week. They fish for sponges at Symi. I haven’t a clue how they get them. We are travelling deck class on the ship there. That is the way kids go and they sleep on the deck in their sleeping bags. I don’t even know if they are allowed in the snack bar. The trip is only two hours so who cares.

Love Mum

RKS 2024 Wine: A Shiraz from Australia’s Langhorne Creek: I am Not Waltzing With This Matilda

Thoughts on a Bleasdale 2019 Generations Shiraz.

Aroma: Oak has worked itself nicely into the wine softening and plumping it up, hopefully not for the slaughter. Ripe plum, blackberry, cherry, spice and white pepper.

Palate: No jammy Aussie bunko wine. In fact scratching my head with such an alluring aroma where did the fruit go. Brusque, rough and tough leaving the question who did it sell its soul to? There are tannins. There are acids sending off a warning sign something is off beat here.

Personality: A good looker and a charmer until you get to know me.

Food Match: Friday night wine is my secret code to you. Easily decipherable.

Price: $25 CDN (Ontario).

Cellarbility: Brave enough to buy then drink it ASAP.

RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 70/100. Ken Gargett winepilot.com 94

(Bleasdale 2019 Generations Shiraz, Langhorne Creek South Australia, Bleasdale Vineyards Pty Ltd. Langhorne Creek, South Australia, 750 mL, 14%).

“Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog”: : Reggie and Bob Receive Nobel Prize for Literature! Dillie Makes Scotland Proud! Why all These Calls From Nicole Kidman? Our Invite to Camp David: Chapter Thirty Nine (39)

Bob is on fire with his novel “Reggie The Egyptian Rescue Dog”. It is on the number one position for novels on the New York Times Best Seller list for 32 weeks in a row. Additionally he has signed a huge deal with Big House Publishers to convert his internet published novels “Life at Megacorp”, “Virus # 26” and “Mutantism on the March” into hardcopy novels. He has been offered options by Big House Publishers for an additional three novels. And the Hollywood studios are approaching him about converting his novels into films. Quite frankly it is getting out of control and my sense is Bob wants a simpler life of walking about the neighbourhood with Dillie and I and writing yet another novel but his fame is catching up with his previously unpublished fiction and he is heading to the stratosphere in riches and fame. And why is Nicole Kidman phoning Bob on a regular basis?

In this rush of fame and fortune Bob has been notified he has been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature for “Reggie The Egyptian Rescue Dog” for narrowing the divide between Christians and Muslims primarily due to me a Muslim dog living happily in a Christian world where love and security unite the world. And me, Reggie, has been specifically invited to the awards ceremony to be awarded same prize. A human and a dog co-winner of a Nobel Prize!

Imagine all this fame and impetus towards world peace sparked by me trying to eat a few morsels of food from a Rottenwhiler‘s bowl. Fate plays a strange role in our life doesn’t it? Thank goodness our nice walled home in the Bridle Path has big gates and a security team protecting us as there are cameras. There are journalists from all over the world wanting to speak to Bob and take a picture of me. Not even Drake’s mansion has been mobbed like this.

Bob repurposes his tuxedo and I get an extra special grooming and off we all go in our newly purchased Embraer private jet to Stockholm for the awards ceremony. There are more dogs than humans on the plane. Dillie the Westie is mellow and so supportive. He gives me the confidence to get through the awards ceremony by saying I am and will always be a dog and loved in mute fashion by so many dogs all over the world. Dillie is so wise and calm he relaxes me with his worldly insight.

Ollie sniffs thoroughly both inside and outside the airplane for explosives. Good to go! The Mookster has combed his intelligence experts for potential threats. None! Kit Kat is reviewing diagrams the grounds and interior of the palace where the award will be given. Penny is in the hotel lobby discretely hiding behind a potted plant watching comings and goings.

We enjoy the long flight to Stockholm and the music of Gordon Lightfoot calms all of us. We arrive at 9 a.m. the day before the award ceremony. Bob and Fay take all us dogs for a long walk in this beautiful city of Stockholm before throngs of people that laugh and clap as we proudly swagger down the streets,  Before we fall into an exhausted sleep back at the hotel Bob puts on the “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” by Mr. Gordon Lightfoot to calm us down before we sleep. I love that song but in my bones I feel a sense of dread for no apparent reason!

We wake up refreshed after such a long trip. After breakfast Dillie the Westie and the security team go out for a long walk in Stockholm with many strange sights and smells and a few local dogs come to greet us strange Canadians.

When we return to the hotel after our walk the press is waiting for us. I am big news globally as the only dog to ever receive a Nobel Prize. As I look out in the crowd I long to see Anwar my former owner but I know he is The Land Beyond with Karim but I look nonetheless. I feel that they are with me to share my special moment. It is OUR MOMENT. We go to a fancy Nobel laureate lunch and a rehearsal. In the evening the King of Sweden will give out the awards. Dillie the Westie and I receive a bath and a fluff out in the afternoon after the lunch. We got a little muddy on our morning walk. Our security team is hard at work at the awards venue.

A big limousine arrives and whisks us the royal palace for the ceremony. I see Fay in the room holding Dillie. There is silence as the King walks into the room. Bob picks me up and we walk up to the King and Bob bows and I give a bark of respect and the entire room breaks up with laughter. The King ruffles my head and says,” Reggie you have taught the world a lesson in respect.” I have a shiny medal on my collar now and it is much bigger than my rabies vaccination tag!

We attend a press conference where Bob makes a statement, “The book ‘Reggie The Egyptian Rescue Dog’ was written by me with the help and inspiration of Reggie. After finishing each chapter I read it to him. If he agreed he would bark and if he disagreed he would growl. Each chapter you have read received a final bark of Reggie approval. I hope the book reaches many children and in a gentle and non didactic way creates a sense of respect for different cultures and religions.”

We have a grand banquet with the prize winners. Dillie the Westie and I have ground venison and rice. We meet many important and fascinating people. A winner from Scotland comes up to Dillie the Westie and says that Dillie is a wee Scot and has made Scotland proud! I am glad to see there are many people that want to see my best friend and mentor Dillie the Westie as he is also an important character in the book. That sweet dog has not an ounce of jealously in his old and wise body.

On our last day in Stockholm all of us are invited to a private lunch with the King and his grandchildren who want to meet and pet me and Dillie the Westie. Before we go to the airport Joe, I mean President Biden, calls us to congratulate Bob and I on our prize. President Biden tells Bob a secret and invites us all up to a place called Camp David in the summer. What is President Biden’s secret? Are we going camping with the President?

After our takeoff Bob tells us President Biden’s secret which is United States and Iran have reached a “nuclear deal” but I am not sure what that means. “Reggie The Egyptian Rescue Dog” said President Biden, has softened the heart of the Iranians.