Although we try yet another moderately priced Bordeaux I can’t stop contemplating where Portugal has gone. Is there some new strain of COVID or natural disaster (not a political corruption one) that has strangled the outflow of Portuguese exports of wine to Ontario? Has some strange variety of fungus attacked Portuguese vineyards? Has TAP Portugal Airlines being shamed for serving wine in paper coffee cups?
Pending an answer before Portuguese wines are but a distant memory in consumer’s minds why not focus on Bordeaux?
We try a Château Des Places 2020 Graves a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot.
Aroma: Blueberry, cassis, black cherry enveloped by a gentle touch of vanilla. Typical Bordeaux being tight fisted and secretive.
Palate: Moderate tannins. Gentle blueberry perhaps even weak and too diffuse or God help me if I say watery.
Personality: I am impressive on the nose but when the rubber hits the road I am overpriced and somewhat anemic.
Food Match: Midia Pilafi.
Cellarbility: Drink now.
Price: $27 CDN (Ontario).
RKS 2024 Wine Rating: 86/100. Roger Voss 91.
(Château des Places Graves 2020, A.C. Graves, Vignobles Reynaud, Gironde, France, 750 mL, 14%).
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is premiering an all-new original documentary series, The Power of Film, which explores some of the most popular and memorable American films of all time. New episodes of the six-part series will premiere every Thursday beginning January 4 at 8pm ET. Hosted and curated by renowned UCLA professor emeritus, founding chair of UCLA’s Film and Television Producers Program, and one of the founders of the UCLA Film Archive, Howard Suber, each 40-minute episode dives deep into the art of storytelling by examining the defining principles and inner workings of beloved films.
Howard Suber your most knowledgeable and likeable host!
Executive produced by Doug Pray (Netflix’s hit series Arnold, HBO’s Grammy-winning, 5x Emmy-nominated series The Defiant Ones) and Laura Gabbert (IFC/Hulu’s City of Gold, Greenwich Entertainment’s Food and Country), and based on Suber’s book of the same title, The Power of Filmgoes far beyond an online masterclass by intertwining his structured framework, teachings and insights with dozens of dramatic movie scenes to create a uniquely engaging narrative through humor, emotion and human experience.
Suber’s impact on the entertainment industry and deep understanding of cinema have inspired countless careers throughout his 53 years of teaching. His efforts resulted in the Dickson Emeritus Professorship Award, the highest honor bestowed upon a retired faculty member. Having an extensive history of analyzing films and television, Suber has uncovered the mysteries surrounding what makes a film not only popular, but also memorable across generations. Suber is a man steeped in American film. His delivery is slow as if he has so much data in his brain he struggles to synthesize and simplify it but he does his best as clips of numerous films flash by. It is as if we are in a PHD 101 film class. Suber delivers in an easy format and tone imparting his insights on film and “arms you” with a theoretical intellectual framework to analyze films. While you may not agree with his ideology of film surely you will agree with some of it or at least understand his point of view. The content is far from simplistic and to glean full benefit of each episode multiple views are recommended.
Part of the fun is watching the continual stream of film clips. You may jump up and remark that you have seen this and that film and this is an effective mechanism to pair Suber’s comments with or like me you may have not seen or understood all the films but Suber is there to the rescue. Even if you determine Suber is a bit too complicated for you the endless film clips are well worth “the price of admission”!
The Power of Film is directed by Laura Gabbert, written by Howard Suber and Doug Pray, who also serves as supervising editor. Pray and Gabbert previously studied under and worked closely with Suber at the UCLA School of Film, Theater, and Television where they received their MFA.
Bear in mind the series exclusively focuses on American big studio productions with barely an acknowledgement to international and indee cinema quite like the programming of TCM the repetitive epicentre of big studio production. How many times a month must we watch “Rebel Without a Cause” or “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” on TCM?
Episode 4 “Heroes and Villains” (25January2024 at 20:00 ET)
There are enough film clips of great American films here you can bask in them and “get your money’s worth” without listening to Suber’s commentary. Suber offers his insight which given his credentials is worth listening to but that does not translate into you having to agree with it. Suber attempts to offer us a Coles Notes categorization of heroes and villains in American cinema and many interesting points are made.
Suber answers the question of why people keep returning to certain movies and it just may be that we want to see a just and equitable world. Somewhat like seeing a world we want it to be.
Suber remarks that both villains and heroes can be killers but the villain kills for pleasure and self aggrandizement whilst a hero kills on behalf of society of doing something for a higher purpose. Villains are often more interesting than heroes being unpredictable but heroes can be boring. Villains love chaos and heroes order.
Episode 5 “The Power of the Paradox” (1February2024 at 20:00 ET)
Suber’s view is that one main attraction to a film is the situation where things are not what they appear to be. A paradox is defined as any person or thing/situation exhibiting an apparently contradictory nature but in reality exposes a possible truth and is more effective when combined with mystery e.g. Marlon Brando as Colonel Kurtz in “Apocalypse Now”:
Paradox has you asking for more. Colonel Kurtz was the dream soldier with impeccable credentials and experience yet he was demonic. Paradox draws viewers in as it is based on the reality of life. Dualities of character or not always contradictory as they can exist simultaneously. Predictable characters are boring. Betrayal can be the key for a successful film.
Episode 6 “Love and Meaning” (8February2024 20:00 ET)
In the last episode perhaps the most important theme in American film is love and Suber comes at the viewer with a wealth of film clips, semantics and psychology. Love is more than romance according to Suber as it includes mentorship, work, obsession, love triangles, war, the conflict between the concept of desire and duty and love and comedy. Desire is crucial to many films balancing the desire of the characters and that of the audience.
At last we are in a civilized country arriving after a nine hour train trip from Bled in Yugoslavia. We arrived at 4:30 p.m. We had a glorious long shower with hot water. What went down the drain was black as we were so grubby. The train had started in Athens. The conditions were filthy. No food and the toilets so vile you felt like gagging. After cleaning up and feeling human again Fritz came and picked us up and we had a tour of the Olympic grounds. We went to the biergarten where Hitler made several speeches. Sausages and huge mugs of beer. I had a great headache was glad to return to the hotel. I awoke at 5 a.m. with a horrible cold and sore throat. I went down for breakfast and had eggs for the first time in months. When I returned Rob was awake and went down for breakfast. We leave at 11 with Fritz in his Alfa Romeo and head towards the Rhine. I will buy some Kleenex and cough drops and hope for the best. We will be staying in a hunting lodge in the Black Forest.
Torontonians like to celebrate on New Year’s Eve. Are they happy to end the year or begin a new year. Puzzling humans!
I am happy with the past year as I arrived safely in Canada and luckily landed with Bob, Fay and Dillie. Even Karim has joined us. I have much to be thankful for.
Karim and I are so excited as we feel there is something electric in the air. Dillie is a bit more chilled as he has been through it many times. I hear Bob and Fay talking and they say Paul and Patricia are coming over for a special dinner called the dinner of the Seven Fishes. Bob and Fay have been working for days on it. The smells are incredible and that is a compliment from meat eaters like us!
Paul and Patricia arrive bearing gifts of peanut butter cupcakes for doggies as a special treat. If you want to know how to win over a dog’s heart peanut butter is a good start. We all split one and what a delicious treat. A good way to end the year!
The Christmas tree lights are turned on and the fireplace crackles and we dogs sit by it until its too warm to stay in front of the fire. The humans are drinking some special liquid called wine and talking. Then dinner is served and it lasts for several hours. Us dogs get a treat of some fish called tuna with some rice after we eat our chicken kibble. We are so full and tired all three of us go for a nap and are woken up by Fay so we can “see the ball drop”. The ball drops and everyone shouts, “Happy New Year”! Something in a bottle goes pop and the humans clink their glasses full of the liquid. Paul and Patricia leave shortly after and Bob and Fay work to clean up all the dishes. Karim is feeling a bit dizzy. Perhaps the tuna has not agreed with him.
Bob then takes us for a walk. It is the first one for us in this new year and it is cold and we can see our breath. We joke about us being the Rat Pack. I notice Karim is a bit unsteady on his feet and I ask him if he is feeling fine and he responds he is just so tired he wants to sleep. So that’s where we go and we are dreaming of beef as tomorrow there will be a special New Years dinner of roast beef and we dogs know we will get a piece as a treat.
I have an unusual dream that I am back in Cairo with Karim in the pack and we find a door to slip through and we are in a butcher’s shop in the main market at Cairo with all sorts of meat in the open for us to eat and there are no humans about.
In the early morning I am woken up half asleep by Dillie howling. I am very confused about why Dillie is acting so out of character. I see Dillie trying to nudge Karim to wake him up. But there is blood on Dillie’s snout. Has he hurt himself and is howling in pain? Then I see Karim is not moving and there is a pool of blood oozing out of his mouth. He is cold. Karim has left us to visit The Land Beyond. I say a quick prayer to Allah and pray he will guide Karim. Bob is with us and he knows instantly that our dearest Karim is gone. He picks up Karim and wraps him in a blanket. Then I see Bob and Fay putting their heads down and crying. Bob says a prayer wishing Karim a safe journey. I go outside with Dillie and we howl like wolves. We are so sad. We are hurting. Why did this happen to Karim? What did he do wrong? One moment happy the next dead. Why is life so unfair? Karim my dear friend Dillie and I will miss you terribly. Our little Rat Pack is down to two now. Safe travels dear brother.
Safe travels dearest Karim. we have big holes in our hearts….why o why?
Just when I was thinking Australia was becoming a bit tiresome with the same wines from the same appellations my ears perked up and my eyes bulged, just a bit, when I saw a Springs Road Shiraz from Battle of Bosworth Wines on Kangaroo Island. I did a quick dig on Kangaroo Island finding out it is a thirty-minute flight from Adelaide. It is a bit of a nature paradise with 1/3 of its area dedicated to nature preserves. Spectacular coastal cliffs. Penguins! Varied accommodations and eateries. Why is it I have had no previous desire to visit Australia but have a sudden urge to visit and discover Kangaroo Island. It could be I lived there in a previous life? Or it could it be my childhood optometrist had Gafney as a surname the same as the location of the winery on Gafney Road. The spirits of my past beckon me to Kangaroo Island for a great cosmic experience and some great wine?
Will the wines of Kangaroo Island sing a siren song for me?
Aroma: Solid and dense notes of blackberry and almost too ripe raspberries with subtle vanilla notes.
Palate: A Salzburgian salt mine depth to the wine with a finish as long as the wooden slides one rockets down to get to the heart of the salt mines. The blackberry continues to hog the stage like an experienced Shakespearian actor and not like a K-Pop boy band. In other words a serious and dignified Shiraz not a bowl of jam. Just the perfect amount of residual sugar. Moderate tannins and no lurking nasty acid. Northern Rhone?
Personality: I am a hidden gem both in quality and geographic uniqueness. Consider me a welcome escape from Barossa and McLaren Vale. Imagine at your next party you bring a bottle of me! Kangaroo Island mate….bollocks!
Food Match: I would like to pair this with Kangaroo Island speciality dishes but as my calling has yet to materialize as the spirits are a bit slow on a Saturday night could it be a chance to say this would pair with a Kangaroo steak or some Kangaroo Island mutton?
Cellarbility: Drink by 2026-year end.
Price: $23 CDN as a manager discount otherwise $33 CDN.
(Springs Road 2017 Kangaroo Island Shiraz, Battle of Bosworth Wines, Willunga, South Australia, 750 mL,14.5%).
P.S. This wine only strengthens my cosmic connection to Kangaroo Island a location where I think wine tourism may reach perfection! I am damn certain this wine beckons me to Kangaroo Island!
“I believe in the Supreme Being, in a Creator whatever he may be. I care little who has placed us here below to fulfill our duties as citizens and parents; but I don’t need to go to a church to kiss silver plates and fatten, out of my pocket, a lot of good-for-nothings who live better than we do. For one can know him as well in a wood, in a field, or even contemplating the ethereal heavens like the ancients. My God is the God of Socrates, of Franklin or Voltaire, and of Béranger. And I can’t admit of an old boy of a God who takes walks in his garden with a cane in his hand, who lodges his friends in the belly of whales, dies uttering a cry, and rises again at the end of three days; things absurd in themselves, and completely opposed, moreover, to all physical laws, which proves to us, by the way, that priests have always wallowed in squalid ignorance, and tried to drag the whole nations down after them.”
“Why, at least, was not her husband one of those silently determined men who work at their books all night, and at last, when at sixty rheumatism was upon them, wear a string of medals on their ill-fitting black coat? She would have wished this name of Bovary, which was hers, to be illustrious. To see it displayed at the booksellers’, repeated in the newspapers, known to all France. But Charles had no ambition.”
We are now in the republic of Slovenia in a fairytale town of Bled. We arrived yesterday and will remain here until August 9th when we will take the train to Munich. We will meet our friend there who has a car and we will be visiting the Black Forest (Schwartzwald). Then a boat trip up the Rhine and then after to Berlin then back to Frankfurt in early September for our trip back to New York.
Bled is like a town in a story all very alpine. There is also a castle and a beautiful lake with wonderful swimming. Marshall Tito spends part of his summers here. We are surrounded by the Julian Alps. Tonight we go to a park right on the lake for an opera. The last one was too much for Robert.
It is hard to believe our long trip of almost 4 months is coming to an end. And no blazing heat up in the North of Yugoslavia. We are but 8 hours by train to Munich. I do not wish to return to Yugoslavia as I am too used to comfort. There is a shortage of just about everything. The food is poor full of starch and a lack of vegetables unlike Greece with its varied and delicious food with fruits and vegetables in abundance.
We had a miserable trip here on my birthday. We started at 4:30 a.m. and arrived here at 3:30 p.m. We took a bus, then a ferry then three more bus trips. Oh boy. The seats on the bus were like a park bench with a leather headrest. I sure hope they are not like that on our train trip to Munich or they will need a stretcher to take me off. It is too damp here for my back. The dry heat in Greece was much better. I am looking forward to Germany where we will be sleeping in a house in the forest. Germany is having a heat wave now with Munich having had a temperature of 94 degrees. Although Slovenia is beautiful the people are cold and rude but then again I said that about Germany and look where we are going next.
I just went outside to collect our bathing suits that were drying outside and I noticed there is a pear tree full of pears. We have a cute room just below the sloping Alpine roof. It is much cooler here than in Croatia and Serbia with an average temperature of 75. It is strange to see they have comforters here on the beds which is quite a change from the islands. The food here is just about the same as the rest of Yugoslavia. Thank goodness for the markets where usually but not always you can buy fruit and now tomato is the king here.
In the last island we met a girl Sonya who is a nurse in an army hospital. She had a car. She was beautiful and charming and took us around. We visited a couple of her friends who had summer homes. Beautiful outside but very poor inside.
Our initial meeting with Reggie was a chance one at Sherwood Park in Toronto at an off-leash trail. Reggie was with his foster parents Anthony and Susan. Our West Highland Terrier Dillie and Reggie hit it off right off the bat. Reggie was well mannered and even shook Bob’s hand. Buddhists believe in auspicious connections meaning that a random meeting is not so random. There is a purpose to such a meeting. Call it fate if you wish. We learnt from the foster parents that Reggie was with a rescue society and was up for adoption. We completed the application too late and missed out on our destiny with fate.
Fate revisited two weeks later as Reggie’s “parents” were both to be transferred by the bank they worked for to Singapore and Reggie was not in those plans so we became owners of the cute fellow. Aside from nipping Bob on the first day and being a bit surly and hiding behind the sofa he quickly fit into our family life. Most importantly he and Dillie got along like brothers, you know the ones that actually get along with each other.
What is Reggie like? He is one very smart dog and we swear he understands English! He has a strange passion for watching the BBC and we can’t figure that out. He also loves that British never ending soap opera “Coronation Street”. Dillie hangs out with Bob more than with Fay and prefers jazz and classical music to television.
We know rescue dogs can suffer from trauma but aside from that first day we see no outward signs of trauma. It was as if some voice had spoken to him after nipping Bob on day 1 as he very quickly nuzzled up to him and whimpered as if he was apologizing. Isn’t that so strange? We know his rough past with the loss of his master Anwar, his time on the street and the injury caused to him by a big dog on the streets of Cairo. If he is hurting emotionally he is hiding it well.
He does have a strange habit of prostrating himself at the same time each morning and evening for 5 minutes or so. It is almost as if he is praying?
Reggie enjoys his kibble and lots of cold water. He looks at us after dinner in a thankful fashion as if he is thanking us.
One reason we adopted Reggie was to keep our ageing Dillie on his toes and stimulated both to enrich and lengthen his life.
Reggie has only been with us for a few months but is popular with humans and their dogs. He has a very unique story about living on the streets of a tough city and I wonder if the neighbourhood dogs know that but how could they as dogs don’t talk to each other! And my goodness he loves his walks especially the long ones. We are apprehensive about letting him off leash until we finish with his training at “puppy school”. But we know he has had enough of wandering alone and we think off leash he will stay close to us like Dillie.
Is he different from Dillie? Both love belly rubs, walking, food, treats and toys but Reggie is quieter than Dillie. Dillie is more territorial when it comes to anyone coming in our house that he does not know well. Reggie might give a few barks but soon is wagging his tail and greeting them looking for a pat on the head. Not exactly a guard dog.
Unfortunately, in Ontario we receive only a small amount of Greek red wine and that which has flowed our way on the retail shelves of our state liquor monopoly fails to impress much of it Xinomavro if not aged sufficiently can be unpleasantly tannic.
I was piqued when I saw this Dyo Elies from the administrative area of Greece, Macedonia. Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city, is in Macedonia. Much smaller than Athens it is a rich gastronomic, cultural, historical and coffee and cocktail obsessed city. I can’t recall any European city where so many delicious aromas permeate the air. On my last visit there at Thessaloniki restaurants very little wine could be seen but rather cocktails the younger set is clearly in love with. In the restaurants serving up some of the city’s best food it will be the “old guard” and tourists you see drinking wine.
This Dyo Elies is 70% Syrah and 30% Merlot. No Greek indigenous grapes here! Some earlier vintages had a small amount of Xinomavro in the blend. The wine spent 14 months in 225 litre French and American oak and a further 8 months in the bottle.
Aroma: Although the Merlot here is in the minority it shows its gratitude about its inclusivity by asserting its soft character and a distinctive toasty tinge oaked Merlot can lend to a wine. The Syrah adds some spiciness to the blackberry and black cherry aromatics.
Palate: Full bodied with unique cedar, carob, coffee and licorice interlopers but as for fruit blackberry doesn’t want to leave the show. The Syrah leaves some white pepper and at 14.5% alcohol the wine is a bit hot, not James Cagney “White Heat” but it is noticeable. Moderate broad-based tannins.
Personality: I mean business. Nothing flippant or exhibitionist about me. I am built for food and nothing light and frivolous please.
Food Match: Pastitso.
Cellarbility: Drink by 2026-year end.
Price: $28.20 CDN (Ontario) as a manager discount otherwise a steep $35.45.
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