RKS 2023 Wine: Global Inclusion is Not Profitable! A St. Laurent from Austria

You would expect a state liquor monopoly like our brave and fearless Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) would be a champion of “global inclusion” a popular term these days rammed down our throats not because it is indeed a worthy concept but rather a corporate game historically designed to meet bidding requirements of governmental bodies tendering out business. Interesting to witness a corporation internally championing global inclusion but when it was a question of bidding on some Saudi business all woman on the “corporate team” making the presentation were pulled so as not to “offend” the Saudis. Make no mistake corporate promoted global inclusion is shallow marketing…just look at the board of director composition of corporate global inclusion “champions” and see if they walk the talk.

Back to global inclusion and wine in the Province of Ontario. Very little attempt is made by the LCBO to sell a variety of different grapes from a variety of countries. The LCBO has a torrid love affair with California and aside from that profit driven relationship the usual suspects of Australia, Ontario, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, New Zealand, Chile and Argentina dominate LCBO shelves.

Isn’t it time for all of us to stand up and say Romanian wines matter or more wines made from St. Laurent from Austria, Germany and the Czech Republic!

In this case a 2020 Ried Stiftsbreite St. Laurent wine from Austria. It is their “basic” St. Laurent as they also have a Reserve and Grand Reserve St. Laurent.

Aroma: A plethora of soft centred smokey cherry and blackberry.

Palate: Big time black cherry in this soft and almost juicy wine. Minimal tannins and acidity with a moderately long finish. The oak influence is gentle. The wine rested in large oak vats for 18 months and my guess is Hungarian oak.

Personality: I am so easy to drink and highly approachable so LCBO bring more St. Laurent into your stores.

Food Match: Cabbage rolls in a light tomato sauce.

Cellarbility: Best consumed fresh. BB end of 2024.

Price: $26.95 CDN (Ontario).

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 91/100. Peter Moser, Falstaff.com 91.

(Ried Stiftsbreite St. Laurent Ausstich 2020, Thermenregion. Weingut Stifts Kloster Neuburg, Klosterneuburg, Austria, 750 mL, 13%).

RKS 2023 Film: “Another Body”: Misogynist “Sewage”

“Another Body” is a documentary journey into a filthy and disgusting pool of sickening misogynist sewage.

Taylor, a university student, (not her name and not her body in front of the doc camera) lives a quiet life in suburban United States until a friend messages her that she has seen Taylor on Pornhub a pornographic website. Indeed it is her face on a body that is not hers performing sexual acts she did not perform. Her name, address, school and other personal information is revealed. She is a victim as so many other women are of a deep fake.

She is devastated tumbling into big time anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Not assisted in any meaningful way by law enforcement and with the help of a friend from undergraduate school also victimized in the same manner she manages to piece together who it may be most likely a former boyfriend at her college. Despite the perpetrator using an untraceable VPN address there is a commonality of student victims leading to her fingering “Mike” a disturbed fellow engineering student. My personal experience with engineering students is that they are largely misogynist and proud of it. I dropped my daughter at university a few years ago. The poor girl was only somewhat terrified of this “leaving home” experience. It didn’t help that engineering students were verbally harassing women moving into residence. These purple faced louts (and proud of their loutish selves) exacerbated the situation by saying, “We got you now little girls. Your Mommy and Daddy won’t be here to protect you know.” Perverts in training.

These deep fakers target women 90% of the time in a pornographic fashion. There is precious little legislation assisting the thousands of American women victimized by deep fakes. One American deep fake website averages 14 million views a month. Researchers have predicted by 2024 there will be 5.2 million deep fakes 90% of which target women not surprising with over 9,500 deep fake websites. Easy to learn how to deep fake and it is no longer a hobby but a lucrative business. Easy to hire a deep faker expert to craft a video denigrating your enemy.

Lesson? Target deep fake websites and porn sites that use them or simply wait and treat all internet porn as fabricated and move on? Unfortunately, is there mass intellectual ability to ignore and laugh at deep fakes? I don’t think so.

One lawyer featured said he gives seminars to judges most of which have no idea of deep fake porn. Sad and disturbing. Unless legislative change is in the offing what more can be done except ignore just about everything online. Online equals risk and corruption?

Directed by Sophie Compton and Rueben Hamylin. Theatrical release in Canada is on 10November2023.

RKS 2023 Film Rating 90/100.

RKS 2023 Film: “Adventures of the Naked Umbrella”: Is it Bird With Glowing Eyes, a UFO or Possibly a Christmas Film?

Sam Wanoutsky (Jeremy Davies) is a frantic conspiracy theorist and that certainly shows by listening to his podcast “The Naked Umbrella”. He is a convicted arsonist currently out on parole so as one says, “He’s gotta keep his nose clean”. Even his parole officer Yolanda Johnston (Darnell Rhea) is pulling for Sam but the fact his wife Irene (Taryn Manning) inadvertently left the gas stove running and then lit a cigarette and kaboomed their trailer park home has certain fingers pointing to Sam’s pyro inclination.

Sam is deeply scarred by a childhood setting the pig sty and its occupants on fire egged on by his clansmen and deranged father so there is a flawed element to this quasi-comedic character. Can he confront his BBQ pork guilt? He has a wickedly savage Granny (Richard Riehle) who is cross dresser, dope dealer and loves a big bong now and then. Granny is a hoot and the only true purveyor of ribald comedic moments.

What conspiracy theorist doesn’t revel in the Kennedy assignation and UFO’s. Yes there is a rather hip and philosophical alien patiently enduring the limited intellectual capabilities of human beings. While Irene is deeply religious in her trailer park ways she can’t bring Jesus into Sam’s heart. You’ll be surprised at who is the savior of Sam and Irene but given the frantic pace and multi-directional spin of the film perhaps you will not be taken aback!

And then for a film critic notoriously” slow at the draw” it hit me like a ton of bricks 90% way through the film as the action occurs on Christmas Eve and the cacophony of Christmas songs intensified a revelation that “Adventures of the Naked Umbrella” could very well be a Christmas movie.

Directed by Gerald Brunskill and will be released On Demand and select American theatres on 10November2023.

You can watch the trailer here https://vimeo.com/784270065/14377a15b9?share=copy

RKS 2023 Film Rating 81/100.

RKS 2023 Wine: The Bad Oak Stink of A Bubonic Plague New Zealand Pinot Noir! Oak Murder of a Wine!

Wine can stink with a variety of contaminants. I recall having a Hester Creek Merlot from British Columbia a few years ago. It was jacked up with so much sulfur the wine tasted like hot dog juice. Oak can compliment the juice or it can embarrass itself by overpowering a wine.

I tried a Nor’Wester Greystone 2020 Pinot Noir from North Canterbury, New Zealand. No punches pulled but it stunk of new oak. My experience dictates never use new oak for your Pinot Noir but at best second or third fill oak barrels.

There was no fruit on the nose but simply overpowering oak. No fruit or much of anything on the palate other than perhaps a wine murdered by oak. This is the bubonic plague of Pinot Noir!

Stay away is my rating. A disgrace of winemaking. Jamessuckling.com gave this a 91! Priced at $22.75 CDN.

(Nor’wester by Greystone, Pinot Noir 2020 North Canterbury, New Zealand, Greystone Wines, North Canterbury, New Zealand, 750 mL, 13%).

RKS 2023 Literature: The Tight-Smiled Fury of Big Nurse (Ken Kesey)

“The Big Nurse tends to get real put out if something keeps her outfit from running like a smooth, accurate, precision-made machine. The slightest thing messy or out of kilter or in the way ties her into a little white knot of tight-smiled fury. She walks around with that same doll smile crimped between her chin and her nose and that same calm whir coming from her eyes, but down inside of her she’s as tense as steel. I know, I can feel it. And she doesn’t relax a hair till she gets the nuisance attended to- what she calls ‘adjusted to surroundings’. “

Ken Kesey “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, 1962.

RKS 2023 Wine and RKS 2023 Film: “Crush: Message in a Bottle”: Life and Death in Wine

In the Canadian documentary “Crush: Message in a Bottle” the philosophy and life stories of Ann-Marie Saunders of Saunders Vineyard, Thomas Bachelder of Bachelder Wines and Le Clos Jordanne, Kelly Mason of Mason Vineyards and Shiraz Mottiar of Malivoire Wine Company and Mottiar Vineyard discuss their approach to making wines in the Niagara wine appellation of Ontario but to a degree get personal about their family life and history.

Over the years I have visited numerous wineries in Portugal, Italy, France, Spain, Ontario, California and New York. Let me simplify matters by saying if you have visited one winery you have visited them all. Being a member of the media, I have one advantage. I get behind the bottle. I have spoken with winery owners, vineyard managers, public relations teams, distributors and vineyard workers all important players behind the bottle. I have had many a lunch with vineyard workers in Portugal  and the ladies that feed them incredible chefs. Yes that bottle of wine sitting in front of you that you pour and hopefully enjoy is more than wine. “Crush” drives home that indeed there is a message in every bottle and the common thread is passion. A passion for technicalities that stare at you from the label but never speak. The result is an intimate look at the winemaking and wine growing philosophy of these Niagara characters on the Niagara wine stage but it is not simply representative of a certain winemaking region but applicable to all winemaking regions of the world.

Bravo to writer and director Maya Gallus for crafting this intimate portrait of winemakers and grape growers battling the elements and for some on the edge of financial calamity without getting lost in overly technical explanations and terms. You will encounter such terms as powdery mildew, wild ferment, sustainable and regenerative farming, brix, carbonic maceration and punching down but you will not get lost.

And death is covered here of Kelly Mason’s parents as she was orphaned at 21 and shook up to her bare soul. And Ann-Marie Saunders losing her mother and her father Warren after the film wrapped up. Warren summed it up nicely saying that you just gotta take what you can get when growing grapes as you can’t control nature.

As a final story about life, death and wine several years ago while on a press trip to Campania I attended Southern Italy’s big wine show Vitingo in Naples. I encountered an amazing Barbera. I sent my review to the owner of the winery. A few months later I received a thank you from her saying that the Barbera grape was the passion of her younger brother who died at the age of 34 of cancer. He never had the opportunity to try the Barbera that he bottled. She said to me that I had brought back her deceased brother back into her soul by my review. So dear reader there is indeed more than wine in that bottle and it can be joyous or it can be heartbreaking. And this big seasoned wine writer was reduced to tears even writing about this now.

“Crush: Message in a Bottle” will be screening at Toronto Hot Docs on Sunday 5November2023 at 19:30. Reps from the wineries and growers will be present for a pre-screening meet and greet and a post screening Q&A.

RKS 2023 Film Rating: 86/100.

RKS 2023 Film: “Verona”: Canadian Teen in Turmoil Film

If you are of a certain vintage you may have seen a fair share of “teen turmoil” genre films. In “Verona” gone are the “Rebel Without a Cause” monikers of teen turmoil such as boys, cars, teen hanky panky and overbearing parental authority. “Verona” as a Segway into modern teen turmoil becomes a bit more complicated and topical.

Camila (Kat Khan) is a teen living in small town of Verona somewhat near Kingston, Ontario about halfway between Toronto and Montreal. Camila has a lot on her plate including a lesbian relationship with McKenzie (Basia Wyszynski) a United Church minister, drugs and a variety of sexual encounters in an attempt to discover her identity. Is she falling for Eric (Eric McDonald) the trans budding chef?

If you have seen a plethora of teen turmoil movies “Verona” falls into that genre and may impress the teen turmoil novice otherwise this dim lit film others nothing more than a dose of modernity to the teen turmoil genre. Why all the cows? Why can’t McKenzie deliver a convincing sermon? What is this wondering about grandpa accomplishing? What does Camila’s father and his sexually abusive father have to do with anything.

Does Camila learn anything from her experimental dalliances? Yes. Her actions have consequences.

Written and directed by Sebastian Back.

Theatrical Canadian release 3November2023 and VOD/Digital on 5December2023.

RKS 2023 Film Rating 67/100.

RKS 2023 Film: “Whose Y’er Father?” Easy on the Mind Silly Canadian Spoof: Magnum PEI!

Larry Constable (Chris Locke) is the sole detective in the tiny Canadian Province of Prince Edward Island known for its lobsters and mussels, beaches and delicious potatoes. Constable is a good natured and trustful soul whose detective skills place him between inept and the village simpleton.

Like Tom Selleck in “Magnum PI” he has a moustache but is rotund and balding. The anti-American prime time detective. It is difficult not to like a man whose most difficult assignment has been to spy on his cousin to determine if he is the thief of a Corning Ware casserole pot.

He has a big assignment after being hired by Luke Thorn a big-time seafood buyer to determine who fisherman Glen Miesner of Sandbar Cove is selling his lobster to. As his sales on the black market are encouraging fellow lobstermen to follow suite Thorn is taking a loss!

Seems like a simple assignment but lacking any idea of the sleuthing abilities of detectives soon the whole town of Sandbar Cove knows why he is there and then the fun starts with the development of a love interest, double dealing, blackmail, nymphomania, murder, hippie chicks and very little to do with black market lobsters.

Entertaining, fun and very Canadian! However not quite a Canadian classic. Motto of the story you must visit Prince Edward Island and feast at a traditional lobster supper. Theatrical release is on 3November2023.

Written and directed by Jeremy Larter.

RKS 2023 Film Rating: 71/100.

RKS 2023 Film: “Waikiki”: Vacillating Between Gritty, Fantasy, Myth and Reality

Writer and Director Christopher Kahunahana’s “Waikiki” shatters the myth and fantasy of Waikiki, Hawaii held by many. The opening scene features a massive cruise ship arriving and the closing scene a cruise ship departing. Beautiful Hawaiian scenery weaves in and out of the film.

The opening scene also includes happy Hawaiian hula dancers performing for tourists singing, “Magic of the Sea….Magic of Waikiki”. The gringos soak it up and viewers may groan at its corniness and sap laden lyrics but watching it just before the concluding credit rolls it becomes somewhat of a mockery of both the tourist and the myth of Waikiki.

Kea (Danielle Zalopany) in an abusive relationship with a short tempered and violent boyfriend Branden (Jason Quinn) works three jobs but still can’t afford a rental accommodation. Like Venice tourism has made living space intolerably expensive for locals. Living in a battered van in Paradise is that possible? It sure is as Waikiki hides its grit from tourists but Kea takes us through it and it could in sections be Skid Row Los Angeles.

After hitting a homeless man named Wo (Peter Shinkoda) in her van she drags him off the side of the road. He stinks, barely speaks but Kea, in mythical fashion embarks on a Ulyssean voyage with Wo that incorporates fragments of her tortured childhood and the incredible beauty of the Waikiki surroundings.

Director Kahunahana has made his point exposing the myth of Waikiki. For one of those travelers that avoids and despises the cruise ship mobs the film is simplistic but what frightens me is that many may miss the point of the film. Perhaps they are in a hurry to pig out on the cruise ship’s midnight buffet attended by the obese on their scooters.

Zalopany, Quinn and Shinkoda earn their paycheques in this film.

The film was released in theatres on October 27 and On Demand November 5.

You can see the trailer here https://vimeo.com/859551708

RKS 2023 Film Rating 83/100.

RKS 2023 Wine: Rocky Gully from The Frankland River in Western Australia: Flinstonish Wine

Time to try a Rocky Gully Shiraz from the Frankland River in Western Australia.

Aroma: Dense and verging on overripe black cherry and blackberry with hints of dark chocolate and toasty coconut.

Palate: Jumps over the boundary of ripe to overripe perhaps not surprising due to the 14.5% alcohol. Hey folks please no more of these overbaked and stewed wines. The fruit is lost in the alcohol. If you are trying to emulate Port….enough said. What I can pick out is cherry pie surrounded by excessive power. Perhaps a better term to describe the wine is over extracted. If there is any saving grace after aeration it softens and sweetens a bit on the finish but even then the alcohol bashes its potential personality down. Why not decant for 2 hours in a Hail Mary Eli Manning fashion!

Food Match: Brontosaurus burger Bam Bam!

Personality: Too big for my own britches.

Cellarbility: If you are going to bother consuming do so by the end of 2025.

Price: $17.95 CDN (Ontario).

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 79/100. Jamessuckling.com 92.

(Rocky Gully 2019 Shiraz, Frankland River, Western Australia, Frankland Estate Wines, Frankland River, Western Australia, 750 mL.).