RKS 2023 Wine: A CS from SA: Eminent Quality at a Reasonable Price!

Some 15 years ago I attended the New York Wine Expo at a bunker called the Jacob Javitz Convention Centre in Manhattan. After a long afternoon in my exit I made a last valiant effort to try a few South African red wines. The majority of them had an earthy-gamey streak to them. South African reds appear to have escaped that trait but I retain that memory and test it now and again as we will do with a Glen Carlou 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon.

The wine was aged 16 months in second fill French oak. The grapes were harvested from 10 different but proximate vineyards on the slopes of Simonsberg Mountain.

Aroma: Chockful of ripe dark fruit with a rich vein of blueberry and some dark chocolate. A wine that is evolving nicely with some good legs left.

Palate: Recovering from a Clarence Dillon 2016 Clarendelle Bordeaux last time around it was refreshing that this wine was not suffering from a rapid decline! Not a spring chicken but a young adult. Full bodied with some discernible mint on its long finish. Some noticeable acidity but within respectable boundaries. The blueberry and blackberries mushroom on the back palate.

Food match: South African Bobotie.

Personality: My Cabernet Sauvignon cousins in the Wine World have different characteristics but one common element in many of them would be blueberry which I have in my aromatic and palate attributes. Did I just hear RKS Wine say “Well done Glen Carlou as you have delivered a quality wine at an eminently reasonable price.”  Also I thought I heard them saying no earthy and gamey streak in me. Bravo RKS Wine!

Price: $18.95 CDN.

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 90/100.

(Glen Carlou 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon, WO Paarl, Glen Carlou Vineyards, Klapmuts, South Africa, 750 mL, 14.5%).

RKS 2023 Film: “Shadow Island”: A Mixture of Mystery, Horror and Swedish Traitors

The Swedish film “Shadow Island” is a tantalizing combination of mystery and horror tinged with a Swedish traitor or two. Let the NATO jets roaring overhead in the beginning of the movie and radio stories about Sweden joining NATO whet your whistle on the espionage front. At the film’s conclusion you may conclude it is a Russiaphobia movie. You will also conclude the characters are not who they initially appear to be.

David Tapper (Johan Heinstedt) leaves home for Shadow Island, a remote and seemingly deserted Swedish island, after finding a box of his late father’s work that pointed to some serious work he was doing in Shadow Island and the mystery intensifies upon David’s arrival on Shadow Island. And the romance with Sara (Hanne Mathisen Haga) blossoms. Sara is inhabiting an abandoned lighthouse off Shadow Island working on her bachelor’s psychology thesis.

The mysterious 1991 death of the lighthouse keeper and his family on Shadow Island intrigues the viewer and the mystery intensifies with the appearance of a couple of Russians. I’ll write no more other than saying “Shadow Island” like a similar 2021 U.S. Norwegian film “Arctic Void” are stellar examples of what the mystery genre of films can be. Here is my previous review of “Arctic Void” https://a-little-birdie-told-me.ca/2021/12/31/rks-film-arctic-void-devoid-of-a-thrill-but-full-of-questions/

Written and directed by Johan Storm.” Shadow Island” is now available on Digital and VOD.

RKS 2023 Film Rating 86/100.

RKS 2023 Film: The Inevitability of a Return to Mexico From The United States: A Question of Mañana

The Public Broadcasting System (PBS) of the United States celebrates Latino/x Heritage Month with the documentary “Bulls and Saints” which will be broadcast on September 18th at 10 p.m. ET/9 Central and will be available to stream until December 17, 2023 at pbs.org. and PBS App.

Tacho and Cecilia are from a small Mexican village Cheran. They had intended to stay one year in the United States yet after that year and 19 others they remain in rural North Carolina with hundreds of Mexican families. Tacho and Cecilia are undocumented hence illegally in the United States. They haven’t seen their families since arriving in the United States hence there is loneliness and guilt and leaving their parents behind. And they work so hard with differing schedules Tacho misses his own children and wishes he could spend more time with them.

Life is hard but they are handcuffed by the lure of cash to fund their dream of constructing a home in Cheran. Tacho at one point realizes his life is with his family in the United States yet he continually repeats he will be returning with Cecilia to Cheran where he will have a small ranch. It is always tomorrow but will that tomorrow ever come?

Although the story of Tacho and Cecilia is interesting and highly personal their story is a common one amongst many immigrants. We see both Tacho and Cecilia’s mothers who carry on used to their absent children.

Immigration is a tough game and one is left with the impression the day of tomorrow and their return to Mexico is part of the immigration process for Mexicans in the United States.

Tacho quotes a popular expression that it is the bulls that throw you to the ground and the saints lift you to heaven. The pitfalls of illegal immigration may throw you bulls but Tacho and Cecilia have shown they can pick themselves up in the daily grind to survive but is a heavenly return to Mexico is but a dream?

RKS 2023 Film: Toronto International Film Festival: “The Tundra Within Me”

Lena (Risten Anine Gaup) in furtherance of her painting moves from Oslo to her Sámpi birthplace with Jonas her young son. She’s painting female reindeer herders in an abstract and political way. Lena is not exactly given a warm welcome returning to her ancestral home. In her own view as a former reindeer herder who sold her herding license she had been given by her father she has brought shame on her ancestors.

Reindeer are an important part of the Sámi culture. Reindeer herding is a semi-nomadic activity and threatened by economic development including mining and wind farms. Sámi people inhabit Sámpi encompassing large northern parts of Norway, Finland, Sweden and the Kola Peninsula in Russia.

Máhtte (Nils Ailu Kemi) is a reindeer herder working for his mother who holds the reindeer herding license. Well a romance develops between Máhtte and Lena thwarting Máhtte’s mother’s dream of marrying his girlfriend Biret and merging both family’s herds. Lena’s mother is not supportive of Lena’s art calling it crap and Máhtte’s mother laments the loss of a possible marriage and merger. A bit of a rocky romance but the love of reindeer saves all!

While the romance thread of the film lacks much innovation the cinematography of the Sámpian winter landscape is marvelous as well as the traditional Sámpian music throughout. Could I summarize the film by saying you’ll be treated to romance, a woman struggling against sexism and traditional cultural norms. There is no clear victory for Lena but rather a compromise most importantly on her own terms. Modern Norway and traditional Sámi culture can co-exist.

“The Tundra Within Me” shows on September 11/13.

Directed by Sara Margrethe Oskal, a former reindeer herder!

You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNwQGF9Gbnc

RKS 2023 Film Rating: 74/100.

RKS Literature: Dangers Facing the Lonely Intellectual (Balzac)

“His shop is a very good place to go to; you can talk to all great men of the day there. There, my dear fellow, a young man can learn more in an hour than by growing pale over books for 10 years. People discuss articles, and concoct subjects, and get to know famous and influential people who may be useful. To succeed today one must get to know people. It is all a matter of luck, you see. There is nothing more fatal than to be an intellectual all alone in your corner.”

Honoré de Balzac, “Lost Illusions”

RKS 2023 Wine: Hot Pinot Noir and a Blank Stare from the Waiter

In Niagara-on-the-Lake this week we had a dinner on the patio of the Niagara-on-the-Lake Golf Course. A bit of a hidden secret. What a view of Lake Ontario and Toronto 135 kilometres in the distance. Yes and even Fort Niagara in Youngstown New York. A very good burger and coconut shrimp but the Reif Estate Pinot Noir was served at room temperature which was 35 degrees Celsius. Upon settling the bill I mentioned to the waiter the wine was warm. He looked at me dumbfounded. “We can put your glass in the fridge”. Geez is this to be expected in the biggest wine producing region in Canada?

Motto of the story is that if you care an inch about proper wine service dear general manager instruct your staff Pinot Noir is not in the hot soup section of the menu.

RKS 2023 Wine: 2018 Barrel Aged Chardonnay from Niagara’s Locust Lane: Escaping the Plague of Over Oaked Chards

Locusts and agriculture do not mix. The last thing winemakers in the Niagara region of Ontario want are swarms of locusts devouring their grapes. God may have been angry with Egypt but with Niagara, Ontario? Bad enough they have to deal with swarms of grape loving birds and waterlogged peaches! Is my negative focused mind forgetting there are Locust trees! So not having visited the winery let’s be positive and assume there must be a nearby lane with locust trees growing there!

Aroma: Remember Lance in “Apocalypse Now” hopping off the patrol boat on the Mekong Delta looking for mangos? He certainly could have found some mango influence in this wine. There is also pineapple, banana cream pie and butterscotch in this golden coloured Chardonnay.

Palate: Beautifully balanced. Rich but not decadently so. Well measured you might say. The mango on the nose fades somewhat and is complimented by delicate minerality, Paula Red apple, Flemish pear, pear Galette, and wet slate. Long finish.

Personality: Not to boast but I am a stellar example of a properly oaked Chardonnay. Nothing out of whack. Eminent trust you can place in me as a sipping and a foodie wine. I have escaped the Plague of over oaked Chardonnays!

Food Match: Icelandic Cod in Merquén with Cilantro Adobo.

Cellarbility: Hold until 2026.

Price: $15.95 CDN. YOWSERS!

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 91/100.

(Locust Lane Estate Winery 2018 Barrel Select Chardonnay, VQA Niagara Peninsula, Locust Lane Estate Winery Ltd., Beamsville, Ontario, 750 mL, 12.5%).

Toronto International Film Festival: “Seagrass”: A Downward Spiral in A Self Development Retreat

Judith and her husband Steve attend a self development camp off the British Columbia mainland at Gabriola Island. They bring their young daughters Stephanie and Emmy with them as other couples also do.

Judith (Ally Maki) is a Japanese Canadian. Her mother recently died and she pathetically, like Pig Pen in Snoopy, clings to her late mother’s blanket. She has very low self esteem calling herself a bad mother. She comes from a family she described as focused more on duty and responsibility than on love. She neither speaks Japanese nor knows very little of her parents and their internment during World War Two in British Columbia prisoner camps. Although attending the self development “camp” she scarcely knows why she is there. She can’t seem to define herself not helped by her parents ever explaining their internment. Judith is lost emotionally.

Steve (Luke Roberts), the husband of Judith initially appears well adjusted and seems somewhat puzzled why he is at the camp other than Judith wants him there. The blind leading the blind.

Their oldest daughter Stephanie (Nyha Breitkreuz) is a pre-teen seemingly the most adjusted in the family. Her younger sister Emmy (Remy Marthaller) suffers from anxiety and finds comfort with stuffed animals, a ball in the swimming pool and a big rock on the beach.

Then there is Pat (Chris Pang) and Carol (Sarah Gadon) the perfect couple in the eyes of Judith but if they are so perfect why the interest in Judith by Pat?

The self development retreat has couples agonize what is wrong attempting to set it right with a cheerful facilitator full of tired phraseology and interaction exercises. The pillow banging scene is hilarious and the film momentarily heads in a sarcastic direction. The racism shown mostly by the children is far from comedic.

Judith tries to initiate sex with husband Steve but that bombs. Then the wheels fall off the bus instead of going round and round as in the children’s story. Judith, Steve, Pat and Carol go to a karaoke bar outside the camp and a huge emotional explosion results in a near horrific tragedy.

If there is any saving of the relationship between Judith and Steve it is not attributable to the happy facilitator and the pillow banging exercises but in a moment of high anguish of Judith where in a few words she bears her tortured soul. The acting throughout is stellar and one can’t deny the range and talent of Maki. Gotta love that scene with her in the karaoke bar. What a voice she has!

The film is written directed by Meredith Hama-Brown a British Columbian. In a nutshell the film exposes questions relating to fear and insecurity, distressed family, motherhood, grief, shame, intergenerational trauma and racial identity.

The film shows as part of the TIFF Discovery Programme.

RKS 2023 Film Rating 92/100.

The film shows 8 and 9 September 2023.

RKS 2023 Film: “Bloom”: Toronto International Film Festival

The Canadian short “Bloom” screens as part of the TIFF Short Cuts Programme. It scores big points in 11 minutes and may have you guessing what it is all about. No Greta Thunberg inflicting didactic misery but rather an almost no dialogue short.

Here is my take. Poor Laurel walks home to find her partner Hannah has packed up and left! And Laurel had brought home as a gift a special plant for Hannah.

The plant has special powers. Boy this would make a fantastic horror movie! Laurel in a sense lives the life of her plant. As the plant suffers so does Laurel.

A pleasant warning to appreciate the benefits of vegetation for humanity without having to listen to the shrill screams of an angry Scandinavian teenager.

Jodi Balfour as Laurel delivers an impeccable performance.

“Bloom” screens on 8 and 12 September 2023.

Directed by British Columbia filmmaker Kasey Lum.

RKS 2023 Short Film Rating 95/100.