RKS Literature: The Dark Underbelly of St. Petersburg (Dostoevsky)

“It was a strange story of a mysterious, in many respects barely credible relationship between a demented old man and his little granddaughter, who had fathomed him out thoroughly, mature beyond her years in the comprehension of what to other children, living in more stable and comfortable conditions, would remain a closed book till a much later age. It was a melancholy story, one of those dismal, heart-rendering stories which are so often played out unnoticed, almost shrouded in mystery, under the heavy St. Petersburg sky, in the dark hidden recesses of that huge city, amid the frenetic hustle and bustle of life with its unfeeling egotism, its conflicting interests, its sordid debauchery, clandestine crime, amidst the infernally senseless and abnormal conditions of life…..”

“Humiliated and Insulted”, Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1860.

RKS Literature: The Lost Soul of Russians (Dostoevsky)

“He was getting steadily more drunk and maudlin. Masloboyev had always been a fine fellow, level-headed but rather too clever by half; sly, astute, devious and a scallywag from his school days, but deep down quite a softie-a lost soul. There are many amongst the Russians. They’re often endowed with considerable talent, but somehow they always end up barking up the wrong tree, on top of which they are capable of acting deliberately against their own conscience, out of a lack of gumption in certain respects, and not only do they always come to grief, but they know in advance they’re on to a hiding or nothing. Incidentally, drink proved to be Masloboyev’s undoing eventually.”

“Humiliated and Insulted”, Fyodor Dostoevsky, 1861

RKS 2023 Wine: Reflections of a Three Breasted Wine Reviewer on Mayhem 2022 Sparkling White in a Can!

Mayhem, a top rate Okanagan wine producer, suggests in its technical sheet for its 2022 sparkling white that it pairs well with picnics, golf, boating and best friends.

Being a golfer since the age of six and having worked as a golf Marshall I have some great stories to share. I was hit in the chest by a nasty and highly improbable slice by a money laundering expert.

I should have collapsed with a heart attack but alas I survived to tell you stay behind anyone hitting a ball. As a precaution I visited my physician who proudly announced the impact of the ball on my body had created a third breast! By golly a job awaited me at ‘Nightmare Alley” or a remake of “Rocky Horror Picture Show”. This wine is in a can!

Aromas of pear and fresh baked banana bread with pear and apple galette. Oozing with tiny bubbles kind of getting same vibes in palate as on the nose. Nice gentle acidic bite. It can suit just about anything on a picnic even cold flank steak grilled with chimichurri sauce with an Argentinian red onion salad. Aside from food sit back on a roasting hot day,,,,after 16:00 hours and pop open and enjoy. Look out for golf balls heading towards you. My physician sad I was lucky. A few more inches and my face would have been demolished.

Decent juice. Practical. Utilitarian.

The label states” Product of Canada” without any mention of BC VQA. Is there any grape juice from Newfoundland involved?

(Mayhem 2022 Sparkling White produced and bottled under WL # 302084, Okanagan Falls British Columbia, 250 mL, 12.5%). A 12 pack costs $88.32. Contact the winery for shipping details).

RKS 2023 Wine: Minimize the Danger with Mayhem 2022 Sparkling Rosé

The technical sheet provided to me by Mayhem describing their canned 2022 Sparkling Rosé states, “Floats down the channel, boating, gardening, or a good round of golf.”

It so happens a Father’s Day a few years ago I had returned from a round of golf to prepare a BBQ. What better way to start the celebration off with a Mike Weir sparkling white from Niagara. Yes, that’s the Canadian golfer who won the Masters Golf Tournament in 2003. So I pop the cork and it hits me in the forehead leaving a nice little welt! I ignored the most basic lesson of opening a bottle of sparkling wine namely point it away from you! Several years later a Chinese billionaire was killed by a champagne cork to the head. So I am lucky enough to be here trying this Mayhem sparkler. 

It is 100% Merlot and it is in a can so it poses no immediate danger of a cork causing a deadly incident!

On the nose loads of raspberry, cranberry, strawberry and a twist of cinnamon. Small bubbles gently greet the palate. Lots of red cherry mixed with a bit of strawberry jam. Short finish. Pleasant and the can presents some utilitarian and StarTrekean possibilities i.e. go where no wine bottle can go. Consider a can of 250 mL a generous pour. Nice and crisp so good for that hot patio weather and is so versatile and lacking in any striking stylistic fashion it could suit just about any food dished out in a hot July and August day.

The can indicates “Product of Canada” and does not have a B.C. VQA designation on it.

(Mayhem 2022 Sparkling Rosé, produced and bottled under WL # 302084, Okanagan Falls, British Columbia, 250 mL can, 12.5%, 12 pack $88.32)

RKS 2023 Wine: The Dual Personality of Canadian Rieslings and Mayhem’s 2022 Riesling Amid It!

Yes I struggle mightily with Ontario Riesling. It can make some absolutely remarkable sparkling wine but as a still table wine it is frequently overly dry and unpleasant to drink reminding me of early season grapefruit.

I haven’t had a boatload of British Columbia Rieslings for two reasons. Here in Ontario we have a terrible case of tokenism for British Columbia wines. The Liquor Control Board of Ontario kneels at the feet of California wine worshipping it shamelessly in its retail offerings. Yet British Columbia due north of darling Napa and Sonoma is simply ignored. No there is no affirmative action for British Columbia wines here in Ontario. I have a sneaking suspicion Ontario wines are also subject to British Columbia tokenism. I also have yet to be invited on a press trip to try the wines and foods of British Columbia. The EU in that regard is far more generous and astute. Canada should appoint a most special “rapporteur” to investigate!

The fruit was whole bunch pressed. Mayhem and its sister winery Meyer Family Vineyards are not adverse to ageing whites in neutral oak and this Riesling was aged in 27% neutral barrique and 73% stainless steel.

So bearing the scars of too many failed tastings of Ontario Rieslings and encouraged by the Mayhem technical sheet about their 2022 Riesling stating it has 17.55 grams of residual sugar per litre I am expecting a more Germanic than Ontario experience?

Aroma: Impressive notes of apricot, peach, tangerine, orange marmalade and thank goodness secondary notes of lime and lemon. This is no Ontario Riesling refugee!

Palate: Off dry but not on the high end.! Acidity most pleasant instead of raging. There is some sweet white grapefruit. Finishes off nicely with honey, butter and guava.

Personality: I am from the Okanagan but have more affinity with the Germans than with the Ford Nation.

Food Match: The winery suggests lemon chicken skewers with a Moroccan harissa seasoning sauce or Thai carrot and ginger soup topped with fresh herbs. I would also suggest a mushroom, fresh pea and zucchini risotto.

Cellarbility: Drink by the end of 2027.

Price: $20.97 (British Columbia). Check with the winery about retail availability and shipping.

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 90/100. Bcwinetrends.com 91.

(Mayhem 2022 Naramata Bench Okanagan Valley Riesling, B.C. VQA, produced and bottled under WL # 302084, Okanagan Falls, British Columbia, 750 mL, 11.9%).

RKS 2023 Film: “Afire” (Roter Himmel)

The flies buzzing about during the film, the squealing wild pigs, the sky on fire, crispy burnt bodies Pompeii style and repeated helicopters flying overhead had me thinking of “Apocalypse Now” and “Lord of the Flies” and of course of the wildfires burning in abundance here in Canada. Director Christian Petzold, please forgive my metaphorical imagination.

In this 2023 German film Leon (Thomas Schubert) an author finalizing the manuscript of his book “Club Sandwich” and Felix (Langston Uibel) an aspiring photographer preparing a portfolio for his art school application travel to the German Baltic coast for some peace and quiet. Felix receives a call from his mother, the owner of the summer home, there is also a woman living at the house. It is Nadja (Paula Beer) who scoops ice cream on the boardwalk while working on her PHD in literature. The group of thirty somethings is joined by “rescue swimmer” Devid.

Leon is a self absorbed and very unhappy man eclipsing himself from life with an oft used phrase, “Work won’t allow it.” As a wildfire rages nearby Leon wallows in misery discontented with his manuscript which both Nadja and his publisher Helmut think is garbage. Leon just oozes misery on the verge of an intellectual meltdown.

Wildfires do regenerate forests not before causing great destruction of the existing ecosystem. And in this case the wildfires regenerate human beings but they also kill. Leon finds creativity and the time to think beyond himself and love in the midst of destruction  and death.

In “Apocalypse Now” and “Lord of the Flies” like a wildfire there is destruction from which there can be a measure of salvation but never a return. In “Afire” Leon is on the brink of destruction but it is the wildfire that is his salvation and regeneration. Other characters meet a Vesuvian result.

Petzold scored a big success with “Undine” a play on a German water nymph also starring Paula Beer and in “Afire” he has moved to another classical element namely fire.

“Afire” won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival in February 2023.

An allegorical and metaphorical delight.

Opens July 14th in Canada.

You can see the trailer here https://vimeo.com/838815806

RKS 2023 Film Rating 91/100.

Photo Christian Schulz

RKS 2023 Film: “What Ever Happened to Jonny Faith”

I am uncertain what genre this 24.5-minute film should be slotted in. Most likely cornball. But if the genre is right there is overly cheesy cornball and there is fun cornball. This film is loads of fun with a mighty satirical streak running through it.

Jonny Faith (Frank Noon) was a massively popular 1980’s country singer bigger than Johnny Cash and Elvis Presley combined. But his wife died after childbirth and poor grief-stricken Jonny hightails it into obscurity only to resurface some thirty years later with a terminal diagnosis from Dr. Kelben (Bruce Greenwood) that he has 6-8 months to live.

In an epic journey delightfully overdone he resurfaces in Los Angeles to meet his son Ricky who he last saw at childbirth.

Jonny drops a bombshell to Larry Cohen (Wayne Knight) his former producer and get ready for an explosion.

A study in guilt, remorse, greed and dare we say it some redemption?

Top rate acting, cinematography and a short but good soundtrack in which two numbers are composed and sung by Greenwood! Canadian Greenwood has more talent than Ben Casey!

The film premieres on July 20, 2023 at the LA Shorts International Film Festival.

You can see the trailer here https://vimeo.com/808936114

A Benjamin Pollack film

RKS 2023 Film Rating 89/100.

RKS Literature: The World Through the Eyes of a Child

“For it is good to have seen something of the world with childish eyes, disinterestedly and uncritically, observing not what is useful or beautiful and interesting, but only such things as, to a being less than four feet high and having no knowledge of life or art, seem immediately significant. It is the beggars, it is the green umbrellas under which the cabmen sit when it rains, not Brunelleschi’s dome, not the extortions of the hotel-keeper, not the tombs of the Medici, that impress the childish traveler. Such impressions it is true, are of no particular value to us when we are grown up.”

Aldous Huxley, “Uncle Spencer”, 1924.

RKS Literature: Affection and Humour

“Affections are not impaired by being tempered with a touch of benevolent laughter. Indeed, I would almost be prepared to risk a generalization and say that all true affections are tempered with laughter. For affection implies intimacy: and one cannot be intimate with another human being without discovering something to laugh at in his or her character. Almost all the virtuous characters in fiction are also slightly ridiculous; perhaps that is because their creators were so fond of them.”

Aldous Huxley, “Two or Three Graces”, 1930.

RKS 2023 Wine: Mayhem 2022 Pinot Gris to the Rescue?

There is an abundance of very sad Pinot Grigio out in wine world. One big seller that has me puzzled is Santa Margherita from Italy. I find it made from overcropped grapes imparting a diffuse and insipid character. It flies off the shelf in Canada. It has frightened me “off” Pinot Grigio. Will the Mayhem 2022 Pinot Gris rescue me from my tarnished Pinot Grigio trauma?

Made from grapes grown on the Ryegrass Road Vineyard in Oliver British Columbia. Whole bunch pressed and aged in 84% stainless steel and 16% neutral oak.

350 cases were made.

Aroma: Very clean notes of apple, pear, guava, marzipan and some cinnamon.

Palate: Far from the watery Italian Pinot Grigio that haunts me in the middle of the night. There is character and substance in this Pinot Gris. Lots of pear, sweet Jaffa white grapefruit and guava layered with some fine and unobtrusive acidity.

Personality: Consider me a breath of fresh air in a sea of mediocre Pinot Grigio.

Cellarbility: Drink now.

Food Match: Fillet of Sole Florentine or a Scandinavian haddock pudding. The wine can handle creaminess well!

Price: $18.36 (British Columbia).

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 90/100. Treve Ring 88.

Mayhem rescue successful. Over and out.

(Mayhem 2022 Okanagan Valley Pinot Gris, Produced and bottled under license #302084, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, 750 ml, 13.10%).