RKS 2023 Wine: An Outstanding Ontario Merlot: To Dream The Impossible Dream?

As for outstanding Ontario Merlot about the only one that turns my crank is Merlot from Niagara-on-the-Lake’s Two Sisters but not being a cardiologist or a captain of industry can you afford $57.80 for a bottle of their Merlot?

Ontario Merlot may be suitable for blending but then is blending with a less than stellar grape what could the product of such blending amount to? By way of analogy would you cook with a wine you wouldn’t drink?

Aged in 100% French oak from Tonnellerie Sirgue-Nuits Saint Georges, 25% new for 10 months. 499 cases were produced.

Featherstone Estate Winery in Niagara makes a world class Rosé so throwing caution and experience to the wind I venture to determine how they handle Merlot.

Aroma: An attractive melange of blackberry, black cherry, black raspberry, rhubarb and a smidge of chocolate. A light hand with the oak.

Palate: An intriguing light touch of Ginja D’Òbidos complimented by a splash of Niagara cherry. Smooth tannins with a moderate and high-toned finish. A very good Niagara Merlot at a regular folk price. I sense that many camouflage Niagara Merlot weakness with terroir as an excuse. With this Featherstone Red Tail Merlot I venture to agree it proudly reflects its terroir. I am giving it an honorary key to my cellar.

Personality: If I were an opera singer think of me as Maria Callas. I will let your brain probe that analogy!

Food Match: Have a good laugh when I say the wine will pair with a cod curry prepared with Japanese Glico or S&B curry paste. I discovered a subliminal match by accident and I don’t regret that!

Cellarbility: Give it until 2024-year end and just maybe until 2025 year-end to consume it by.

Price: $19.95 CDN (Ontario).

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 90/100. Rick VanSickle 92.

(Featherstone 2021 Red Tail Merlot, VQA Niagara Peninsula, Featherstone Estate Winery, Vineland, Ontario, 750 mL, 13%).

RKS 2023 Film : “Hong Kong Mixtape”: PRC’s Iron Fist Suffocates Hong Kong

On 1July1997 British rule ended in Hong Kong and its fate was handed over to the People’s Republic of China which promised democracy would live on but who believed that? And authoritarian rule gradually seeped into Hong Kong. Youth led protests to the anti-democratic manoeuvres by PRC to eliminate democracy really crystallized with promulgation of the National Security Law in 2020 a real Kristallnacht for Hong Kong. A backlash led by the youth of Hong Kong battled Carrie Lam the puppet master of Hong Kong. Smashed about and doused with tear gas the youth fought on and “Hong Kong Mixtape” delves into the resistance mounted by the artistic community through dance, animation, painting, plays, photography, art and music.

Using her own voice to guide us through this time, filmmaker San San F Young pieces together works by underground artists, musicians, dancers, illustrators and performance artists, showcasing how art can provide some of the most powerful forms of activism. This mixtape serves as a love letter that ignites passion, celebrates artistic expression, and shows that in the face of being silenced, people always find ways of speaking out louder than ever.

A remarkable effort and use of tone that commences with the vibrancy of the protest and gradually is subsumed by gloom and resignation at least in Hong Kong but not in those cities where young exiles fled fearing prison sentences and deportation to PRC. Lady Liberty will live on!

Part of the Human Rights Film Festival in Toronto and will be screening on 9December2023.

RKS Film Rating 86/100.

RKS Literature: Dreams (Dickens)

“Dreams are the bright creatures of poem and legend, who sport earth in the night season and melt away at the first beam of sun, which lights grim care and stern reality to their pilgrimage through the world.”

Charles Dickens, “Nicholas Nickleby”, 1839

RKS Tea Meister: Tea Squared Citrus Relaxer

This is Tea Squared’s “favourite nighttime blend”. Kind of makes sense with this caffeine less brew. It consists of apple pieces, lemon verbena, lemon balm, lemongrass, citrus peel, lime pieces, hibiscus flowers, corn flowers and lime oil. If you are suffering from scurvy it is just for you!

Aroma: Certainly lots of lemon verbena in this herbal infusion. Lime charges ahead hand in hand with hibiscus. Baked apple with brown sugar rules the roost on the nose though.

Palate: Soothing with no tannic presence. Hints of lemon meringue pie and apple pie too. And yes Key Lime pie. Short finish.

Food Match: baked apple pie with vanilla ice cream.

Price: $7.49 for 50 grams. Free shipping in Canada on orders of $69 and greater and for the U.S.A. on orders of $99 and greater.

RKS 2023 Films: “Coming Around”: A Very Queerish Queer Documentary

The Canadian documentary “Coming Around” could be seen by some as a classic Liar Liar Your Pants Are on Fire story. Eman Abdelhadi is a Muslim queer of Palestinian descent living in Brooklyn, New York. She drinks, smokes weed, dances living a hajibless and openly queer lifestyle at least in Brooklyn. Her mother is a devout Muslim and is a psychiatrist in Columbus, Missouri.

The documentary flips between Brooklyn and Columbus. Her sister is also a devout Muslim. Eman simply can’t come out to her mother preferring to live a double life. In Brooklyn she is a feminist and even is a featured speaker at a Coming Out event but in Columbus she lives a live of deception on her frequent visits. Eman even enters into a 8 month long disaster of a “heterosexual” marriage celebrated in a Columbus mosque in an attempt to please her mother and half heartedly convince herself she can live the straight life. Hints galore have been thrown her mother’s way but at no point do I hear a frank and direct admission to her mother she is queer. The end result is not that her pants are on fire but her soul is.

One may derive the impression all queers come out like it is some sort of duty. Eman has great difficulty if not an existential dilemma in coming out so with deception to herself and her family she skirts the issue and “comes around” somewhat discounting her role and credibility as a feminist and a queer advising and mentoring on coming out. Is this a life of lies and deception or a poignant story of the agony queers may face coming out of the closet?

“Coming Around” is directed by Sandra Itäinen and premiers in Toronto at the Human Rights Film Festival on 8December2023.

Fascinating and creative.

RKS 2023 Film Rating: 84/100.

Dylan Stephen The Westie From The Land Beyond Unabashedly Wishes You a Merry Christmas

You may recall that I died on 13July2023 just shy of 15 years of age. I have accepted my death and I have many friends here in The Land Beyond. So many pets and humans. I am even friends with a cat named Snowball and so many dogs from my hood… Freddie, Oggie, Cody and Cindy.

Am I happy in The Land Beyond? Yes I am content and comfortable but happy? Not really as there is a hole in my heart for my Stephen family who are still in pain. Yes Master Robert was making soup the other day and he usually gave me a few spoonful’s of vegetable puree but he turned his head to call me and I was not there. Yet one of the many triggers of grief and there are many..still. Yes, it is all so logical. I became so very sick it was an act of human compassion that thankfully put me here in The Land Beyond. Logic and death are poor bedfellows. It was the right decision….it ended my suffering…but why all the grief?

The Stephen Family I know will never forget me but my wish is that the memories will be greeted with a smile instead of that awful feeling of loss. Tonight Master Robert was listening to Christmas music on the radio and suddenly a big smile about that embarrassing moment when I knocked down the Christmas tree and I was trapped underneath it. I was not hurt but massively surprised. But then that awful feeling took him over but finally I have noticed he smiles occasionally when he thinks about me. His goal is to associate pleasant and happy memories about me not to regret he can no longer have them. He owes that to himself and to me!

So to all dogs and dog owners enjoy your Christmas and owners when you give your dog turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes and carrots enjoy and cherish the moment as trite it may seem. Store them away. Cherish them. Check that turkey you give to your dog carefully for splinters and bones.

I wish you and your family and that includes your dog(s) a most merry Christmas. Make sure your Christmas tree is secure please!!!

RKS 2023 Wine: Trius Red “The Icon”: The Strong Man and The Two 99 Pound Weaklings

I think there won’t be much hooting and booing when I say Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot aren’t exactly two of Ontario’s great grapes unless under the cover of “terroir” you bless their weakness by stating they have a distinct Ontario imparted quality to them. Bah Humbug says me the Wine Scrooge. On the other hand Ontario Cabernet Franc shines so when you blend Cabernet Franc with Ontario Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon there may be some magic that rescues them from criticism.

With a 2020 Trius Red “The Icon” we have a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and the mighty Cabernet Franc. 43.9 % Cabernet Sauvignon, 32.3% Cabernet Franc and 23.3 % Merlot.

Aroma: Blackberry, black cherry, raspberry, and cocoa powder. With concentration one can distinguish some of the individual characteristics of the three grapes but the blending largely obfuscates readily individual identification.

Palate: Nippy tannins. A mid weight wine with a long dusty finish. Blueberry (Cabernet Sauvignon?), Cherry and cocoa (Cabernet Franc) and cherry (Merlot). I can’t really say which grape wins the Battle of The Blends”. Somewhere between soft and austere.

Personality: As a mixie I am not sure who I am. Who are my true ancestors? I might figure that out one day but now I am strong and say Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes matter….perhaps not as a single varietal wine but in a blend..you know just like a wine bottle where all grapes matter! You humans with colour of your skin fussing that only they matter can learn from us grapes!

Cellarbility: The wine is not yet at its prime. That will be after 2024 and it will cruise into the end of 2026.

Food Pairing: Should you eat at the Trius Restaurant in Niagara-on-the-Lake go for the Ontario Lamb tasting!

Price: $24.95 CDN (Ontario).

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 89/100.

(Trius Red The Icon 2020, VQA Niagara Peninsula, Trius Winery, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, 750 mL, 13.5%).

RKS Literature: Child Abuse in 1839 England at Wackford Squeers School for Unwanted Boys (Charles Dickens)

“Pale and haggard faces, lank and bony figures, children with countenances of old men, deformities with irons on their limbs, boys of stunted growth, and others whose long meagre legs would hardly bear their stooping bodies, all crowded on the view together; there were the bleary eyed, the hare-lip, the crooked foot, and every ugliness and distortion that told of unnatural aversion conceived by parents for their offspring, or of young lives which, from the earliest dawn of infancy, had been one horrible endurance of cruelty and neglect. There were little faces which should have been handsome, darkened with the scowl of sullen, dogged suffering; there was childhood with the light of its eye quenched, its beauty gone and its helpless alone remaining; there  were vicious-faced boys, brooding, with leaden eyes, like malefactors in jail; and there were young creatures on whom the sins of their frail parents had descended, weeping even for the mercenary nurses they had known, and lonesome even in their loneliness. With every kindly sympathy and affection blasted in its birth, with every young and healthy feeling flogged and starved down, with every revengeful passion that can fester in swollen hearts eating its evil way to their core in silence, what an incipient Hell was breeding here.”

Charles Dickens “Nicholas Nickleby”, 1839

RKS 2023 Film: “Re: Uniting”: Together Again For The Final Big Chill

Some say this Bowen Island (British Columbia) set and shot film is an ensemble drama that is similar to “The Big Chill”. I can agree with that. It is in the reunion genre of film.

Let’s sort out the bad and good.

Sound echoes in the early moments of the film seem not to have been caught and corrected. The dialogue of these six former college best friends meeting after 25 years is somewhat shallow if not trite. That might have sunk the film but the very good of this film is the brilliance of the actors all delivering a stellar performance. The implosion explosion scene transports one to the intensity of a Shakespearean play. So give a standing ovation to Jesse L. Martin (as Michael), Michelle Harrison (as Rachel) and Bronwen Smith (as Carrie) and well deserved round of applause for Roger Cross (as Collin), Carmen Moore (as Natalie) and David James Lewis (as Danny).

The characters, all comfortable middle and upper-class types assemble, drink and smoke weed all rather playful and fun. Then the truth of how they perceive themselves oozes out and all are unhappy if not miserable. Then they have a mega explosion immaculately performed and a rather non-intended soap operatic if not comedic dialogue moves in the direction of destroying the film but is rescued by the brilliant acting which shunts aside the often-poor lines they are delivering.

An interesting delve-in to the nature of friendship where honesty, openness, forgiveness and acceptance of each other are qualities these characters apparently have forgotten for 25 years enduring the “miseries” of their life.

The nature of death and its rejuvenating qualities is examined.

While there are both positives and negatives to “Re-Uniting” the quality acting makes this movie worth a watch. Impressive soundtrack.

The film will be screening at Whistler Film Festival (British Columbia) on 3December2023. Virtual screening will follow on December 4th.

Written and directed by Laura Adkin.

RKS 2023 Film Rating 73/100.

RKS 2023 Wine: Agiorgitiko From Nemea in Greece

Nemea is a wine producing region in the Peloponnese.

This Driopi Agiorgitiko is from Nemea. Agiorgitiko has medium to deep ruby colour, dense ripe red-fruit character and sweet spices that lead towards a soft almost velvety palate with finely textured tannins, medium to full body and medium high alcohol. It can handle oak very well, however some fresh, fruit forward and crunchy unoaked easy drinking wines are also made.

Aroma: Black cherry is prominent with secondary notes of blackberry and cocoa. Aeration intensifies the dark cherry giving it an almost lush Merlot character.

Palate: Medium high tannins. Dark cherry rules the roost as it does with its aromatics. Nice little cactus pear twist on the moderately long finish. You will be well rewarded decanting for at least an hour before serving.

Personality: I am a serious wine that speaks its mind and has no time for chit chat. Greeks love to chit chat but I sense I am Germanic and would rather get down to business.

Food Match: In Greece you will find me enjoying the Aegean or Macedonia in Northern Greece and that is a pescatarian delight. I have eaten very little meat in these areas as fish is plentiful. Spartans on the other hand enjoy and consume meat. This wine would suit grilled lamb assuming it is not marinated in lemon, olive oil and herb mix. Hearty Greek stews such as rabbit stifado would pair well with the wine.

Cellarbility: Will improve over the next three years but consume by 2028-year end.

Price: $22.95 CDN (Ontario).

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 88/100.

(Driopi Agiorgitiko 2020, P.D.O. Nemea, Tselepos Winery, Arcadia, Greece, 750 mL, 14%).