RKS 2023 Wine: So What if the Wine You Bottled is Incredible? A Cave Spring Example of What Needs to be Done to Create a Buzz

Making a good wine these days is simply not enough. The distance from a winery to a consumer’s gullet may be a very long one and in most cases it, never happens. You must think of creating some “buzz”. Flies migrate to honey and certain other substances. Wine drinkers gravitate towards buzz.

I recall many years ago here in Ontario you might go to a winery, assuming of course it was open to the public, and pick up your wine. There might even be a cellar and vineyard tour. Once wineries opened to the public then some thought was given about creating more than a cash register in the barn and so the tasting room was born. Then tasting rooms became not only a good opportunity to sell wines but merchandise as well such as wine accessories. Then the merchandise expanded to food. Then why not a bistro or restaurant to sell and consume meals and snacks. Then entertainment was “hired” to bring wine drinkers and abstainers alike. Then perhaps even lodgings.

Not all wineries can slide into basic wine tourism that easily. In addition to foresight and planning capital is required to offer more than simply a retail operation to earn your income. Given that most of the revenue for Ontario wineries is on site sales well then you must give some thought on how to attract customers to your winery.

I am seeing an increase in the past few years of wineries displaying some innovation. One such winery in Ontario is Cave Spring Vineyard in Jordan, Ontario in the Niagara wine region. On 9December2023 they are inviting the public to “The Ultimate Holiday Feast”. Cave Spring winemaker Gabriel Demarco is teaming up with The Culinary Workshop to virtually celebrate the holiday season. Two courses will be created by chefs Jody O’Malley and Kirstie Herbstreit. Well actually you will be creating the courses guided virtually by these two chefs using an interactive approach. Demarco will be chiming in from his kitchen to explain the wines he has chosen and how wine and food can be successfully paired. The Culinary Studio are chefs who have founded a virtual cooking school during our recent plague. The raw materials for the dishes will be delivered to participants by the two chefs.

The first course will be Sauteed Wild Mushroom Crostini paired with a Cave Spring NV Brut Dolomite. The second course will be Pan-seared Local Beef Tenderloin with Bearnaise Sauce, Shallot and Endive Salad with crispy Golden Potatoes aired with a 2021 Cave Spring Pinot Noir Estate. The cost including the Pinot Noir is $180.95 for two plus tax and delivery and add $35 for the Dolomite Brut. Did someone forget dessert?

The Ultimate Holiday Feast will be on 9December2023 between 17:00 and 19:00 hrs.

So you see dear readers selling your wine requires more than a good bottle of wine. I recall Cave Spring has also offered painting and yoga classes in the vineyard. My friends you are seeing “wine tourism” in play.

RKS Literature: Being Shamed for Being Different (Ken Kesey)

“I discovered at an early age that I was-shall we be kind and say different? It’s a better more general word than the other one. I indulged in certain practices that our society regards as shameful. And I got sick. It wasn’t the practices, I don’t think, it was the feeling that the great, deadly pointing forefinger of society that was pointing at me-and that great voice of millions chanting,’ Shame. Shame. Shame. It’s society’s way of dealing with someone different.”

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

RKS Literature: Wandering Around in a Daze: Electric Shock Therapy (Ken Kesey)

“ There had been times when I wandered around in a daze for as long as two weeks after a shock treatment, living in that foggy jumbled blur which is a whole lot like the ragged edge of sleep, that grey zone between light and dark, or between sleeping and waking or living and dying, where you know you’re not unconscious any more but don’t know yet what day it is or who you are or what’s the use of coming back at all—for two weeks. If you don’t have a reason to wake up you can loaf around in that grey zone for a long fuzzy time, or if you want it bad enough I found you can come fighting right out of it. This time I came fighting out of it in less than a day, less time than ever.”

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

RKS 2023 Wine: California Cabernet Sauvignon and My Self Imposed $25 Guideline

I am not one that ordinarily judges a wine by its price but there are exceptions to the rule or is it rules to the exception?

One RKS Wine guideline for Cali Cabernet Sauvignon is that don’t expect much under the $25 guidepost. I suppose given the latest increases in wine prices in our province of Ontario that should be adjusted to $30.

Let’s put this new guideline to the test with a $26.95 CDN Cali North Coast Cabernet Sauvignon from dough wines.

Aroma: Lots of blueberry a la classic Cali Cab Sauv. Secondary notes of blackberry and black cherry. Not lush and plush but can we call the bouquet reticent if not a bit tense?

Palate: A mid-weight Cabernet Sauvignon very light on its feet. The fruit is there but is just a bit shy which suits me just fine. Tannins and acids are hiding under the bed. Short finish. It handles its 14% alcohol admirably.

Personality: Come on RKS admit you like me and your guideline is just a guideline! I would like to exaggerate a bit and label myself as “elegant”.

Food Match: Some Morbier or St. Nectaire cheese drizzled with blackberry flower honey. Now that’s wild like Beach Blanket Bingo!

Cellarbility: Drink by 2025-year end.

Price: $26.95 CDN.

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 90/100.

(dough North Coast California (Mendocino) 2020 Cabernet Sauvignon, dough wines, Sonoma, California, 750 mL, 14%).

RKS 2023 Film: “Fireline”: Global Warming and Wildfire are Good Bedfellows

This documentary follows a team of firefighters from the Cal Fire Lassen-Modoc unit battling the 2021 monstrous Dixie Wildfire in California that burned for 104 days destroying 963,309 acres of forest and 1,329 structures. 1,973 firefighters were involved. The cost of firefighting was $637 million USD. A combination of global warming, too dense of a forest and a black beetle infestation led to bone dry conditions ideal for a wildfire. Additional commentary from firefighters and the Office of Emergency Services of California (OES).

Dispel any idea of a wildfire taking a linear path. Rather it spreads to and fro creating pockets of wildfires. A highly co-ordinated effort was required considering the OES. local, state, out of state firefighters and federal agencies were involved. A OES war room coordinated the effort and immediate reaction and predicative strategies were deployed. As an OES official stated there is no second chance in battling a fire of this magnitude. Firefighting requires a holistic effort. The biggest issue is the management of state resources to firefight and as the wildfire situation in California is worsening each year balancing these resources is becoming increasingly difficult.

While the camera follows the firefighting crew the cinematography presents a kaleidoscope of horrors. Massive walls of fire moving like a freight train destroy and damage everything in their path. The crew is experienced but even these men are awed, excited and fearful in their battle not to mention exhausted having to work multiple shifts often separated from their families for weeks. The horrors they have seen they share and they are grisly and one can imagine a fertile breeding ground for PTSD an all too common psychological affliction for first responders. As one of the crew said that if we don’t do it right we could be just like the badly burnt humans and animals they have witnessed suffering and dying.

This 82-minute American documentary was directed by Tyler Norwood and produced by Ben Sinclair. The film will be released on 5December2023 on digital platforms.

You can see the trailer here https://vimeo.com/864972698?share=copy

RKS 2023 Film Rating 82/100.

RKS 2023 Film: “Overtime”: Canada’s National Sport is Hockey and a Part of So Many Personal Histories!

Canada loves its hockey. If I may serve as a sorry example as I never reached the National Hockey League, I still have a deep reservoir of hockey memories. At five years of age in freezing winter pre global warming days I hit the outdoor natural ice in Montreal not knowing much more than shoot the puck in the opposing team’s net. Hockey is a Canadian obligation for all able-bodied citizens.

Hours and hours of practice and games. Winning a city championship. Scoring 5 goals in a hockey game a personal highlight. Then coaching my son and his team for 6 years winning 3 championships and learning that winning isn’t everything. My lads lost a championship game in overtime but in that loss they roared back from a 5-goal deficit to tie the match and force overtime. My crowning glory was therefore in a loss with a tremendous pride and respect in my boys. OK so this documentary sent my hockey memories soaring. Damn it perhaps a book on my hockey memories is in order. Many Canadians have books to write about their hockey memories!

“Overtime”, a Canadian documentary, is the story of Kelley Lee-Gilmore a 60-year-old mother of two and a professor at Vancouver’s Simon Fraser University. We learn about her childhood in a Chinese family where sports was indeed far from a ladies sport. There were very few opportunities for a woman to play hockey and Chinese women…forget it. Kelley started playing as a teenager when she could afford fees to join a league and continued playing in the United Kingdom while studying and teaching at the University of Sussex. She dropped the sport to raise her children but resumed her hockey passion in 2006. With that passion and familial support she picked up hockey again in British Columbia in the 55 plus women’s league and we follow her to a national 55 plus hockey tournament and listen to her and her teammates views on hockey and life.

An interesting documentary written and directed by her daughter Jenny Lee-Gilmore but its power to resurrect personal hockey memories was remarkable. Of course, it could apply to any sport. An inspiring story of an underdog fighting for and achieving her dreams. Overcoming age and ethnicity? Horatio Alger story? Simply a story that could be repeated by any Canadian hockey player?

“Overtime” will have its television debut on 5December2023 on TELUS Optik TV Channel 8 with global reach online at telusoriginals.com

Well done despite its somewhat cheesy music.

RKS 2023 Film Rating 74/100.

RKS 2023 Wine: A Lighter Style of Australian Cabernet Sauvignon?

In the past 20 years Coonawarra has earned the reputation of producing less brutish Aussie Cabernet Sauvignon. On occasion a big jammy Aussie Shiraz or Cabernet Sauvignon hits the spot but risks the moniker of an overdone wine.

In this case a 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon from Wynns Coonawarra Estate deserves a try.

Aroma: Blueberry, black cherry, cola and a certain creaminess.

Palate: Tannic. Big waves of blueberry and blueberry pie with hints of dark chocolate. This strikes one as a young wine brimming with fruit that is being restrained by the tannins. The solution which may be rewarded with a migration to restrained lushness, or elegance if you prefer, would be to decant prior to serving or wait patiently until the end of 2024 to unscrew.

Personality: I am a powerful wine attributable to my youth. But often good things come to pass with those blessed by patience. Like a Roman or Greek statute consider the fig leaf my tannin. When the fig leaf drops witness me in all my glory!

Food Match: Kangaroo steak????? Bison burgers for us folks in Canada. Something gamey!

Cellarbility: Happy to sleep away until 2028.

Price: $24.95 CDN (Ontario).

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 89/100. Campbell Mattison 92.

(Wynns Coonawarra Estate 2021 “The Siding” Cabernet Sauvignon, Wynns Coonawarra Estate, Coonawarra, Australia, 750 mL, 13.7%)

RKS 2023 Film: “Making the Yuletide Gay: A Very Special Paul Lynde Christmas”: Groaning Through a Very Smutty Christmas

I will admit it. I simply can’t watch “It’s A Wonderful Life” yet another time as that squeaky clean piece of cinema is beginning to grate on the nerves. Diametrically opposed to that Ivory Soap piece of cinema is “Making the Yuletide Gay: A Very Special Paul Lynde Christmas” teeming with sacrilegious smut perhaps just what your over cleansed mind may require. By December 25th aren’t we all saturated with Christmas carols and “The Messiah”? We need something naughty perhaps to maintain sanity.

If you remember early gay entertainment (no not Gary Grant) you will know Liberace and Paul Lynde portrayed overly gay when “gay” was a dirty word for about 93% of the population.

“Making the Yuletide Gay” is a parody of American television Christmas specials of the 1960’s and 1970’s including satirical of the time advertisements for shampoo, deodorant, life insurance, air travel and pizza rolls with a cutting destructive and mocking tone.

The Christmas special is hosted by Paul Lynde (Michael Arlington) with a slew of current and well-known drag queens, heavily gay stereotypical Santa dancers and out of closet men. Plenty of one liner smut filled jokes that I assume are intentionally poor and in brutally awful taste. Sugar plum fairies and fruit cakes….get the idea. The North Pole is not the South Pole but it means you know what. As Paul Lynde says, “Christmas only comes once a year just like me.”

I wonder if you weren’t even a glint in your mother’s eye in 1960 and 1970 if you’ll capture the numerous jives into the culture of the time.

What can you say about a film that is intentionally bad? Best to groan and suffer through it as you were meant to do and then take the middle road and watch “Die Hard” as your Christmas movie. Yes that political incorrect term “Christmas” lives on in “Making the Yuletide Gay” and gay in this case does not mean happy.

Will be released in North America on 15December2023 on VOD and DVD.

RKS 2023 Film Rating 65/100.

RKS 2023 Wine: “Dough” Chardonnay: A Great Chardonnay on the Rise!

What a name for a winery…dough.

Yes yeast is used in the fermentation of wine. It can be natural or added. Yeast is also used helping the bread dough to rise. However dough is not a taste you really want in a white wine although if you read reviews of sparkling wine you might encounter a descriptor of “fresh baked brioche” and the like. Now adding on another layer dough winery gives money (“dough”) to the James Beard Foundation “to create an inclusive, equitable and sustainable food culture…”. I say this as I have some cinnamon raisin bread baking!

Now that all this trivia is discussed shouldn’t we try a dough 2020 North Coast Chardonnay?

Aroma: Pear, apple, homemade apple sauce, marzipan and mango somewhat bold and beautiful. This might be a challah of a wine!

Palate: Mango, pineapple and apple in a muscular and most serious framework. Really well crafted and although oaked it is as if you can taste it but your focus is on the power and strength of the wine rather than its oak. Had American oak been used instead of French you might be chanting , “ABC”. Some of the wine was fermented in stainless steel preventing oak from domineering.

Personality: Quite frankly I am proud of myself as while I am oaked my winemakers certainly managed the oak very well offering you me a sophisticated Chardonnay. No overdone oak to soil my reputation. I am fit for a Kaiser! I bagel you to try me! You bun looking for me a long time!

Cellarbility: Drink by 2027-year end.

Food Match: Macaroni and Cheese with crispy breadcrumb topping. Use OKA cheese.

Price: $24.95 CDN (Ontario).

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 91/100.

(dough 2020 Chardonnay, North Coast, California, dough wines, Sonoma, California, 750 mL, 13.5%).

RKS Museums: The Met Presents “Art for the Millions: American Culture and Politics in the 1930’s” (Until 10December2023): Ben Shahn’s “Welders”

The 1930s was a decade of political and social upheaval in the United States, and the art and visual culture of the time reflected the unsettled environment. Americans searched for their cultural identity during the Great Depression, a period marked by divisive politics, threats to democracy, and intensified social activism, including a powerful labor movement. Featuring more than 100 works from The Met collection and several lenders, this exhibition explores how artists expressed political messages and ideologies through a range of media, from paintings, sculptures, prints, and photographs to film, dance, decorative arts, fashion, and ephemera.

Highlights include paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe, Charles Sheeler, and Stuart Davis; prints by Elizabeth Olds, Dox Thrash, and Riva Helfond; photographs by Walker Evans and Dorothea Lange; footage of Martha Graham’s dance Frontier; and more, providing an unprecedented overview of the era’s sociopolitical landscape.

Ben Shahn’s (1898-1969) “Welders” (1943) was painted in 1943 when the United States government focused on defense efforts during World War II, it gradually disbanded Works Projects Administration (WPA) projects officially closing the WPA in 1943. Many former WPA artists went to find employment through other public ventures. Shahn worked for the graphics division of the CIO-PAC the United States’ first political action committee, which had been set up to sidestep new restrictions on the financial contributions unions could make to political campaigns. “Welders” which invokes racial solidarity in the work force, was reproduced as a poster that read, “for full employment after the war, register to vote.”

The Museum of Modern Art, New York, purchase 1944.