RKS 2023 Television: Season Two of “Yukon Harvest” Episode 201 “Yegwúp” Part 1

As a Canadian reviewer of documentaries, I will admit I was getting worn down and forlorn over a seemingly endless stream of depressing documentaries on Canadian aboriginal life.  Alcoholism, drug abuse, poor housing, officially mismanaged salmon fisheries including a proliferation of salmon farms destroying aboriginal fish stocks and of course residential schools. These stories must be told but is there no room for a celebration of Canadian aboriginal culture? Well then arrived the Canadian documentary “Aitamaako’tamisskapi Natsi: Before the Sun” which showed an optimistic and proud side of Canadian aboriginal culture. You can read my review here https://setthebarlifestyle.wordpress.com/2023/03/29/rks-2023-hot-docs-films-aitamaakotamisskapi-natosi-before-the-sun-i-cant-believe-i-am-saying-this/?fbclid=IwAR1f3HCPEy6DA3_f2j_v8VScfATEQP3QF-2iq11HuS2bm0HDvxTC6Bdd8XM

The APTN network’s first season of “Yukon Harvest” was a big hit so APTN is back with season 2 and from what I have seen the trauma of Canadian residential schools is discussed in Season 2 but there is pride shown in aboriginal culture with its sound ecological traditions and respect for the land as it is the land that nurtures and provides for all of us. A basic truth that escapes the “modern world”.

In Episode 201“Yegwúp (to Grow Strong) Part 1 viewers meet Ed Jensen of the British Columbia Secwepemc Nation a hunting guide that mentors young aboriginal hunters. Jensen has a deep respect for the land that provides for all if taken care of properly. Off he heads to the Canadian Yukon for a series of hunts. Is he a mad dentist in Kenya killing lions for a photo op? No he has reverence for the animals he shoots showing sadness yet gratitude to the animal just killed that will feed so many. He shows respect for the animal spirit in a ceremonial fashion. Jensen fervently believes he has an obligation to pass on traditions of thousands of years to the young hunters he mentors.

Yes there is a mention or two of the trauma caused by residential schools but there is hope and joy of Jensen and his young hunters which I can only hope you can feel and share with friends and family.

The cinematography is second to none.

This episode will show on June 10th on APTN but you should check with APTN on screenings of this episode.

RKS 2023 Wine: Campanian Memories! A Campanian Aglianico

In 2019 I received an invitation from the Italian Trade Commission in Toronto for a June press trip to Naples. It was mostly wine but there was a trip for a few of us to Pompeii and a walking tour of Naples. What a way to fall in love with Naples and then extend my trip to visit Sorrento, Capri and Positano. Oh the food and the nooks and crannies of Naples. It corrupted me to such an extent if its not a Napoli pizza why bother eating pizza at all. And the Vitingo Wine Show at a castle on the waterfront in Naples unearthed some surprisingly good wine.

One of the happy exhibitors at Vitingo: Photo Robert K. Stephen

Well one of the press trips involved passing by the charming mountaintop town of Montefalcione where early in the morning we were met by its mayor and a delegation. We had a short walking tour of the beautiful city and I noted I must try and get back to it but COVID and some Portuguese press trips have kept me busy and a bit diverted from Italy.

This Aglianico is produced and bottled by Donnachiara based in Montefalcione so my Campanian  memories have been sparked.

The wine is 100% Aglianico which has been grown in clay soil and has spent 6 months in 225 litre French oak barriques and a further 8 months in the bottle.

Aroma: Blackberry abounds accompanied by blueberry, black cherry with a bit of fading youth on the edges.  

Palate: Rich ripe cherry rules the roost held in place by modest but noticeable tannins. Nice little rift of cherry liqueur kicks in just before the long finish.

Personality: I am neither risky or flippant. I am a serious muscular red full of heft and power and like so many Italian wines built for food.

Not Caputo flour then not a Napoli pizza! Photo Robert K. Stephen

Food Pairing: So much of the turf food in Naples would be more than happy sharing your mouth with this wine. Why not just say go to Umberto’s in Naples or to Tasso in Sorrento and look to the menu and you may find an ideal match. I would find nothing amiss having a Tasso pizza with this wine! Ask Mattia Gargiulo at Tasso for some help. Tell him that Canadian wine writer Robert K. Stephen says hello and wink and ask for the freshly caught fish in the morning but you’ll have to switch to Greco di Tufo white wine for any of those dishes. Where is the better food in Italy…Roma or Napoli? To avoid a fist fight best avoid that debate!

Some great Pasta at Tasso in Sorrento! Photo Robert K. Stephen

Cellarbility: Enough tannins and heft to conclude this wine is only commencing its ascension to greatness. Will happily strut into 2030.

Price: $30 (Ontario).

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 93/100. JamesSuckling.com 94.

(Donnachiara 2020 Irpina Aglianico D.O.C., Donnachiara, Montefalcione, Italy, 750 mL, 13.5%, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 262956).

RKS 2023 Film: Vancouver Greek Film Festival: “Days and Nights of Demetra K”: Bordello Madam!

The second annual Vancouver Greek Film Festival (VGFF) runs from 1-4 June 2023. It presents an eclectic offering of contemporary and classic Greek cinema. This year the Festival kicks off a calendar of events organized by The Hellenic Canadian Congress of British Columbia during Greek Heritage Month which culminates in “Greek Day on Broadway” one of Vancouver’s most famous street festivals on June 25th.

Greek film has made great strides in the last two decades emerging from slapstick comedy to films dealing with contemporary social issues not afraid to take aim at Greek politics, religion and governmental bureaucracy.

Christos Dikeakos a visual artist and co-founder of the VGFF states, “The programme presents a myriad of stories and experiences about the human condition, offering insight into the minds of Greek filmmakers that is at once intimate and universal.”

“Days and Nights of Demetra K” is a documentary filmed over a period of ten years. Demetra K was the proprietor of Athens’s oldest bordello in the suburb of Glyfada.

The days are just like most of our days with shopping, chatting, watching television, arguing with family members, maintaining friendships and worrying about the economy. And as the Greek economy hit the skids so did the bordellos so even the nights of Demetra are no more exciting than her days. So uneventful and lacking in revenue she closes the bordello but continues to advocate for sex workers in her position of head of the Sex Worker’s Union of Greece where she abhors sex trafficking and the Greek macho attitude of sex without condoms. Demetra is a treasure trove of Athenian bordello history remarking that it was the Greek monarchy that licensed her bordello yet in modern times there is no end of trouble with the Greek government. But even in these earlier times there was abuse and murder amongst the bordello girls.

Winner of the Best Documentary at the 2022 Hellenic Film Academy Awards.

Directed by Eva Stefani.

It screens 2June2023.

RKS 2023 Film Rating 76/100.

RKS 2023 Wine: The French Blush from Tavel! The Great Compromise

We have one of those darker pinkies which will reduce the anxiety of red wine drinkers not drinking red wine with this Rosé in their glass! Yet it might cause a fright to white wine drinkers. Is Tavel Rosé the Great Compromise?

Aroma: A very large raspberry assault. And since the blend is Syrah, Clairette and Grenache the latter offers its ripe strawberry influence.

Palate: Full bodied Rosé indeed with excellent and sophisticated tannic grip yet it could be a full-bodied white! A great compromise and everyone should like the raspberry/strawberry combo. A long finish.

Personality: If wine was the corporate world I would be one of these big powerful executives earning 6,047 times more than those lowly thin wimpy pink Rosés!

Food match: Why not a Montreal style bagel with smoked salmon? This wine can certainly handle grilled chicken marinated in beer, cayenne, Merquen, cinnamon and paprika.

Cellarbility: The wine will peak in time for roast turkey or baked ham for 2023 Christmas. It can coast through 2025.

Price: $24.95 (Ontario).

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 92/100.

(Château D’Aqueria Tavel 2022 Cru des Côtes-du-Rhone, AP Tavel, Château D’Aqueria, Tavel, France, 750 mL, 14%, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 319368).

RKS 2023 Wine: Yalumba Organic Shiraz

Yalumba makes an impeccable organic Viognier. Can they repeat that with their organic Shiraz?

Aroma: Full of rich black fruit particularly blackberries and black plums.

Palate: Initially the tannins present themselves as softies but increase, not greatly, in intensity. Blackberries, blueberries with a licorice twist. Considering the wine is from South Australia one might categorize it as a light Shiraz with character and depth. Moderately long finish.

Personality: South Australian red wine normally has some real heft but I can show you a lighter side if you would let me.

Food Match: Mushroom Picatta.

Cellarbility: Best before 2025. 

Price: $17.25 (Ontario).

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 89/100. Sam Kim 91.

Yalumba 2019 Organic Shiraz, South Australia, Yalumba, Angaston, Australia, 750 mL, 14%, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 280883.

RKS 2023 Film: Vancouver Greek Film Festival: “Holy Emy”: Like No Other Greek Film!

The second annual Vancouver Greek Film Festival (VGFF) runs from 1-4 June 2023. It presents an eclectic offering of contemporary and classic Greek cinema. This year the Festival kicks off a calendar of events organized by The Hellenic Canadian Congress of British Columbia during Greek Heritage Month which culminates in “Greek Day on Broadway” one of Vancouver’s most famous street festivals on June 25th.

Greek film has made great strides in the last two decades emerging from slapstick comedy to films dealing with contemporary social issues not afraid to take aim at Greek politics, religion and governmental bureaucracy.

Christos Dikeakos a visual artist and co-founder of the VGFF states, “The programme presents a myriad of stories and experiences about the human condition, offering insight into the minds of Greek filmmakers that is at once intimate and universal.”

“Holy Emy” is like no other Greek film. In fact it has transcended Hellenism and is like no other film. And it is like a minefield to review with any depth lest it be ruined for you dear viewer. Although set in Greece, mostly Piraeus, it has a universality that propels it beyond Greece.

Emy (Abigael Loma) and Teresa (Hasmine Killip) are Filipinas living in Piraeus. Their mother Pilar has left back to the Philippines with hints of evil spirits and witchcraft leaving young Teresa and her younger sister Emy behind. Teresa is heavily ensconced in the small Pilipino Roman Catholic Church community practicing a quasi-gospel born again sing along Third World Catholicism. Emy is seen as an outsider and regarded with suspicion with Linda, a quasi mom, urging Emy be baptized so the “Holy Spirit” can enter her. Why does Emy cry tears of blood?

Why is Madame Christina so hated by many of the Filipino Roman Catholics? Is she running a Filipino psychic healing bordello? Why was Pilar “working” there?

Although ostensibly a devout Catholic Teresa is knocked up willingly by Greek lout Argyris who meets a fishy ending. Why was Pilar chased out of Greece?

I really am handcuffed here about further descriptions of this 2021 film. A mix of Hitchcock and Cronenberg. Think of films “Nightmare Alley”, “A Face in the Crowd”, “Carrie” and the “Exorcist” and you’ll get all of that in this film.

How could I categorize this film for you? A mystery? A thriller? A chiller?

Speaking of chilling the ending is the ultimate shiver! A saint on an Athenian bus?

The film won two 2022 Hellenic Film Awards. Killip won Best Supporting Actress and Araceli Lemos Best Director.

In Tagalog, Greek and English with English subtitles.

Shows 2June at 20:30.

RKS 2023 Film Rating 96/100.

RKS Literature: Zorba the Greek on Greek and Slavic Women!

“You’d better know, Boss, that the Slavic woman isn’t like these cheap, selfish, self-seeking Greek women who sell sex by the gram and do everything they can to slip it to you underweight, cheating you on the scales. The Slavic woman, Boss, has scales that measure overweight. She gives something extra in sleep, sex and meals. She’s closely related to animals, closely related to earth. She gives, gives in abundance, is not a skinflint like those trinket-selling Greek girls.”

Nikos Kazantzakis “Zorba the Greek” 1952

RKS 2023 Wine: Yalumba Organic Viognier: Gewurztraminer in Handcuffs?

Reasonably priced Viognier is difficult to find. One of the better “budget” Viogniers I have encountered is the Yalumba Y Series Viognier found in the general list of the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) which sells for $15.40. And more often than not it is sold out. How does Yalumba’s 2021 organic Viognier fare?

Aroma: Peach, apricot, and mango with rose petals.

Palate: You’ll be greeted by peach and mango with a slightly abrasive edge quite similar to many Encruzados from the Dão region in Portugal. Moderate finish. It is no tutti frutti so don’t be spooked when you hear peach and mango!

Food Pairing: A few years ago as a speaker at a wine event in Lake Erie North Shore one of the foods served was a wood burning oven pizza topped with amongst other things fresh just picked peaches. Boy the Gewurztraminer with it was a match made in heaven. This would do just as well assuming you can find a wood burning oven and a pizza maker audacious enough to top pizza with peaches! Also grilled chicken with peach and avocado salsa is mucho bueno!

Cellarbility: I suggest consuming in 2023.

Personality: If you like those dry acidic wines with the personality of a fruit fly and I won’t rat them out by name as after all they are my bothers and sisters well this wine is not for you. While I am food friendly I can be consumed solo. As summer is approaching a wonderful pre barbeque wine!

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 91/100. Sam Kim 94.

Price: $16.95 (Ontario).

(Yalumba 2021 Organic Viognier, South Australia, Yalumba, Angaston, Australia, 750 mL, 13.5%, LCBO #288217).

RKS 2023 Film: Vancouver Greek Film Festival: “Magnetic Fields”

The second annual Vancouver Greek Film Festival (VGFF) runs from 1-4 June 2023. It presents an eclectic offering of contemporary and classic Greek cinema. This year the Festival kicks off a calendar of events organized by The Hellenic Canadian Congress of British Columbia during Greek Heritage Month which culminates in “Greek Day on Broadway” one of Vancouver’s most famous street festivals on June 25th.

Greek film has made great strides in the last two decades emerging from slapstick comedy to films dealing with contemporary social issues not afraid to take aim at Greek politics, religion and governmental bureaucracy.

Christos Dikeakos a visual artist and co-founder of the VGFF states, “The programme presents a myriad of stories and experiences about the human condition, offering insight into the minds of Greek filmmakers that is at once intimate and universal.”

The 2021 film “Magnetic Fields” is a 78-minute film directed by Yorgos Goussis.

Antonis (Antonis Tsiotsiopoulos) and Elena (Elena Topalidou) meet on a ferry in Greece heading to a coastal destination. Antonis has car problems as he leaves the ferry and Elena gives him a lift into the main town. Antonis is a big bear of a man with a beard and his red beanie. Elena, mostly hiding behind sunglasses, is a bit quirky full of odd philosophical reflections.

Antonis is single and a man who fears the burdens of love and for him it poses the danger of rejection. Elena is more of the moment person yakking about love in a grand fashion but is miserable and out of love and full of self loathing.

A deep philosophical drama? Perhaps but a huge comedic element as Antonis has a silver box containing the remains of his distant aunt he really knows nothing about but wanted to be buried at the destination where Antonis and Elena arrived. They tour the island looking to bury Auntie’s remains. A huge dramatic argument ensues at the church’s cemetery between church officials and Antonis which is so beautifully Greek it is to be savoured. Half acting and half sincerity! As Auntie was not a citizen of the municipality nor had been a donor to the church she can’t be buried where she had wished. Poor Auntie dies a second death. A horribly violent death a la “Thelma and Louise”.

In the search for an appropriate burial site for Auntie, Elena and Antonis bond platonically or sexually? Your choice on that.

Elena is a lost soul. Uncertain of herself and full of self loathing she deteriorates before your eyes looking haggard and increasingly miserable with her career as a dancer and her stature as a human being. Antonis has been wounded by love. Elena has fallen out of love. Will they connect? Or is life full of misery? Aristotle any thoughts on this?

A love story? A comedy? A satirical look at artsy films? Sexual tension pitted against a philosophical view of love?

At times some remarkable cinematography with some retro blurriness particularly the washed-out road scene. Has the Greek Orthodox church lost realistic connections with its parishioners?

Viewers can take away several interpretations of the film but being somewhat immersed in the Greek diaspora and current Greek society this film is a treasure trove of subtleties!

The film won five Hellenic Film Academy Awards in 2022.

Directed by Yorgos Goussis.

You can see the trailer here https://vimeo.com/643840524

The film can be seen on 3June in Vancouver at the Cinematheque.

RKS 2023 Film Rating 91/100.

RKS 2023 Wine: Greek Up n Comer: Assyrtiko?

Greek white wines made from the Assyrtiko grape may be leading the charge for “the white wine” of Greece. Santorini with its volcanic terroir is the most famous producer of wines made from Assyrtiko but prices are high for these Santorini wines. Mega Spileo in the Achaia region of Greece produces a more affordable Assyrtiko.

Having attended a Santorini Volcanic Terroir tasting in Toronto recently I tried to sum up Santorini Assyrtiko by such words as lemon, ginger, custard and lime with varying degrees of acidity and length of finish. Having just returned from Pico Island in the Azores which has volcanic soil like Santorini I can say the Pico white wines were more piercing with higher degrees of acidity.

Most Assyrtiko wines are suited to ocean fish including shellfish. I had a few sips with Malpeque Oysters at the Santorini tasting and that was an ideal match. Oak aged Santorini Assyrtiko may also suit grilled lamb and chicken.

This Mega Spileo 2021 Assyrtiko deserves a try if you aren’t willing to shell out $37-$70 for some of the Santorini Assyrtiko I tried.

Aroma: Lemon, lime, guava and ginger rather similar to the Santorini Assyrtiko.

Palate: Very dry but without raging acidity. Lemon, guava with a hint of caramel. Short finish lacking in complexity.

Food Pairing: Oysters or simply prepared limpets. Sea bream and sea bass or porgy with a sauce of olive oil, oregano and lemon served with vleta known in Ontario as pegweed or perhaps callaloo. This wine is not sipping wine. Built for seafood.

Personality: I am not ashamed to say I am a wine that suits a limited range of foods as that is what I am best suited for!

Price: $19.95 (Ontario).

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 86/100.

(Mega Spileo Assyrtiko 2021, PGI Achaia, Mega Spileo Winery, Aigio Gefira Meganiti, Greece, 750 mL, 12.5%, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 31680).