Spare Change Needed For Harry
Excommunicated by King (yes finally) Charles aka Daddy
Short on cash
Time for a Kardashian strategy
but difficult as no breasts to bare to get millions of depraved stares
so controversy
scandal
tabloid fodder
no skills but paparazzi cultivation
must keep in the limelight
more will be needed than “Spare”
what is your next dare?
back in the royal graces your chances are slim
so give it all up and partner with Kim!
Robert K. Stephen
Red wines from Chile commenced 2023 virtually flying high then a very bad spill with a Viña Del Pedregal Kidia Reserve Carménère 2018. Real bad. Then a weak recovery with a Viña Marty Pacha Reserva 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon.
As Bogart said in Casablanca, “Here’s looking at you, kid.” I am looking at a Vistamar Gran Reserva 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon from the Cachapoal Valley.
Aromatics: Mostly black cherry with blackberry. Generous oak gives a vanilla edge and a hint of a possible creaminess on the palate. The aromatics also give a hint of a wine that is not going to give much fruit on the palate.
Palate: Moderate tannins. Like a nun just graduating to a junior position at the nunnery very stern and cloistered on the palate! The aromatic interpretation of mine as to a hint of creaminess on the palate did not materialize but the hint as to a scarcity of fruit was right on.
Personality: I am not giving much in the way of richness or complexity on the palate. Crudely put I am a tight ass.
Cellarability: Not much to work with here. It will hang in there until 2026 but will not improve in the bottle.
Food match: If you were sitting down in a hospital cafeteria about to drink a glass of this wine you would hear a,” CODE RED” on the hospital intercom meaning in wine writer code a Friday night pizza and burger wine meaning not so great but utilitarian.
Price: $20.95
In a nutshell: The Liquor Control Board of Ontario has this at its wine of the month in its 17December2022 Vintages release. Often that means a kiss of death. Chile can do much better. In this case Chile stumbles along.
RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 85/100. Patricio Tapia 93/100.
(Vistamar Gran Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon 2019, D.O. Cachapoal Valley, Viña Vistamar, Pelequén, Chile, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 27204, 750 mL, 14%).
“Drug reps exploit doctors’ sense of reciprocal obligation by leaving small gifts and buying meals, which are accepted by 70% of practicing physicians each year. Even a single meal worth no more than twenty dollars provided by a drug company significantly increases doctors’ prescribing of brand-name drugs that are no more effective than drugs of the same class available as low-cost generics. A review article found all the studies that explored the effect of industry gifts and payments showed a positive effect on physicians’ prescribing. Drug reps are trained to engage doctors in encounters by storing personal information about their interests, children and marital status and by using scientific language to sound knowledgeable.”
John Abramson, MD, BSc, “sickening: How Big Pharma Broke American Health Care and How We Can Repair It”, Mariner Books 2022.
“First, commercially sponsored clinical trials report favourable conclusions about the sponsor’s drug or device 34 percent more frequently than non-commercially funded trials do. Moreover, when the principal investigator of a published clinical trial has financial ties to the manufacturer of the drug being studied-as is the case in two-thirds of published clinical trials-the odds are three and a half times greater that the study will report that the dug is effective. And amplifying the significant bias found in commercially sponsored studies, 97 percent of the studies most frequently cited in the literature are funded by the industry. This means that more than nineteen out of twenty of the studies having the greatest impact on doctors’ practice are commercially funded-and significantly more likely to show positive results for the sponsor’s product.”
John Abramson MD, MSc: ”sickening: How Big Pharma Broke American Health Care and How We Can Repair It”: Mariner Books 2022.
I was told by Ginevra all involved in the Neapolitan narcotics trade had nicknames as a matter of pride and to assist in obfuscating identification by law enforcement and tax authorities. You remember that notorious American gangster Al Capone who visited the “big house” not for murder but tax evasion! The names were colourful and of course as I told you earlier Don Lupara was referred to as the Fat Fox. Other names were “Cyclops”, “Hot Blood”, “Hairy Balls”, “Thumb Sucker”, “Big Nose”, “Bloodhound” and the “Slippery One”.
Don Lupara and Cyclops were not getting along. Don Lupara’s territory were the slums of Scampia and bordering Scampia was Piscinola-Marianella. One street on the border of these districts Via Greco was according to Cyclops being hijacked by Don Lupara. Warning shots had been exchanged between Cyclops’ and Don Lupara’s men.
After our little “tour” Don Lupara took me to Scampia’s finest restaurant Satriole’s. A hole in the wall with the best pasta in Campania according to Don Lupara. We had a steaming bowl of pasta sitting in the front of the restaurant. It’s plate glass windows gave us a view of all sorts of “Crime in Action”. After being grilled by Don Lupara about how many grandchildren Ginerva and I would give him we sat up and were ready to leave when I was tackled by one of Don Lupara’s men and Don Lupara by another. A huge burst of machine gun fire shattered the plate glass window followed by an explosion. Bloody bodies and body parts were strewn all over the restaurant. Don Lupara was unscathed and I had a piece of glass graze the back of my head and was bleeding. And that man who had been tailing Ginevra and I in New York and had tackled me lay on the ground with bits of his brain oozing from a crater in what was left of his head. Don Lupara was as cool as a cucumber declaring that a war was now on with Cyclops.
Badly shaken we headed home but one piece of business had to be taken care of. Guido and Lino were two 14-year-old Scampian teenagers who had staged a violent robbery of a bordello run by Don Lupara. Of course, Don Lupara’s men had apprehended the boys within the hour. Don Lupara was struck by their gall and hired them as low-level drug runners. Well at a disco Guido and Lino had made acquaintances with two young ladies and they ran out of cocaine so they ripped off a drug dealer outside of Scampia. This was a fatal mistake. We walked into a room where the boys were tied up full of apologies and contrition. Territory had to be respected as a matter of honour. Don Lupara walked up to them and shot poor Guido and Lino in the head. And I was just thinking Don Lupara might be a decent fellow.
After tasting some excellent Chilean Carménère I recently hit a wall at high-speed facing a disappointing Viña Del Pedregal 2018 Kidia Reserve Carménère which I opined should be returned to sender. One rogue wine will not deter me from pursuing the Chilean path.
So switching to a Cabernet Sauvignon from Viña Marty, a Pacha Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile’s Central Valley, I can only hope there will be no crashing into the wall!
Aromatics: Earthy if not a bit barnyardy. Predominately blueberry with cherry, blackberry, loganberry and fig jam.
Palate: Blackberry, struggling cherry and cactus pear. Off standish and thin for a Cabernet Sauvignon. Short finish.
Personality: I am arrogant and cold and if Cabernet Sauvignon drinkers don’t appreciate my “unique” quality and “very special terroir” they can go take a flying leap. Other Cabernet Sauvignons can be warm and sensuous but if drinkers don’t think I am the best they fail to understand my Chilean soul!
Cellaring: None. Drink now.
Food Match: As a slight but polite put-off used by many wine writers this is a Friday night burger and pizza wine.
Cost: $16.95 (Ontario).
In a nutshell: Chile can do far better. The old adage applies here. Know your winery!
RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 84/100. Wine Enthusiast 90/100.
(Viña Marty Pacha Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon 2019, D.O. El Valle Central, Viña Marty, Sagrada Familia Curicó, Chile, 750 mL, 14.5%, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 27199).
“In fact, shaping doctors’ beliefs has become the drug companies’ primary job. To this end, the majority of the largest drug companies spend twice as much on sales and marketing as they do on research and development of the drugs themselves. And a quarter of those spend ten times as much on sales and marketing. “
John Abramson, MD, MSc: “sickening: How Big Pharma Broke American Health Care and How We Can Repair it”: Mariner Books 2022.
Manhattan Montezuma’s
In from YYZ to EWR
not having breakfast or lunch
I desperately needed something to munch
outside Lotte Palace a chili dog from a vendor’s cart
a botulism mart?
hit the spot but not very hot
off to dinner at 57th for a Greek feast
90 minutes later unholy grumbling and a multitude of gas
knocking down old ladies in my path
barely made it to the lobby WC
rest assured it wasn’t pee
was it the moussaka or Chili dog
can’t tell lost in the Manhattan Montezuma’s fog?
Robert K. Stephen
Don Lupara and I left the family compound after a hearty breakfast of fruit, smoked ham and Napoli croissants loaded with his wife’s stupendous orange marmalade from oranges from the family orchards in Ischia. With food like this perhaps the “Fat” in “Fat Fox” might have referred to the effects of all the tremendous Neapolitan food!
Once again our car a huge fat Russian Zil with its armour and bullet proof glass was flanked by a car in front and to our rear. I saw pistols bulging from the backs of the tattooed and odd looking “colleagues” of Don Lupara. Don Lupara said the Zil once belonged to Nikita Khrushchev.
Don Lupara explained to me that I was going to see his business that of course Ginevra was going to assume upon his death which he said in this business and in Naples is always just around the corner. Again the threat, although said in a more friendly tone than it had been a few days ago that what I was about to see must never be repeated outside “the family”.
Our first stop was the cocaine and heroin “factory”. The narcotics were smuggled via Bulgaria from El Salvador concealed in sex toy dolls wrapped tightly in two kilo bricks. Having such good import connections the narcotics were pure. A team sat on a huge-long table opening the wrapping on the bricks. The powder was then cut to half strength and packaged in various sizes for “retail distribution” fine tuned like some COSTCO warehouse! Heavily armed men guarded the outside with machine guns.
The retail network consisted of over 75 men and women. Most narcotics were distributed like candy from various locations often near schools and playgrounds with tall buildings nearby where sentinels could watch oncoming movements. A fleet of motor scooters zipped about delivering narcotics to the “distribution team”. A never-ending line of ragged customers flashed their cash quickly and efficiently and scuttled off. The “distribution team” was well trained in quick escapes should there be a police raid. As Don Lupara said to me the family had many “friends” in the public prosecutor’s office and in the police so raids were known far in advance. The family had many “friends” in the custom’s office too. For their information and assistance very large sums of cash were needed so Don Lupara had a payroll to meet in addition to “employees” in the factory and in the distribution network.
All said and done this was a business model that could be one of the finest in the capitalist world. Again what in earth had fate delivered to me. Ginerva and I becoming narcotic kingpins in Naples? Ginevra was not that type of girl…..or so I thought yet I recalled she cut up 3 tough Puerto Rican thugs in Harlem faster than you could blink.
Now for our lunch break Don Lupara said it was important I meet some of his “colleagues” as I would be dealing with them in the future? And why did Don Lupara have me set up to take Italian language courses?
From the Maule Valley this D.O. Valle Pencahue Carménère is new to the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. Follow the lead of Elvis and return to sender!
Aromatics: Strawberry, stewed rhubarb, blackberry, charcoal and some raspberry jam.
Palate: Moderate tannins initially but augment quickly into a firm grip. Bereft of any real fruit. Almost astringent. Given the excellent Carménère tried in the past 3 months this one is entirely disappointing and forgettable.
Personality: Like many a politician I start off very friendly with good aromatics and a firm handshake. But get to know me on the palate and regrettably have little of interest after the aromatics are done. I will be most happy if you return me to the store where they will send me home and we can try again. I am sorry for fooling “savvy buyers” from the Liquor Control Board of Ontario.
Cellaring: Don’t bother.
Food match: Don’t bother.
Price: $18.95 (Ontario).
In a nutshell: Keep this nut in its shell and don’t open.
RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 56/100
(Viña del Pedregal, Kidia Reserve Carménère 2018, D.O. Valle Pencahue, Viña del Pedregal, Vila Alegre de Loncomilla, Chile, 750 mL, 14%).
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