“Americans and their health care providers must remember that the real goal is not to have the lowest cholesterol level but to have the lowest risk of heart disease and stroke. Had the guidelines Jane’s doctor followed so scrupulously with regard to statin therapy first called for an in-depth program to help Jane overcome her resistance to making the lifestyle changes that would have far more effectively protected her health, surely her doctor would have followed that advice.”
John Abramson, MD,MSc, “sickening: How Big Pharma Broke American Health Care and How We Can Repair It” : Mariner Books 2022
In today’s wine world can one properly speak of a signature wine or grape? Given most wine producing countries produce a variety of wines how can you select a signature grape? By volume produced? By sales? By quality? By exports? The categories are many and varied and who can agree on them? At best one might try and identify a signature wine within an appellation or viticultural area. But even then is there any point in trying to identify a signature wine? Perhaps we might want to say a “notable wine”?
South Africa has several notable wines one such white wine being Chenin Blanc. I recently attended masterclass on South African wines in Toronto given by Christopher Waters. One comment that caught my attention is that a certain producer of Chenin Blanc in South Africa sells a limited quantity of “premium” Chenin Blanc for several hundred dollars a bottle and even if you are on “the list” there is no guarantee you’ll receive a bottle of the coveted Chenin Blanc.
South Africa is the 8th largest wine producer, 6th in export values and 19th for wine consumption. The percentage of vineyards growing white gapes is led by Chenin Blanc. In Stellenbosch Chenin Blanc is second to Sauvignon Blanc in terms of acreage.
In this case at $15.95 there is no waiting list for the Rustenberg Stellenbosch Chenin Blanc. There is a huge supply in the pipeline now in Ontario.
Aromas: Pineapple, mango, guava and tangerine.
Palate: Definite underlying acidity but not to the degree it threatens the wine. Pineapple upside down cake, South African tangerine, Granny Smith apple with some grapefruit and a bit of brackishness in the finish which extends its length.
Cellaring: Will not improve. Consume by the end of 2024.
Personality: With my acidity you might say I am a bit high strung. I am a bit salty. With the salt and acidity I urge you to drink me with food.
Price: $15.95 (Ontario).
Food Match: Grilled sardines with a lemon, olive oil and oregano sauce with Swiss Chard and crispy bread as a side.
In a nutshell: Signature Chenin Blanc pineapple aroma. Its acidity and brackishness a good accompaniment to white fleshed ocean fish. Might do well with a roasted chicken with lemon and potatoes Greek style. Not a particularly good sipper.
Ginevra and I had earmarked Saturdays for an exploration of New York City. There were so many sites to see.
My favourite site was Central Park an oasis from the urban frantic New York. No matter the mood or weather we had frequent walks. I liked the lagoon with its ducks and benches to watch the world go by. I would often pop up to Whole Foods at Columbus Circle and pick up our lunch or breakfast from their huge deli section. New Yorkers were obsessed with eating out so Whole Foods deli was for many New Yorkers a “home cooked meal”.
Ginerva’s favourite was The Met Cloisters at the tip of Manhattan. It was always quiet and although the installations were in my opinion somewhat boring the calmness and serenity was so anti-New York. I discovered something fascinating about Ginevra on one of our trips to The Cloisters. We took the bus up through Harlem to get there and the bus broke down and we were thrust out in the street awaiting a replacement bus. Four Puerto Rican hoodlums approached us making jokes about Ginerva’s ass and one of them tried to pinch it. Well my little plum took out a stiletto knife and slashed the buttons of the aggressor’s leather jacket. Well they took their knives out and in thirty seconds they were on the pavement bleeding. My little plum! My sweet little plum! She bellowed in what she later told me was in Neapolitan dialect, “Want more sons of a whore. Come and meet your end!” Well those scratched up hoods ran off in terror. What a tough bird my little plum was although she was shaking like a leaf. I asked her about her knife wielding talents and she told me Daddy had taught her how to knife fight! In Naples he had said a girl is not safe with men unless she knew how to cut. My my. It was time to meet Don Lupara.
After our visit to The Cloisters we headed to a safer part of Harlem to one of our favourite restaurants “The Red Rooster” where we split a Charleston Boil and some shrimp grits. Ginerva had to calm herself down with two Tito’s Vodka martinis. She loved her martinis.
Speaking of love she insisted we return to my pad at the Dakota. She looked me in the eyes when we arrived and attacked me like a savage animal. Too many months of good behaviour she said. It was a pleasurable attack but damn Wuhan Wet Market Publishing. I am not going to soil my reputation and that of my little plum by giving any salacious details. In the morning exhausted by our “cavorting” and numbed out and a bit shy about our amorous explosion she left back to her place to finish some research.
Well my readers within 24 hours I received a special delivery package. When I opened it up, I could do nothing but scream and then vomit. There was a severed goat’s head in the box and a message, “The next time you fool with Ginerva it will be your head and balls in this package.” I had the feeling it was time to talk with Daddy!
“Sadly, those priorities did not include the safety of Stacey Palmer or all the other tens of thousands of Americans who had suffered cardiovascular complications as a result of taking Vioxx. Many of those injuries and deaths could have been prevented if the New England Journal of Medicine had corrected its erroneous article as soon as it knew of the problem; instead, it left the article uncorrected, allowing Merck to profit from the drug’s blockbuster status for another three and a half years and the journal itself to profit from selling reprints of the misleading article to Merck.”
John Abramson, MD, MSc “sickening: HOW BIG PHARMA BROKE AMERICAN HEALTH CARE AND HOW WE CAN REPAIR IT”: Mariner Books 2022
My assignment with the United Mutations in New York had concluded but I received a call from Squid asking if I was wiling to address world leaders at a United Nation’s General Assembly meeting to determine if the United Mutations should be granted observer status at the United Nations. You can imagine the preparation that this involved! So aside from getting to know Ginerva I had my hands full. I did manage to meet her after her classes at Columbia where in true fashion she’d down an espresso in three seconds and we chatted about many things except her family which she said we would discuss later on “when appropriate”. On occasion I noticed a heavily tattooed man with an Iroquois haircut and a big scar on his face watching us. It wasn’t an isolated incident just now and then. Ginerva brushed it all off saying it was just a fellow student. Hmmmmm. I managed to sneak in a few hugs and smooches which I felt Ginerva was willing to further but always that sense of reluctance like she was surveying her surrounding before succumbing to our juvenile antics. She just kept saying all in good time.
For an independent opinion and sanity check I invited Yoko and John Lennon to tea at my Dakota unit. I needed John to assess Ginerva. I didn’t require his approval but rather his assessment. So Yoko and John joined us for tea. John loved loose leaf tea that I made. He always used damn tea bags lacking confidence to make loose leaf tea! A man who had conquered the music world afraid to make loose leaf tea! But a man suffering from panic attacks perhaps has a proclivity for many fears. He was deathly afraid of eating sushi fearing someone may have substituted albacore with blowfish. Ginerva wore her vintage leopard dress which wowed Yoko who as I knew had a passion for Vintage clothing. Ginerva and Yoko were deeply engrossed in conversation ignoring John and me. After the last cucumber sandwich and last drop was drained from the samovar John and Yoko departed with Yoko inviting Ginerva (and not me) to a charitable event for the New Yorker Society of Panic Attacks. John had cornered me just before he and Yoko departed and gave Ginerva the thumbs up.
That was a relief. I had to gear up the courtship with Ginerva.
My romantic escapades have been brief and quite frankly have ended up in disaster. Minah ended up in psychiatric care, Reena was set ablaze by her evil mother-in-law and the Toad and her marriage obsession was enough to drive off any sensible young man. But heck better to have loved that not loved at all. No way Ginerva could have fallen into this pattern right? Those twinkling green eyes of her made my romantic past evaporate. It was time to know Ginerva better.
Ginerva was 26, quite close to my age. She was born in Naples, Italy to her father Lupara Cattivo and mother Malvagia. Lupara was of humble background who rose to fame and fortune selling what Ginerva referred to as a “recreational product”. She was a bit evasive about what these products were so I decided not to press her. Her mother Malvagia was from a family in Northern Italy, Bolzano that “ran” tankers of wine into Germany.
Ginerva attended Sacred Heart gymnasium in Naples with the crème de la crème of Naples society. Her best friend was the daughter of the Naples Chief Prosecutor. She was a brilliant student. She never worked as “Daddy” as she called Lupara, was overprotective. She spent her summer on the coast at Ischia where her family had a “little villa” and a few seafood restaurants. Ginerva continually watched by two men discretely in the background which she attributed to overprotective Daddy. Daddy had many a meeting at his Naples residence with his fellow colleagues referring to him as “Don Lupara”. When Daddy went out into Naples or for that matter anywhere two cars followed his, one in front and one in back full of men with tattoos and strange haircuts.
Ginerva had been looking to escape her luxury “Naples Nest” to see the world so she accepted an offer from Columbia University in New York in their Criminology Program. She had explained to me her rather morbid focus of “Italian Mafia Execution Techniques”.
One comment Ginerva made without providing an explanation and without conviction was that our relationship would, for the time being, have to be platonic. Otherwise, I might come to harm. Daddy and Malvagia had marriage in mind for my sweet Italian plum. Old fashion folk but not unlike the society I knew in Bombay. Floating in a cloud of infatuation the strange twists in her explanations remained in the clouds. For the time being Ginerva would have to remain my “brilliant friend”.
Cave Spring certainly exhibited its strength in 2022 for both red and white wines. How does the Blanc de Blanc Brut fare?
Aromatics: Peach, pineapple, pear, guava, lime, butterscotch and almond croissant.
Palate: A nice sharp bite with slight notes of ginger, whole wheat toast almonds with some grapefruit on the finish.
Personality: I am just a regular guy from Beamsville in Ontario. I am just as good as many of those fancy smancy French Champagnes but I will let the wine writers toot their horn about me. I know who I am and I’m good. I am made the same way those French Champagnes are.
In a nutshell: Crisp, clean and straightforward traditional method made. 100% Chardonnay. Good value. The finish has more character than many Crémants.
RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 90/100.
(Cave Spring Blanc de Blanc Brut Non-Vintage, VQA Beamsville Bench. Cave Spring Vineyard, Jordan, Ontario, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 13983, 12%, 750 mL)
Although Mary Macleod is no longer with us her shortbread proudly pushes onwards and upwards. Mary opened her first ever shortbread shop in Toronto in 1981. The tiny bakeshop was the origin of her signature small batch all butter shortbread made by hand using simple premium ingredients. It recently had a retail shop but now has high end shops distribute the shortbread with almost all of them located in Ontario. But do not fear Mary Macleod’s ships throughout North America. At one point years ago their lone retail shop had many travellers returning home from Canada pick up their shortbread before heading to Toronto Pearson Airport. That is a fine compliment to international recognition of Mary Macleod shortbread indeed!
Mary Macleod learnt how to make shortbread from her Scottish mother and French grandmother.
Although I had no intent to compare Mary Macleod shortbread with competitors, assuming they exist, I bought some shortbread at a large supermarket chain in Toronto called Metro at their high-end bakery “Front Street Bakery” which is touted as “Our Absolute Finest”. They were soggy and sickly looking and bland with no character. Strangely no ingredients were listed. I suspect due to a lack of butter taste on the palate there was a healthy dose of lard and a myriad of chemicals. Yech!
Dutch Chocolate Shortbread
Pocas 2015 Late Bottled Vintage Port (PORTUGAL)
The Pocas 2015 Late Bottled Vintage Port is a rich blackberry, blueberry ad milk chocolate influenced Port. Does the chocolate shortbread pair with this Port? The Mary Macleod Dutch Chocolate is sublimely rich and leaves a lasting Choco impression on the palate which is dense yet not overly sweet. The Pocas Port and the cookie are in harmony. In fact the chocolate in the shortbread draws out some raspberry from the Port. An excellent match as both compliment each other.
Tullamore D.E.W. Irish whisky has notes of apricot, peach, orange marmalade and ginger. It is somewhat less fiery on the palate than Scotch whisky and you might want to say smoother. Yes there is a burn but a smouldering one as opposed to raging one. As the heat is less intense there is no need to reduce its temperature with a few drops of water unless you are looking for an even mellower drink. Notes of honey, toasted marshmallows, cooked oatmeal and apricot jam. The finish is warm, long and lingering.
I admit I am totally surprised Tullamore and the chocolate don’t self destruct . Instead the Tullamore shines its apricot and orange nature. I would say Tullamore is a good match but not an excellent one.
As for aromatics it is replete with just picked ripe raspberries tinged with a miniscule bit of milk chocolate. The palate is silky and smooth with just plain old ripe raspberries with a moderately long finish. Not complex but straightforward and delicious. There is enough acidity to keep this wine from being cloying or sickly sweet. It is a perfect match for chocolate such as Mary Macleod’s Dutch Chocolate shortbread as it draws out even more raspberry when it hits this shortbread. The best of the three!
The Classic Plain Shortbread with a chocolate chunk in the centre
Pocas 2015 Late Bottled Vintage Port
The chocolate chunk in the middle of the cookie imparts a chocolate influence to the cookie but not as intense as the solid Dutch chocolate shortbread. It draws out the grape in the Port and nudges out some of its milk chocolate character. An excellent match.
Tullamore D.E.W. Irish Whisky
A decent match. Strangely it is the chocolate that pulls out some of the orange and apricot qualities of the whisky.
Southbrook Canadian Framboise (CANADA)
As for aromatics it is replete with just picked ripe raspberries tinged with a miniscule bit of milk chocolate. The palate is silky and smooth with just plain old ripe raspberries with a moderately long finish. Not complex but straightforward and delicious. There is enough acidity to keep this wine from being cloying or sickly sweet. It is a perfect match for chocolate such as Mary Macleod’s Dutch Cholate shortbread as it draws out even more raspberry when it hits this shortbread. The best of the three!
The Classic Shortbread Cookie
Pocas 2015 Late Bottled Vintage Port (PORTUGAL)
Not a good match. Leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.
Not a good match as the solitary good qualities of the spirit and cookie neutralizes each other.
J&B Rare Blended Old Scotch Whisky (SCOTLAND)
On the nose apricot, mango, pear, quince, tangerine and persimmon. Almost tropical. On the palate the heat is pleasant and not quite firewaterish. There is also honey, butterscotch, spice and orange with just a bit of sweetness.
I seem to recall a few years back when doing an exhaustive tasting of spirits and Mary Macleod shortbread it was this Scotch Whisky that rose above the pack to be the best match. With its slight sweet twist J&B is the best match for Mary Macleod Classic shortbread. The best of the three.
If Mary Macleod’s is interested next stab at matching might be milk and shortbread. Which is best…skim, 2% or homo?????
My assignment with the United Mutations in New York was rapidly completed. Drafting the Mutants Charter of Rights was somewhat challenging but with resourcefulness and creativity the task was easy. I cobbled together human rights bills and declarations from a year long course I took at the Cote St. Luc University Law School and with my Mr. Donut contractual skills I produced a rough draft that was reviewed and commented on by Squid and his “senior management team”. Aside from a poorly drafted section specially dealing with victims of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder during war and genocide it was a work of art! It sure beat negotiating contracts for donut delivery to an annual Mennonite conference!
My Ginerva at work painting!
One day John Lennon asked me if I would like to go shopping with him as he wanted a birthday gift for Yoko and he needed company as he suffered panic attacks when shopping. A friend might alleviate his anxiety he thought. So we took a couple of buses downtown to Magnolia Street for some shopping. Yes readers John Lennon loved taking buses pretending to be a common folk. He tried to avoid the subway as it made him claustrophobic and with the amount of people in the subway system he would be more easily recognized.
What a rough part of town Magnolia Street was in. Derelicts, young toughs with baseball bats and narcotic dealers. John had said we were in the Bowery. We found the shop he was looking for and it was a very high-end vintage clothing dealer with heavily discounted prices a reward perhaps for the brave willing to walk in this part of town. Yoko refused to buy new clothing and accessories as she found it too “oppressive and exploitative”. Strange lady.
It wasn’t but 5 minutes into the fortified store that John began to shake with sweat pouring down his brow. He had selected a Chanel purse but in the midst of a panic attack he gave me the cash to purchase the purse then ran outside to wait for me.
As I was paying for it the most beautiful young lady with those melt your soul green eyes sidled up to me and complimented my exquisite taste in selecting a rare Chanel purchase. With a twinkle in her eye and with a slight Italian accent she said to me your girlfriend is a lucky girl. I responded I was just completing the purchase for a friend and I had no girlfriend. Her face lit up and she said perhaps I needed one! She gave me her telephone number and suggest we meet for dinner soon. My heart was fluttering. Hot diggety dog. A dusky beauty asking me out! She said her name was Ginerva. I could barely remember my name.
“Pilate had awakened, washed, anointed himself with aromatic oil, and was pacing nervously back and forth on the high solarium of his tower. He had never liked this Passover Day. The Jews drunk with their God, would work themselves into a frenzy, come to blows again with the Roman soldiers-and this year another massacre might break out, which was not in the best interest of Rome. This Passover he had a crucial worry. The Hebrews would by all means crucify the poor Nazarene, the crazy one….disgraceful race!”
A Bird's Eye View of Fashion, Food, Travel, Culture, Beverage and Curiosity 