RKS 2023 Wine: A Greek Tragedy? The Blood of a Lion Killed by Hercules?

So little Greek wine flows into Canada and that in itself is a tragedy. The choice is almost no choice and if you are a fan of red wine we seem to have wholesale buyers enamoured with Xinomavro which if well made needs age to be enjoyable somewhat like Italian Barolo. Young Xinomavro is highly tannic. Best to age at least 5 years when it will be capable of showing its stuff.

Give me an Hellenic Pot Roast with Orzo any day!

How about wines made from the Agiorgitiko grape?

Nemea in the Greek Peloponnese is the source of much Agiorgitiko which means the grape of St. George (Agios Georgios) and originates from the city of Nemea, formerly called Agios Georgios-St George. There is an ancient legend that the rich, dark, soft and mysterious taste of some Agiorgitiko made wines are that way because the very vines on which the Agiorgitiko grow were stained by the lion that Hercules killed in the area. It is the only grape allowed to use the Nemea Appellation (PDO Nemea).

We now try a Cavino 2018 Nemea Reserva made with the Agiorgitiko grape. It has been aged 14 months in French oak barrels.

Aroma: Loads of black cherry with some beet, vanilla and milk chocolate. Not intense but rather easygoing.   

Palate: A bit of a tannic kick but far less than a comparatively aged Xinomavro. Tight fisted with the fruit so this definitely requires decanting.

Personality: There are many styles of Agiorgitiko and I am not a light one but I am really meant, as many of my Greek red wine friends, to be consumed with hearty fare. You would be wasting your palate and perhaps even demeaning my label by not consuming me with food. I warned you!

Cellarbility: The tannins perhaps are indicative of the need to age but the fruit is so tight fisted I do not think there is much room for evolution.

Food match: Hellenic pot roast without a doubt (kapama Elleniko giouvetsi).

Price: $18.95 (Ontario).

In a nutshell: Mundane and disappointing. Get me to Greece and show me the good stuff!

(Cavino Nemea Reserva 2018 PDO Nemea, 750 mL, 13%, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 245787).

RKS Literature: Dog on the Hunt (Thomas Mann)

“The racking out, the driving up, the chasing-these are ends in themselves to the sporting spirit, and are plainly so to him, as anybody would see who watched him at his brilliant performance. How beautiful he becomes, how consummate, how ideal. Like a clumsy peasant lad, who would look perfect and statuesque as a huntsman among his native rocks. All that is best in Bashan, all that is genuine and fine comes out and reaches its flower at these times. Hence his yearning for them, his repining when they fruitlessly slip away. He is no terrier, he is a true hunter and pointer, and joy in himself as such speaks in every valiant, native pose he assumes. Not many other things rejoice my eye as does the sight of him going through the bush at a swinging trot, then standing rock-still, with one paw daintily raised and turned in, sagacious, alert with all his faculties beautifully concentrated.”

Thomas Mann, “A Man and His Dog”, 1918

RKS 2023 Wines: Good Karma Malbec? Blueberry Jam Memories!

Most Argentinian Malbecs are infused with good Karma. Is it because of some higher power in the wine cosmos or a matter of terroir meeting the right grape and winemaker? I think it best not to disrupt any mysticism. So I will not answer the question.

From Finca Sophenia we have a 2020 Malbec from Argentina’s Uco Valley.

Aroma: I had my homemade blueberry jam on my homemade bread this morning and the first component of the aroma here is big time blueberry jam. Not the raw fruit but the jam. Yes the wine must be homemade! There is also quite a rich streak of blackberry and yes I make blackberry jam too! There is some sweetness to the aroma but it may just be my blueberry jam memories?

Palate: Moderate tannins. The lavish blueberry of the aroma has yielded to a firm if not youngish wine swamped with that blueberry jam with blackberry trailing behind. Give the wine two more years in the bottle and the fruit will emerge and soften the wine. The acidity is well measured and prevents the wine from being jammy!

Personality: You might initially conclude I am fast and easy if you put your nose to work but calm down people my palate shows I am no Chippendale dancer. Give me until 2026 and I’ll be doing the Watutsi!

Cellarbility: A perfect candidate for ageing. Hold until 2029 and this wine will flesh out.

Food match: https://www.driscolls.com/recipes/blueberry-balsamic-glazed-rosemary-chicken

Price: $21.95 (Ontario).

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 94/100. Jamessuckling.com 94.

(Sophenia Karma Malbec 2020, Uco Valley, Finca Sophenia, Mendoza, Argentina, 750 mL, 14%, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 28085).

RKS 2023 Hot Docs Films: “It’s Coming”: Reality Television?

Ashley lives in an old Brooklyn New York apartment with her children. Ashley claims to have been haunted since the age of 11 in the same apartament. Javier her young son has progressed (or regressed) to the point he is playing with a spirit he calls Kitty. He was terrified initially with Kitty who is surrounded by blackness. Her daughter also has numerous visits from a spirit in the world beyond. There are additional spirits about but despite several attempts to photograph these spirits or the objects that they move Ashley can’t catch them “in action”. Even Ashley is becoming accustomed to these unwanted strangers. I found it rather strange Ashley isn’t overly keen to vanquish the intruders lest she lose her powers. Got to keep the franchise going?

A medium is brought into Ashley’s apartment with ghost imaging software on her phone. As she goes from room to room she begins to feel a chill and the atmosphere is suffocating. She warns that redecorating the ageing apartment may shake loose or activate the spirits. The medium summons a child who said it is “coming” and a voice claims to be “watching you”. The medium fails to rid the apartment of the unwanted.

Christian ghost busters arrive with exorcism experience initially gained at their ministry in Africa claiming the house is infested, oppressed and possessed apparently “very rare”. The ghost busters detect energy sources on their ghost recognition camera, say a prayer and throw Holy Water about in true exorcist fashion then beat a hasty retreat. They warned Ashley and Javier about communicating with these spirits as this recognizes and legitimizes them. The spirits, the Christian ghost busters say, also like to garner your sympathy using children’s voices. Clever devils! The Christian exorcism is but a partial success as Ashley still sees them but ignores the spirits. Thank goodness Ashley still can exercise “her power” and Kitty still visits Javier who has been instructed by the Christian exorcists not to engage with it.

In terms of bone chilling terror it isn’t there in this slow moving documentary. It strikes me as more of a reality TV episode and that is worrisome as far as I can see it there is little reality in reality television these days.

There is a spirit world out there and I can attest to it so I am not a naysayer. This is a pedantic documentary punctuated by a few creepy messages from the world beyond. I am just a bit uneasy about its veracity but that of course is a matter of opinion and pardon me for the “90 Day Fiancé” syndrome.

You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3NVH0-szR0

“It’s Coming” plays Toronto Hot Docs Festival (in cinema only) on 29 April and 3 May. This 95-minute US documentary is directed by Shannon Alexander.

RKS 2023 Hot Docs Films Rating 71/100.

RKS Literature: The Tribal Laws of Dogs; (Thomas Mann)

“ My old familiar Bashan was a stranger to me, I found it impossible to enter his feelings or behaviour or understand the tribal laws that governed them. Certainly, the meeting in the open of two dogs, strangers to each other, is one of the most painful, thrilling, and pregnant of all conceivable encounters: it is surrounded by an atmosphere of the last uncanniness, presided over by a constraint for which I have no preciser name: they simply can’t pass each other, their mutual embarrassment is frightful to behold.

Thomas Mann, “A Man and His Dog”, 1918.

RKS Literature: A Dog and His Absolute Master: (Thomas Mann)

It is a deep-lying patriarchal instinct in the dog that leads him-at least in the more manly, outdoor breeds-to recognize and honour in the man of then house and the head of the family his absolute master and overlord, protector of the hearth: and to find in relation of vassalage to him the basis and value of his whole existence, whereas his attitude toward the rest of the family is much more independent.”

Thomas Mann, “A Man and His Dog”, 1918.

RKS Literature: History Professors Not Liking History! (Thomas Mann)

“He knows that history professors do not love history because it is something that comes to pass, but only because it is something that has come to pass: that they hate a revolution like the present one because they feel it lawless, incoherent, irrelevant- in a word unhistoric: that their hearts belong to the coherent, disciplined historic past.”

Thomas Mann: “Disorder and Early Sorrow”, 1925.

RKS Literature: The Misleading Moment (Thomas Mann)

“For a human being tends to believe that the mood of the moment, be it troubled or blithe, peaceful or stormy, is the true, native, and permanent tenor of his existence: and in particular he likes to exalt every happy chance into an inviolable rule and to regard it as the benign order of his life-whereas the truth is he is condemned to improvisation and morally lives from hand to mouth all the time.”

Thomas Mann, “A Man and His Dog”, 1918.

RKS 2023 Wines: Chilean Pinot Noir from the Casablanca Valley

We move to a Chilensis 2017 Signature Series Pinot Noir from Chile’s Casablanca Valley. The Casablanca Valley is Chile’s premier cool climate wine region with its gentle Pacific Ocean breezes, early morning fog and old granitic soils that create a rich tapestry of terroirs and make it one of Chile’s top white wine producers. So how does Pinot Noir fare?

Aroma: A classic Pinot Noir bouquet with plenty of raspberries and strawberries with a dusting of milk chocolate.

Palate: While not delicate it is not gruff and aggressive as some Chilean Pinot Noirs can be. Why not say it is medium bodied? It lacks definition on the palate. While enticing aromas rule the glass on the nose here on the palate where has the fruit disappeared to? A bizarre combination of preserved cherries, rutabaga and gravel.

Personality: I am not pleased with RKS 2023 Wines’ review so far. So what if I lack oodles of fruit on the palate. A politer statement might be I am a lean Pinot Noir! Get this Canadian to Chile and we will show our Casablanca brilliance.

Food match: A classic “Friday night wine”. You know what I mean by that right?! Pizza, burgers or leftover pasta. Wink. Wink.

Cellarbility: No point in that. Drink by the end of 2023.

Price: $19.95 (Ontario).

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 86/100. Jamessuckling.com 91.

(Chilensis Signature Series Pinot Noir 2017, Casablanca Valley, Via Wines, San Rafael, Chile, 750 mL, 15%, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 28591).

RKS Poetry: Horny With Stormy!

Did Someone Allegedly Get Regrettably Horny with Stormy?

Someone I know well once said that all men think with their dick
What a sexist prick!

Like Adam and Eve those private parts must be covered up
or better said “settled” to supress the muck

Politicians in particular must be careful with the dalliances they pick
as getting horny with Stormy they might be burning candles at both ends of the wick

It is bad enough this January 6th insurrection
but an alleged fling and allegedly improper papering is a bad for the political complexion
and a grand danger for re-election
unless of course it is all a socialist Vermonter’s plot
fuelled by CNN rot
everything ruined by a bloody erection it would seem

Robert K. Stephen