RKS 2023 Wine: Washington State Syrah? Chateau Ste. Michelle: Memories of the January 6th Coup Attempt!

There is no doubt that Washington State can produce top quality Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon but can the same be said for Syrah?

I suppose we might start with a big Washington State winery that produces quality wines at least the ones we are seeing in Ontario. Up on the witness stand is a Chateau Ste. Michelle 2019 Syrah from the Columbia Valley.

Aroma: Despite the generous amount of Yankee oak there are ample amounts of blackberries and blueberries swirling in the glass with just a hint of black coffee. The oak is not overdone and makes the wine approachable for the mass market.

Palate: Unfortunately, all the fruit dancing in the glass fails to fully materialize on the dance floor. Indeed, the blackberry and blueberry is present but in a harsher format almost as if the oak can’t cut through it like some police blockade failing to impede the protestors to overtake the legislature although that reference might be more appropriate for Washington in the District of Columbia as opposed to Washington State!

Personality: I come on smooth as a politician on the six-p.m. news but get to know me perhaps instead of sitting in the legislature I should be hosting a Fox News “Inside Washington” broadcast.

Food Match: Bucatini topped with either veggie or non veggie Putanesca sauce!

Cellarbility: Will trundle though 2023 but really no purpose beyond that.

Price: $22.95 (Ontario).

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 89/100. Sean Sullivan Wine Enthusiast 89.

(Chateau Ste. Michelle Syrah Columbia Valley 2019, Chateau Ste. Michelle Paterson, Washington, 750 mL, 13.5%, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 949651).

RKS 2023 Film Toronto Hot Docs Festival: “Food and Country” (international premiere)

“Food and Country” is an American documentary delving into food production and the restaurant business in the United States. Although shot during COVID, a most miserable time for so many, it doesn’t solely focus on the impact of COVID on restaurants and the ag business. It digs deeper and examines the crisis in the American ag business.

Ruth Reichl, a well-known food critic and always a lover of good food does the asking and probing of cattle ranchers, restaurant owners and farmers in a gentle and compassionate manner. The documentary could be both oppressive and depressive in its totality but with good humor Reichl delivers the message of the dangers of concentration of agricultural production exacerbated by that devil we know as COVID. She speaks with farmers, ranchers and restaurant owners to explain the crisis affecting them. And they are fighting back with determination and optimism trends that threaten their existence and our dangerous reliance on ag oligopoly.

Reichl maintains that we should appreciate the independents in the ag and restaurant business who of course are looking for economic prosperity in a manner that offers hope to us all. But they know and care about the products they produce. A new collective vision of agriculture is required to save us from a disaster in food supply which we had a taste of during COVID and are still paying the price for. Reichl is right on when she says that food shows us human and societal values. I often look at the baskets of shoppers at grocery stores and wince with processed foods and all manner of unhealthy food in those baskets. Food shopping here in Canada during most months is a chore but when our farmer’s markets and farms offer a bounty of high-quality produce food shopping becomes a joy.

Even if you enjoy your fructose laden and processed foods you proudly wheel around in your food basket you really owe it to yourself and independent farmers to watch this documentary. It plays here in Toronto on April 28th with a post film conversation with Ruth Reichl (also a co-producer) and Laura Gabbert (director). The other screenings will be on 29April and 7May.

RKS 2023 Film Rating 92/100.

RKS 2023 Wine: Colossal Reserva from Lisbon: Big Name but What Quality?

Red wines from the Lisbon appellation in Portugal are not timid about blending with Syrah, Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon aside native indigenous varieties but all we can read on the label is that it is made from “typical grape varieties planted in the region”.  A trip to the Casa Santos Lima website reveals the grapes are Syrah, Alicante Bouschet, Touriga Nacional and Tinta Roriz. The fermentation occurred in 10,000 litre vats and then aged 8 months in both American and French oak barrels.

Aroma: Full of black cherry, blackberry, cola with a bit of dark chocolate.

Palate: A burly courier de bois wine. Not dainty or elegant if you are searching for that. Tannins are moderate. Black cherry and blackberry rules the roost. The wine is taking no hostages. With 9 grams of residual sugar much more than most reds but the sugar is well hidden.

Personality: I am like Alanis Morrissette when she croons about that “Jagged Little Pill”.

Food match: The wine is not one of those “Friday Night Wines” but it requires a robust meat or pasta dish to shine. I would not recommend as a casual sipping wine. Like many Portuguese red wines, it is built for food.

Cellarbility: It can hold nicely until 2026 and will modestly improve with ageing.

Price: $16.95 (Ontario).

RKS 2023 wine rating: 88/100. Roger Voss Wine Enthusiast 91.

(Colossal Reserva 2018, Vinho Regional Lisboa, Casa Santos Lima, Portugal, 14%, 750 mL, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 548867).

RKS Toronto 2023 Hot Docs Festival: “Eat Flowers”

Once upon a time long ago when you could take rocker Rod Stewart seriously there was his song “Every Picture Tells a Story”. In the short documentary “Eat Flowers” every picture of flowers taken by photographer Cig Harvey tells a story.

The photos are lush and gorgeous as well as the cinematography by River Finlay and Harvey’s voice is a match for the cinematography.

Flowers are life for Harvey some she says acting like a ventilator giving her breath. Perhaps the message we take away is her comment that if you took a lifetime of photos and added up the shutter speeds they would total six seconds so use them and make life count.

Yes indeed in the documentary there is a story about her best friend Mary but I’ll stop here and let the pictures and cinematography tell a story. A riveting sensual experience.

The 14 minute “Eat Flowers” is directed and produced by River Finlay and produced by Cig Harvey and Sashka Rothchild. It screens with Artscape’s Shorts Programme on 1 May and streams in Canada only 5-9 May.

RKS 2023 Hot Docs: “Hebron Relocation”: Church and State Swindle of the Inuit?

Holly Anderson’s short documentary “Hebron Relocation” has its world premiere at the 2023 Toronto Hot Docs Festival. It explores the forced location of 233 Inuit from Hebron to more southerly locations in Newfoundland and Labrador in 1959. Unfortunately the documentary fails to provide what the “official reason” was for the relocation so viewers may be somewhat puzzled how the church and state swindle was justified. Despite that lack of explanation, it was forced location for which the Newfoundland and Labrador government apologized for in 2005. Perhaps a small moral victory for a heinous church and state collaboration.

The 15-minute documentary jives nicely with the opening documentary for Toronto Hot Docs “Twice Colonized” focusing on the colonization of the Inuit in both Canada and Greenland.

Screens with “Samuel and the Light” on 3/7 May and streams on 5 May.

RKS 2023 Toronto Hot Docs: “Undertaker for Life!”: More About the Living than the Dead

The National Film Board of Canada presents a gem of a documentary “Undertaker for Life!” at the Toronto Hot Docs Festival. Yes there is a focus on several undertakers and mourners but the documentary is more about how the living navigate death of loved ones through the grieving process. As one undertaker quips about the statement that in life there are death and taxes but while some can avoid paying taxes no one can avoid death!

The funeral directors we meet in the documentary are witty, insightful, humorous, and full of valuable advice on both death and dying. We listen to their first embalming experiences, their reflections on life and death, what has shaken them and how you might want to best live your life and manage your death. In addition to learning historical aspects about the undertaking business you’ll understand better about funerals and the grieving proves in the Roman Catholic, Jewish and Muslim faith. And yes funeral directors do cry. One recounts a trip to a children’s hospital morgue where the tiny gurneys had Walt Disney themed blankets at the ready to cover the bodies. 

These undertakers are philosophers! One said my father was a doctor and sister a nurse and when they have done all that they could it is my turn to step forward!

A brilliant collection of music from flippant to sombre whether it be carnival music or New Orleans funeral procession jazz.

If death is in your plans you must watch “Undertaker for Life!”. As death is part of life undertakers are performing a life service.

The documentary will screen at Toronto Hot Docs on 28April and 1May and streams in Canada on 5May.  

This 52-minute documentary is directed by Georges Hannan.

RKS 2023 Film Rating 90/100.

RKS 2023 Toronto Hot Docs: “Twice Colonized”: A Familiar Story for Many but not All

“Twice Colonized” will have its Canadian premiere as the opening night film at Toronto Hot Docs. It is a documentary focusing on renowned Inuit activist lawyer Aaju Peter living in Iqaluit in Nunavut.

Peter was born in the Danish colony of Greenland and at the wish of her father was sent to Denmark to be “educated” where she lost her language, culture and any stability a childhood might have afforded. She boarded with families so this was not a residential school setting like in Canada but she remarks it had the same goal and objective that being the “whitifying” of indigenous children. She stayed in Denmark from 11-18 years of age. Eventually she moved to Nunavut in Canada. Both Greenland and Canada have Inuit populations. Peter says she was colonized twice. Once by Denmark then by Canada.

Her childhood in Greenland was very rough as she and her brother used to go to the dump to find food to eat. She may have escaped hunger by travelling to Denmark for her schooling but her dignity was more important than food on her plate.

She was insulted and angered by her colonization and has used that energy to advocate for indigenous rights both in Canada and in the EU attempting to create a permanent indigenous forum in the EU. The EU’s animal activists believing animal rights were more important than indigenous rights managed to ban imports of seal products to the EU crippling the Canadian Inuit economy, wounding the pride and dignity of the Inuit and creating hunger. The seal import ban requires more fleshing out than as given in this documentary.

Peter notes the colonization of the Inuit has many unable to comprehend anything but the Inuit of many years past. She wants the Inuit to be part of the modern economy not as imposed by the colonizers but on Inuit terms. What those terms are not explained.

Despite the suicide of her son and being in what seems an abusive relationship with her boyfriend she rolls along hoping to write a book “Twice Colonized”. So in addition to dealing with political struggles she has to wrestle with some personal demons.

Colonization of indigenous populations in Canada was brought to light in a very public way with legal action against the Canadian government by many indigenous nations for the damages caused by the residential school system so the documentary adds little to that concept but it brings Peter’s experience vividly to life and it personalizes colonization to make it more understandable for many not understanding it. It also universalizes colonization to many indigenous peoples throughout the globe. In many ways the colonization of the Inuit has similarities to the indigenous populations of Brazil “relocated” because of hydro electric projects.

This Danish-Canadian-Greenland documentary screens 27/28 April and 1May. It will open in Canadian theatres on 12 May and will be shown on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Passionate Eye” in its 2023/24 season.

This 91-minute film is directed by Lin Alluna.

RKS 2023 Film Rating 87/100.

RKS 2023 Film: “Sisu”: Finnish WW 2 Bloodbath!

“Sisu” is not your “usual” war movie and the usual meter can swing in both directions and after 5 decades of war movie viewing experience “Sisu” is off the meter. In fact it breaks the meter! No “Full Metal Jacket” nor John Wayne “Green Berets”.

Aatami (Jorma Tommila) is a Finnish goldminer (and something a little bit more) in the remote Lapland region of Finland. He looks like Grizzly Adams hence a rather harmless old geezer? It is 1944 and the Germans are on the retreat from Finland with the Russians hot on their trail scorching everything in their way looting, raping and murdering. Aatami has just hit it rich discovering a huge vein of gold. So he packs up a couple of sacks of the precious metal and heads off with his horse and dog encountering a convoy of Germans with their “Finnish bitches” they are holding prisoners in one of their trucks. The nasty Germans then try and eliminate Aatami and steal his gold. Then a harmless old geezer reveals a personality that fits nicely into the poor victimized against the evil overpowering “bad guys”.

You probably can guess what happens but of course I can’t spoil it for you. “Sisu” borrows from many genres, films and directors but blends them into a unique style somewhat like a great red Bordeaux wine with a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Malbec. To give you a flavour of what to expect think of “From Dusk Until Dawn”, Clint Eastwood spaghetti westerns, “Scarface”, Thor, Dr. Strangelove and perhaps even “Mad Max” and “Conan the Barbarian”. Although blood, guts and body parts fly all over the screen much of the film has a graphic comic book feel to it. And as it is the SS that gets a real good licking the violence in the film can appear somewhat justified. If Bogart hadn’t been such a sociopath in “Treasure of the Sierra Madre” that movie might just have ended like this one. Ask those “Finnish bitches” how sweet revenge can be. A film where both the bad guys and the good guys can be bad.

Compelling cinematography, special effects, acting and soundtracks. I think it will have great popular appeal upon its 28 April North American release and thereafter perhaps even a “cult classic”. Just a tad repetitive at certain points.

You can see the trailer here; https://lionsgate.app.box.com/s/4d0t0ijn112ftstcajl2ngn8cm7rflft/file/1171289129411

Directed by Jalmari Helander

RKS 2023 Film Rating 94/100.

RKS Literature: Kafka on Bureaucracy: “The Castle” (“Das Schloss”)

“He ought long ago to have had, not a uniform, for there aren’t many in the Castle, but a suit provided by the department, and he has been promised one, but in things of that kind the Castle moves slowly, and the worst of it is that one never knows what this slowness means; it can mean that the matter’s being considered, but it can also mean that it hasn’t been taken up, that Barnabas for instance is still on probation, and in the long run it can also mean that the whole thing has been settled, that for some reason or other the promise has been cancelled and that Barnabas will never get his suit. One can never find exactly what is happening, only a long time afterwards. We have a saying here, perhaps you’ve heard it: ‘Official decisions are as shy as young girls.’”

Franz Kafka, “The Castle”, 1926.

RKS 2023 Wine: Alyan A&A 2017 Carménère from Chile

The Alyan A&A 2017 Carménère from Chile is produced in the Maule Valley, Chile’s largest viticultural area yet one of the most geographically and climatically diverse encompassing the Andes to the east, the sunny plains throughout the central corridor and the rolling coastal hills to the west which makes it possible for both red and white varietals to thrive.

Aroma: Ample blueberry, raspberry, black cherry with the blueberry winning the struggle of the fruits. In many instances the raspberry wins that battle for Chilean Carménère but not this time.

Palate: Soft tannins. Soft and lush blueberry contrasted with a sharp and almost brackish spicy raspberry and black cherry with a peppery finish. A stern wine that might require a little more time to soften in the bottle.

Personality: I am not one of those good time wines whirling around the dance hall. I am more serious and studious for another year until I reach my diploma in maturity.

Food Match: Mussels in a tomato and chorizo sauce with lots of garlic and merken.

Cellarbility: Drinkable now up to 2026. It should soften up a bit by 2025.

Price: $22.95 (Ontario).

RKS 2023 Wine Rating: 88/100. Timatkin.com91.

(Alyan Family Ambassador 2017 Carménère, Maule Valley, Viña A&A, Pirque, Chile, 750 mL, 14%, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 27205).