RKS Wine: A California Cabernet Sauvignon on Training Wheels!

There are LCBO Vintages consultants that know their stuff and can be trusted. Some can’t thinking the LCBO knows how to select wine and who are you to question the big monopoly.

One trusted Vintages consultant suggested Long Barn Cabernet Sauvignon as an entry level Cabernet Sauvignon with a “California” designation which means that 100% of the grapes come from that state.

It is a challenge to find a reliable $20 and under Cabernet Sauvignon from California but part of the fun is trying.

On the aromatic side there is some cassis, blueberry, blackberry, black cherry with a wisp of smoke. It’s got the bones of a good Cali Cabernet Sauvignon but lacks complete power to be a classy one. On the palate it has moderate tannins and hints of creaminess and depth that one might expect from a much pricier Cabernet Sauvignon but I emphasize hints. Bits of cassis, kirsch and blueberry. A California Cabernet Sauvignon on training wheels. The acids and tannins are perfectly aligned for food.

If you have friends that think they are knowledgeable about wine I think you can pull this out for a BBQ, slightly chilled, and they might say that is good Cabernet Sauvignon! Take advantage of the heat and smoke as a cover for a paltry priced $16.95 California Cabernet Sauvignon. But try this in a controlled tasting room you might not be able to get away with it.

Speaking of a hot grill this would suit just about all manner of beef or lamb burgers. This wine punches above its price point. Drink by the end of 2022.

(Long Barn 2020 California Cabernet Sauvignon, Long Barn, Napa, California, $16.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 164872, 750 mL, 13.5%, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating 89/100).

“Travels to a Different Time : 1July1974: Bacău, Romania: Diary Disaster: East German Circus and Propaganda Film: Dirty Glasses

I am slowly recovering from hell. I lost three weeks of diary to the rain. Like a turkey I set up my tent at an angle on a hill and it rained and everything in my tent was soaked including my diary. The receptionist at the campground tried to cheer me up and showed me around Bacau and was a big help shopping with me to purchase some groceries. So at least a splendid meal outside my tent. Yet more rain overnight but a flat tent is better than an angled one. After dinner I met Li Li the campground receptionist and we stepped inside a department store to wait for the rain to pass which it didn’t. The quality of goods on display were very shoddy. It was raining “like a madman” as Holden Caufield would have said in “Catcher in the Rye”. We went into a café for a lemonade and they didn’t do a good job of washing the glasses as I had chocolate smears all over mine. It is sort of gross. What germs have I caught in Romania! This is why I like to eat well with lots of fruits and vegetables so I can build up my resistance. After our lemonade we went into a museum for a display of religious art. Not so good. We then went to the Busch Circus a big East German circus. What louts humans can be locking up wild animals in cages. The Romanian peasants loved it. No derogatory remark intended. They are simple uneducated folk from the countryside. Li Li says the CPR Communist Party of Romania thinks the peasants are stupid. Stalin hated the kulaks and that hatred has permeated into Romania. Li Li is sick and tired of Romania and wants to marry her boyfriend in Amsterdam but is having difficulty in leaving Romania. It seems about the only way to leave the country is marry someone outside the country. But she says the big wheels in the CPR can travel as they wish. They live in special flats, shop in special stores and drive cars. The circus was a depressing place to be and the mud and rain did not help. Li Li wanted to phone her sister but there was a line-up to use the phone. There are big line ups here for everything. We stopped off to meet her sister and dry off. Her sister’s apartment is tiny and is in a huge complex of bleak apartment buildings. There are no lawns just fields of mud. People throw garbage from the balconies so it is strewn all over the mud. They brag in the CPR about modern socialist development but it seems to be modern socialist decay. These modern apartment buildings are crumbling and in a state of disrepair. We went to see an American western movie “The Legend of Nigger Charlie” along with an anti-war movie about Vietnam. A bit late for that but that is Romania. Romania is one of the longest cows in Europe to get milked by the Soviet Union. I am not sure but I caused quite a stir in the theatre with my long hair and Western style dress. Feeling like a Martian and movie star.

Returned back to the campground and my tent was a lake of water including my sleeping bag. A Romanian guy took pity on me and knocked on my tent and invited me into his cabin. It was a small cabin with two beds and I was expecting him to make a move on me. He was a painter and poet and looked like Charles Aznavour. He said it was OK if I slept in the other bed and as it was belting rain it seemed like I had no choice. I was exhausted and some his friends came to play a board game and I virtually dropped from exhaustion clutching my knife. I woke up at 7 a.m. and was furious and helpless with the pelting rain. At 9 it stopped raining and I packed up and headed to a ramshackle airport.

RKS Film: “Întregalde”: Romanian Film Spins it’s Wheels in the Mud

Radu Muntean’s “Întregalde” like the Land Rover in the film that is trapped in the mud is spinning its wheels and not really progressing. I was expecting more from Muntean with 6 films under his belt.

Photo Tudor Pandura

Three friends head out from Bucharest to deliver food packages in the remote Romanian countryside. Their Land Rover becomes badly mired on a remote logging road thanks to errant directions by the senile Kente (Luca Sabin) they pick up wandering on the road. There is some tension as the group splits up looking for help as darkness sets in and temperatures start to decline. Will some dubious Roma’s sodomize one of the girls who goes to get help in their unplated rust bucket of a truck or is it simply deep-seated Romanian distrust of the Roma’s? And how charitable is this trio when one of them sees Kente holding one of the girl’s scarf saying how soft it is. One of them now says you can now wipe your ass with it.

The story is hardly dramatic and there does not appear to be any hidden message of note woven into the plot. The film was shot in the Apuseni Mountains in Transylvania and is really the star of the movie. The landscape in late fall is ominous. A good deal of the film is shot in darkness which is more annoying than artistic. A brief glimpse of rural poverty is jolting.

I have no qualms with the acting and Luca Sabin as Kente steals the show as a senile “Forrest Gump” as one of the trio nicknames him.

You can see the trailer here  https://vimeo.com/648701704.

It will be opening March 4th in Canadian theatres.

RKS Film Rating 65/100.

“Travels to a Different Time” : 19August1973: Getting Stared at by the Provincials in Bonn and Ending up in Philadelphia

Woke up in the hospital with all limbs intact. Tidied up and Michael arrived and Heidi shortly after with some breakfast. Heidi had to be in surgery in another hospital some 4 kms away so we drove her there. Michael took me on a tour of Bonn and after we met Heidi for lunch at the hospital cafeteria. I had a tour of the new intensive care unit the most modern in Germany. I received a few stares with my long hair. Michael and Heidi are Berliners and very modern and cosmopolitan so long hair raises no eyebrows with them but does with these “provincial types” in Bonn/Köln. The Roman ruins we saw were impressive. A lazy evening with a couple of Dortmunder Unions and a German movie on television.

20August1973: Michael and Heidi drove me to the airport in Bonn and we said our good-byes. Very tight security at the airport including soldiers with machine guns. My chances of getting on the Overseas National Airways flight to New York was not looking good but a miracle happened as another US charter airline Capitol International Airways had room if I wanted to get to Philadelphia.

21August1973: We arrived in Philadelphia at 10:30 p.m. and I cleared customs around 11:30. A choir was belting out songs in the terminal building. I had to borrow 50 cents from one of them to go to the terminal my flight would be leaving from. I slept at the airport and next morning a flight to New York and then to Montreal. Good to be home but give me a few months and I will want to hit the road again. For the time being good-bye Europe for 1973. Next year?

RKS Wine: Harken 2019 California Chardonnay: Does Pineapple Upside Down Cake Still Exist?

I tend to avoid oaked California Chardonnays because often they are throwbacks to when California oaked Chardonnays were overoaked. Before I became more discerning than I am now the novelty of a Wente Oaked Chardonnay was compelling but after a few more bottles and a Yellowtail Southeastern Australian oaked Chardonnay the novelty wore off.

Oak can be an ally of Chardonnay if used judiciously and it can suit a variety of dishes primarily simply prepared crustaceans such a lobster dipped in butter garlic sauce or a sauce vongole but at some point it tips over the line and it becomes overdone.

California has deoakified many of its Chardonnays so I am more willing to give them a chance. So what is up with the Harken 2019 California Barrel Fermented Chardonnay?

It has a medium gold colour. It is definitely oaked perhaps creeping to the edge of no return. But before making that decision there are notes of pineapple, butterscotch, honey and pineapple upside down cake just out from the oven. Do they still bake such cakes or am I lost in 1965? I remember in those days it was canned Aussie pineapple that was prevalent so I may be back in the time machine. Do they still have crushed pineapple in a tin?

On the palate yes crushed Aussie tinned pineapple with canned pears. Moderately long finish.

I will give a nod to the wine and say well made and simple but not my style. You may like oaked Chards more than I do and that is your choice. If I was outside on a hot summer evening I could happily consume with some BBQ chicken or Alaskan crab legs and reminisce over those silly days of COVID but as a sipping wine I might hem and haw and wait for the bounty of the grill.

Drink by the end of 2022 BBQ season.

(Harken 2019 Barrel Fermented California Chardonnay, Harken Wines, Parlier, California, $21.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 16957, 750 mL, 14.5%, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating 89/100).

P.S. After writing my review I took a look at the review of the wine and the reviewer in the LCBO Vintages catalogue noted aromas of pineapple upside down cake. I am not the only dinosaur roaming the earth.

“Andrij The Orphaned Ukrainian Rescue Dog” : Chapter 9: Thanks for the Applause but We Need More

We have breakfast huddled in a conference room. President Biden and our President Zelensky are talking about further American aid. President Zelensky sees me on the screen and asks President Biden to keep close eyes on me. He thinks Putin is becoming unhinged after my attack on the Russian hockey player. He heard that Putin threw his borscht soup at the wall after seeing my attack. He also has reports Putin is going to raise the bounty on my head to 20 million Euros. My killing of the Brute and attack on the Washington Capital hockey player has infuriated him to the extent that some say he is becoming obsessed with taking me down. Psychological reaction of this sort may hamper his concentration which has been altering due to the Great Russian Stall in the Ukraine. Could I be responsible for pushing him over the edge? The good side is that his coterie of enablers may say he is a danger to Mother Russia and they may take him out. The negative side is that Putin may lose it and be even more aggressive with using nuclear and chemical weapons. President Zelensky says I am in grave danger. President Biden responds by saying he has ordered high level security for me. Experts trained in sniper warfare are keeping a close eye out for my safety.

I go with President Biden to the US Congress to hear President Zelensky give his speech. Of course, it is passioned and inspiring and he receives a 20-minute standing ovation. I can’t resist throwing in a few barks as the cameras are snapping and the film rolling. Ukraine watches me. Putin watches me and he must be screaming in rage. Of course, the applause is rousing but my view is that America sits by while Ukraine is levelled. The US will be drawn into war with Russia and it would have been strategically wise to hit that huge convoy and deal a crippling blow to the puff headed Russians and their poor logistics. We need more and soon. We need NATO forces in the air and on the ground. Not to do so is putting heads in the sand. And the sand is running to an end in the hourglass of Ukraine’s existence. But what do I know? I am a dog.

“Travels to a Different Time” : 18August1973: Heidelberg/Köln, Germany: Woken up by Shrieking Elephants and Screaming Tropical Birds: Overnight Stay at The Hospital Hoping to Avoid Amputation

I was woken up today by shrieking elephants and squawking birds as the hostel is by the zoo! I phoned Heidi in Köln and Michael answered letting me know that Heidi would be working at the hospital all week-end. Got picked up by an American soldier with Iron Butterfly’s “In- a- Gadda -da -Vida” blaring. I quickly discovered I was on the right autobahn but going in wrong direction. Picked by a German student and we went to his girlfriend’s place for a great meal. What good luck that his girlfriend was also going to Köln. He took me right to Michael and Heidi’s place. I had a hot shower and he cooked up sausages and potatoes. After our sausages and beer (Dortmunder Union) we went to the German school for diplomats where I used their washing machines to do the laundry. Had a great tour of Köln and we picked up Heidi at the hospital and stopped to pick up Yugoslav take-out hopefully with no greasy goulash. It was strange seeing her again but after a few minutes we were yakking away like it was yesterday. I was to stay the night in the hospital in a spare bed. Hopefully when I woke up nothing would be amputated.

Passage of the Day: “Sickening: How Big Pharma Broke American Health Care and How We Can Repair It”

“Obviously, there is no single source of the dysfunction in our health-care system, but the most powerful force driving this toxic combination of poor health care and high costs is Big Pharma’s influence on American medical care. And the reason the pharmaceutical industry has been able to achieve this” tail wags dog” position is that over the past 40 year’s, public funding for clinical research has declined allowing the drug companies to step in and fill the gap. This has led to increased commercial influence over much of the information that doctors rely on to determine optimal treatment for their patients. The pharmaceutical companies now control most of the medical research agenda, and their primary goal is not to improve American’s health but to maximise their own profits, which they do masterfully.”

“Sickening How Big Pharma Broke American  Health Care and How We Can Repair It” John Abramson, MD, MSc, Mariner Books, 2022

“Andrij the Orphaned Ukrainian Rescue Dog ” : Chapter 8: Waiting for President Zelensky’s Address to the United States Congress: Do I Embarrass Myself Biting a Russian Hockey Player?

I am feeling alone and frightened being in a strange country in a line of limousines surrounded by heavily armed men on my way to the White House. The only strength I have is that our President has asked me to do this for our country. Big and brave words but I am but a dog that days ago was cuddled and belly rubbed by Danilo and Daryna the children killed by Russian missile strikes. This is too big for me. But there are many counting on me. This is a very big pressure; Can I handle it?

We arrive at the White House and under heavy security I am whisked inside. Joe and Jill Biden greet me. The American President is an old man. Is he as wise as our President Zelensky? There are no media people here and our meeting is warm. There is chopped chicken and rice for me in a bowl with a very big bowl of American water. I scoff it down and look in the eyes of Joe Biden. I trust him. I read humans better than humans can. We sit by the fireplace and I hop onto Joe’s lap. He strokes my head and says how brave I have been and my attack on “The Brute” has swayed politicians more than any speech could have done. I am so sleepy and full of that American chicken and my long airplane trip I glaze over and they carry me into a small bed in the Oval Office. I don’t remember any of this.

I wake up in the morning and have chicken kibble for breakfast. What is this kibble? I am used to table scraps but this kibble isn’t bad.

Jill Biden takes me out for a walk on the White House lawn and I do my business. I spend most of the day by President Biden’s side with hundreds of cameras snapping pictures. I am a hero of the Ukraine and the American media loves it. American Intel has reports of Tsar Putin throwing his Borscht soup against the wall in the Kremlin screaming “Death to Andrij”.

Joe says that Zelensky’s address to Congress will be tomorrow but that I have been invited to a National Hockey League game between the Washington Capitals and the Toronto Maple Leafs. I will be a guest of some women called Nancy Pelosi. Jim Prosciutto called it as I am a very busy dog.

We go with a heavy security detail to the National Hockey League game.  I visit the locker rooms of the Toronto Maple Leaf’s and then go to the Washington Capitals dressing room. I smell a Russian and growl and lunge at his private parts happy to rip them out but he has a steel cup protecting this family jewels, This is caught on media and the player’s reaction of, “Fucking Ukrainian Shit” is caught and broadcasted world wide. The Washington Capital fans boo him and throw their caps and beer cans on the ice. He will never play in North America again.

“Travels to a Different Time” : 17August1973: Heidelberg, Germany: The German Militaristic Character? Getting Thrown Out of a Bar

Up early to avoid the rush of the bright eyed and bushy tailed Europe on $5 and $ 10 a Day crowd. I get bad vibrations from this place. They seem obsessed with order and precision at this youth hostel. I feel like I am in military barracks and somewhat like a caged animal. But there are no campgrounds here and hotels are over my budget. I did call Overseas National Airways in Frankfurt and there is a flight departing Köln on August 21st but they do not have a final headcount and as a non-revenue passenger if there are no seats I am out of luck. After the call I took a bus and tram into town and went record shopping which is cool here as you can choose a record and go into a booth and listen to it to decide if you would like to buy it. I walked up to the Heidelberg Castle and it was an amazing sight with a wonderful view. After the castle a Wimpy cheeseburger and a beer. I bought some crap for dinner and had a long walk home stopping for a beer on the way. I arrived at the “compound” hot and sweaty. I talked with Yanks who are swarmed all over this place. Good luck seeing any swarm in Bulgaria or Yugoslavia.  One told me how brave I was going into the Iron Curtain. I felt sad for him falling prey to American anti-Communist propaganda. 8 of us decided to go out and fill up on German beer. Somehow we got separated and I ended up with two Canuks and a Asian American. The Asian American guy and I went berserk over a joke and couldn’t stop laughing. We were gasping for breath and tears were rolling down our eyes and we were asked to leave by the owner an older German man. These authoritarian types seem to appreciate zombie and obedient behaviour. We headed home by 11 and all the lights were turned off so we had difficulty finding our room. Get to bed early dissolute youth is the message but 11 p.m.? This German older generation are such tight asses. The Germans my age are super friendly. Is the older generation sore about losing the war?