RKS Wines: A High-Cost Romanian Red Wine: Time to Shine or Whine?

In the interests of furthering my scant knowledge about Romanian wines and of hoping for rewards in a search for Romanian winners I paid $42.95 for a Cabernet Sauvignon from the Terroir de Dobrogea. Most Romanian wines in the Ontario market cost under $20.

On the nose a very rich wine almost Portish and at 14.5% nor far from their alcohol level? Extreme blackberry shines with lesser notes of black cherry.

No doubt we are facing a big brute here. Will it be on the edge of over ripeness or a tamed lush beauty or in line with some other wine writer description?  

On the palate very cutting bombasts of blackberry leaving a long peppery tinged finish. Obviously this wine wants to remind you of its presence.

A right at you wine complicated like Romanian politics yet rewarding like a visit to this wonderful country. It would go well with a Greek lamb or goat stifado.

The wine is maturing nicely and will improve over the next 5 years.

Yes I am leaning onto the shine side and you’ll hear no wine whining from me with this wine.

I purchased bottle # 2788 out of 3,300.

(Nikolaos Cramahistria Wild Yeast 2018, IGP Colinele Dobrogei, S.C. Vitcola SA Cogealac Constanta, Romania, $42.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 27575, 750mL, 124.5%, RKS Wine Rating 94/100).

RKS Literature: Passage of the Day: Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenin”: Love and Jealously

“In her eyes Vronsky, with all his habits, ideas, desire – his whole spiritual and physical temperament could be summed up in one thing – love for women – and this love, which she felt ought to be wholly concentrated on her was diminishing. Therefore she reasoned, he must have transferred part of it to other woman, or to another woman, and she was jealous. She was not jealous of any particular woman but of his love. Not having as of yet an object for her jealously she was on the look-out for one. At the slightest provocation she transferred her jealously from one object to another. Now she was jealous of the low amours he might so easily enter into through his bachelor connexion; now it was society women he might meet: now she was jealous of some imaginary girl whom he might want to marry and for whose sake he would break from her.”

RKS Literature: Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenin”: Count Vronsky’s Code of Principles

“Vronsky’s life was particularly happy in that he had a code of principles, which defined with unfailing certitude what should and should not be done. This code of principles covered only a very small circle of contingencies, but in return the principles were never obscure, and Vronsky, as he never went outside that circle, had never had a moment’s hesitation about doing what he ought to do. This code categorically ordained that gambling debts must be paid, the tailor need not be: that one must not lie to a man but might to a woman: that one must ever cheat anyone but one may a husband; that one must never pardon an insult but may insult others oneself, and so on. These principles might be irrational and not good, but they were absolute and in complying with them Vronsky felt at ease and could hold his head high”.

RKS Wine: Bachelder “les Villages” 2020 Gamay Noir: Gentle Elegance

As far as red wine flows in Ontario Gamay is often a winner. What does Thomas Bachelder do with a Gamay?

As for aromas amidst the smoky overlay expect black cherry, cherry and rhubarb crumble and a tad of cloves. A lightweight wine very smooth but a seam of complexity rests in the palate with a hit of spice, pepper, raspberry jam all in a gentle silky envelope. A surprising long and gentle finish. As for food matches why not Thanksgiving turkey? Although you can comfortably sit and sip and watch the leaves in their splendour. Although the label states “long aged in largely neural oak barrels” the smokiness here suggests a bit of new oak. Pardon me I can almost call this wine a “rustic Pinot Noir”.

(Bachelder “les Villages” 2020 Gamay Noir, VQA Niagara Peninsula, Bachelder, Beamsville, $24.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 17239, 750 mL, 13%, RKS Wine Rating 91/100).

RKS Travel: Toronto to Athens: Escaping the COVID Shield

In 3 years I have been somewhat housebound as far as international travel goes. Paris in October of 2019. How great it was.

Time to spread the wings so off to Greece for a real vacation. Very smooth car ride to Toronto’s Pearson Airport. Expecting pandemonium, we left some 4 hours of cushion. But believe it or not we were through security in a flash with too much time to kill.  

Stopped in at Plaza Premium Lounge braving a line-up of close to an hour for food and beverages of low quality. The Guinness Tap not functional and the only other beer was Molson Canadian (enough said). They kept running out of food. Better value and quality at the in-terminal restaurants. Weird music almost hypnotic probably subliminally ordering you to buy a Caesar at $6.99. As we were leaving a special tune over the sound system “Deck the Halls”! Christmas in September!

The gate was jammed with people waiting to board and like all good Canadians that obey their federal government all were wearing masks! A very funny passenger agent announced you could check in your carry-on baggage. This set off a roar of laughter amongst the passengers. A disorderly boarding and what a great seat I get on the Air Canada plane. Right at the rear of the plane right by the toilets where you are continually victimized by an explosive flushing noise and the galley. Gee there used to be about four inches between the seat ahead and my knees. Now there is none.

The Air Canada mantra is, “We have chicken or pasta but we are out of chicken”. It never fails. My pasta looks and tastes decent but the cheese appears to be synthetic. And the usual stale roll with frozen butter. Low quality French wines which should be an offence as there is a “Canada” to Air Canada. The fun continues with “breakfast” of a stale croissant and a yogurt.  High culinary standards. Oh on the return trip the “out of chicken” Air Canada retort was heard. The food was slightly better on the return trip with an appetizer of Greek Salad and chicken ratatouille which was fine but the chunk of 40% dark chocolate had been placed under the hot dish leaving a molten pool of melted chocolate.

I could continue but perhaps best to say welcome back to international travel.

RKS Literature: Passage of the Day from Tolstoy’s Anna Karenin; Count Vronsky’s View of Himself

“In his Petersburg world people were divided into two quite distinct classes. One – the lower class – commonplace, stupid, and above all, ridiculous people, who believed that a husband should live with the one woman to whom he was married, that young girls should be virtuous, woman chaste and men virile, self-controlled and strong; that children should be brought up to earn their bread and pay their debts, and other such nonsense. These were the old-fashioned ridiculous people. But there was another class: the real people, the kind to which his set belonged, in which the important thing was to be elegant, handsome, broad-minded, gay and ready to surrender unblushingly to every passion and to laugh at everything else.”

RKS Film: “223 Wick”: A Clunker with Some Saving Graces?

Let’s face it “223 Wick” in its entirety is a clunker. Repetitive flashes of light, eerie voices and a whole host of tiresome horror film effects. Trite plot and mostly wooden acting. Of course in the midst of disaster one must recognize some positive points.

This is not a horror film as the usual dim voices, connection with the underworld and rogue priests fail to horrify. But there is a modicum of suspense figuring out a grand evil plot but even then it might be overdone leading to a lack of credibility by poor writing.

Father John (Alexi Stavrou) is a teacher at St. Vincent’s. seminary. He has visions about what I am not quite sure. But for some reason he is a danger to the parish. So a rather sleazy looking priest in charge Father Murphy (Jack Dimich) and a Charles Manson/Marilyn Manson fellow priest are up to something nasty and attempt to transfer him to another post for mental rehabilitation but he never gets there and ends up at 223 Wick Avenue for some unknown reason.

The nasty is at 223 WICK Avenue where you’ll be subjected to a rather boring bad guy and underlings looking for a priest to sacrifice to a higher power. It is a priest massacre but pure evil is defeated by a supreme act of sacrifice.

Stavrou provides a steady performance and Dimich is a chameleon who is hard to pin but there is something terribly unpriestly about him. Both these actors rescue the film from a total disaster.

Absolutely fails as a horror film but as a suspense/thriller it limps along with some decency. Dawn Lafferty as Katerina Brixton is a weak link as far as acting goes. Yes years ago I was involved in casting films and Lafferty bombs and cripples credibility of an already weak film.

While there are weak links crippling the film there is some fun figuring out exactly who are the evil guys. And the ending? Real estate flip?

A tired and weak film.

RKS Film Rating 65/100.

Directed by Sergio Meyers and was released on digital platforms on September 20th.

You can see the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6PE_hihjs8

RKS Passage of the Day: Tolstoy’s Anna Karenin: Two Classes of Women

“Oblonsky smiled. He knew that feeling of Levin’s so well – that for Levin all the girls in the world were divided into two classes: one class included all the girls in the world except Kitty, and they all had all the human weaknesses and were very ordinary girls: while Kitty was in a class by herself, without the least imperfection and above the rest of humanity.”

RKS Wine: A Mavrud from Bulgaria

A rare Bulgarian wine makes an appearance made from the Mavrud grape. Mavrud doesn’t have a stellar reputation but when properly subject to oak ageing it makes a solid simple wine. This wine was aged in barrels crafted by a cooper at the winery.

Lots of raspberry and cherry on the nose. There is also some smoke and milk chocolate. Nothing special on the palate except a good solidity. Lots of cherry with a slightly tart finish and a bit of Tellicherry pepper. A simple but well-crafted wine. Want lamb, beef, salmon or portobello mushroom burgers this wine is a good choice.

Best consumed now but it just might improve a tad over the next two years.

(Villa Yambol Mavrud 2020, Villa Yambol, Yambol, Bulgaria, $13.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 27056, 750 mL, 13.5%, RKS Wine Rating 88/100).

RKS True Story: Roma Panhandlers and a BMW in Athens

So I am sitting in a neighbourhood square in the Pangrati district of Athens having a late lunch with my wife and some friends. In the course of an hour 3 Roma panhandlers appeared  putting on a dramatic and a tiresome act that has been perfected over the decades. It could be Rome, Paris or Madrid. The script is the same and even better when children are part of the scam.  So this middle aged fellow comes up with two sad looking children in tow asking you buy a pack of cigarettes. When you say no he points to the children and gives a low moan. Despite his lack of a sale with us he must be doing good business as he drives away in a late model BMW.