A Bird's Eye View of Fashion, Food, Travel, Culture, Beverage and Curiosity

RKS Wines: Should Portugal’s Douro Be Looking Over Its Shoulder to the Surging Alentejano?

In terms of the volume of Portuguese wines coming into Canada the Douro, leads the pack. The Douro produces top quality wines but since the grapes used in their winemaking are largely indigenous one might say their excellence is predictable. On the other hand the region in second place, Alentejano, produces excellent wines as well but adds a twist by including internationally recognized grapes in its red blends such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Alicante Bouschet adding some excitement and unpredictability to their wines. The same applies to the wines of the Lisbon region. Now you might like predictable excellence and applaud the use of indigenous grapes or you might find it boring always knowing what is in your glass. Whatever your preference over the years Alentejano has been gathering traction in Canada. Is it the excitement factor? That there is even a second place with Portuguese imports is a mini-miracle considering the Liquor Control Board’s irrational fear of disturbing money makers. LCBO where are wines from the Tejo, Bairrada, Algarve, Lisboa and the Dão?

Setting aside the polemics how is the Coutada Velha Signature 2019 from the Alentejano? On the nose it is inviting and enticing. There is a certain note of creaminess on the nose along with blueberry, black cherry, cactus pear, freshly rolled Cohiba cigars and fat ripe strawberries. On the palate the tannins are relatively mild. There are notes of cherry pie, roasted Portuguese almonds, rhubarb pie and raspberry galette. The finish is short. Although the wine has been aged in French oak for 8 months it is subtly entwined in the wine.

I would say great to drink on its own but it would match duck, beef or a vegetarian Putanesca sauce over pasta.

Immediately accessible and delicious. A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Aragonez and Trincadera. Ready to drink now but it will hold until 2025. Competitive pricing!

(Coutada Velha Signature 2019, Vinho Regional Alentejano, Ravasqueira, Arriolos, Portugal, $15.95,Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 11152,750 mL 13.5%, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating 91/100).

RKS Wine: Crasto A Classic Douro Red

I will admit I have a soft spot for Quinta do Crasto perched above the Douro River in Portugal. Going out in the fields and trying grapes on the vine and then trying to trace them in the wine. Eating lunch with the field workers which you often do as a journalist visiting a quinta (estate) and the food is simple but well prepared and tasty. No special gastronomical treatment for visiting journalists to a quinta except perhaps for an evening meal.

Crasto is a red blend from the Douro that is a perennial favourite at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. I recall its quality as being high. But do not convince popularity with quality. There are some popular wines at the Liquor Control Board of Ontario that I wouldn’t touch with a ten-foot pole. I suppose we should check out this Crasto which is a blend of classic Douro grapes Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Touriga Franca and Tinta Barroca.

The wine is purplish in colour. A big hit of blackberry, blueberry, black cherry and a twist of black licorice. On the plate the tannins are moderate. This full- bodied wine is dry with notes of blueberry pie, blueberries, cassis and plum preserves. This is one simple but an excellent and pure wine. Neither rustic nor elegant let’s say it has the highest pedigree.

As for food excellent with Portuguese ox as so many Douro reds are. But a dearth of Portuguese ox in Canada means beef will have to do preferably rare to medium rare. We have a surplus of wild boar in Canada and I’d love to make a Tuscan Wild Boar Stew with a Saskatchewan wild boar. And speaking of game this would suit venison or some Moose Burgers. For vegheads Mushroom Ragout over Polenta and using this wine to make the ragout sauce will make it a very rich dish that would match perfectly!

Given its moderate tannins this wine could age well up to 2027.

(Crasto 2019 Douro DOC, Quinta do Crasto, Sabrosa, Portugal, $18.95, LCBO # 81588, 14%, 750 mL, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating 92/100)

Reggie The Egyptian Rescue Dog Is Back: “We Rescue Dogs Are All Hurting”

You have been reading about my adventures and thank you for so doing. These adventures are perhaps the most amazing that ever have been experienced by any dog let alone a rescue dog. Winning a Nobel Prize for literature, hanging out with Drake, Mr. Gordon Lightfoot, President Biden and his wife, being on national television networks and meeting the Pope and the Ayatollah of Iran. I am glad that I took a break because all this was getting a bit too exhausting. But you know I cherish most is the love that Fay and Bob give me, a big bowl of kibble, a bowl of cold and clean water and a walk. Of course, that piece of toast I get in the morning or a chunk of cheese at home are so good despite the gourmet dog food I ate on the road.

Experiencing all these wonderful adventures has been amazing and I lead a happy life but deep in my soul there is a bit of hurt. I have managed it best by accepting it and moving on. Had I not it would have gnawed me to pieces. But every once and awhile it surfaces that they took Anwar away and executed him for writing “treasonous articles”. I cry to myself but pick myself up and realize I have an important job to do and that is protecting my masters Bob and Fay and Dillie the Westie. I would defend them with my life. I have a deep sense of loyalty. I also want to help my brothers and sisters languishing in unsafe conditions.

So yes I am well adjusted with an occasional bad memory but have patience or pity that many rescue dogs have internalised their pain and it eats them up with self pity and anger. They growl, snap and act up in the worst fashion. Some are so hurt and damaged no amount of training can overcome the terrible trauma they have suffered through neglect or punishment. I can only hope you have compassion in your heart for these poor dogs after all it is humans that have caused the pain. Frustration and anger will do no good. My dearest hope is that with enough love, patience and training they will trust humans again. There are only a few rotten apple humans out there. I know that at Snookies Rescue Society who rescued me from Egypt there are often 150 applicants for each dog so I know there are many humans with big hearts that will not let us dogs down. Bob and Fay’s philanthropic organization “Reggie’s Dogs” helps Snookies and the foreign shelters they deal with and funds other rescue societies throughout Canada. Throw all the money you can at the problem which is what we need now but what about the problem of human abuse that simply stays there and will always create a continual stream of abandoned dogs? You have to change attitudes and hearts of people. Reggie’s Dogs has funded a hugely expensive pilot project in Cairo requiring anyone purchasing a dog to provide a “Certificate of Caring” attesting to the fact that the person(s) in whose name the dog will be registered has taken a 7-hour course in dog management and owner obligations. Whether this will work who knows. But I will leave you for the moment and say that humans are our worst enemies but can be our best friends.

Now I want to journey back in time and tell you the rest of my stories. Please join me.

“Mutantism on the March” : Chapter 109: Protests Against the 76 Montreal Summer Olympics

Jiber had been whisked off to Zortixia by Frizzy The Smicket Boy to face a trial for crimes against inhabitants of the galaxy so with him many problems disappeared. But deal with one struggle and defeat it another one appears. The United Mutations were fighting against the sinful expenditures Montreal was becoming heavily indebted for to promote the 1976 Summer Olympics. Give us a sewage plant. Give us an enhanced transportation system with the necessary adjustments to accommodate mutants. Give us jobs! The pleas of The United Mutations were left ignored which needed about 1/10^th of what was to be spent on this international showcase. It was time to favour the little guy and not the contractors and tourism sector. Economists were saying the cost of building the Olympic stadium was going to take 35 years to repay the loan used to build it. The Canadian banks and their lending syndicates were going to walk away with piles of cash for decades for this white elephant.

Dr. Zodiac was one of the most active campaigners against the boondoggle Olympics and formed Physicians Against The 76 Olympics” (PAO). Their goal was to highlight these vast sums of monies would have better been spent on improving medical care for all particularly for the disadvantaged such as mutants. The station wagoned and conservative medical monopoly was disenchanted and frowned upon these “Young Turks”. Sooner or later they would settle down and stop being like that rabid communist Dr. Norman Bethune.

The POA placed ads in setting forth their complaints against the Montreal 76 Summer Olympics in both English and French dailies;

“Attention Montrealer’s

We are a concerned group of medical practitioners operating under the name of Physicians Against the 76 Montreal Summer Olympics (POA). We stand opposed to the wasteful expenditures gushing forth out of taxpayer’s pockets now and for many years for modern Olympics created for profits and celebration of athletic abilities. Millions of dollars are being gobbled up by monstrous construction projects, architectural fees and a long list of administrative support functions. This wasteful sending is a mockery and an insult to Canadians who lack decent medical care, can’t afford medical and dental care and all because they are told governmental expenditures for these improvements is “too expensive”. Yet somehow money is found for erection of monuments of idiocy and profit. Is Mayor Droolpoop of Montreal seeking some type of historical immortality?

Droolpoop has justified the huge sums of money involved as helping to create a truly” international city” and foster an “international spirit. The spirit of the Olympics certainly has changed since their inception. Profit baggers pervert the games with palms outstretched for juicy contracts. Athletes are no longer natural athletes but highly trained professionals supported by their governments at great expense and trained 40 hours a week since childhood and most often doped up with performance enhancement drugs. Competition and medals serve as a measure of political superiority. For health reasons we demand that equal sums of money be spent for promoting the heath of all citizens which would reduce medical costs caused by obesity and diseases of the sedentary. Sports should be honoured not as a chance to make thousands on endorsements for the victors on sneakers and toothpaste but as an enjoyable and necessary form of healthful activity. Bring sports to the masses instead of creating an overly trained elite of doped up athletes. It would seem in this case governments are more concerned with establishing a reputation for themselves than in seeking the improvement of the health of their entire population.

The organizers say that the facilities after the Olympics will be “for the people”. Let’s face it only a small proportion of the population will be able to avail themselves of these facilities. The Olympic Village will be transformed into luxury condominiums instead of a true international treatment centre for mutants. No doubt sports and entertainment promoters now have a huge stadium to increase their profits as they pack thousands more of spectators in to drink fattening beer and unhealthy food in a sedentary fashion. Are we not then subsidizing the owners of sports teams and entertainment promoters? If there are games let them be simple and performed in existing facilities

Signed Drs. Hamill, Zodiac Doyon, Saleé, Bonato, Morginfaler, Steadan, Kotopoulous, Stein and Burveau “

RKS Wine: 2020 Meyer Family Vineyards McLean Creek Road Vineyard Chardonnay

In terms of Canadian wine from where I sit Ontario is touted as a wonderful “Cold Climate” Chardonnay producer. While I would not call the Okanagan in British Columbia “cold climate” I would say guys muscle into any claims that Ontario makes a superior Chardonnay. The Okanagan Chards I have tasted can kick butt to Burgundian and Niagara and Prince Edward County Chards.

Meyer Family Vineyards over the past few years I have reviewed them have a small but impressive portfolio of Chards which for the fraction of the price can surpass Burgundian Chards from whatever obscure and venerated village they are from. Burgundy is not godliness.

We try a Meyer Family Vineyards (MFV) 2020 McLean Creek Road Vineyard Chardonnay from the Okanagan Valley in British Columbia.

On the nose this medium golden coloured Chard has really outdone itself! On the nose it is somewhat similar to the 18’s and 19’s but much more intense and powerful. A rip-roaring 20’s nose of apple, pear, quince jam, pineapple, Orri tangerines and Ataulfo mangoes. No it is not unlawful and careening out of control but confident and full of joy.

On the palate it’s long creamy finish attests to the excellent vintage. The acids are subsumed perfectly by some tighter fruit than is on its nose. It has initially a nondescript finish that rises its head like a “Boardwalk Empire” whisky hijacking catching you by surprise a few seconds after it is down the hatch. The finish is silky and long. The palate has loads of peach, mango, pineapple and pear galette.

Not that I can remember all the MFV Chards this is really the best.

It is lively without being garish. It is distinguished. It has class. It’s a modern Chardonnay miracle and should be inflated and be a float at the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade in New York!

It is a wonderful wine to sip on its own. As for food I don’t think it has enough oak to accompany simply prepared crab and lobster in a garlic butter sauce. But for a shrimp/clam linguine loaded with garlic, white wine and parsley you’ll be in heaven and with a couple of glasses you might be toasting Bill Bennett!

Perhaps we are breaking free from COVID and can think of having unmasked villains over for a New Year’s Eve Seafood Dinner. Screw open a bottle of this for your garlic contaminated shrimp or clam linguine and your reservation for a New Year’s Dinner in the great beyond will be confirmed!

MFV have you outdone yourself? Suspicious Chard drinkers like myself are clamouring to charge the Okanagan bound Kabul jet to set up refugee camps in Kelowna to demand access to healthcare and MFV wines! Not wanting to bore you this was an excellent vintage comparable to the 2016 vintage.

And the price for this beauty is $30.43 Sometimes I say buy by the case. If you are loaded with COVID savings and want to help the economy of Canada this wine is a multiple case buy assuming of course if you love Chardonnay unlike me as poor pensioner making no money from wine reviews. While Canadian journalism sucks this wine jumps up and is ready for the ball dropping at midnight to welcome in the New Year.

The winery suggests cellaring for 7 to 10 years. But with such an excellent wine that is risky. I would respectfully say drink NOW until 2025. After that as a lawyer I say caveat emptor.

Not wanting to bore you with technical details the wine was fermented in 100% French Oak for 11 months of which 22% was new but as I tasted the wine the oak is way in the background. This may be a plus if you are an ABC person (Anything But Chardonnay) spawned by over oaked Chardonnays mushrooming from the 1980’s but on rapid decline in this decade.

Interested in ordering? Check out their website at https://mfvwines.com/

(Meyer Family Vineyards McClean Creek Road Vineyards Chardonnay, Meyer Family Vineyards, Okanagan Falls, British Columbia VQA, $30.43 (pre-tax), 750 mL, 13.5%, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating 93/100).

RKS Wine: Can Meyer Family Vineyard’s 2020 Pinot Noir Cure My Golf Myopia?

November golf in Toronto can be very trying. Frozen fingers and runny noses. Shivers and a sense of quiet desperation to end the year in a blaze of glory like the fall leaves. I think I am up to 35 games starting in frigid April, through a sweltering July and August and now back in the frigid throes of late October and early November. Frost delays will now start to be a factor as they were in April. Due to impossibility initially and now inconvenience it was no Europe this year instead working as a golf Marshall at one of Canada’s busiest golf courses. On the refreshment cart and in the clubhouse, there is no wine? Plenty of beer and coolers. I would have expected some cans of Okanagan Mayhem wine!

A golfer may be akin to a grape. Like grapes they are delicate and sensitive to the weather. Their minds are controlled by a deficient brain that subjects them to mostly continual punishment of a poor game like a poor growing season. One can start with an early budburst of brilliant golf which can be damaged by a forest fire of smoke of poor games when yesterday you were brilliant basking in the sunshine. And if you are not careful the grey rot that besets grapes in overly wet conditions can start to fungify the golfer’s brain and create an unbalanced, volatile and acidic mindset.

Of course, being Mr. Mindful, every shot is a new shot and forget the past of a bad shot. But this cold weather and wet conditions have caused a rapid deterioration of my golf game and I think grey rot and not noble rot is starting to affect my brain. However opening up a sample of three bottles from my friends at Meyer Family Vineyards (MFV) in British Columbia ‘s Okanagan I see in a tech sheet that the 2020 vintage “was the best in recent years”. I seem to recall 2018/19 were problematic vintages. So if MFV can bounce upwards with a stellar vintage I’ll take stock of that and say with 4 more or so games left I’ll get my mojo back. If Mother Nature can favour vintners surely it can favour a fumbling golfer who today had more grey rot than noble rot in his game.

If 2020 was the best vintage in recent years my goodness how can the excellence of MFV’s be surpassed?

Let’s try it out.

On the nose this vintage seems to exhibit a bit more oak than previous vintages. The wine was sleeping in seasoned French oak barrels and puncheons for 8 months. To tone down the oak I would suggest decanting for an hour prior to serving. The aroma is unmistakeably that of Pinot Noir. There is very sweet strawberry, black cherry and freshly picked raspberry in a light smoky frame. On the palate the tannins are light but there is traction and presence in the mouth. Then there is some strange and novel twist in this vintage and that is a streak of violets and floral tones to the wine. I like this as showing a new character to the MFV Pinot Noirs wines I have tasted previously. There is also a bit of chalk which is also new. Could it be some of the grapes were from a newly acquired vineyard, Lakehill Road Vineyard in Kaleden? There is also some raspberry crumble. The finish is short.

MFV says drink through to 2025. I will not disagree with that. But I would add let it settle for another year to settle the oak somewhat. My take is that this wine is maturing in the bottle. MFV Pinot Noirs have in previous vintages been closer to French Pinots trending to delicate. This Pinot is a tad more assertive and has some top-level sweetness to it giving it a different character than previous vintages even though at residual sugars of 1 gram per litre this is a dry wine.

Now I mention sweetness and oak. Let me make this clear the seasoned French wood here should not be resulting in an oaky wine. This is a young vintage and newly bottled so it may be sleeping ready to evolve into something a bit different when it wakes up. I therefore have suggested let it sleep for another year before opening. And you may like a lightly oaked wine so feel free to open it now. It won’t bite! And I say sweetness but this is miniscule sweetness that does not detract from the high MFV pedigree simply gives it another dimension perhaps only in my mind as at less than 2 grams of residual sugar per litre you should not detect sweetness but my palate may be much different than yours. I rarely eat dessert or chocolates so it may be I am sensitive to what I perceive to be sweetness.

This is no ballerina Pinot Noir. But neither is it me trying to be overly aggressive at the golf course which I will say is a recipe for disaster.

While it will be pleasing to drink on its own I would say this Pinot Noir has the guts to compliment lamb or even a bit of a spicy Shrimp and Okra Gumbo. Also as field red peppers are just about at their end the wine would suit stuffed Red Peppers, local zucchini and mushrooms.

I will say this wine is crafted with love and perfection. By that I primarily mean acidity and tannins are perfectly balanced.

I am sorry about yakking about the wine so I will not bore you with too many technical details other than saying that the wine was sourced from 6 different vineyards in the Okanagan.

(Meyer Family Vineyards 2020 Pinot Noir, Okanagan Valley, BC VQA, Meyer Family Vineyards, Okanagan Falls, British Columbia, $26 (until November 28 when it jumps to $27), 750 mL, 13.5%, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating 91/100).

Check out their website for shipping details https://mfvwines.com/collections/pinot-noir

1,994 cases produced.

Chris Carson is the winemaker.

“Mutantism on the March” : Chapter 108 Dr. Zodiac Remembers His Encounters at the River Styx

The lightbulb flashed in Zodiac’s head something akin the attack of the mutant killer ants happening below his window in the streets of Montreal. He recalled many years ago being on the banks of the River Styx where he was weaponless in the face of a killer insect beast and the only object nearby was a duck egg which he hurled at the beast which then shrivelled and died. And the cure for the bite which he remembered from Turkish mythology was to drink a solution of crushed fisheyes and hashish. Would it work here? Well it was worth a try so he burst into the kitchen of The Ritz Marlton demanding all fish eyes be placed in a blender. He asked the night manager to open his safety deposit box and took out his 7 kilos of his private hash stash. The kitchen staff was confused but quickly hustled into action when Dr. Zodiac threw a pile of gold coins on a prep table. Seafood restaurants and suppliers were called and kilos of fisheyes quickly arrived. Eggs were hustled up by the hundreds as well but they were chicken and not duck eggs.

Dr. Zodiac rushed into the street with a box of eggs and threw them at the ants which when hit let out a scream of agony then shrivelled and died. Witnesses saw the effect of the egg on beast and rushed out to gather supplies of eggs which they pelted the killer ants with. The word spread through the media the power of eggs against the invaders and soon most of them had been terminated with extreme prejudice. However the human casualty toll was enormous. Mutants began the manufacture of the fisheyes and hashish solution which were placed in vials and a supply of hypodermic needles was secured to inject the antidote to killer ant bites. Mafia dealers were raided and police confiscated their hashish supplies. Fish wholesalers supplied huge quantities of fisheyes. In a matter of hours mutants and civilians co-operated to prepare thousands of doses of the antidote. But for many it was too late with 700 fatalities and 2,658 were in hospitals and countless more lying in the street had antidote administered by mutant volunteers. The mutants had saved Montreal! So much goodwill was created by their efforts to mitigate what could have been a massive tragedy.

Meanwhile Jiber was tracked down at the Altitude 737 Bar in Place Ville Marie watching the destruction of his killer ants and his dream of conquering the galaxy. Jiber was broken repeating, “It’s mine. It’s all mine!” Frizzy the Smicket Boy burst into the bar and handcuffed the babbling Jiber and transported him back to Zortixia to be tried for crimes against galactic inhabitants.

RKS Wine: Can We Be Friends with the Okanagan’s Frind?

As far as Okanagan, British Columbia wineries go they seem to be able to do no wrong. But the day will come one day! Until then all of us should enjoy the wines produced from these stellar wineries. Yes we have covered Crescent Hill, Oak Bay, St. Hubertis, Stag’s Hollow, Meyer Family Vineyards and Mayhem Wines all with resounding success.

There now is a new Okanagan Winery on my radar called Frind. Why not dig in and hope for the Okanagan’s hot streak to continue?

We start with a Frind “Big Red” which I presume is a blend but of what the label fails to reveal. It is blend of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon as I dig into their internet site which really I or you should not have to do.

On the nose black cherry, chocolate, tobacco leaf, blueberry and cherry pie. On the palate the tannins are moderate. But as for flavours on the palate nothing jumps out and captures my imagination to get metaphors and similes flowing in my description of this wine. Some rather weak-kneed cherry and blueberry but the Okanagan wow factor simply isn’t there. Has my Okanagan red hot streak been cooled down? NO sir. That streak has been too hot and consistent to be brought tumbling down by a single wine. And one wine should not frame an entire winery and its products. Tasting wine is a bit like golf. I have been hitting the 70’s a few times this year but today was a golfing disaster which I blame on heavy traffic, soggy fairways and rough and rushing down to take my first swing on the first tee and dribbling it a few yards. From then on it was struggle with what could go wrong went wrong. I asked my starter friend to simply rip up my scorecard after the game and he obliged. Ignorance is bliss. But enough about me what about this wine? It really threw me with some overripe grape sweetness on the palate. Somewhat like a nasty slice heading into the woods. The wine is a combination of an overly sweet California Cabernet Sauvignon with an anemic Niagara Merlot. The nose passes muster but on the palate a ho hum wine and being a great fan of the Okanagan that hurts.

(Frind Estate Winery 2018 Big Red, BC VQA Okanagan Valley, Frind Estate Winery, West Kelowna, British Columbia, $24.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 19931, 750 mL, 13.25%, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating 87/100).

Let’s move on to a Frind 2018 Chardonnay. The Okanagan can certainly produce some “ooh” and “ahh” Chards that rival Burgundian ones.

This Frind has a light gold colour. On the nose apple, pear, tangerine, mango and a tad of pineapple. On the palate this would seem to be fermented and aged in stainless steel. It is very clean with guava, peach with a bit of almond paste. The acidity is muted but it is there and I would say this is a foodie wine. As my better half says I can’t remember what I ate yesterday but I do remember a winter squash and spinach pasta bake which despite my laborious efforts was not a keeper recipe but I wonder if I had used organic butternut squash it would have been a hit. Over the years I have noticed organic pumpkins, sweet potatoes and squash are actually sweet and brightly coloured and more flavour packed. Here is the recipe and if you can find organic butternut squash or pumpkin give it a try https://smittenkitchen.com/2021/10/winter-squash-and-spinach-pasta-bake/

So I would say to you dear reader this is a foodie wine. There is no sense in ageing it. A rather bland wine not up to premium Okanagan standards.

(Frind 2018 Chardonnay, VQA British Columbia, Frind Estate Winery, West Kelowna, British Columbia, $29.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 19930, 750 mL, 13.90%, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating 87/100).

Passage of the Day from the Late Rebecca Wasserman-Hone Credited With Putting Burgundy Wines on the Map in America

“A wine is not to be discussed, it is to be drunk and give happiness and joy and a nice feeling to people. Sounds of appreciation are weightier than words. We grade by ‘oohs’ and ‘mmms’, six being the ultimate accolade.”

The Importance of Wine Tourism

Please refer to https://www.bkwinetours.com/ and to https://www.bkwine.com/

Photo is of the Douro Valley in Portugal (Robert K. Stephen)