RKS 2025 Wine: El Enemigo Chardonnay from Argentina: 2018 vs. 2023

El Enemigo 2023 Chardonnay

Aroma: Up in your face oak as if it has hijacked the wine. Pineapple, mango, pear and cinnamon. Fresher and lighter than the 2018.

Palate: A bit raspy and abrasive whereas the 2018 is far smoother. You taste the oak. Rather thin in comparison to the 2018. Acids are noticeable and not the same degree of fruit as in the 2018. Short finish.

Personality: In comparison to its 2018 older bother brash and immature.

Food Match: Grilled pork chop marinated in olive oil, oregano and lemon. The acidity in the lemon matches the acidity of this wine. It would destroy the 2018.

Price: $30 CDN.

Cellarbility: Robot in “Lost in Space” television show 1965-68 would we waving its arms violently shouting, “WARNING. WARNING. DO NOT CONSUME THIS WINE UNTIL 2029” at which point it will be peaking.

RKS 2025 Wine Review Rating: 87/100. Jamessuckling.com 96.

(El Enemigo 2023 Chardonnay, Mendoza, Argentina, Alejandro Vigil and Adriana Catena, 750 mL,13%).

El Enemigo 2018 Chardonnay

Colour: A much deeper gold in comparison to the 2023.

Aroma: One can’t ignore the heavy oak influence in the wine, but it is well buried in the wine. Perhaps one might say the oak is well integrated into the bouquet. Butterscotch, Baked Alaska, pear conserves, marzipan, honey, clay, and cinnamon.

Palate: Seven years in the bottle imparts a degree of smoothness. What you smell you taste. Acids are tame. A mature wine to be taken as such. It will evolve no further but its astounding aromatics are good into mid 2026.A pleasant and muted finish.

Personality: A senior citizen perfectly mobile albeit a bit slow and proud of its longevity and the fact it was money well spent.

Food Match: Shrimp/Lobster in a butter garlic sauce or chicken in a tarragon/wine/cream sauce.

Price in 2022: $25 CDN.

RKS Wine 2025 Wine Rating: 91/100 (November 2025). Natalie MacLean’s 2022 review 92/100

RKS Wine’s 2022 Review (of the 2018) Rating 89/100. Here is that review https://a-little-birdie-told-me.ca/2022/02/04/rks-wine-a-chardonnay-from-mendoza-el-enemigo-digressing-into-the-battle-of-britain/

“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: FROM EXISTENCE TO LIFE: THE BRIGHT LIGHT SUNSHINE FOR A WESTIE PUPPY

FROM EXISTENCE TO LIFE: THE BRIGHT LIGHT SUNSHINE FOR A WESTIE PUPPY

I am finishing off 12 weeks or so since my birth at Ardendale Kennels in Denfield, Ontario. Farm country.

Of my two months there I remember little. Drinking mother’s milk and snuggling against her and my brothers and sisters. We played now and then I am told but what games I know not. It was simply existence for a short time just enough to obtain nourishment and basic canine socialization skills. I remember a cockatiel squawking occasionally, a three-legged cat and some prize chickens scrabbling for food outside a sliding door. Hardly a challenging or memorable experience. But I thank the big canine father for blessing me with health and as Bob and Fay are discovering a “rascally nature”.

I think I may have had an inkling of what life was promising when Bob and Fay visited me at a month old. I was told then by my breeder I was a very intelligent pup when I trundled over to the water bowl, put my feet on the rim and had a long drink of water. She’d never seen a pup my age do the same. I was also told I nearly pooped on Bob’s shoe.

What I do remember is Bob picking me up under my arms looking at my face up close, sweettalking me and rubbing his nose on mine! If this was a hint about the nature of my future life I thought busting out of the kennel was going to be quite something. I have had enough of existing. I WANT LIFE!

RKS 2025 Short Film: “The Hemingway”: Elbows Up

Canada currently faces threats of economic decimation and political annexation by you know who.

Canadians have adopted a fightback phrase “Elbows Up” a metaphorical reference to hockey players aggressively using their elbows to defend and possibly strike back at aggressors.

Patrick Sean O’Brien is saddled with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) where the muscles atrophy in an inevitable termination of life usually within months of formal diagnosis. The termination is with extreme prejudice as the unaffected mind witnesses the inevitable deadly physical decline.

For those viewers without any ALS “experience” which includes watching friends and colleagues succumb to it the documentary may invoke feelings of horror, fear and pity. But you owe O’Brien more than that.

Pity, fear and horror are emotional observations by viewers being essentially selfish. Perhaps wonderment, inspiration, admiration, courage, raw emotion and yes even a laugh or two are respectful to Patrick Sean O’Brien a man of insight, satire and humour as he explains a few moments in his life to us. The animation and clips from old films and documentaries and O’Brien’s ceaseless wit throughout may lighten your emotional distress.

Physically wasted perhaps. Mentally charged indeed as how can you explain his co-direction, co-executive production and his screenwriting!

While he might not possess the brawn and robustness of Hemingway he is a massive elbows up guy in a cruel world.

J.R. Reed is O’Brien’s voice.

Winner of awards for best short documentary it will no doubt appear on screens throughout the world.

You can watch the trailer here https://vimeo.com/1044832501

RKS 2025 Short Film Rating 96/100.

“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: PUPPY PRIDE: MY FIRST KILL….SORT OF…NOT REALLY

PUPPY PRIDE: MY FIRST KILL….SORT OF…NOT REALLY

West Highland Terriers are hunters. We aren’t dentists from Wichita that lay peanut butter traps for lions in Africa and blast them hiding behind blinds, take a photograph of their kill and idiotically declare their “Great White Hunter” status. To those hunters I say “Bunga Schmunga.

We ferret out and hunt foxes…well er…farm rats too. We chase, dig, jump and catch quarry in our mouth and shake their body to break their neck for a humane kill. And you thought Westies were cute poofballs skilled only at cuddling and inveigling human food or symbols on toilet paper and cheap dog food made in China!

I was out in the backyard this morning and Bob saw me munching on some object with greater relish than usual. Being cautious he jumped into action and removed the object from my mouth and my very sharp puppy teeth. “Oh my goodness” was what I heard. “A decomposed mouse! You can see his long tail!”

A mouse is a mouse decomposed or not! Welcome to Westiehood! I am as proud as can be!

Well half and hour later AJ, Bob and Fay’s son, passed judgement on the mouse. It was a dried flower with a long stem. Bob’s original pronouncement was made without his spectacles.

My ego is DEFLATED!

“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: PUPPY WOES: NEEDLE IN MY FLANK: OUCH!!!!

PUPPY WOES: NEEDLE IN MY FLANK: OUCH!!!!

Today we had a double adventure. My first real daylight ride in our car and a trip to a funny smelling animal hospital where we met a lady veterinarian named Dr. CK.

I heard Bob saying in the car we were going for a “puppy check” to determine my good health. I could smell apprehension on Bob before we went into the building like something very bad had happened to him on his last visit there just over two years ago. I wonder what occurred there?

Dr. CK was wonderful, pinching, squeezing and feeling my body sweet talking me all the way. The verdict about me? “Fit as a fiddle!”. And then something terrible happened as Fay and then Bob held me firmly and assuring me everything was fine. A searing pain in my flank and I let out a howl of pain. And I thought Dr. CK was such a sweet lady until she jabbed me with what she referred to as a needle. This was “a vaccination”. And oh my I heard Dr. CK say more were coming.

After my dinner and a nice tank up on cold water I started to feel “not myself”…a happy, squirmy and naughty puppy. I slept beside Fay on the couch all evening not wanting to play. And when I moved my left flank OUCH!

I don’t think anyone wanted to hurt me but it sure seems that way. I have to give everyone the benefit of my doubt.

By the way I gave that other dog arriving when were departing a bark. I am not sure why?

RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine: From the Hotbed of Canadian Pinot Noir Excellence: Okanagan Falls Stag’s Hollow Pinot Noir

Can I say I have yet to have a Pinot Noir from the Okanagan in British Columbia I haven’t enjoyed? Displaying my loyalty to this geographic area of British Columbia I often wonder why bother to spend your Canadian dollars in a Burgundian Pinot Noir hunt?

Stag’s Hollow Pinot Noirs are always a treat to anticipate and, in this case, a 2022 Shuttleworth Creek Vineyard Pinot Noir from the Okanagan Valley.

Aroma: No doubt about it. A nose of elegance. Purity and the highest quality. Raspberry, black cherry, red currant and chocolate covered cherry Purdy’s chocolate and ripe strawberry from top to bottom.

Palate: Firm elegance. Smooth but not silky. Highly respectable tannins. Muted acidity. A minute but fleeting hint of sweetness upon entry. Loads of beautifully integrated fruit. A long finish. How can I put this? A solid wine?

Personality: Not to boast but I am neither a ballerina or a bully but a intellectual Elbows Up Pinot Noir that Gordie Howe and Pierre Elliot Trudeau could quaff together and enjoy.

Food Match: Duck L’Orange Louisiana Style. The amount of Port Wine in the recipe certainly cancels out the orange that ordinarily might be off putting to a Pinot Noir.

Jazz Match: Sammy Jackson Canadian jazz musician.

Cellarbility: Drink now until 2028-year end.

Price: $ 34 CDN.

RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine Rating: 93/100.Gismondi on Wine 91.

(Stag’s Hollow 2022 Pinot Noir Shuttleworth Creek Vineyard, Okanagan Falls, Okanagan Valley BC VQA, Stag’s Hollow Winery, Okanagan Falls, British Columbia, 750 mL, 12.7%).

“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: PUPPY DELIGHTS: ONE LUCKY SQUIRREL

PUPPY DELIGHTS: ONE LUCKY SQUIRREL

A cloudy and windy November day. Was it Jimmy Cliff that sang,” I can see clearly now”…. A wonderful day for visuals. I can see crystal clear.

And 50 feet ahead of me through the glass sliding door I see it. The motherlode! A black squirrel flicking its tail and munching on a black walnut. That swishing bushy tail attracts me like a matador’s red cape attracts a bull. Bob sees me staring intently at the black creature! Opens the door and I am certain there will be one less rodent tearing up the lawn and hiding walnuts then digging up the same spot days later to retrieve its treasure.

I run like the wind those West Highland Terrier genetics fueling my hunt the prey instinct. Not a Scottish fox nor farm rat but a good old fashioned Ontario squirrel. I query if my Scottish ancestors chased squirrels in the Scottish Highlands. But I am not in Scotland, but Toronto and I will make do with what God has given us to hunt!

That squirrel tore across the lawn and scrabbled up a tree. Beginner’s misfortune, I am sure. Hey my first squirrel hunt so show some compassion with my failure. I am not even embarrassed except when the squirrel sat on the fence by the tree, looked at me and started chattering. Fay said it happened to Dylan the Westie many times with that chattering being a “squirrel laugh”. Laugh. It will be your last laugh you beady eyed oversized rat. Next time you rodent you will succumb to my superior hunting skills. If a Westie can’t eliminate a pesky black squirrel what type of Westie might that be?

Dylan the Westie interjects from the Land Beyond, “This pup has much to learn but who has the heart to tell him I never caught a squirrel with 15 years of trying. So much fun I say and hope springs eternal and as I sit here the Land Beyond just watching the pup is great fun and all of us chortle and say it is the folly of youth! By the way I had a squirrel at my mercy as a three-year-old but Bob ordered me to stop. The squirrel was very sick and weak…beneath the dignity of a West Highland Terrier to cull unlike you humans in British Columbia that culled those ostriches. Avian flu my ass! Bureaucratic flu!

Photo Credit: Fotini Stephen

RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine: Cabernet Franc Ontario’s Great Red Wine Strength: Does a 2027 Cellars Cabernet Franc Carry the Torch?

If you can’t produce a top-notch Cabernet Franc in Ontario you might as well go home.

There were 366 cases of 2027 Cellars 2021 Cabernet Franc produced.

Aroma: On the head of the nail with bright cherry, black cherry, cocoa and cola.

Palate: Packs more of a punch than its tender aromas might suggest and its gloves are not hiding much tannin in them. Firm acidity makes it more of a with food wine than a sipper. Expect black cherry with a mouthwatering peppery finish and a smoothness if you give it a chance.

Personality: I am not a Brutus of a Cab Franc but perhaps a Pépé le Moko, wily and clever.

Food Match: Black bean-based burger of if you fear patty disintegration black bean meatloaf.

Cellarbility: Consume by 2026-year end.

Price: $25 CDN.

RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine Rating: 90/100.

(2027 Cellars Wismer Vineyard-Foxcroft Block 2021 Cabernet Franc, VQA Twenty Mile Bench, 750 mL, 13.2%).

P.S. No need for vintner Kevin Panagapka to go home. He should stay at the winery and make more than 366 cases next time.

“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: PUPPY WOES: EVEN ALBERT EINSTEIN PEED ALL OVER HIMSELF

PUPPY WOES: EVEN ALBERT EINSTEIN PEED ALL OVER HIMSELF

Into week 12 and settling into my home nicely.

Well, there is a little issue with “my business” as Fay likes to say or “pee and poo” Bob refers to it as.

When you gotta go you gotta go doesn’t fly particularly well in this household. So there is a little puddle now and then or some other stuff that stinks. God made urine and feces so we dogs could mark our territory. Apparently even though I have made this house my territory for marking purposes it isn’t.

I am getting less than gentle reminders as my marking is responded to with frustration and stern words all of course according to puppy manuals stern words will scar me for life!

I love the outside. The backyard is more than simple territory. It is my kingdom. And when I do my “business” I receive the “good boy” compliment accompanied by a delicious treat. How nice of Bob and Fay. I am a West Highland Terrier and very intelligent say Bob and Fay. “He’ll pick it up quick.” Bob retorts adding, “I don’t mean picking THAT up.”

I am beginning to contemplate the proper locale to best exercise my bodily functions. It’s coming …not you know what but the thought process.

Bob sighs on occasion and mutters, “Even Einstein peed all over himself as a babe”.

“Lost in Puppydom: Rory Dylan Stephen’s Puppydom”: AND YOU THINK A PUPPY RAISING MANUAL IS THE BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD?

AND YOU THINK A PUPPY RAISING MANUAL IS THE BEST THING SINCE SLICED BREAD?

Of course, I want to be reared to mature into a model West Highland Terrier. I trust Bob and Fay have been through this rigamarole with Dylan the Westie but as I hear poor Bob groan it all happened 17 years ago and he has forgotten 90% of the puppy training. Yes he used a Dr. Dunbar manual on raising your Westie and in fact he still has it.

Listen puppy owners all this puppy raising literature is a valuable read but don’t forget common sense. Westies are a handful and oddly enough that is the essence of a Westie so give me and all Westie puppies a break.

Of course, take a moment and reflect on the following: What about all those Boomers raising human babies relying on Dr. Benjamin Spock’s publications. Were human babies any better or worse when raised without commentary from this famous pediatrician?

Woof Woof.