RKS 2025 Canadian Wine: Shale Ridge 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon: Gutsy and/or Suicidal

Producing single varietal Cabernet Sauvignon in Ontario is a risky business as far as I can see. Most often it is a bland experience but jazzed up with generous oak it just may surprise you.

Shale Ridge is located in Thedford, Ontario proximate to the shores of Lake Huron in Southwest Ontario. Their 2023 Cabernet Sauvignon is unoaked and there is no indication on its label where the grapes used were sourced from but the wine is VQA. This is an unoaked Cabernet Sauvignon. The risk meter is running hot.

Aroma: There is a truckload of lean raspberry and blueberry with secondary blackberry burbling about.

Palate: Tannic. And the lean aromatics become mean on the palate meaning they are lost in space….dissipated. Tartish cranberry intermingled with prevalent chalkiness.

Personality: Which adjective(s) in the review’s title would you choose.

Food Match: Meat lover’s pizza from Poppa John’s Pizza and Diner in Thedford.

Cellarbility: Drink now.

RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine Rating: 79/100.

(SR Cabernet Sauvignon 2023, VQA Ontario, Shale Ridge Estate Winery, Thedford, Ontario, 750 mL, 12.5%).

RKS 2025 CANADIAN Film: “Loathe Thy Neighbor”

“Loathe Thy Neighbor” is a low budget Canadian indie film shot in Bruce County, Ontario.

One can’t deny certain of its comedic elements but it is more of a character study than a comedy. Deeply unhappy characters seldom craft a comedy.

City slicker Will Larkfield (Brennan Clost) inherits a farm from his father who had set himself on fire in a Toronto subway station as after all he always wanted to be the centre of attention. Will has a multitude of allergies and his arrival at the farm is marked by the non-delivery of his EpiPen to neighbour Wanda Bellerose’s apiary. Wanda (Lauren Holly) is a cranky and provocative women with nary a kind or welcoming word for Will the “yuppy”. Valerie (Brittany Raymond), Wanda’s daughter, is a kleptomaniac.

Will, Wanda and Valerie are unhappy and possibly miserable characters masking their unhappiness through burying or camouflaging it through character flaws. We obtain hints of the rationale for their underlying misery but the film fails to delve deeper than this scratch on the surface but searching for that on our part may add some attraction to the film. Why do these characters act against social norms?

Weed smoking Officer Norwood of the local constabulary and the zany delivery lady Daphne lend a comedic bent to the film.

Joe (Shaun Benson) is the somewhat eccentric sage operating like the grassy character median before the East German section of the Berlin Wall.

The miserable, jolly and the wise are the buffet table offering a bit of everything for the viewer.

And yes there is an evil and seedy corporation lurking in the fields oddly uniting these diverse characters.

So disappointing to see that $10 US bill change hands especially in this day and age of strained U.S. Canada relations! And the Americanization of “neighbor” is slap in the face to Canadian viewers?

You can watch the trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLMf481wY0Q

The film is directed by Sergio Navarreta.

RKS 2025 CANADIAN Film Rating 72/100.

The film has a Canada wide theatrical release 29August2025.

RKS Literature: The Never-Ending Soviet Gulag Sentence (Vladimir Rott)

“Of course this is a very important year 1948. In this year, in the middle of it, I’ll also become a free man. And here, there are two points, listen carefully. Those who are released after their terms inside the USSR can go home on the next train. But here, in the Far East, the law is different. Here, after the release, only an invalid can go straight home: everybody else-now as free citizens-are kept here by the authorities to work in their field, under a contract, for 1-2 more years. An exception can be made only if a man gets a document from home, which proves that his family lives in poverty and needs its provider.”

Valdimir Rott, “In Defiance of Fate Book 1 Joy From Sadness”, 2009.

RKS Literature: Treacherous at the Top with Stalin (Vladimir Rott)

“The men who surrounded Stalin quickly figured out the rules of the chief’s game and started playing up to him in every way they could, sniffing out suitable “enemies” in their own midst and helping destroy them. Under such arrangement, those who witnessed and participated in the “purges” at the top could not stay alive for long. They “knew too much” and therefore had to be destroyed. The whole thing started to look more and more like a madhouse, a universal insanity… Yet Bernard Shaw and other Western liberals sang the praises of the new regime, their earnest enthusiasm brought on by sudden blindness. The world had never known anything like that before, and no one could believe that such an irrational, bloody way of life could become the foundation for state policies.”

Vladimir Rott, “In Defiance of Fate Book 1 Joy from Sadness”, 2009.

RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine:  A Battersea Wines White Blend

Battersea Wines is a virtual winery operating in the Collab Wine & Beverage collective based in Ontario’s Niagara-on-the-Lake. Currently comprising 12 virtual wineries using shared production facilities and staff.

Battersea Weiss is a blend of Viognier, Marsanne and Pinot Gris.

Aroma: Lemon, Niagara peach, tangerine, pineapple and guava.

Palate: Dry but not bone dry. Approaches a hint of creaminess on the palate. Apricot, Greaves’s apricot jam and muskmelon all in a lively format with a gentle acidity that begs for food.

Personality: Admit it. I am an unusual blend for Niagara. The Pinot Gris in me restrains what could be a tropical temperament. Viognier and Marsanne are not widely “comfortable grapes” for Ontario consumers so I am a bit brave.

Food Match: Lake Erie perch or pickerel fish and chip style! Cornish hen/pork ribs/rabbit grilled with peach bbq sauce but hurry as soon Niagara peaches have a bad habit of mealiness in late August and September.

Cellarbility: Go up to your Christmas turkey in 2025!

Price: $26 CDN.

RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine Rating: 89/100. Wine Align Community Score 90.

(Battersea Weiss 2023 VQA Niagara Peninsula, 750 mL, 13.5%).

RKS Literature: The Bolsheviks Desperation to Maintain Power (Vladimir Rott)

“Once they had seized power in Russia, the Bolsheviks began to direct all of their energy and all of the country’s wealth toward a single goal: to stay in power, to keep power in their hands. Hence the instant rise of the Great Terror, the suppression and destruction of not only actual but even potential, possible dissent or resistance. Lenin started it. Stalin, who seized supreme power by means of incredible cunning and a gangster’s perfidy was obsessed day and night with crushing everyone under his dictatorial boot. Stalin didn’t care which of his closest associates from his inner circle to send to their deaths-let them all live in constant fear. It’s an old gangster trick: beat up your own, so that others will fear you as well.”

Vladimir Rott, “In Defiance of Fate Book 1 Joy From Sadness”, 2009.

RKS 2025 Wine: A Reliable Red from Greece?

Is there such a thing as a reliable wine?

If there was it would have to be a wine that continually delivers in quality and sensory satisfaction irrespective of price.

From a Niagara, Ontario perspective we might suggest Cabernet Franc as a reliable wine. In British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley we might say Pinot Noir. From Portugal’s Douro we might suggest Touriga Franca/ Touriga Nacional. We could continue with such a list for many pages.

For Greece a reliable red I have encountered is Agiorgitiko. Damn near impossible to pronounce.

We try a Nemea Wine Cooperative Agiorgitiko. The cooperative was founded in 1937 and now has some 400 members. The wine was matured for 12 months in French oak.

Aroma: Black cherry, cassis, blackberry and notes of the arid summer Greek countryside.

Palate: Rich black fruit avoiding jamminess with the right amount of acidity and judicious use of oak. Hints of anise. Tinge of pepper on a moderately long yet full finish.

Personality:  Admit it! My Agiorgitiko buddies and I rarely disappoint unlike Xinomavro with its roaring tannins requiring careful ageing. Call me everyday if you wish. Call me a mutt with so many growers in my blood. Sticks and stones won’t break my bones!

Food Match: Stewed lamb shank or goat or okra simmered in a rich tomato sauce.

Price: $19 CDN.

Cellarbility: Consume by 2026-year end.

RKS 2025 Wine Rating: 88/100.

(Nemea Wine Cooperative 2021 Agiorgitiko, Nemea PDO, Cooperative Winery of Nemea, Nemea, Greece, 750 mL, 13%).

RKS Literature: Ignorant, Greedy and Brutal Bolsheviks (Vladimir Rott)

Russia-a wealthy country with a highly educated population, a country that had peacefully gotten rid of serfdom and was on a path of rapid, successful industrial development-was handed over to the Bolsheviks without a real struggle. The Russian intelligentsia, the nation’s brain, underestimated the danger and allowed a great country which had been drawn into the global slaughterhouse of World War I to descend into complete anarchy and lawlessness-until power was seized by a group of ignorant, brutal, greedy people using the Marxian idea as a cover. It’s hard to say how sincere the Bolsheviks were about building a utopia of universal equality, and whether they had the faintest idea of what it meant.”

Vladimir Rott, “In Defiance of Fate Book 1 Joy From Sadness”, 2009.

RKS 2025 Film: “A Soil A Culture A River A People”: Ignoring the Director’s Statement or at Least Some of It

“A Soil A Culture A River A People” is in the abstract museum-art galley genre. I watched this 15-minute short three times arriving at three different interpretations of its purpose. Perplexing, challenging and fun!

As a film critic I receive films to review from production companies or public relations firms attaching a viewing link for the film, stills and a synopsis of the film and a description of key production staff including actors. Occasionally a director’s statement is attached outlining the purpose or objective of the film as explained by the director.

Included in the materials for the film was a director’s statement from Viv Li which also appears on her website and its an artsy mouthful indeed! But viewers will seldom have a director’s statement to review before they watch a film. Such statements may serve the director’s vision but what about the viewers?

The more artsy and diffuse a film the more interpretations it may engender so here is mine.

Citizen Yu (Zezhi Long) in his modernistic Mao suit is an alien walking the streets of Hannover, Germany. He maintains a stone face keenly observing all about him which is not always pleasant; drunken skinheads, red light ladies squirming on storefront windows poles, gritty high rise apartment buildings and a taunting bar patron labelling him an “Ossi” (derogatory term for former East Germans after East Germany’s reunification with West Germany).

Citizen Yu appears fascinated with a stylishly dressed young woman and holds bark in his hand like he has never encountered such a substance. The same with the beer he consumes.

He wears a glowing fob and watch what happens and you’ll be convinced he is an alien….well I think so.

The title of the film “A Soil A Culture A River A People” just might be an apt title for an alien report on activities encountered on the planet earth! Add to that lyrics of a song Citizen Yu hears in a bar that include “Let us sing so that we can join together in the sky of hope”.

 The short will be playing at the Venice International Film Festival 28August/September/4 and 5.

RKS 2025 Film Rating 90/100.

RKS 2025 Wine: Spanish Hécula Monastrell

What the heck try some Hécula Monastrell from the Yecla region of Spain! It’s organic!

Monastrell is the Spanish name for Mourvèdre.

The grapes were grown at an altitude of 750 m in limestone soil. It has resided 6 months in French (80%) and American (20%) oak barrels.

Aroma: Raspberry galore. Black cherry and plum. Sharp, clean and vibrant.

Palate: Solid. Close to full bodied. Dry. A perfect coexistence of tannins and acids. Runs hot. Raspberry, black cherry with the tiniest hint of 100% dark chocolate.

Personality: I have loads of raspberry in my character. Not to overextend my profile but Pinot Noir drinkers might find me intriguing due to this raspberry. I am not going to say I am a Pinot Noir on steroids but I rather enjoy the cheeky comparison and you didn’t hear it from me.

Cellarbility: Don’t push your luck past 2026.  

Food Match: The hot flow and peppery finish just might deserve spicy food. The winery suggests pair with lamb, meat stews, grilled meats and spicy food. I will try this with pork ribs marinated with a spicy peach BBQ sauce (with hot peppers just ready from my garden) which calls for a good shot of bourbon which most of us patriotic Canadians have rejected due to the aggressive Canada insulting carnival barking of the Orange Toad. I will substitute a maple infused Canadian whisky instead. When the going gets tough the tough get going!

Price: $15 CDN. Spanish wines continue to be a “bargain” in Canada on a quality to price ratio.

RKS 2025 Wine Rating: 91/100. Wine Enthusiast 90.

(Hécula Monastrell 2022, Yecla DOP, Bodegas Castaño, Murcia, Spain, 750 mL, 14.5%).