RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine: Hinterbrook Nomad’s 23 Humble

“Humble” can mean having or showing a modest or low estimate of one’s importance. Often it can be seen as a positive attribute; a sort of an underestimation of excellence. Is Hinterbrook telling us succinctly this is an excellent wine but there shall be no bragging about it!

At a price of $20 CDN its price is indeed humble given its quality.

Oh the metaphors and similes swirling about wine labels these days!

The wine is a blend of 47% Merlot and 53% Cabernet Sauvignon and has spent 12 months in oak barrels.

Aroma: Welcoming waft of black cherry, raspberry, blueberry and a wisp of dark chocolate. An initial impression of a wine light on its feet.

Palate: Yes, it is relatively light with humble tannins. Cassis, licorice with somewhat of a peppery midweight finish. Just a short and beguiling and point worthy flash of sweetness on the after finish.

Personality: Yes, I am a good wine but saying I am good is honest and hence not much to be humble about given the confidence I have in myself.

Food Match: Cod Plaki or bacalhau in tomato sauce with a foundation of  Ontario field tomatoes.

Cellarbility: Redlight near the end of 2026.

Price: $20 CDN.

RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine Rating: 89/100.

(Hinterbrook Nomad 23 Humble, VQA Niagara Lakeshore, Hinterbrook Estate Winery, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, 750 mL, 13.6%).

RKS 2025 CANADIAN Film: “Hola Frida”: Cheapened by Gringo Voices?

HOLA FRIDA is an animated feature film that introduces a new generation to one of the most iconic artists of the 20th century—Frida Kahlo. Known for her strength, resilience, and creativity, Frida revolutionized modern art through her unique blend of Expressionism, Surrealism, and deep-rooted Mexican culture. Her life and legacy continue to inspire audiences worldwide, and the film is dedicated to her indelible spirit.

Based on the celebrated animated series and book Frida, c’est moi, HOLA FRIDA tells a playful and heartfelt story of Frida’s childhood. Set in vibrant Coyoacán, Mexico, young Frida finds refuge in her imagination as she faces illness—revealing the earliest sparks of the artist she would become. 

Visual appeal makes the film a draw for children but there are messages embedded within all the fun and frivolity and the intellectual ability of the child viewer will determine if the messages are successfully conveyed. The importance of determination and goal setting, confidence in your abilities, accepting your disabilities and moving on, learning to excel despite the disability, understanding that you have an inner strength and not accepting sexism.

Slightly distracting are the voices of Mexicans speaking flawless English throwing in the occasional Spanish phrase. This gringoism tarnishes the authenticity of the film. Spanish with English subtitles would be ridiculous for the non-Hispanic marketplace but at least let’s have voices with a bit of a Latino accent!

Watch the trailer here https://vimeo.com/1099738743/86b3d8b621

The film will have a theatrical release 8August2025.

RKS 2025 CANADIAN Film Rating: 71/100.

RKS Literature: The Virus of Elegance (Yukio Mishima)

“A mere 50 years before, the Matsugaes had been a sturdy, upright samurai family, no more, eking out a frugal existence in the provinces. But in a brief span of time, their fortunes had soared. By Kiyoaki’s time, the first traces of refinement were threatening to take hold on a family that, unlike court nobility, had enjoyed centuries of immunity from the virus of elegance. And Kiyoaki, like an ant that senses the approaching flood, was experiencing the first intimations of his family’s rapid collapse.”

Yukio Mishima, “Spring Snow”, 1968.

RKS 2025 Film: “Drowning Dry” (Sesė)

The Lithuanian title of the film is “Sesė” meaning sisters but the English title is “Drowning Dry”. Both titles co-exist in a symbiotic relationship.

Drowning dry happens after a near drowning victim has their lungs drained of water by various revival techniques, I know well being a member of the elite Royal Lifesaving Society, yet encounters muscle spasms closing the airway and preventing air from entering the lungs. Death may result from a drowning dry sometimes referred to as a secondary drowning.

All main characters in the film appear metaphorically to be near drowning victims not immediately felled by trauma or tragedy yet suffering delayed consequences afterwards. It prods you with an unasked question: is psychological drowning dry an essential element of the human condition?

“Drowning Dry” is a film intentionally lacking temporal continuity zig zagging over some 9 different time scenarios where fate is determined by differing circumstances. It tests your imagination and intellectual abilities with what could have happened, what didn’t happen and what happened.

The film commences with Lukas (Paulius Markevicius) winning an MMA championship. Ernesta (Gelmine Glemzaite), his wife, cries wishing he should have had the shit kicked out of him so that he would give up the sport.

Lukas, Ernesta and her sister Juste (Agne Kaktaite) and her husband Tomas (Giedrius Kiela) with their two children Urte and Kristupas drive up to the sisters’ summer home. They chat, eat, drink and the sisters even ham it up with a short dance routine. At the lake Tomas playfully drops daughter Urte into the water and she doesn’t surface. Then temporal discontinuity takes over teasing the viewer with what could have happened, what didn’t happen and what happened. With great intellectual strain by the end of the film the viewer may piece together what actually happened but it is either a tortuous or playful experience depending on the psyche of the viewer.

Director Laurynas Bareiša drops hinting breadcrumbs throughout leading to a possible “complete story” despite the temporal discontinuity. The viewer must use some creative interpretation of events to assemble the “complete story” and even if doing so there is no certainty of correctness. In fact the viewer may have been intentionally duped by Bareiša into believing the film is more complicated than it really is!

Here is the trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWglHzfxlNw

The United States theatrical run commences 18July2025 and will be showing 13November2025 in Canada at the European Union Film Festival.

RKS 2025 Film Rating: 87/100.

RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine: Hinterbrook’s Nomad 22 Wanderlust

Not able to join the gang for the Cake Parade on 1July2025 at Niagara-on-the-Lake due to recovery from hernia surgery I could alleviate my misery and the need for extensive walking by driving along Lakeshore Road where I discovered an extremely quiet Hinterbrook Estate Winery. After all it was Canada Day and who wants to miss the Cake Parade except for gimpsters like me.

Nomads have wanderlust. Synchronicity in name!

53% Cabernet Franc and 47% Merlot aged 24 months in oak barrels.

Aroma: Black cherry, raspberry, rhubarb and chocolate covered almonds.

Palate: Smooth and lightweight yet with a touch of raspiness on the palate with a bit of pepper on the short finish. The fruit can’t wander and trample the palate as one might expect with Merlot and Cabernet Franc.

Personality: Light on my feet. Not a prize fighter nor a ballerina.

Food Match: The “Full Throttle” pizza from Garage Pizza on Niagara-on-the-Lake.  

Cellarbility: Consume in 2025.

Price: $26 CDN.

RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine Rating: 86/100.

(Nomad 22 Wanderlust, VQA Niagara Lakeshore, Hinterbrook Estate Winery, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, 750 mL, 14%).

RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine: Wending Home’s A Little Bit of This a Little Bit of That

If by chance you are overly accustomed with single varietals perhaps you wish to try Wending Home’s Wending North a blend of 27% Ehrenfelser, 18% Auxerrois, 18% Pinot Gris, 16% Gewurztraminer and 5% Chardonnay. A dog’s breakfast or brilliance in a glass?

Aroma: Honeycrisp apple, cinnamon, guava, mango, pineapple, honey, marzipan and Abate pear. A minerality that reminds one of an Encruzado from the Dão of Portugal.

Palate: If there was such a thing as perfect acidity in a white wine you have it or should we refer to it as a very fine acidity? Solid. Juicy. Mouthwatering pear, apple sauce, lychee and buzzing minerality with a long almost hot finish.

Personality: Consider me immediately accessible and a friend to a hot summer day.

Food Match: This blend may be the perfect outdoor dining wine as a little bit of this and that may be the perfect diplomatic wine. Delicious thereby possibly pleasing to at least an overwhelming majority. Grilled chicken, pork, rabbit and lake fish preferably pickerel or bass with garlic, chives and white wine in foil.

Price: $25 CDN.

Cellarbility: To be retired after the 2025 Christmas turkey.

RKS 2025 CANADIAN Wine Rating: 91/100. Rick VanSickle 92.

(Wending Home, Wending North White Blend 2020, VQA Creek Shores, Niagara Peninsula, Wending Home Estate Vineyards and Winery, St. Catharines, Ontario, 750 ml, 13.1%).

RKS Literature: Eminence Will Not Make You Loved (James Baldwin)

“People who achieve any eminence whatever are driven to do so; and there is always something terribly vulnerable about such people. They very soon discover that their eminence makes them an incitement and a target-it does not cause them to be loved. They are trapped on their hill. They cannot come down. They cannot bear obscurity as some organisms cannot bear light-death is what awaits then when they come down from the hill.”

James Baldwin, “Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone”, 1968.

RKS 2025 CANADIAN Film: “The Well”

The film commences with crackling and staticky news reports and desperate human cries. The world is running out of clean water. Special blue zones are established where water is available but access is largely denied. Mass migrations occur. Refugee “camps” are established. Chaos in the streets. Much of the water supply is contaminated with a deadly virus. Post apocalypse film awaits!

The Devine family, Ma (Joanne Boland), Pa (Arnold Pinnock) and daughter Sarah (Shailyn Pierre-Dixon) live in the deep woods and most importantly have a well with clean water. But what is a post apocalypse film without a little hardship! The well’s filter is cracked. The water is muddy. Get clean water or die!

A family member, Jamie (Idrissa Sanogo), stumbles into the Devine compound. Sarah and Jamie trundle off in search of metal to enable the well filter to be repaired. Jaimie knows of a place with “people” that might help.

Sarah and Jamie arrive at what appears to be an abandoned smelting facility with a handful of people led by Gabriel (Sheila McCarthy). Grandmotherly but ruthless perhaps for the greater good? She’s not afraid to gun down strangers for fear they have the deadly contagious virus.

Some decent tension in the film here as no one trusts anyone. What are these people up to? Is Gabriel a dangerous lunatic with her references to Greek mythology?

With a repaired well filter in hand they all head to The Devine’s compound in search of this clean water Sarah has told them about. Why would they travel for clean water when they already have potable water?

The group makes it to the trip wire outside the Devine compound. It is then discovered Jamie and Gabriel have the virus which means all the group must be infected but it doesn’t seem that way?

A simple plot that has no real edge to it. No epic struggles. No attacks by mutants. The film is about as exciting as a bag of Cheesies the day after the Gey Cup. If there is any virus it is boredom. Even the cast seems totally unenthusiastic. “The Well” is bone dry instead of the gush the initial moments of the movie promised me.

Think of “The Well” as a post apocalyptic “The Waltons” all best enjoyed with a glass of hot milk.

Directed by Hubert Davis.

Played at the recent Fantasia film festival in Montreal.

RKS 2025 CANADIAN Film Rating: 63/100.

RKS 2025 Wine: Spier South African Shiraz

The grapes for this cool climate wine were sourced from 15- to 20-year-old trellised vines in rich, deep and decomposed granite soils. Hand harvested from selected vineyard blocks and destemmed and crushed to stainless steel tanks. Maturation in French oak barrels (20% first fill and the balance in second and third fill). The wine matured for 14 months before blending.

Aroma: Heavy duty blackberry complimented by black currant, cassis, blueberry and dark chocolate. Well integrated oak.

Palate: Smooth, supple and a tad pepperish. Vibrant and lively midweight wine with a hint of spice. Black fruit. Short perky finish.

Food Match: BBQ beef or pork ribs. Smoked meat sandwich. Bobotie.

South African Bobotie

Cellarbility: Consume by end of 2025.

Price: $20 CDN.

RKS 2025 Wine Rating: 88/100. 90 jamessuckling.com.

(Seaward 2022 Shiraz, W.O. Coastal Region, Spier Wines, Stellenbosch, South Africa, 750 mL, 14.5%).

RKS Health: The Great Hernia Adventure: Hoping You Avoid The Great Hernia Misadventure

What more can I say than best of fortune in your hernia adventure. Unfortunately it is no snip snip and hop off the operating table with your “normal life” rushing up to embrace you. Expect pain of some degree and disruption in your routine. It took me a month before I could bend over and tie my running shoes. It is July and I think golf may be done for the year and so forth and so on. But the hernia is gone and in the near future the whole adventure will be concluded but I will never forget the experience.

My experience might have been a nightmare but it hasn’t been…at least to this point.

Do consult with Dr ChatGPT about what could go wrong. I don’t want to go down that avenue here with you.

Do safeguard your medical records. If there is an “operation report” obtain the same and stick it in your files. If mesh was used ensure you know which one was used. There have been several class actions concerning mesh so as a minimum know what was inserted in your body.

May your adventure be as pleasant as you can make it. Yes you have a role. Follow medical advice and don’t try to be a cowboy. I was in Niagara Falls a couple of weeks ago. I had a great day all perky putting in 7,500 steps. I’m back in the game!!! Next day I was shuffling around like it was a bad day at the retirement home. A golf cart shuttle passed by in the parking lot and its driver said to me I wasn’t looking too good and he’d be happy to give me a lift. I explained my recent hernia experience and he looked at me saying take it easy. When he was a younger man he had the same hernia surgery I had and not listening to his surgeon “like some stupid idiot” lifted heavy objects “busting a gusset” necessitating a second hernia surgery.

The last thing you want dear friends is a bust gusset after your hernia surgery.