Confessions of a Huge Wine-R

If I am not mistaken, the first time I heard there was an Estate winery in Chilliwack (technically in Yarrow, which is a little town just a few minutes West of Chilliwack), my reaction was something along the lines of “good luck with that”. That was probably 5-6 years ago. But, a couple of years ago, a fellow wine enthusiast whose palate I respect mentioned on a Facebook wine group that she had been to this winery, and the wines were good. At that point, I moved it from “good luck with that” to “I’ll have to check those out”. Well, that day was last weekend.

On the 10th Anniversary of the planting of the first grapes that would eventually feed Whispering Horse Winery, the wife and I made the 10-minute drive to check out a special “new release” event. They were releasing three new wines, all made from hybrid grapes which thrive in a cooler climate and are planted at the Estate. They have only two vinis vinifera varietals planted: Dornfelder (which originates in Germany) and Pinot Gris. Neither of those were available to taste on this trip, so I guess we’ll just have to go back and try those next time they are available!

We are introduced to Melissa, who, along with her husband, are the whole damn show, running the winery from top to bottom. That’s not to say they don’t have friendly and knowledgeable staff helping them out, and we met some of them at the tasting event, but make no mistake, it’s a small, family-run operation. Melissa was delightful, and clearly very passionate about her product. So, let’s get to the wines and see just how good they are!

First up, a sparkling made from the only one of these hybrid varietals that I had ever tasted before, L’Acadie. I tasted some of these wines from Nova Scotia at the Vancouver International Wine Festival a few years back. I don’t remember them at all, which generally means they weren’t great and weren’t terrible. I tend to remember wines that fall into either of those categories!

Next up, a grape called “Epicure” that is normally found in Europe. Created by a Swiss geneticist.

Now here is the still version of the L’Acadie.

Last, but certainly not least, the “off-dry” member of the family, from a grape called La Crescent that was developed in Minnesota and is often found in the Eastern United States, particularly the Finger Lakes region of New York.

We bought a bottle of this and, along with the charcuterie box that we had pre-purchased (which was just fantastic, BTW), headed outside for a little picnic along with our pooch. They are dog-friendly, as all wineries SHOULD be by now. We were certainly very impressed with the quality of the wine, and the people. If you are in the Fraser Valley, you have to go check these guys out, and if you live elsewhere in the Lower Mainland, I recommend you make a day of it and pay them a visit. You won’t be sorry!

Next up: I’m starting to compile more 2021 rosés for the third installment of my annual rosé reviews, including a couple new ones from France! Also, we have been enjoying some good stuff lately that I will report on shortly. Stay tuned!

Last week I posted a vlog where I tasted through seven more 2021 rosés, all from BC. If you missed it, you can watch it at this link.

Below, I’ve given my full reviews and scores of all seven wines!

That’s it for today! There will be at least one more rosé blog and vlog (I haven’t had ANY from Provence yet, not to mention there are lots of BC ones still to come), but next up I have reviews of new wine from an Estate winery here in my hometown of Chilliwack! OK technically it’s in Yarrow, which is a few minutes West of Chilliwack, but close enough. Stay tuned!

Last week I posted a vlog where I tasted through three current vintage BC wines. If you missed it, you can find that video at this link.

Below, I’ve given my full reviews and scores for those three wines. All are of excellent quality, as expected.

I enjoyed making that video, and expect that I will do more of that in the future.

As a bonus, here are a bunch of reviews of wines we’ve been enjoying recently that I have not yet reported on:

That’s it for today! Coming up: The full reviews from part 2 of my “2021 BC rosés vlog” (if you haven’t yet seen that video, you can find it at this link) will be up shortly! Stay tuned!

If you missed my last vlog where I tasted through four VERY different examples of Nebbiolo, you can check it out here!

One of these wines was from Australia, and I had previously reviewed this wine when we tasted it at the Vancouver International Wine Festival a few years ago. You can see that review here. I am pretty happy with the score I gave it, but I was waffling between 93-94. My wife enjoyed it so much when we finished off the bottle the other day, I probably should have bumped it up a point. Maybe 93.5? LOL

Here are the reviews of the other three.

And, here is one more Nebbiolo that we enjoyed recently that was not a part of the vlog.

And as promised in the title, here are a few other bottles we’ve been enjoying, to varying degrees, recently:

That’s it for today! Coming up, part 2 of our 2021 rosé reviews will be done soon, and lots of other great stuff we’ve been drinking. Stay tuned!!

If you missed my latest episode of the “Cheap and Cheerful” series, you can check it out here!

Below are the full reviews of these wines, along with a couple bonus reviews from some recent stuff we’ve enjoyed. But before we get to that, I have some disappointing news to share about the 2021 vintage in BC.

Following last month’s announcement by Blue Mountain that they would not be releasing any 2021 wines due to smoke taint from the terrible fires that swept across the Okanagan Valley last summer, today we received word that Synchromesh will also not be releasing the bulk of their 2021 crop. They had previously released two of their entry-level Rieslings (don’t let ‘entry-level’ fool you, these are great wines!), but the rest of their crop won’t be released as winemaker Alan Dickinson stated that they are just not up to the quality of wine they produce. From the release that was sent this morning:

“First off, we have some sad news to share with our wonderful supporters. The 2021 Thomas Creek Wildfire that burned within 1 km of our home property has left it’s stamp on most of the wine from Storm Haven Vineyard. Unfortunately, the continuous smoke exposure through a critical time in grape ripening has left the bulk of the wines from the home vineyard with significant smoke affect. After doing our best to mitigate this during winemaking, I am just not comfortable standing behind these wines and will not be releasing them.

Some of you may have already noticed that our volumes were pretty low across the board, this is because a large contributor to our entry level Riesling is usually Storm Haven Vineyard. We had to supplement the volume with wine from our other single vineyard offerings so everything is in short supply. We will also not have any further releases from Storm Haven later in the year, usually the second release for us would be our individual block selections of our highest quality wines (Riesling, Cabernet Franc and Pinot Noir).”

Although I applaud Alan’s commitment to quality, this is a devastating blow to a small winery like Synchromesh. They have limited quantities of the two previously-released 2021 Rieslings available as of this writing. If you are interested in getting some of them, they can be purchased from their website. They also mentioned they will open up the library later in the summer to release some aged offerings.

We visited Synchromesh last year and had a terrific experience, so we wish them all the best going forward.

Now, to the wines from my latest vlog:

And here are a couple other reviews of some nice stuff we’ve tasted in the last couple weeks.

That’s it for today! Coming up soon: Lots of more reviews, including part 2 of my annual “Rosé” series! Stay tuned!

If you missed my last video where I tasted through and discussed the first few rosés of the new season, you can check that out here. If you just want the “Coles-notes” version, well, here are the reviews and scores of the wines in that video!

That’s it for today! Next up: Still a lot of great stuff we’ve been drinking over the past few weeks to update you on, and I’ll be posting full reviews of the wines featured in my latest episode of ‘Cheap and Cheerful’, which dropped yesterday. You don’t want to miss those ones! Stay tuned!

Our baby girl is at peace now. Today, our sweet Sidra went to join her brothers and sisters who predeceased her, crossing over the Rainbow Bridge. We’ve had an amazing pet family over the years, and I’d like to think there is one helluva reunion going on at The Farm right about now.

Sidra had so many nicknames.

“Worst Cat Ever”
“Big Eyes”
“Sidzilla”
“Siddy the Kitty”

How did she get the nickname Sidzilla? Well, before she started to slip a bit, she was an amazing jumper; and at Xmas time, she would manage to jump from the couch to our Xmas village (no mean feat!!) and terrorize the villagers akin to Godzilla rampaging through Tokyo.

And she really was the Worst. Cat. Ever.
Loud, defiant, obnoxious….the only cat I’ve ever had an actual conversation with.

“Sidra, get off the counter!”
“RRRRAAAAAAAWWWR”

“SIDRA! I said get down!”
“RRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWRRRR”

“SIDRA ENGEMOEN! GET OFF THE COUNTER!!!”
“RRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!”
(I believe this is ‘cat’ for “SCREW YOU, DADDY!”)

What a character.

But her little body has been giving out for a while now. We took her to the vet almost exactly a year ago for a battery of blood tests, and although they didn’t find anything at the time, we knew something was wrong. The first thing that went was her ability to jump. She went from being able to jump up to, or off of, almost anything, to being afraid to jump on anything at all. She has been slipping since then, and the fall has been precipitous over the last few weeks. When a cat loses their litter box and self-cleaning habits, you know it’s time to let them go. I hope she has not been suffering. She seemed to still be in good spirits, as talkative as ever, which made the decision to let her go even harder, but we could no longer overlook the physical issues that she was having. For the last few months we joked that she had moved into “waterfront property” because she spent most of her time laying at the water fountain, even going so far to rest her chin on the lip of the fountain, to make it easier for her to drink. And drink. And drink. And drink. No cat has ever drank that much. And ate that much. And pooped that much. You would never think that much waste could come out of such a little creature.

Tracey is going to miss her “Bath Buddy”, and we are both going to miss our Toilet Snuggles. Yes, that is pretty much what it sounds like, although it really didn’t matter what you were doing on the toilet – you could have just come out of the shower and sat down on the lid to put socks on or something – but once your butt hit that spot, if the door was open, she’d come bounding in from anywhere in the house. And even some times when the door wasn’t open, you’d sit down and suddenly hear “thump thump”, and here she was, coming out of the bathroom closet you didn’t even know she was hiding in. It was just her “thing”, and it seemed to make her so happy. What a weird cat she was 🙂 .

Siddy, thanks for keeping us laughing and showing us so much love in your 12 years with us. We mocked you and made fun of you incessantly, but we loved you so much, and I know you know how loved you were. We will miss you very much.

Our home will be a little sadder now. A little quieter. A little less fun. A little darker. But we wouldn’t trade the time we spent together for anything.

In keeping with her tendency to talk back to us, after it was over and her heart had stopped, she still managed a couple last gasps. I am sure if she had the strength it would have been one more “RRRRROOOOOOOWWWWWRRR”. How fitting.

Give your brothers and sisters a big kiss from us, and tell them we miss them all as well. Rest now, my baby girl. We love you, Sidra.

My last few vlogs have featured some good stuff that I haven’t yet given official ratings to, and this blog will change that. Here we go!

From my latest vlog, Episode 2 of “Extravagant and Excellent”. If you haven’t yet checked it out, you can do so here.

Previous to that, I had published this one, the most recent Episode of “Cheap and Cheerful”. Here are those wines:

********This was $24.99 when I bought and tasted it, but as of the date of this blog post, it’s on sale at BCLS for $18.99!!*********

From my latest “Adventures in Blind Tasting” vlog, this lovely Chardonnay that I didn’t think had ANY chance to be a Chardonnay!

***Um, sorry, that price is wrong. It’s nowhere near $17. It’s $69.48 at Marquis Wine Cellars, currently. You should be able to find it for around that price or less elsewhere in Canada.

And as an added bonus, here is another wine we enjoyed recently, a Rhone-style blend from BC that doesn’t QUITE measure up to the CDP above (not that I’d expect it to….)

That’s it for today! Coming up next: Still have a lot of random bottles to catch up on, but the first installment of my “2021 Rose” series will be coming along very soon (and will be accompanied by a vlog). Stay tuned!

So, yeah, I saw them all. OK not quite ALL….but almost. I heard all five “Original Song” nominees, and saw all the nominated movies except for:

No Time To Die (Best Visual Effects)
Cyrano (Best Costume Design)
Boxballet (Best Animated Short Film)

Yes, that’s all. And other than perhaps Boxballet (the Animated Shorts were pretty weak this year), these films have a 0.00000 percent chance to win in their respective categories, so no big loss.

Here we go!

Best Picture

BELFAST
Laura Berwick, Kenneth Branagh, Becca Kovacik and Tamar Thomas, Producers

CODA
Philippe Rousselet, Fabrice Gianfermi and Patrick Wachsberger, Producers

DON’T LOOK UP
Adam McKay and Kevin Messick, Producers

DRIVE MY CAR
Teruhisa Yamamoto, Producer

DUNE
Mary Parent, Denis Villeneuve and Cale Boyter, Producers

KING RICHARD
Tim White, Trevor White and Will Smith, Producers

LICORICE PIZZA
Sara Murphy, Adam Somner and Paul Thomas Anderson, Producers

NIGHTMARE ALLEY
Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale and Bradley Cooper, Producers

THE POWER OF THE DOG
Jane Campion, Tanya Seghatchian, Emile Sherman, Iain Canning and Roger Frappier, Producers

WEST SIDE STORY
Steven Spielberg and Kristie Macosko Krieger, Producers

WILL WIN: All the pundits have this as a battle between The Power of the Dog and CODA. All the pundits are wrong. For the third year in a row, I’m calling for a massive upset. The best film of the year was Drive My Car, and it’s going to win. I was wrong with Minari last year, but I was the only person on the planet as far as I know that called Parasite to win in 2020.

SHOULD WIN: Drive My Car

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Actor in a Leading Role

Javier Bardem in BEING THE RICARDOS

Benedict Cumberbatch in THE POWER OF THE DOG

Andrew Garfield in TICK, TICK…BOOM!

Will Smith in KING RICHARD

Denzel Washington in THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH

WILL WIN: The pundits aren’t wrong this time, it would be a major upset if anyone other than Will Smith takes home gold.

SHOULD WIN: Smith.

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Actor in a Supporting Role

Ciarán Hinds in BELFAST

Troy Kotsur in CODA

Jesse Plemons in THE POWER OF THE DOG

J.K. Simmons in BEING THE RICARDOS

Kodi Smit-McPhee in THE POWER OF THE DOG

WILL WIN: Kotsur has won everything up until now, and he’s a near-lock for this one as well.

SHOULD WIN: Kotsur gave a great performance and is deserving, but if I had the only vote, it’s for J.K. Simmons who absolutely owned every scene he was in.

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Actress in a Leading Role

Jessica Chastain in THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE

Olivia Colman in THE LOST DAUGHTER

Penélope Cruz in PARALLEL MOTHERS

Nicole Kidman in BEING THE RICARDOS

Kristen Stewart in SPENCER

WILL WIN: Chastain has had all the late momentum and was transformative as Tammy Faye Bakker. She even had me feeling sympathetic for her.

SHOULD WIN: Cruz.

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Actress in a Supporting Role

Jessie Buckley in THE LOST DAUGHTER

Ariana DeBose in WEST SIDE STORY

Judi Dench in BELFAST

Kirsten Dunst in THE POWER OF THE DOG

Aunjanue Ellis in KING RICHARD

WILL WIN: DeBose is a shoo-in for an Oscar for the same role which Rita Moreno won for 50 years ago.

SHOULD WIN: I love Ariana DeBose and this was a career making performance for her, but she’s really not onscreen that much and the movie was a dog, so I’m picking Jesse Buckley who was superb in another film that I didn’t love. Dunst is the dark-horse here.

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Animated Feature Film

ENCANTO
Jared Bush, Byron Howard, Yvett Merino and Clark Spencer

FLEE
Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Monica Hellström, Signe Byrge Sørensen and Charlotte De La Gournerie

LUCA
Enrico Casarosa and Andrea Warren

THE MITCHELLS VS. THE MACHINES
Mike Rianda, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Kurt Albrecht

RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON
Don Hall, Carlos López Estrada, Osnat Shurer and Peter Del Vecho

WILL WIN: Will the three Disney movies cancel themselves out? Perhaps, but I can’t see ENCANTO being overlooked since it has seemingly become a cultural phenomenon.

SHOULD WIN: FLEE. I don’t think it has a chance in this category simply because we generally expect animated movies to be FUN, and it’s certainly not that. It was, however, the best of these 5 worthy contenders.

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Cinematography

DUNE
Greig Fraser

NIGHTMARE ALLEY
Dan Laustsen

THE POWER OF THE DOG
Ari Wegner

THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH
Bruno Delbonnel

WEST SIDE STORY
Janusz Kaminski

WILL WIN: The Academy loves the sweeping Westerns, and THE POWER OF THE DOG fits that bill.

SHOULD WIN: WOOF.

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Costume Design

CRUELLA
Jenny Beavan

CYRANO
Massimo Cantini Parrini and Jacqueline Durran

DUNE
Jacqueline West and Robert Morgan

NIGHTMARE ALLEY
Luis Sequeira

WEST SIDE STORY
Paul Tazewell

WILL WIN: CRUELLA was well done and costumes were the main theme of the movie, so that makes sense.

SHOULD WIN: CRUELLA

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Directing

BELFAST
Kenneth Branagh

DRIVE MY CAR
Ryusuke Hamaguchi

LICORICE PIZZA
Paul Thomas Anderson

THE POWER OF THE DOG
Jane Campion

WEST SIDE STORY
Steven Spielberg

WILL WIN: Campion is the odds-on favorite and I think she becomes just the second female director to take home Oscar.

SHOULD WIN: Hamaguchi managed to make a 3-hour long, Japanese-speaking film that takes place mostly in a car and features a bunch of actors rehearsing for a stage play and make it the most riveting, entertaining film of the year. It was so well-done that I really wanted TO SEE THE PLAY!!! If that’s not Directing, I don’t know what is.

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Documentary (Feature)

ASCENSION
Jessica Kingdon, Kira Simon-Kennedy and Nathan Truesdell

ATTICA
Stanley Nelson and Traci A. Curry

FLEE
Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Monica Hellström, Signe Byrge Sørensen and Charlotte De La Gournerie

SUMMER OF SOUL (…OR, WHEN THE REVOLUTION COULD NOT BE TELEVISED)
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, Joseph Patel, Robert Fyvolent and David Dinerstein

WRITING WITH FIRE
Rintu Thomas and Sushmit Ghosh

WILL WIN: The beloved SUMMER OF SOUL is brilliant and important and the Academy can’t possibly overlook that. What a truly fantastic year of Documentaries. These are five terrific films.

SHOULD WIN: I loved Flee, which came in at #5 on my list of the 10 best movies of 2021, which is remarkable for a Documentary. However, SUMMER OF SOUL came in at #4.

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Documentary (Short Subject)

AUDIBLE
Matt Ogens and Geoff McLean

LEAD ME HOME
Pedro Kos and Jon Shenk

THE QUEEN OF BASKETBALL
Ben Proudfoot

THREE SONGS FOR BENAZIR
Elizabeth Mirzaei and Gulistan Mirzaei

WHEN WE WERE BULLIES
Jay Rosenblatt

WILL WIN: THE QUEEN OF BASKETBALL, a fascinating story of the only female ever to be drafted in the NBA. She will be front of mind as well, as she passed away in January of 2022.

SHOULD WIN: The Queen is worthy, but my favorite of these five was WHEN WE WERE BULLIES, a story about guilt, regret, and some truly incredible coincidences that bring a writer to revisit his elementary school days.

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Film Editing

DON’T LOOK UP
Hank Corwin

DUNE
Joe Walker

KING RICHARD
Pamela Martin

THE POWER OF THE DOG
Peter Sciberras

TICK, TICK…BOOM!
Myron Kerstein and Andrew Weisblum

WILL WIN: DUNE

SHOULD WIN: DUNE

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International Feature Film

DRIVE MY CAR
Japan

FLEE
Denmark

THE HAND OF GOD
Italy

LUNANA: A YAK IN THE CLASSROOM
Bhutan

THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD
Norway

WILL WIN: What a category….but you don’t get nominated for Best Picture and lose here. DRIVE MY CAR

SHOULD WIN: Pretty obvious since it was my best film of the year. But Flee deserves props as well as the only film in history nominated here as well as Best Documentary and Best Animated Film. That is quite a triumph. And The Worst Person in the World also made my Top-10. As I said, what a category!!

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Makeup and Hairstyling

COMING 2 AMERICA
Mike Marino, Stacey Morris and Carla Farmer

CRUELLA
Nadia Stacey, Naomi Donne and Julia Vernon

DUNE
Donald Mowat, Love Larson and Eva von Bahr

THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE
Linda Dowds, Stephanie Ingram and Justin Raleigh

HOUSE OF GUCCI
Göran Lundström, Anna Carin Lock and Frederic Aspiras

WILL WIN: I changed my pick at the last minute to go with THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE. Originally I said Dune.

SHOULD WIN: DUNE. And I have to mention that I actually sat through about a half hour of Coming 2 America just so I could bring you this well-informed take. That is a half hour of my life that I can never, ever, ever, get back. You’re welcome.

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Music (Original Score)

DON’T LOOK UP
Nicholas Britell

DUNE
Hans Zimmer

ENCANTO
Germaine Franco

PARALLEL MOTHERS
Alberto Iglesias

THE POWER OF THE DOG
Jonny Greenwood

WILL WIN: DUNE is an Oscar-score-dream.

SHOULD WIN: PARALLEL MOTHERS

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Music (Original Song)

“Be Alive” from KING RICHARD
Music and Lyric by DIXSON and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter

“Dos Oruguitas” from ENCANTO
Music and Lyric by Lin-Manuel Miranda

“Down To Joy” from BELFAST
Music and Lyric by Van Morrison

“No Time To Die” from NO TIME TO DIE
Music and Lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell

“Somehow You Do” from FOUR GOOD DAYS
Music and Lyric by Diane Warren

WILL WIN: SOMEHOW YOU DO, from FOUR GOOD DAYS. Diane Warren is OH-FOR-THIRTEEN in this category. She’s the Susan Lucci of Oscar music. That ends here. Not to mention, it’s a good song performed by Reba McEntire.

SHOULD WIN: Oh, poor Lin-Manuel, who would have finished his EGOT if they had submitted “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” for nomination instead of “Dos Oruguitas”. I am sticking with Warren, as the other contenders (especially the sleepy Bond song) aren’t particularly strong.

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Production Design

DUNE
Production Design: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Zsuzsanna Sipos

NIGHTMARE ALLEY
Production Design: Tamara Deverell; Set Decoration: Shane Vieau

THE POWER OF THE DOG
Production Design: Grant Major; Set Decoration: Amber Richards

THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH
Production Design: Stefan Dechant; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh

WEST SIDE STORY
Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Rena DeAngelo

WILL WIN: DUNE

SHOULD WIN: NIGHTMARE ALLEY

Short Film (Animated)

AFFAIRS OF THE ART
Joanna Quinn and Les Mills

BESTIA
Hugo Covarrubias and Tevo Díaz

BOXBALLET
Anton Dyakov

ROBIN ROBIN
Dan Ojari and Mikey Please

THE WINDSHIELD WIPER
Alberto Mielgo and Leo Sanchez

WILL WIN: In a weak category, AFFAIRS OF THE ART

SHOULD WIN: ART, I guess. None of the four I saw really spoke to me. Couldn’t find Boxballet anywhere online, but the short trailer didn’t impress.

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Short Film (Live Action)

ALA KACHUU – TAKE AND RUN
Maria Brendle and Nadine Lüchinger

THE DRESS
Tadeusz Łysiak and Maciej Ślesicki

THE LONG GOODBYE
Aneil Karia and Riz Ahmed

ON MY MIND
Martin Strange-Hansen and Kim Magnusson

PLEASE HOLD
K.D. Dávila and Levin Menekse

WILL WIN: THE LONG GOODBYE is a powerful look at racism and is produced by and starring Riz Ahmed, who was nominated for Best Actor last year for The Sound of Silence. That kind of star power doesn’t generally show up in Short Films.

SHOULD WIN: Goodbye is really good, but my favorite is the shocking ALA KACHUU, a story about women being kidnapped into marriage in Kyrgyzstan and the total and utter lack of accountability for the kidnappers. This happens right out in the open, and is apparently a huge problem there. Eye-opening and brilliant.

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Sound

BELFAST
Denise Yarde, Simon Chase, James Mather and Niv Adiri

DUNE
Mac Ruth, Mark Mangini, Theo Green, Doug Hemphill and Ron Bartlett

NO TIME TO DIE
Simon Hayes, Oliver Tarney, James Harrison, Paul Massey and Mark Taylor

THE POWER OF THE DOG
Richard Flynn, Robert Mackenzie and Tara Webb

WEST SIDE STORY
Tod A. Maitland, Gary Rydstrom, Brian Chumney, Andy Nelson and Shawn Murphy

WILL WIN: DUNE

SHOULD WIN: DUNE

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Visual Effects

DUNE
Paul Lambert, Tristan Myles, Brian Connor and Gerd Nefzer

FREE GUY
Swen Gillberg, Bryan Grill, Nikos Kalaitzidis and Dan Sudick

NO TIME TO DIE
Charlie Noble, Joel Green, Jonathan Fawkner and Chris Corbould

SHANG-CHI AND THE LEGEND OF THE TEN RINGS
Christopher Townsend, Joe Farrell, Sean Noel Walker and Dan Oliver

SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME
Kelly Port, Chris Waegner, Scott Edelstein and Dan Sudick

WILL WIN: I’m going against conventional wisdom here, and maybe it’s just my Superhero bias at work, but the effects in SPIDER-MAN were some of the best I’ve ever seen. This blockbuster has to get SOMETHING, right? Well, past ceremonies have said “no”, but I think it wins here.

SHOULD WIN: Your favorite neighborhood wall-crawler.

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Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

CODA
Screenplay by Siân Heder

DRIVE MY CAR
Screenplay by Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Takamasa Oe

DUNE
Screenplay by Jon Spaihts and Denis Villeneuve and Eric Roth

THE LOST DAUGHTER
Written by Maggie Gyllenhaal

THE POWER OF THE DOG
Written by Jane Campion

WILL WIN: How does the best film of the year not win for Writing? DRIVE MY CAR

SHOULD WIN: DRIVE MY CAR

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Writing (Original Screenplay)

BELFAST
Written by Kenneth Branagh

DON’T LOOK UP
Screenplay by Adam McKay; Story by Adam McKay & David Sirota

KING RICHARD
Written by Zach Baylin

LICORICE PIZZA
Written by Paul Thomas Anderson

THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD
Written by Eskil Vogt, Joachim Trier

WILL WIN: My #2 film of the year, and it breaks my heart to say this is the only award it has a chance to get. BELFAST.

SHOULD WIN: BELFAST.

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Well, that’s it, let’s see how well I read the Academy. I think they did a pretty good job with nominations this year, with one notable exception: How the HELL did they nominate Kristen Stewart’s boring, often-unintelligible performance in Spencer, a really bad movie, over Lady Gaga’s perfect portrayal of Patrizia Gucci in House of Gucci? Gaga probably should have WON the award this year, and yet she wasn’t even nominated. I know the movie had it’s detractors, and it was far from a perfect film, but that was the female performance of the year, IMO.

Happy Oscars Day!

Yesterday, I posted Episode 1 of “Extravagant and Excellent”, a companion series to my “Cheap and Cheerful” series. If you missed it, you can check it out here.

The rules of this new series are simple: The wines must be at least $50CAD BEFORE taxes. Many of the wines I feature in this series will be quite a bit more than that, for sure, but that’s the baseline.

Here are the full reviews of the three wines I featured in the video:

Three excellent wines. Are they worth the money? I’d say “yes”, but of course that’s a decision you have to make for yourselves. You can probably get comparable Chardonnay that compares to the Hobbs wherever you live for the same money or thereabouts. The other two would be trickier to find, I suspect.

Current vintages of the Chateau Smith Haut Lafitte sell for $225 in BC Liquor Stores, so I feel like I got a steal with that one at only $80USD!! That same vintage is still available on wine.com, and it’s now priced at $94.99. Still a bargain, probably. Consider the prices for the latest couple of vintages.

Check out the scores on the 2018, which is currently on sale for $130USD:

And how’s this for a bargain?? You can pre-order the 2019, with almost identical scores, for under $100!! You have to buy in groups of 3, though.

Those scores aren’t good enough for you?? Well, check out the 2020’s scores. This one is already sold out apparently, at $150USD.

Suddenly the price tag of $225CAD at BC Liquor Stores doesn’t seem quite so exorbitant!

As a little bonus, here are reviews of a couple other well-aged bottles we opened recently:

This one in particular was a nice treat. We sampled the 2011 at the big party we went to a couple of weeks ago and it was in full decline, but this one was much better. It’s a perfect example of what a huge difference there can be vintage over vintage!

That’s it for today! Please don’t forget to subscribe to this blog and the YouTube channel if you haven’t already so you never miss an entry!

Up next: Still a lot of good stuff to catch up on, and we are getting very close to the first installment of my annual “BC Rosé” entry, as more and more 2021 rosés start to hit the shelves. Stay tuned!