The Gilded Stage

Daniel Snowman's The Gilded Stage: A Social History of Opera is a fascinating look at how opera, as a social and commercial phenomenon, has evolved over the last 450 years or so.  More...

Border crossings

Yesterday involved a brief trip to the US caused by Canada mysteriously failing to ratify a treaty on legal documents in 1961.  This, naturally enough, involved crossing the border in both directions.  The crossings had one thing in common; an utterly tedious wait as hundreds of vehicles crawled slowly and fumily to the examination points.  In other respects they could hardly have been different.  The US guy was gruff and unsmiling.  He asked very "suspicious" questions at a level of detail that was quite unnecessary (why did he need to know who was selling what to who?).  The whole attitude was that he was a terribly important person defending the US from Terrors Unknown.  The Canadian dude was laid back and chewing gum.  His main concern seemed to be the state of the California real estate market and how that must suck for the lemur.  He seemed quite unconcerned by the lemur's Canadian passport being out of date.  He smiled.

It's odd really as the the real threat at the border is to Canadians.  It's the illegal import of US firearms.  The murder weapon of choice for Canadian gangs and America's contribution to Canadian culture.

Corporatization

On the way back from the US yesterday we stopped off at Marynissen winery in Niagara on the Lake.  We have been buying from the for years and regarded them as something of a benchmark for quality and value for Bordeaux style blends.  About a year ago the family sold out to a Chinese consortium.  It's now all very corporate.  Despite recognising us, the staff member we dealt with apologetically explained that she would have to charge us for tasting.  In my book that's fine for bus loads of tourists but a big no when one is dealing with regular customers who buy significant quantities of wine.  Sadly the wines were rather disappointing too and the prices have been hiked.  We handed over our $3 and left.  I doubt we will be back.  This is increasingly the way in Niagara on the Lake and St. David's.  It's becoming the Napa of the Canadian wine industry.  Thankfully up on the Beamsville Bench smaller, independent wineries still dominate and one can still do business in the traditional way.  It's not yet impossible to find that in Niagara on the Lake.  We visited Palatine Hills after Marynissen and they were fine and their wines were fairly priced.  If you are down that way heck out their 2010 Cabs and Merlots.

Note for non-locals:
The Niagara wine region really has two distinct sub-regions.  The flat clays and gravels near the Niagara River and along the lake produce good Cabernet and Merlot.  Cabernet franc is especially distinctiv.  there's also a lot of Vidal grown for ice wine and some decent Chardonnay.  The Beamsville Bench is higher ground sitting on a limestone escarpment.  depending on orientation and depth of soil micro-climates vary a lot but, in general, it's the place to look for aromatic whites such as Riesling and Gewürtztraminer.  There's also Pinot Noir, Gamay and the local specialty, Baco noir, which can make a lovely smokey, brambly red.  For some reason the low lying areas have been overwhelmingly colonised by large, often, foreign companies while up on the bench it's still mostly family owned operations.

Tristan

The Chéreau Barenboim Tristan recorded at La Scala in 2007 is rather fine. More...