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Photo courtesy Ethica Wines

Photo courtesy BearManor Media

Photo courtesy Netflix

Our City Tonight

By Jim Gordon and Leeta Liepins

Published 12:34 PDT, Fri July 4, 2025

Spotlight on a summer wine, a summer read, a landmark film

THE GRAPE – La Cala Vermentino Di Sardegna

Summer and patio season are in full swing, and with that in mind, we turned to one of our wine experts, Andrea Vescovi, Ethica Wine’s Regional Sales Manager Western Canada. His suggestion, a delicious wine from the Sella & Mosca Winery and Estate, which was founded in 1899 and is located in northwest region of Sardinia, Italy. Today it is one of the largest estates in Europe. Vescovi chose a wine called La Cala, a Vermentino (a light-skinned wine grape variety). “Sella & Mosca vineyards are very close to the ocean, and as such, it gets a lot of ocean spray and salt crystals on to the vineyards which gives the wines salinity,” he tells us as we enjoy our first taste of this superb wine. “The result is a wine that is fresh and dry, a classic wine that is perfect for the patio season, and a wine that goes very well with fish.” Vescovi mentions this wine can be found on a lot of restaurant wine lists as it grows in popularity. It can also be found in most wine stores. Look for Andrea Vescovi talking about this and other great summer wines from Italy on Our City Tonight TV in late July. ethicawines.com

THE READ – Mike Connors: A Life of Integrity in Film and Television by Bill Taylor

As we continue our spotlight on summer reading, we offer another biography on an actor from another time. Like our subject last month actress Angie Dickinson, Mike Connors climbed the Hollywood ranks in the early 1950’s. He is best remembered for the very popular TV series, Mannix, which aired from 1967-75, earning him 6 straight Golden Globe nominations (and a win in 1970), as well as 4 straight Emmy nominations. The show, about a street wise, tough but sensitive, private detective, continues to air nightly on MeTV and of course on YouTube and other streaming services. Born Krekor Ohanian in 1925, Mike Connors’ career spanned nearly 60 years, and included dozens of films and TV shows before and after Mannix, and he continued working well into the 21st century, with his last appearance coming in 2007 in an episode of Two and a Half Men. Author Bill Taylor has written an in depth look at a man who was a friend to many, a solid, decent husband and father, as well as a damn good actor whose versatility certainly explained his longevity in the business. As our previous subject, Angie Dickinson, said, “If anyone deserved a good book about their life, it was Mike Connors”. bearmanormedia.com

THE VIEW – Spotlight

It was our #1 movie for 2015, and it was also the Academy Award winner for Best Picture that year. Spotlight was, and is, an important film whose subject matter disturbed many, and outraged more. The film is set in 2001 and centres around the Spotlight team, 4 investigative journalists from The Boston Globe. Together, they tackle tough subjects, no matter who’s involved. At the beginning of the film, a new editor (Liev Schreiber) directs the team to look into allegations of sexual abuse by a local Catholic priest. What would follow—the amount of victims and sexual predators—would have a seismic effect on the city, the country and the Catholic Church. This film also reminds us of a time not long ago when newspapers still had the power and the budgets to employ a team like Spotlight. Sadly, with dwindling advertising sales and competition from social media and other platforms, this kind of investigative journalism (in print and other traditional media) is in decline, which is not good for we citizens. The cast of Spotlight is solid: Michael Douglas, Rachel McAdams, Mark Ruffalo, Stanley Tucci, and John Slattery. netflix.com