lummi island wine tasting sept 23-24 ’22
Hours this weekend: 4-6pm both Friday and Saturday
It has been quiet on the Island since Labor Day. Though it is not so quiet as the many recent Septembers when the car ferry has been in dry dock for annual maintenance, there is still noticeably less traffic, and the autumn light and color are soothing. Don’t know about you, but backing away from Covid restrictions still feels a little threatening after all this time (2 1/2 years!) of distancing.
Ne’ertheless, as we creep our way toward normalcy we will continue to provide ventilation and air filtration here at the shop, and ask that the unvaxed continue to find seating outside.
Weather this weekend will be 60-ish, with varying degrees of cloudiness Friday and a bit of sunshine Saturday.
Bread Pickup This Week
Multi Grain Levain – – Made with a sourdough culture and a flavorful mix of bread flour and fresh milled whole wheat and rye. A nice mixture of flax, sesame sunflower and pumpkin seeds and some polenta add great flavor and crunch. And just a little honey for some sweetness. A great all around bread that is full of flavor – $5/loaf
Polenta Levain –– Also made with a levain, aka sourdough, from a starter fed and built up over several days, then mixed with bread flour and polenta in the final dough mix. This bread is a nice rustic loaf with great corn flavor. – $5/loaf
and mmm, pastry this week…
Traditional Croissants – Made with both a sourdough levain and a prefermented dough – aka “old dough” where a portion of the flour, water, salt and yeast is fermented overnight. The final dough is then made with more flour, butter, milk and sugar, laminated with more butter before being cut and shaped into traditional french croissants. –2/$5
To get on the bread order list, click on the “Contact Us” link above and fill out the form. Each week’s bread menu is sent to the list each Sunday, for ordering by Tuesday, for pickup on Friday. Simple, right..? If you will be visiting the island and would like to order bread for your visit, at least a week’s notice is recommended for pickup the following Friday.
Wine of the Week: Ryan Patrick Rock Island Chardonnay ’20 Washington $15
Ryan Patrick winery began as a small family winery in 1999. Founders Terry and Vivian Flanagan named the winery after their two sons, Ryan and Patrick. Ryan focused on learning vineyard management, and Patrick was training to become winemaker. Sadly, Patrick was lost to a car accident in 2004. The family continued making wine and marketing it through their tasting room in Leavenworth.
In 2012, the winery was acquired by growing Washington wine giant Milbrandt Vineyards, which already owned a number of brands and hundreds of acres of Washington vineyards. Vivian Flanagan manages the Milbrandt Leavenworth tasting room, and Ryan manages Milbrandt’s esteemed Evergreen vineyard near Quincy.
Clearly the winery has seen some evolution in its 20-year history. Current winemakers Joshua Maloney and Jeremy Santo have won several awards for the quality of their recent wines. This particular chardonnay strikes a nice balance between oaked and unoaked styles, and has become a favorite of many of our members in recent years, so chances are you’re gonna like it!
Economics of the Heart: When Chickens Forget the Way Home
www.backyardchickencoops.com.au
It has been an eventful week for our nation as we head into the next national election. Several vectors of inquiry have coalesced into a lot of challenges for the Tweetster, so many that he is now claiming that as former President, he only needs a single thought to declassify a document…no need to say or write anything, it is all telepathic. Yes, he actually said that.
He is suddenly facing a new set of legal challenges: colossal civil fraud charges in State court for his New York business practices that will likely lead to federal criminal charges, and two significant legal defeats with regard to his misappropriation of classified federal documents: one from Judge Dearie requiring him to decide whether to have his cake or to eat it, and one from the 11th Circuit that the FBI may use the documents in its ongoing criminal investigation. These woes are in addition to the long list of possible Federal and State charges associated with the coup attempt on January 6.
One would think that even long-time Tweetster sycophants would start easing away from their spineless servitude to this huckster, but so far all the usual suspects continue to toe the line in his defense. There are rumors of some Republicans whispering concerns in the cloakroom, but still too afraid to back away from him publicly, so they don’t, and that is cause for serious head-scratching. Are they afraid incurring his wrath will banish them from his endorsement? Or that he will make public whatever dirt he has collected on them? Could it be that they actually Admire the man…??!! Have they not a shred of honor among them?
As we mused recently, the Supremes’ decision in Dobbs has drastically changed the election playing field this year, giving millions of young women a huge incentive to vote against all these white dudes who are taking away their most basic rights to manage their own bodies. These are many of the same guys who demand the right to infect anyone they want by asserting their right to bodily autonomy and refuse to get a vaccine during a global pandemic. We all see the obvious contradiction here, both men and women.
We mentioned last week that the outcomes of the November election will commit us to a course for our nation and the world with regard to everything we hold dear and depend on for our survival and well-being. Our everyday (but not to be taken for granted) rights and freedoms, the ongoing habitability of our planet, the availability of food and water, and increasing destructiveness of wind, rain, and floods– all of these will require a unified effort. Yet everything we still see in front of us says that because Republicans do not believe these challenges even exist, they condemn us all to making them worse.
So maybe the Tweetster was right about one thing: if we don’t get fight like He!! by getting out the pro-choice vote, we won’t have a country anymore…
This Week’s Tasting Flight $10
Ryan Patrick Rock Island Chardonnay ’20 Washington $15
Aromas and flavors of wildflowers, crisp apples, honey, and cinnamon roll with a round, crisp, body and a graceful finish of sumac-spiced croutons.
Angeline Cabernet Sauvignon ’20 California $14
Deep garnet hue with aromas of lush cherry, cassis, and plum lead to rich cherry and plum flavors and lingering notes of vanilla and creamy oak.
Pomum Red ’16 Washington $18
Carefully made Bordeaux blend of cab, cab franc, malbec, petite verdot, and merlot; aromas of red fruit-leather and exotic spices; flavors of black cherry, cranberry, and garrigue.
lummi island wine tasting sept 17-18 ’22
Notes for this weekend: 4-6pm both Friday and Saturday
Definitely feeling the season changing as we approach the Autumn Equinox next week…more gray skies, cooler winds, and the sights, sounds, and smells of lots of fallen leaves.
COVID continues to demand our individual attention, but Governor Inslee has announced the formal end of restrictions by the end of October. This coincides with (finally!) the establishment of relatively widespread immunity in our region. We will continue to provide ventilation and air filtration here at the shop, and ask that the unvaxed continue find seating outside.
Weather this weekend will be 60-ish, with varying degrees of cloudiness, sunshine, and showers.
Photo at left is a bouquet from the extensive flower garden of our neighbor Colleen a couple of houses away. Occasionally in recent weeks she has had extra bouquets which we have made available on the deck at the wine shop during open hours. NOTE: bouquets will be available for sale during Friday’s tasting!
Bread Pickup This Week
Kamut Levain – Kamut, aka khorasan wheat, is an ancient, protein-rich grain discovered in a cave in Iran in the 70’s that many people who can’t tolerate wheat find more digestible. This bread is made with a levain that is fermented overnight before being mixed with with bread flour and fresh milled whole kamut flour. It has a nutty, rich flavor and makes a golden color loaf. A great all around bread – $5/loaf
Barley & Rye w/ Pumpkin Seeds – Made with a levain that was fermented overnight before the final dough was mixed with bread flour and fresh milled rye, barley, and whole wheat flours. Some buttermilk makes for a tender crumb, honey for sweetness, and toasted pumpkin seeds add to the flavor and texture. A really flavorful artisan loaf – $5/loaf
and mmm, pastry this week…
Chocolate Muffins – Rich and delicious, great chocolate flavor and an seductively moist texture: flour, brown sugar, sour cream, and eggs, with lotsa chocolate chips inside and sprinkled on top…AND…
Almond Poppy Seed Muffins – Another rich and delicious muffin…all the things that makes muffins good PLUS almond and poppy seeds instead of chocolate!
To get on the bread order list, click on the “Contact Us” link above and fill out the form. Each week’s bread menu is sent to the list each Sunday, for ordering by Tuesday, for pickup on Friday. Simple, right..? If you will be visiting the island and would like to order bread for your visit, at least a week’s notice is recommended for pickup the following Friday.
Wine of the Week: Rasa Occam’s Razor Red Columbia Valley ’18 Washington $22
With science degrees from MIT and Stanford, an enology degree from UC Davis, and as one of only a handful of “Masters of Wine” on the planet, Rasa winery founder/owner/winemaker Billo Naravane has a special knack for creating balanced, seamless varietal blends. His wines consistently display a perfect balance of texture, richness, personality, and flavors.
Each Rasa wine has its own name, specific varietal blend, and vineyard source. Each blend is sometimes repeated over several years, sometimes not, but each has a story to go with the name.
Occam’s Razor is named for William of Ockham, a 14th century Franciscan Friar and philosopher who coined this frequently quoted lex parsimoniae (law of parsimony), which postulates that other things being equal, the simplest answer to any question is likely to be the most correct. Lex parsimoniae is better known today as Occam’s Razor.
The wine name relates to the precision of the original blend in 2011. This current namesake is a much broader blend of 41% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Syrah, 9% Grenache, 8% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, 4% Touriga Nacional, and 2% Petit Verdot…essentially blended from fruit not selected for the limited production wines.
Economics of the Heart: Wind Directions
Recently Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan spoke out in plain terms against the intrusions of the personal politics of the Conservative Court majority in many important recent decisions: “Judges create legitimacy problems for themselves … when it looks like they’re an extension of the political process or … imposing their own personal preferences.”
Kagan cited several examples from the past year’s docket that have severely damaged public confidence in this Court’s ability to make decisions consistent with both sound interpretation of the law and established precedent. Rather, she points out, many recent decisions override the long-established (originalist!) secular values enshrined in the Constitution with their own evangelical Christian superstitions on a broad range of issues. These include voting rights (Brnovich v. DNC), the administrative authority of the Executive (West Virginia v. EPA), gun laws (New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen), flagrant thumb-on-the-scale allowance of school prayer on the football field (Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, Carson v. Makin), and public funding of religious private schools.
As public confidence in the Court plummets toward a 200-year low, self-righteous MAGA mavens whine their practiced victimhood screaming “she stepped on my toe!” against un-named”Democrat elites,” “liberal media” and “fake news.” And btw, while all of that is going on, there is an election coming up in a little over a month that could very well make for a short unhappy future of all Life on Earth. So this election is without a doubt the most important of our lifetimes.
There are some signs of Hope out there for the coming election, the brightest being the visible mobilization of American women for the coming election. The numbers suggest that women– especially young women– are registering to vote around the country in record numbers in response to Dobbs. In just a few months it has become clear that the only way women can assure their right to choose across the country is for Democrats to gain control of both houses of Congress in this year’s election and pass laws enshrining every woman’s right to choose. We should all do everything we can to help them get registered and to vote in those red states that have gone to such misogynistic lengths to make that so very difficult.
Several small breezes seem to be wafting in the right direction at the moment. Dobbs is motivating many more women to vote in this election than men; judicial investigations are increasingly threatening many Republican politicians who took part in the Jan 6 conspiracy; the J6 hearings/publicity are awakening at least some Maga supporters from their collective trance; many hard-won accomplishments of the Biden Administration are increasingly recognized and appreciated; and the same Ukraine that the Tweetster tried to extort is prevailing at the moment against its Russian invader with the strong international leadership of Not-So-Sleepy Joe. Not to mention that last-minute save on the rail strike today…!
Fingers crossed…
This Week’s Tasting Flight $10
Mas des Bressades Rosé ’21 France $12
Bright and dry rosé from a blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre, with a splash of Carignan and Cinsault. Lovely balance of bright red fruit and wild herbs, with a vibrant, spicy finish.
Parducci Small Lot Petite Sirah ’20 Mendocino $15
Rich, dark, and full-bodied wine with dense blueberry and cocoa flavors, and tongue-coating, lingering soft tannins that give pleasing length to the saturated fruit flavors on the finish.
Rasa Occam’s Razor Red Columbia Valley ’18 Washington $22
Bouquet of blackberry and cassis, with nuances of spice, leather, vanilla, and espresso. Full-bodied palate shows suave tannins with rich notes of dark berries, black cherry, and vanilla with hints of cigar, chocolate, cedar, and spice.
lummi island wine tasting sep 9-10 ’22
Notes for this weekend: 4-6pm both Friday and Saturday
Looks like another beautiful weekend, mostly clear, highs around 70. And…for the first time in many years, the ferry will remain in service because this year drydock maintenance was performed in May, so it is logical to expect more visitors than during our typical reclusive September.
COVID continues to demand our individual attention. My college class just had our (I’m not making this up) 55th reunion last weekend, and many of us didn’t go because of COVID worries. Just got an email that lots of attending classmates are reporting that they did indeed come down with cases after they got home. So…although the newly released O variant vaccine promises to keep us inching toward “normalcy,” we are all still in the risk management business.
Photo at left is a bouquet from the extensive flower garden of our neighbor Colleen a couple of houses away. Occasionally in recent weeks she has had extra bouquets which we have made available on the deck at the wine shop during open hours. We mention this because we really like having them around, the season is coming to a close, and we are hoping to have them available for our guests again over the next few weeks.
Bread Pickup This Week
Breton Bread– Made with pre-fermented dough in which a portion of the flour, water, salt & yeast are mixed and fermented overnight before preparing the final dough, which incorporates the flavors of the French Breton region by using buckwheat and rye flour and sel gris -the grey sea salt from the region that brings more mineral flavors to this bread. Goes great with meats and cheeses – $5/loaf
Spelt Levain — Spelt is an ancient grain with a nutty, slightly sweet flavor; it has gluten but it isn’t as strong as in modern wheat. This bread is made with a levain before the final dough is mixed with traditional bread flour, spelt flour, fresh milled whole spelt and rye. – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Brioche Almond Buns – Made with a delicious brioche dough full of eggs, butter and sugar. Rolled out and spread with an almond cream filling. The almond cream is a delicious creamy filling made fresh with even more butter, sugar, eggs, and almond flour. Yum! – 2/$5
To get on the bread order list, click on the “Contact Us” link above and fill out the form. Each week’s bread menu is sent to the list each Sunday, for ordering by Tuesday, for pickup on Friday. Simple, right..? If you will be visiting the island and would like to order bread for your visit, at least a week’s notice is recommended for pickup the following Friday.
Wines of the Week: Cataclysm Chardonnay ’20 Washington $14
Over the years we have enjoyed and carried several wines from a long-established the Montinore winery in Oregon. The winery is one of only a few that is certified both biodynamic and organic, using practices and techniques that produce wines that are not only tasty, but also that sustain the vines and surrounding ecosystem with sound practices that maintain interdependent balance. The winery was established in 1982.
The Cataclysm Wine Company, on the other hand, is “brand” (snicker) new, with no history, no record, no details whatsoever about where exactly the wine was made, by whom, or where the fruit came from. There is, however, a substantial financial relationship between the owners of Cataclysm and the long-time owners of Montinore. We suspect that Montinore made the wine, probably at its main facility in Forest Grove, Oregon, as part of a larger financial arrangement that has allowed Montinore to expand its operations to the point where you cannot reach an actual human being on any of their telephones.
You can decide for yourself whether you like the wine or not, or care at all about its peculiar lack of a backstory. But for some of us, one look at their minimally informative website is enough to make us a little sorry we bought it in the first place. Maybe someday corporations will be able to get along without people at all so they can continue to rack up even more profits after our collective demise. Or, you know, maybe we are just in a cynical mood because of all the other crap that is going on…Sigh…
Economics of the Heart: The End of an Era
courtesy Liverpool Echo
She has been a reliable institution for all or most of the lives of everyone presently living. I was seven years old in 1953 when we watched some of the coronation (it went on for Hours!) on the primitive black and white television in our little living room. The pageantry was an endless parade of solemn pomp and ceremony, with unmistakable religious implications: the imposing, vaulted cathedral, the ornate costumes, the crowds, the horse-drawn carriages, the plodding formality.
We kids had no idea what a Coronation really meant, if anything, besides being a Big Deal. But we have learned what it meant by watching this then-young woman practice it every day of her life since then. For seventy years she was On Duty, day and night, the public face of a world-spanning Commonwealth. She hasn’t been just a queen, she has been The Queen to pretty much the entire world. We all feel, recognize, and grieve now for the passing of another Elizabethan Era.
This timing of her passing underscores the stark contrast between her long career of selfless service to Britain and the unrelentingly selfishness of our own Former Guy. One can’t even consider the two of them in a single thought without short-circuiting. She has been steady through a lifetime, lending strength to all of us, British or not, over all these decades.
By way of comparison, consider the Presidents of our country who have served during her reign: Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush 2, Obama, Former Guy, and Biden. It is a worthwhile exercise to go through the list and see which, if any, of her contemporary US Presidents measured up to her steady decorum, selflessness, and commitment…leaders we admired and took pride in.
Maybe a “Parliamentary Monarchy” offers distinct advantages for separating the functions of statecraft and government. As a symbol of centuries of British influence on the world and on the United States in particular, that model has served Britain very well. But at present it remains to be seen whether the British monarchy (or any other) will be able to survive very much longer in a world where reverence for a lifetime of service in general seems an increasingly scarce commodity.
Nowhere is this more evident than right here, right now in our own dear country, as divisive values, enmity, hostility, petty selfishness, and, oh yes, unbridled ego are continuously generated and amplified on public and social media. At a time when our country and the world must collaborate closely to manage increasingly catastrophic climate and humanitarian disasters, the selfish and the ignorant are doubling down to destroy the planet even faster.
One lesson we can take from the dignity, service, restraint, and commitment of Queen Elizabeth is that these are the glues that bind any nation together, that unite and guide its citizens to be their best selves. A current scan of our country, our media, our government, our judiciary, our Congress, our commerce, and our social institutions reveals a set of increasingly unbreachable divides, as when a large percentage of Americans seems to want every State to be able to legislate cruelty with no federal restrictions.
The passing of the Queen truly marks the end of an era in Western Civilization. We can all feel it. It’s not that she had any actual power to maintain all of civilization. But she symbolized, as no one else on the planet has, that each of us has a duty to make society work for everyone else. Modern politics and social media are products of undisciplined ego and the increasingly popular presumption of entitlement that goes with it. She demonstrated with every gesture that we all share a duty to serve each other and the living planet which which supports us all.
This Week’s Tasting Flight $10
Cataclysm Chardonnay ’20 Washington $14
Aromas of quince, pear, and custard; pleasing mouthfeel, easy to drink. Made with Washington fruit at an undisclosed location by undisclosed people in some kind of financial relationship with Montinore Estate in Oregon.
Rubino Oltreme Susamaniello ’17 Italy $14
Fresh, fragrant notes of cherries, pomegranate, raspberries and ripe plum; fruity, round and minerally, with soft tannins and rich flavors; a versatile pairing with richer dishes.
Daou Pessimist Red blend ’20 California (Paso Robles) $25
Full-bodied, rich and spicy, with balanced layers of elderberry and truffle with accents of cocoa, cardamom eucalyptus, leather, tobacco, and grilled meat, alluring texture, and leisurely finish.
lummi island wine tasting sept 2-3 ’22 artists studio tour
Studio Tour Hours: 4-6 pm Friday and Saturday
The wine shop will be open for tasting this weekend as usual from 4-6 pm on both Friday and Saturday. We are also participating again in the Annual Artists’ Studio Tour, with Anne Gibert as our visiting artist.
Official Tour hours are from 1- 5pm both Saturday and Sunday. However, although before Covid we used to stay open and offer wine tastings all day both days, due to Covid cautions and other constraints our official tasting hours will not change for the tour.
However…if our sandwich board sign is deployed in front of the shop, you may assume we are open for art viewing and possibly wine tasting, so please feel welcome to drop in!
Finally, at the current stage of the global pandemic, anyone can be an unknowing carrier, so even though overall risks are low, we all must manage risk to ourselves and others in our own way. For our part, we will continue taking basic precautions in the wine shop: windows open, air filter operating, outside seating options. We do continue to request that the unvaxed remain outside for tasting.
Fyi, the weekend forecast is for partly cloudy, comfortable (70°) weather both Friday and Saturday!
NO Bread Pickup This Week !!
Janice is away this weekend, so sorry, no bread deliveries…back next week!
Wines of the Week: Cloudlift Cellars Favorites
Friends of the wine shop know that we have a long-standing appreciation for the wine making skills of Tom Stangeland, owner/winemaker at Cloudlift Cellars in Seattle. Tom and his wife Joanie have been making an annual pilgrimage to Lummi Island each August to celebrate their wedding anniversary with a long weekend on the Island and an anniversary dinner at the Willows. This year marked their 25th!
We took advantage of their visit to get a delivery of several of our particular favorites of their wines, and will be pouring them for our tastings this weekend. See tasting notes below…!
Economics of the Heart: The Devil and the Republican Party
image courtesy of www.atlantamagazine.com
The airwaves are lately full of commentary about the handling of classified documents. This public discussion has followed the discovery that The Former Guy had retained possession of dozens of boxes of classified government documents that he apparently had accessed while in office. Despite the nonstop media musing about what that Might Mean, there has been precious little discussion about how exactly such materials are regularly maintained and custody tracked in everyday White House operations. It is actually quite stunning to hear that anyone, including a President, can have custody of such documents even while in office without a clear paper trail showing what document, which copy, when custody began, and when it ended.
It is disturbing enough to hear how not only how cavalierly these documents have been held in unguarded and unsecured locations for all this time. It is even more disturbing to realize that such a thing could ever have been allowed to happen in the first place. Back during the Cold War such materials were taken very seriously, with numbered copies, each with a chain of custody that linked each document to the last person to have responsibility for it. People were trained to take these responsibilities extremely seriously. You took pains to make sure not to lose such materials in your custody or leave it unsecured. You were Responsible for it, and if it got lost or compromised, you were in big trouble.
Probably none of us who never experienced whatever kind of zoo the Tweetster White House really was can even imagine the prevailing levels of chaos. Still, the implication is that the Former Guy had open access to such documents, apparently with no clear chain of custody, and retained possession of them for nearly two years after leaving office.
Really? That certainly sounds like a story worth following…
The other head-scratching piece of this is that until pretty recently Republicans all pretended to be Hawks on America and would have devoured the Tweetster at the first inkling of what we all suspect– that he kept these documents because he knew they would be worth a LOT of $$ to the right buyers. Does anyone really imagine there is some Other reason for his having stolen all these papers and kept them so readily available at his swanky little international golf club? Go ahead, think about it…as Michael Cohen has spelled out in great detail, and as history has continually confirmed, the Tweetster is a con man-opportunist-psychopath with no apparent purpose in life except conning people into trusting him and then pushing them down the stairs. He is to the Republican Party what the Devil was to Faust.
Even after all this, most Republicans across the country still continue to choose the Tweetster over country, over Constitution, over truth, over common sense. Faust is the Republican Party, reveling in the growing Authority of its Christian Fascism, its institutionalization of cruelty, the offhand sacrifice of the entire planet’s ability to support life for a few moments of fleeting riches. There’s a lot at stake, all right…
This Week’s Special Tasting $10
Cloudlift Lucy Rosé of Cab Franc ’22 Washington $18
Pale salmon in color, with aromas of fresh nectarine, citrus peel and strawberry; palate is dry, bright, and focused, with lively, mouthwatering citrus and minerality that extend the finish.
Cloudlift Viognier/Marsanne/Rousanne ’20 Washington $22
We claim a little credit for asking Tom to make a marsanne/roussane blend a few years ago. The blend adds white flowers and honeysuckle, melon and pear nuances to fill out the palate.
Cloudlift Ascent Cab Franc ’13 Washington $27
74% cab franc and 18% merlot with a bit of cab sauv and Petit Verdot; deep ruby color and a rich, smoky nose of raspberry, cherry, and plum with scents of rosebuds, brambles, tobacco, sage and pepper. The flavors follow the aromatics with notes of licorice, dark cocoa, French roast and scorched earth.
Cloudlift Zephyr ’15 Washington $34
Beautiful blend of 44% Syrah, 28% Mourvèdre, and 28% Grenache presents rich aromas and flavors of blueberry, huckleberry, orange peel, garrigue, raspberry, black pepper and sweet fruit flavors that linger like satin on the finish.
2072 Granger Way