lummi island wine tasting october 8 ’15
(note: some photos may enlarge on clicking)
Note: NO Bread This Friday!
As many of you know our increasingly famous Baker is off to Ireland for hiking and exploring, no doubt scouring the countryside for more delicious bread recipes. Unofficial Lummi Island Rumors predict Bread will Return by October 16, absolutely, Fer Sher. Or maybe by the 23rd at the latest. You know, “more or less.”
Fortunately we still have a few loaves stashed in the freezer, and hopefully you also have a Backup Plan!
A Walk in the Park
The end of Drydock presented an opportunity for us to head over to Winthrop to Pearrygin Lake, one of our favorite Washington State Parks. We Washingtonians are fortunate not only to live in a beautiful place with an incredibly diverse set of spectacular landscapes, but also to have so much of this natural beauty protected and available for us to visit and enjoy. We all know and appreciate the nourishing contrast between our lush, green, moist (well, usually) west-of-the Cascades environment and the open, semi-arid spaciousness we find east of the Cascades.
This time of year the Park was in full fall color, lots of yellows, greens, and some reds. Skies were sometimes blue and sunny, sometimes gray, and in all cases the landscape embodies a deeply nourishing sense of Space and Quiet. Very soothing. Ahhhhh…..!
It’s the Circular Flow, Stupid!
Day One of beginning Economics talks about the Circular Flow, most basically summarized as “What Goes Around Goes Around.” The “coming around” part we usually hear about depends entirely on the “going around” part. You can explore this for yourself with a simple parlor game. A bunch of people sit around a table. Each one begins with an identical pile of change. When the game begins, everyone passes as little or as much of their change as they like to the right, and keep doing that. At some point the game will stop and everyone will keep whatever they have in front of them. It might be one minute, or five, or ten. So everyone constantly has to decide, as money comes in from the left, how much to keep and how much to pass on.
This simple process evokes interesting insights into ourselves and others, namely, that people have widely varying attitudes about how much is enough, how much they need relative to others to feel Safe, and how important (or not) it is that others have enough to feel Safe.
image credit: “Enso”. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons – https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Enso.jpg#/media/File:Enso.jpg
For the last few decades the pathological Need of those who Can Never Get Enough to Feel Secure has driven them to acquire more and more Wealth, change the rules and values that define the World’s economic systems even more in their favor, and this is the most important part– continue to invest their Gigaholdings into schemes to make themselves even richer. Global infrastructure rots, the Environment teeters on collapse, whole nations flee from wars, famine, and Desperation, and well-paid Politicians around the Planet view the Coming End of the World as We Know It with Self-Satisfied Smugness.
A round or two of the game outlined above will reveal the simple antidote to this Civilization-Threatening Egomania: just change the rules so everyone has to keep passing the money along: workers get decent wages, capitalists get decent return, and natural resources are managed sustainably. And no one would have either Too Much or Too Little. I mean, think about it…What a Relief for our Planet, huh…?!
Lost River
Like the Little James Basket Press, which we are also pouring this weekend, the “Nooksack Redd” Bordeaux Blend made by our friends at Lost River Winery in Mazama (we picked up our annual carload of their wines on our way home today…!) is an ongoing blend of successive vintages. Although they have lots of varietals they might add to the blend, it is traditionally limited to a blend of cab, merlot, and cab franc, and as the French have demonstrated over many centuries, these varietals complement each other in all conceivable proportions.
I am always impressed with our annual visits to Lost River, rediscovering the underlying themes that carry from one carefully crafted wine to another: judicious use of oak, an ongoing quest for palate-soothing texture, and careful blending of varietals for a satisfying sense of balance. We will be tasting more of the latest Lost River releases in the coming weeks.
This week’s wine tasting
Whidbey Island Siegerrebe ’13 Washington $16
Reminisent of Spring, this pretty white explodes with aromas of spicy pear and exotic blossoms, followed by flavors of lichee nut, grapefruit, honey and pear. Finishes off-dry, delightful with spicy dishes and shellfish!
Maryhill winemaker’s Reserve White ’14 Washington $12
Flavorful blend of pinot gris, chardonnay, semillon and sauvignon blanc; opens with clean, bright aromas of pear and apple with touches of tangerine, butter and lemon oil.
St. Cosme Little James Basket Press Grenache ’14 France $11
An old favorite from an ongoing solera* with an aromatic nose of cassis, cherry and lavender; rustic Old World style, with a firm mineral spine giving clarity and lift to the dark berry and bitter cherry flavors.
Lost River Nooksack Red Washington $18
An ongoing Bordeaux blend of cab, merlot, and cab franc to benefit the Nooksack River Salmon Enhancement Administration…a very worthy cause, AND it’s DELICIOUS!
Cloudlift Panorama ’12 Washington $26
Enticing aromas of raspberry, cherry, plum and cassis, with scents of roses, mulberry and incense, and balanced flavors of red currant and Rainier cherry.
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