Lummi Island Wine Tasting Groundhog Day ’13

Groundhog Day

This movie is such a cultural icon I just assume that Everyone has seen it at least once. The basic idea is compelling: that you get to live the same day over and over– always remembering how things turned out– and you can make adjustments to your decisions to see how that would affect outcomes. And at some level we all agree that, yes, it would be Very Cool to be able to do that!

I am also reminded of an obscure line from The Unbearable Lightness of Being, in which the main character says something to the effect that life is “light” exactly because we can’t do things over and over to eventually choose the behavior with the best outcome. Oh, non, non, non, monsieur! You just get the one shot at everything, and that’s it!

So Groundhog Day has always been one of my favorite days, because:

 

Wine Club Reflections
dscn0010 (Modified)This picture of Mary Beth from last week illustrates the elusive nature of bringing our Wine Club to fruition. It is slowly taking form like the reflection in the window (people at the other end of the bar…click image for larger view)…there’s definitely Wine Club energy here trying to manifest, but materialization remains elusive…!

Never fear, however, help is on the way. After spinning wheels for another week trying to grok the programming necessary to make wine club and wine store software work correctly, I finally understood enough about the problem to accept that I am not willing to put in the time and effort required to become a programmer. Therefore I have happily engaged a local professional to help us out. Hopefully she will, like the rest of us, “work for wine!” Stay tuned!

In the meantime, you can still sign up for the wine club online by clicking on the WINECLUB! link at the top of the page, and following the instructions.

 

Supporters and Sustainers

It was a quiet night in the wine shop…so quiet the drip-drip-drip of rain leaking from the drainpipe put your teeth on edge…so quiet…

Seriously, last Friday night Ryan opened the shop as usual at 4; Janice and David came shortly after with her latest loaf of fresh bread to share (pretty much every Friday night, and you don’t really need another reason to come by!); Pat and I were there as usual, because, like, it’s an Island, and wtf else would we do…?

Do not suppose, however, that low attendance had a negative effect on the animated, salonic (if that’s not a real word, it should be!) topic of whether our Wine Club should have more than one level of membership. Surely we don’t want to discriminate against people who live off-island, or who just don’t drink four bottles of wine a month, and so on. All agreed to some extent that there is something important about this question, something about inclusion and community, but, alas, there was no agreement at all about what the “different levels” of the Artisan Wine Club should look like, beyond the obvious notion that the bigger your commitment, the greater should be your reward. On the more practical hand, our financial survival requires us to challenge the notion that Trader Joe’s can do anything for you that we can’t do better.

Which brings me to tonight’s little Insight about all of this: we are happy to acknowledge both supporting members and sustaining members, and grateful for both. The difference in the two levels is fundamentally about commitment. From our perspective, the more of your wine budget you spend with us, the better off we are; from your perspective, the less you spend on wine overall, the better off you are. Obviously, the goal is to make it worth your while to buy more of your wine from us. So there is a contradiction: how can we encourage you to buy more of your wine from us? Is it about:  Prices? Convenience? Service? Trust? Selection? What do YOU think?

 

This Week’s Wines

Nera ‘La Novella’ nebbiolo ’11      Italy         $15
This unusual white (nebbiolo is typically a red wine) offers surprising complexity: zesty lemon cream, yellow apple, and white grapes, with a touch of nut skin, white pepper, and dusty earth.

Palama Negroamaro 08 (Italy) $10
Elegantly expansive, rich and robust. Although it is 100% “rustic” Negroamaro, it is amazingly balanced; silky mouthfeel, aromas of violets, plums, fresh ground pepper and blackberry jam with accents of cinnamon, leather, tobacco and smoke.

Palacios Rioja Crianza la Montesa ’08     Spain     WA91pts      $17
55% Tempranillo, 35% Garnacha and 10% Mazuelo, it has an uncomplicated, vanilla-tinged bouquet with ripe wild strawberry and cranberry fruit. The palate is medium-bodied with succulent tannins and the oak is well-integrated, lending structure and backbone on the finish.

Boomtown Syrah ’08     Washington      $17
Second label from Dusted Valley; deep ruby-garnet color and complex aromas of black currants with smoky notes. On the palate rich and nicely concentrated with good structure, balance, and velvety tannins.

Wine Tasting

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