Lummi Island Wine Tasting April 26 ’14

Posted at April 24, 2014

Touring French Wine Country, Part I

Saturday night at 7:30 pm at the Island Library Ryan will present photos and descriptions of vineyards in France, which he has been visiting annually for the last 14 years, working directly with independent winemakers as an importer and tour guide. Many of you, our members, have participated in his tours, and will be familiar with many of the people and places. His presentation will focus on the “terroir” of the specific regions as well as the organic farming and biodynamic viticulture techniques that affect how grapes are grown, harvested, vinified, and even bottled according to natural cycles. It promises to be an informative and enjoyable evening, so mark your calendars. If you come by the wine shop for the preparatory tasting, there is just time after our wine tasting to grab a bite of dinner before heading on down to the Library to put it all into perspective…!

 

 

Touring French Wine Country, Part II

Since wine tasting is not permitted in the Library, we are filling the hospitality gap by adapting our wine tasting this weekend to Ryan’s presentation. As you can see from the list below, we will be pouring five (maybe even six!) wines from three French wine regions: Loire, Languedoc, and Southern Rhone. Loire is particularly famous for its array of well-crafted white wines, all designed, arguably, for pairing with shellfish. Quincy (Keh(n)-see), like nearby Sancerre, is superb sauvignon blanc, laced with bracing acidity, seashell minerality, and lovely lemon-lime-grapefruit citrus notes…yes, even I would eagerly eat a raw oyster with this wine in hand!

The other four wines are grown and produced on a line that stretches from Narbonne in the west to Entrechaux near the eastern edge of the southern Rhone Valley. What all of these places have in common are many centuries of wine-making dating back to Roman times. In fact, the last wine comes from an area very close to the town of Vaison-la-Romaine, which we visited two years ago. It is home to some of the best-preserved Roman ruins (photo, above left) on the planet. We happened to be there on Market Day, which made for strange transitions from Roman ruins to streets teeming with vendors, shoppers (this is SO much more fun than Walmart), delicious aromas, and general Festivity. It is probably an exaggeration to say that wine has anything to do with it, but on the other hand places like this beg the Big Question…is Unbridled 24/7 Economic Consumption really an adequately nourishing substitute for, you know, an actual Culture…?

Chimps and Compassion

Recently this story caught my attention, about a Japanese man who had been on Death Row for fifty years, essentially his Entire Life. How horrible is that? But the most arresting thing about the story was the astonishing fact that, although capital punishment is rare in Japan, it has a long history, evolving to the present day, of only giving the convict about an hour’s notice of his/her impending execution. So that is Item 1— the real meaning of what it is to be on Death Row— for years and years and years.

Item 2 is a recent story revealing that current Current Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts was, some years ago, appointed Defense Attorney for accused murderer John Errol Ferguson, who was executed by the State of Florida last August for crimes committed in (I am not making this up) 1977. Given that Ferguson was pretty likely Out of His Frigging Mind (his last words were “I just want everyone to know that I am the Prince of God.”), you have to wonder what exactly Society gained by his Execution.

What comes up for me in these stories is that sentencing people to Death Row for perhaps decades under completely Inhuman conditions while their Fate is slowly, painstakingly, and completely Impersonally determined,  is pretty much a Textbook case of Cruel and Unusual Punishment. Some years ago I was invited to speak of the Buddhist viewpoint at an anti-capital punishment gathering, and I had a difficult time sorting out the contradictions. Now, however, it is much more clear. No crime, however heinous, can justify 50 years of subhuman, solitary incarceration. Indeed, it is difficult even to imagine such a thing. So my take-away from this recent series on the Death Penalty is that it is in the Nature of Chimps to jump up and down and kill each other for really Stupid Reasons. Our country is one of a tiny minority that still murders people in the name of some kind of “Justice,” and it is shameful beyond comprehension. Surely we can do better than this…

 

This week’s wine tasting …

Dom. Tremblay Quincy ’11 Loire Valley  $18
Nose of yellow grapefruit, tangerine and sea air. Suave, fine-grained and concentrated, with zesty green apple & citrus flavors with a surprisingly creamy mouthfeel and finish.

Villa des Anges Cinsault Rosé ’13     Capestang (near Beziers)      $10
Pale peach color.  Aromas of tangerine, pit fruit, lavender and chalky minerals.  Juicy and focused with sappy nectarine and citrus fruit flavors sharpened by a kick of white pepper.

Pech Celeyran Ombline Rouge ’12     Fleury  (near Beziers)  $10
Nose of black fruits; flavorful mouth that calls for a second glass, especially with barbecue sausages and spicy meats.

La Rocaliere Lirac Rouge ’10                 Lirac               $16
Equal parts grenache, mourvedre, and syrah. Clay hillsides and serene aging in cement tanks yield this
inky purple wine with deeply pitched aromas and flavors of cherry-cola, licorice and violets.

Mas Oncle Ernest Instant Present   Entrechaux, Rhone    $19
80% grenache, 20% syrah; from Cotes de Ventoux in southern Rhone Valley, this wine seduces with Old World charm, dark fruit, and earthy richness.

Wine Tasting

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