lummi island wine tasting april 27 ’18
(note: some photos will enlarge when clicked)
No Bread this week
Sorry, no bread orders or pickup this week.
Look for an email next Sunday regarding bread selections for next week!
Kerloo
We first encountered Kerloo wines a few years ago on a visit to Walla Walla, when they had a little tasting room downtown, and remember being impressed with their pleasing texture rich flavors. We encountered their wines again earlier this week at a distributor tasting of Washington and Oregon wines. We ordered two of them, one of which (Majestic GSM) we will be pouring for your pleasure this weekend, and the other (grenache blanc) very soon.
Kerloo began in 2007 undr the guidance of young winemaker Ryan Crane. His wines have gotten a lot of press in the last few years as he has developed into a wine maker of some distinction, in 2013 being one of the wine makers featured by Wine Enthusiast Magazine, which described him one of several young wine makers who are altering the landscape of Northwest wine.
This year’s GSM is a mostly grenache and mourvedre with just a bit (5%) of syrah. Typical of the Kerloo style, it shows freshness and purity, juicy acidity and
solid ripeness. There is a plush quality to it, showing an alluring nose of (I am not making this up!) fresh lilacs, a soft, silky texture and rich flavors that linger and please the senses. As, you know, wine is meant to do…!
St. Cosme Little James Basket Press
This is a wine we have brought in sometime every year since we opened in 2005. It’s made by a well-established, multi-generational French winery in Gigondas. Although this is perhaps their lowest-end wine, mostly grenache, it is made in an unusual and intriguing way, using a variation on what is known at the solera system. The main feature of this method is that it produces a “rolling blend” of wines from many vintages. Each year part of the wine is bottled, while the remainder is mixed with the new vintage to age for another year. That process continues for many years.
Like a sourdough, each solera has a beginning, and each time some is taken away, wine from the latest vintage is added to the blend to age. This particular solera began in 1999, so next year the addition from the 2018 harvest will mark the 20th year of this solera. Fermentation and aging are done in concrete tanks which yield a soft texture and quiet disposition.
Over the years we have seen the wine evolve from a pretty challenging “barnyard” wine with lots of rustic, earthy character to a smoother, somewhat richer style, while maintaining a certain rustic authenticity. A wine to make us all smile.
Mar a Lago Update: The Emperor’s New Clothes
Certainly all of us old-timers remember the story, probably read to us from an old hard-bound book at bedtime when we were four or five years old. As we recall, the Emperor had a new tailor, who either by Design or Ignorance took a Big Chance by convincing the Emperor that he was being clad royally in the finest material known, so fine it was hard to see. Thus the Emperor is paraded before his people in his New Clothes, to polite cheers, until one child Names the Facade for what it is: The Emperor is Naked!
My recollection is that the child’s outburst broke the bubble and All Hell Broke Loose, but not, I think, in Today’s World. If we imagine the News Conference at the end of the Emperor’s Parade, we would inevitably have Palace Officials (Huckabee Sanders) waxing Rhapsodic about the Ephemeral Beauty of the Emperor’s Outfit, Palace political Operatives (Kellyann Conway) insisting there was never a parade, or New Clothes, or a Child who Saw Anything, and Who Would Care Anyway?
Fox News would run a Special on how the Democrats had hired a 47-year-old Midget from Hackensack to play the little kid and say the Emperor was naked, I mean, How Low will these Democrats go anyway, have they Really No Shame? The Head Grasshopper in charge of the Senate would admit there may have been a Parade somewhere, and the Emperor might have been in it, and call for Hearings, but promise never to waste the taxpayers’ money by actually holding them.
Meanwhile the Emperor would praise the Tailor for his fine work and then Fire him in a Five-Part Tweetstorm for his lack of Loyalty. The Opposition would gather videos of the Emperor in the Parade and the precise identity of the child who spoke out but would fail to get them out of committee because they are, after all the Minority Party; and a few from the Majority Party would roll their eyes toward the Throne they Hope will be Empty Soon and plot how to get it for themselves without being Obvious about it.
Like the Emperor’s New Clothes, there is No There there, no real Facts, no progress, no responsibility, no aspiration to Higher Causes, no real Debate, no logical Continuity, and the growing Dysphoria of Colossal Incompetence.
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This week’s wine tasting
Quails’ Gate Chenin Blanc ’16 Canada
Honeysuckle, grass, citrus, pear, and melon mingle on the nose. The palate is dry and complex with beautifully balanced acidity, lovely weight and mid-palate texture stony mineral note. Great with NW seafood!
JM Cinsault Rose ’16 Washington $23
Bigger, more textured, and more aromatic than one expects from a rosé; in the dark could be mistaken for a full-bodied white blend…delicious!
Crios Malbec ’16 Argentina $14
Bright, dark red. Redcurrant, black cherry, ripe strawberry and spices on the nose; sweet red fruit flavors are complicated by earth, licorice and menthol; creamy fruit is firmed by smooth tannins…a terrific value.
St. Cosme Little James Basket Press Grenache ’16 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.
Kerloo GSM Majestic ’15 Washington $24
Aroma of leather, black cherries, plums, black pepper, and earth. On the palate smooth and silky with bright, spicy-salty red cherry notes, dusty roses, tobacco, light baking spices, and wet stones.
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2072 Granger Way