lummi island wine tasting aug 9-10 ’24
Hours, August 9-10 ’24
Friday 4-6 pm Saturday 3-5 pm
Both Saturday and Sunday owner-winemaker Tom Stangeland of Cloudlift Cellars in Seattle will be pouring five of his wines for this week’s tasting. Tom and wife Joanie have been celebrating their August wedding anniversary on Lummi Island for decades, and have become long-time friends many of you will remember. We have also helped out with crush and bottling at their winery.
Btw, Tom is also a long-time Craftsman furniture maker, and his meticulous attention to detail carries over into his wine-making. (btw, we have discovered that almost without exception, every top winemaker we have encountered is equal parts chemistry geek and artist (poet, musician, painter, chef…)
Cloudlift Lucy Rosé of Cab Franc ’23 Washington $19
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 chardonnay ’22 Washington $28
Scents of honeysuckle, sweet lemon curd, and pear drift out of the glass. The rich palate brings a mouth watering acidity carrying flavors of crisp green apple and pear with a burst of lemon zest on the finish.
Cloudlift Ascent Cab Franc ’21 Washington $34
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.
Cloudlift Halcyon Cabernet Sauvignon ’18 Washington $36
From Gamache and Elephant Mountain Vineyards; bold aromas of currants, anise, black cherry, and herbs lead to bright raspberry and dark cherry flavors and a bright, lingering finish.
Friday Bread This Week
Buckwheat Rye – Fresh milled buckwheat and rye flours are soaked for several hours without yeast in a method known as an autolyse. As buckwheat has no gluten and rye little, the autolyse allows the grain to start the fermenting process before the final mix, which is then fermented overnight in the refrigerator. The buckwheat/ rye soaker is then mixed with bread flour, salt and yeast and a bit of honey.– $5/loaf
Whole Grain Spelt Sweet Levain – similar to a bread I sampled in Latvia it is made with a levain, also known as sourdough, freshly milled whole wheat and whole spelt before mixing with bread flour as well as a nice combination of dried apricots, golden raisins, slivered almonds and both sunflower and flax seeds. Chock full of flavor! $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Bear Claws! – Made with a danish pastry dough rich in cream, eggs, sugar and butter. The dough is rolled out and spread with a filing made with almond paste, powdered sugar, egg whites and just a bit of cinnamon to round out the flavor. Then, because bears love honey, topped with a honey glaze after baking. As always, quantities are limited, be sure to get your order in before you miss out- –2/$5
Island Bakery has developed a rotation cycle of several dozen breads and pastries. Each Sunday Janice emails the week’s bread offering to her mailing list. Orders received before 5 pm Tuesday will be available for pickup at the wine shop each Friday from 4:00 – 5:30 pm. Go to Contact us to get on the bread email list at least a week before visiting!
Economics of the Heart: An Appealing Ferry Tale …
PHOTO courtesy incatcrowther.com
Ongoing discoveries and developments in our ferry replacement process have brought us to a multi-dimensional crossroads where what signs we have all point in different directions, and there is a growing concern both here on the island and in County government that the 34-car vessel on the drawing board is neither achievable nor desirable.
There are a lot of moving parts, including:
1. COVID related cost inflation, as reflected in the marine repair and construction price index began a steep climb about two years ago, substantially reducing the buying power of our grant so much that our various grants and subsidies are no longer adequate to pay the new higher price tags for the 34-car vessel and necessary infrastructure updates.
2. County officials are already talking about discontinuing vehicle service to the island altogether, and blaming nit-picky, penny-pinching islanders for the problem.
3. Washington State Ferries is one of the largest ferry systems on the planet, serving all of Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands. Four car ferries are operated by County governments: Skagit, Whatcom, Wahkiakum, and Pierce. The first two serve small populations of rural residents and related commercial and government service providers getting back and forth from the mainland. Wahkiakum is a small ferry operating across the lower Columbia a bit east of Astoria. And Pierce provides ferry services in the densely populated urban environment of South Puget Sound.
One important takeaway is that Whatcom and Skagit Counties are operating complex systems and schedules like the State Ferry system, but without the tax base and extensive financial resources necessary to meet the rising costs of these services. Indeed, it not a coincidence that both Skagit and Whatcom Counties are “in the same boat” with inadequate financial resources to cover replacement of a vessel and its worn-out infrastructure,.In addition, smaller local governments also face growing demands on local infrastructure from climate-related destruction, homelessness, and addiction. These growing imbalances clearly require ongoing renegotiation with the State and the Feds for financial assistance.
As discussed recently with our State Senator Sharon Shewmake, we need to push forward with USDOT and with WSDOT about additional financial support, beginning with an inflation adjustment to our federal and state grants. We also should explore the feasibility of modifying the vessel plan to a smaller, more affordable, and more climate-friendly vessel…which leads us to…
A New Idea…
Boat Design. While browsing for information on lighter, more efficient ferry designs, we ran into this website. The vessel, Nairana, was built in Australia for a two-mile ferry passage between Bruny Island and the Tasmanian mainland. The vessel has an efficient aluminum “catamaran” style hull, and is powered by four Ro-Pax electric motors, which can all be rotated to provide thrust in the same direction at the same time. The design is state of the art and compatible with our goals of energy efficiency and performance, as well as stimulating our local economy, because…
Vessel Construction. Coincidentally, we have an aluminum shipbuilding company right here in Bellingham that is interested in exploring the project, and preliminary indications are that it is feasible to scale the vessel size down to maybe a 24-car (?) boat to meet budget and design constraints, not to mention…
Vessel Power. And as another coincidence, Echandia, a Swedish startup making batteries and electronics to power maritime vessels, opened a manufacturing and sales facility in nearby Marysville just a few days ago— its first site in North America!
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