lummi island wine tasting dec 20 ’14 winter solstice
Bread Friday
– Sonnenblumenbrot (German Sunflower Seed bread) – white flour, rye, and loads of yummy roasted sunflower seeds. $5/loaf
– Buckwheat with walnuts and honey – gorgeous and loaded with flavor. $5/loaf
– Breakfast treats
……..Chocolate Babka rolls in honor of Hanukkah; sweet egg bread dough filled with chocolate, butter and a hint of cinnamon
………Gibassier– a traditional Provence treat with candied orange peel, tossed with sugar.
Holiday Case Sale continues through Dec 27!
Our annual Holiday Case Sale continues through December! Buy any twelve bottles, and we will pay the sales tax (8.6%)! Even better… Wine Club members get an additional 5% off! Offer good through closing time on Saturday, December 27!
We have brought in a lot of new wines in the last few weeks, so the selection has never been better. OMD, better hurry, only TWO SHOPPING WEEKENDS LEFT THIS YEAR!
AND REMEMBER: STOCK UP! WE ARE CLOSED THROUGH JANUARY!
Solstice Thoughts
Over this blog’s six year (OMD!) history, I have often taken the opportunities presented by solstices, equinoxes, and cross-quarter days to muse about our ongoing astronomical situation. For example, last year at this time you were presented with this link to a fascinating little video illustrating the limitations of our childlike tendency to imagine the Sun as fixed in space while all the planets, comets, and its light-year-wide Oort Cloud revolve around it. No, the video suggested, the overall motion is more of a Vortex, because the Whole Kaboodle is moving through space at 45,000 miles an hour carrying the Sun and its orbiting disciples with it. This year we take the opportunity to stretch our creaky minds a little more.
Click on the image or here to run the next video, which imagines the path our Small but Beloved Solar System takes around the Milky Way every 226 million years. Each of those sinusoidal waves represents the 26,000 year precession which keeps moving our Pole Star around, wreaking Havoc in those eras when the Earth’s axis doesn’t happen to point to any particular star. For you sailors our there, it just means this is a Golden Time for Navigation, because there IS a North Star, and it has come in very handy over the last several centuries.
Tenth Annual “East Coast” New Year’s Eve Gala Extravaganza!
Yes friends, it’s here again! From 7-9pm on New Year’s Eve we provide the wine, you bring something delicious to share, and when the Ball drops in Times Square we hoist our glasses and toast the Year of the Goat! (huh?…GOAT..?? There’s a whole YEAR of the Goat? What’s that about???).
Afterwards, as usual, you young folks can move on to your next party, and we old timers can get to bed at a decent hour! We have grown quite fond of this annual chance to thank all of you who have visited, schmoozed, chatted, laughed, and enjoyed yourselves with us this past year, and to look ahead together to more fun in aught-fifteen.
Here’s the deal: We provide the space and the wine, and you bring your most delectable finger food to share. BEST DISH WINS A NICE BOTTLE OF WINE! Mark your calendars and start planning your finger food.
Winery dogs
It’s hard to say if this wine (see notes, below) is as good as I thought when I first tried it. Ordinarily I am not seduced by just another Pretty Label– you know, it’s What’s Inside that Counts, right? But alas, we all have our little Weaknesses, and yeah, like many of you I am a sucker for cute dog photos. So you should all buy this wine just for the label, and if it’s any good, well, all the better. As it turns out, it’s from a pretty reliable source; the fruit is from Washington State’s most hallowed wine region (Red Mountain), and the producer is Hightower Cellars, usually a source of pretty good wine.
Then there is also the other thing– almost every winery has a Winery Dog. For some reason they are usually getting on in years (it’s a senior position), are pretty laid-back, and pretty friendly. The big events of the day often involve standing up, shaking, and ambling to a more comfortable spot as the sun moves the shadows around. You know, sunny spot to sunny spot on cold days, and shady spot to shady spot on hot days. They have something to teach us, these icons of the wine industry…!
This week’s wine tasting
Shooting Star Chardonnay ’12 California $12
Big aromas of citrus and apple; round on the palate, with stone fruit flavors and nice minerality on the crisp finish.
Casa Contini Biferno Riserva ’09 Italy $12
80% montepulciano, 20% aglianico; wonderfully smooth and balanced, with smoky blackberry, chestnut, and peppery aromas.
Monte Tondo Valpolicello ’12 Italy $16
A blend of some ripe and some raisined grapes gives this wine body and texture, along with notes of sour black cherry, spices, roses, and violets.
Steele Outkaste Red ’11 Mendocino $16
53% zinfandel, with syrah, tempranillo, petite sirah, and petit verdot; aromas of black pepper, raspberry, and cobbler, with palate of brambly blackberry, cassis, and spices.
Hightower Murray Syrah ’11 Washington $16
From legendary Red Mountain grapes; Ripe, rich and utterly enjoyable; lush red berry fruit followed by a complex, meaty mid-palate and a long finish.
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