lummi island wine tasting dec 4 ’20
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Friday Bread Crumbs
After taking Thanksgiving weekend off, Janice’s bread pickup returns Friday from 4-5:30 at the wine shop. And while the national surge in Covid cases continues, we are backing off from allowing visitors inside. Therefore bread pickup remains outside the shop (see photo at left). It’s chilly, but festive; please wear a mask and hang out for a few minutes of schmoozing!
Similarly, for wine sales we are going back to email/phone ordering only until Covid is under better control again, whether it be sooner from a return to more responsible social behavior, or later from the hoped-for but slow to realize effects of budding vaccination programs.
Click on the Order Wine link in the header above to browse a list of currently available wines with tasting notes and prices. When you have made your selections you can phone us with your order or email us using the Contact Us link above. We will confirm your order and make arrangements for pickup/delivery at your convenience.
Wine of the Week: Liberty School Cabernet Sauvignon ’18
We have regularly kept at least a few bottles of this wine on our shelves for several years. Liberty School is one of several labels of Hope Family Wines in Paso Robles (California). They have five different labels (Austin Hope, Treana, Quest, Liberty School, and Troublemaker). We have regularly carried a couple of their lower-end wines, the Liberty School cab and the Treana white blend. They both pretty consistently pack a lot of wine pleasure for the price, so we tend to keep a few of each available most of the time.
Over recent decades, Paso has become increasingly recognized for its high quality vineyards and good wine, now with more than 200 wineries and some 40,000 acres of vineyards. The Paso Robles AVA’s reach within six miles of the Pacific Ocean to the inland side of the Santa Lucia coastal mountains in San Luis Obispo County, forming a rectangle 35 miles from east to west, and 25 miles from north to south. The area includes diverse soils from weathered granite, marine sedimentary rocks, volcanic rocks, and younger marine sedimentary rocks. As with much of the California coast, the combination of hot days and ocean-induced cool nights makes for consistently favorable growing conditions.
Liberty School Cabernet Sauvignon ’18 $15
Aromas of fresh dark cherries and baking spices evolve into flavors of bing cherries, savory herbs, and a touch of cinnamon; on the palate it is fresh yet very smooth and balanced with a touch of bright acidity.
Mar a Lago Update: Intimations of Relief
The Relief is almost beginning to seem Real. But even at this late date, seven weeks till Inauguration, our hopes are still tender and tentative. The last four years have been a kind of Purgatory, an ongoing assault on facts and reason.
Those of you of a certain age will remember the old Ed Sullivan variety show back in the fifties and early sixties. Besides being an introductory showcase for young headliner stars like Elvis and the Beatles, there was also a regular roster of familiar acts that appeared many times over the years. One of those memorable acts was Señor Wences, (see video) a ventriloquist with a very entertaining set of skills. He had two main characters, one a child-puppet painted on his hand, and a bearded man’s head in a wooden box. Wences would frequently open the door of the box and say “All right?” and the head would say in a deep voice, “All Right!” And they would go back and forth like that, door opening and closing, “All Right?…All Right!..“All Right?…All Right!…
What does this have to do with the last four years? Okay, imagine we are all Señor Wences, and every time we do our act and open the door to the box expecting the head to say All Right!, instead a bunch of Wild-Eyed Clown Jacks-in-the-Box would spring out with insane laughter. And it goes on like that, over and over and over and over, a hundred times a day for four very long years.: Torture by Insane Clown-in-the-Box.
It’s been grueling. It’s been a global Nightmare. We never imagined it could possibly go on This Long, or go So Far off the Tracks. But eventually the true Horror of it sank in and we have crawled under the covers at night for these four years, emotionally exhausted and moaning in disbelief: “OMD, this isn’t a Dream, This is Really Happening! Why? Why?…
Well, knock on all available wood, but glimmers of Hope are appearing like little spring flowers reaching up from the mud. Even though the most likely scenarios show little hope of national unity any time soon, it IS starting to look like we have gained a little foothold on at least a small chance at a survivable future for Life on Planet Earth.
Let it be.
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