Lummi Island Wine Tasting February 23 ’13
Library Fund Update
Thanks to all of you who responded to our request to contribute (again!) to support the Island Library remodel and upgrade. Special thanks are extended to those friends who gave from as far away as California and Colorado–wow, your gifts are deeply appreciated!
We hope you will continue to support the project over the next few months, as there are certain to be other opportunities to help out. One idea being explored is an option to purchase engraved bricks (let’s see, one for me, one for him, one for her, some for them…!) for a possible new donor wall in the new reading garden behind the fiction room. You know the spot, right? I expect we have all noticed its potential as a Cozy Little Outdoor Room, so hey, maybe it will have a brick wall with your name on it!
I expect there will be some folks, who have already given generously, who might like an acknowledging brick or two for earlier donations. Oh, would that that were practical…but hello, it’s a fundraiser, so, no, it’s not! Fortunately, bricks will be quite inexpensive (around $50 each), so we’ll all just have to dig a little deeper for a little dab of brick-and-mortar immortality…! Stay tuned!
Wine Club Update
After months of suggestions, planning sessions, false starts, confusion, software glitches, opinions, and endless discussions (whew!), our Wine Club is now a Reality! Sure, it’s just barely off the ground, tapocketing on just a cylinder or two, and struggling for altitude, but it is officially launched! HURRAY! At present we have six (count’em!) official members! To find out more just click on the WINE CLUB! link at the top of this blog page (or here if you are reading this as an email.) The centerpiece of the club is the “punch card,” which, as it turns out, isn’t really a “punch card” at all. Rather, it’s more of a “OMD, how much have I spent this time” card, and we will keep the cards on file here at the wine shop, so you don’t have to worry about losing or forgetting them. There is a series of three cards (white, rose, and red), as described at the above link. When you buy wine, we mark the back of the card with the amount of the purchase. As each card is filled, you get a prize and the benefits of the next card. Check it out, and let us know what you think. And better yet, sign up and be part of it!
Shamelessly speaking, one of the reasons for structuring our club this way is to make it worth your while to spend a larger proportion of your wine budget with us. I mean, let’s face it, we all know you cheat on us! (Haggen’s, Trader Joe’s, Costco…tsk, tsk…have you no shame at all?) Sure, when you’re with us you act as we’re the Only Ones, as if you bought all your wine here, but (as we know only too well) we were NOT born anywhere close to yesterday. Oh non, non, non monsieur, we are now officially engaged in the knock-down, drag-out battle for your hard-earned wine dollars! Is there a wine you buy elsewhere that we don’t carry? Let us know, and we will get it to you for less! Something you buy elsewhere by the case? Special order it from us! We will do our best to meet anyone’s prices, AND save you a trip to town. We are, like, SO here for you! THAT’S what our club is about!
Another primary benefit of our wine club, of course, is our connection to Ryan’s new import business, which will bring to our doorstep some of the French wines that many of you tasted on your tour with him last spring, or will be enjoying on the tour this spring. We will have Washington exclusives on these wines, and will be able to offer them to our members at “futures” prices at preview tastings just for our members! (No, honestly, I am not making this up!)
Online Store Update
Okay, okay, I admit it. The truth is that nobody actually said it was going to be easy. After fifteen years or so of working on various websites, I just assumed it would be easy. Well, I was wrong about that! Big Time! Somehow, in the last few years the Web has “evolved” (not so sure about that) on a path of exponentially increasing complexity. The way my old economist’s mind views this is that we are way, way, way past “diminishing returns,” with this web thing, but there it is, the endless battalions of geeks just keep adding more and more complexity. For some many years when I needed some new software to deal with some growing set of issues or problems, the Universe was still small enough that I could find a handful, try them out, evaluate, and possibly choose one.
Nowadays there are no simple web pages. WordPress, the software system in which I am writing this blog at this very moment, consists of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of files. Some files have information. Some files define the kinds of information that can be included. Some files tell the server how to configure the information it sends to the user. Some files tell the user’s computer how to present the information. Hello, once it was just a document with a few instructions about how to present some information visually, and yes, a part of me does long for those simpler times.
I’m just saying that the online store is proving challenging, even now that I have engaged a Professional to make it all work. It is curiously reassuring that if SHE has challenges figuring it all out, NO WONDER I can’t do it! Still, it IS frustrating, feeling that one ought to be able to do something, yet finding progress elusive. Perhaps this is an interesting legacy of the Web– on the one hand it is the world’s Open Forum; on the other hand, why then should we be surprised that it so often manifests as Chaos?
Nevertheless (which is what I suppose people really mean when they say, “that said,” and then contradict everything they have just said….what’s that about?!) here we are, and I can report that progress is being made with the online store. Please stay tuned…
This week’s tasting
Giovanna Madonia Chimera ’03 Italy $16
Honeyed, tropical, and with intriguing scents of caramel and dried apricots; combines luscious sweetness with bracing and refreshing acidity.
Montes Classic Cabernet Sauvignon ’10 Chile $10
Medium- to full-bodied; delivers solid varietal character, with cassis, ripe plum, graphite and medium tannins adding grip to the finish.
Langmeil Three Gardens SMG ’09 Australia $16
Rich, silky-smooth, and round, delivering a generous wave of red berry, cherry, spice and licorice that plays out through a long, harmonious finish. Shiraz, Grenache and Mourvèdre.
Tarima Hill Monastrell ’09 Spain 91pts $14
100% old vines monastrell; Opaque ruby color; powerful cherry and cassis aromas, intense dark berry flavors, with spice and violet pastille notes; gains sweetness and depth on the subtly tannic, very long finish of smoky mineral and floral notes.
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2072 Granger Way