lummi island wine tasting jan 13 ’23
Hours this weekend: Open 3:30- 5:30 pm Friday Only
Our current plan is to be open Fridays only for the rest of January.
Covid is still around, more contagious than ever, but far less threatening for the vaccinated.
We all have our own comfort zones; these days we all have to manage the space around us in our own way.
Friday Bread is Back!
Four Seed Buttermilk – This bread includes all the elements of whole wheat, but does so separately by adding cracked wheat and bran in to the bread flour instead of milling whole wheat berries. It also has buttermilk and oil which will make for a tender bread as well as adding a little tang. Finally it is finished with with a bit of honey and sunflower pumpkin and sesame seeds and some toasted millet – $5/loaf
Fig Anise – One of the more popular breads in the rotation. Made with a sponge that is fermented overnight, then the final dough is mixed with bread flour and fresh milled whole wheat. Honey, dried figs and anise bring in all the flavors of the mediterranean. – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Fruit & Spice Rolls – Lightly sweet and half whole wheat but of course lots of butter, sugar and egg for flavor and a tender crumb. Dried cranberries, golden raisins, fresh orange peel and juice with hints of anise, cinnamon, mace and cardamon, and topped with demerara sugar before baking for that extra bit of sweetness and crunch. – 2/$5
Wine of the Week: Cataclysm Chardonnay ’20 Washington $14
Over the years we have enjoyed and carried several wines from long-established Montinore winery in Oregon. It is one of only a few that is certified both biodynamic and organic, using practices and techniques that produce wines that are not only tasty, but also that sustain the vines and surrounding ecosystem with sound practices that maintain interdependent balance. The winery was established in 1982.
The Cataclysm Wine Company, on the other hand, is “brand” (snicker) new, with no history, no record, no details whatsoever about where exactly the wine was made, by whom, or where the fruit came from. There is, apparently, some financial relationship between the owners of Cataclysm and the long-time owners of Montinore. We suspect that Montinore made the wine, probably at its main facility in Forest Grove, Oregon, as part of some larger financial arrangement that has allowed Montinore to expand its operations to the point where you cannot reach an actual human being on any of their telephones. Ah, the oily wheels of corporate progress.
You can decide for yourself whether you like the wine or not, or care at all about its peculiar lack of a backstory. But for those of us that cherish handmade artisan wine from the hands and vineyards of a real person, it always feels like some kind of ethical betrayal. In any case, it is tasty and reasonably priced, and that’s the customary Bottom Line!
Economics of the Heart: Deafness to Expediency
courtesy gearbubble.com/
Recent events have recalled a favorite quotation we have mentioned before in this blog, feeling again the continuing relevance of a memorable ethical assertion some 150 years ago from Matthew Fontaine Maury (our first National Oceanographer):
“Where principle is involved, be deaf to expediency.”
While it is often claimed that “We are a Nation of Laws,” over recent decades we have been losing the assurance that our laws are both principled in purpose and enforced honorably, equitably, and fairly. Without Principle, laws become the means of tyrannical oppression by an autocratic minority or the whims of profit-driven corporations and continually campaigning politicians. When we look around our country and the World today we see lots of reasons to believe that these basic Principles have become quaint and archaic fantasies, wholly and purposefully replaced by vapid pragmatism and unconscious compromise.
We all still know what responsibility, decency, honor, service, and kindness are, at least intellectually. But we find all kinds of reasons to minimize their importance and dismiss them as too idealistic, too much trouble, making too many waves, or threatening our own comfortable position by rocking the Boat of the Moment. We all have a lot of ambiguity about these matters, a little compromise here, a little pooh-pooh there, adding up to an ongoing willingness to back Authority, not buck it.
On my first day as a midshipman nearly sixty years ago, I remember being advised, “Don’t Rock the Boat,” and “Don’t Make Waves.” But alas, in all these years I have not been able to become that guy, because I actually believe to my core that Principle IS more important than Expediency, and that we all live in a world that has increasingly become ruled by “Getting along means Going along.”
As with Covid, we all have to find our own ways to deal with this ongoing dilemma. We serve on our Boards and Committees in which we nominally share a common interest, and it can be deeply frustrating to keep crashing into the impassive wall of safe and passive conformity, itself the thoughtless cause of considerable suffering
Our photo today is a line– more of a mantra, actually– that Timothy Leary used as a theme on a speaking tour of college campuses (including WWU around 1980. )
This Week’s $10 Wine Tasting
Cataclysm Chardonnay ’20 Washington $14
Aromas of quince, pear, and custard; pleasing mouthfeel, easy to drink. Made with Washington fruit at an undisclosed location by undisclosed people in some kind of financial relationship with Montinore Estate in Oregon.
Robert Ramsay Mason’s Red ’16 Washington $17
Easy-drinking cinsault-dominant Rhone blend; subtle nose of black cherry paste with a hint of cinnamon spice that expands on the palate to a soft anise finish.
Can Blau Can Blau ’18 Spain $16
Long an Artisan favorite; consistently shows aromas and flavors of ripe dark fruits and berries, a seamless texture, and long, silky finish that improves with aeration.
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2072 Granger Way