lummi island wine tasting july 15-16 ’22
Special Event Friday!
In addition to regular bread pickup this Friday, we are also hosting an informal meet and greet for two candidates for our local legislative district. The event will be outside in the midst of bread pickup. A similar event a few weeks ago added at most a dozen people to our regular bread pickup and wine tasting visitors.
Hours this weekend: 4-6pm both Friday and Saturday
This weekend we will be open as usual from 4-6 Fri-Sat, with limited outdoor seating available on the deck for those who wish to stay outside.
Covid cases remain low at about 2 per 1000, considerably lower than chances of getting the annual flu. However, the Beach Store cafe is closed this weekend due to an outbreak from last weekend, so caution is still very much appropriate.
We will continue taking basic precautions in the wine shop: windows open, air filter operating, outside seating options. We do continue to request that the unvaxed remain outside for tasting. Fyi, the forecast is for some sun Friday and clouds (no rain!) Saturday.
Bread Pickup This Week
Poolish Ale – the preferment here is also a poolish, made with bread flour, a bit of yeast and a nice ale beer for the liquid and fermented overnight. Mixed the next day with bread flour and fresh milled whole wheat. This makes a great all around bread with a nice crisp crust – $5/loaf
Buckwheat Walnut & Honey – A flavorful artisan bread made with a poolish preferment, fresh milled buckwheat, and bread flour. Though buckwheat contains no gluten, this bread is not gluten free as it also includes bread flour made from wheat. Buckwheat has an earthy flavor that in this bread is balanced with a little honey and toasted walnut; goes well with meats and cheeses – $5/loaf
and mmm, pastry this week…
Traditional Croissants – Made with two preferments, a sourdough levain and a prefermented dough – aka “old dough” where a portion of the flour, water, salt and yeast is fermented overnight. The final dough is then made with more flour, butter, milk and sugar, laminated with more butter before being cut and shaped into traditional french croissants. –2/$5
To get on the bread order list, click on the “Contact Us” link above and fill out the form. Each week’s bread menu is sent to the list each Sunday, for ordering by Tuesday, for pickup on Friday. Simple, right..? If you will be visiting the island and would like to order bread for your visit, at least a week’s notice is recommended for pickup the following Friday.
Wine of the Week: la Roque Pic St. Loup Rouge ’17 France $19
The “Pic” in the small French wine region of Pic St. Loup is a 640-meter (2000 ft.) “Tooth” of granite that dominates the view for miles in every direction– powerful, beautiful, vaguely remote, and iconic. It looms over a collection of very special, well-drained, limestone-rich vineyards. About an hour north of Montpellier on the Mediterranean coast to the south, it features hot days, but is also far enough north to have Atlantic-influenced cool nights that induce slow, full ripening.
The wines from Pic St. Loup must be predominantly syrah, grenache, and mourvedre (as in nearby Southern Rhone) and fairly consistently have a certain gravitas. The vines must be at least six years old (not the usual three) before considered mature enough for making red wines, but are perfect for making excellent rosé! Vineyards are scattered among rugged terrain that slopes up from the Mediterranean. Atlantic influences make the local climate cooler and wetter than elsewhere in Languedoc.
Wines from this little region typically share an earthy complexity accented by spicy, herbal aromas and flavors of the wild aromatic herbs that flourish in the area, commonly known as “garrigue.” Pic St. Loup reds typically show bold, spicy, and earthy complexity, deeper color and depth of flavor, and more elegance and refinement than wines from the hotter Languedoc plains to the south.
The Economics of the Heart: Prevalent Majoritarian Prejudice
http://static.wixstatic.com/media
Last week we mused on the Supreme Court’s recent reversal of a pregnant woman’s right to choose whether to give birth from an unintended pregnancy. We implied this Court is “Talibanesque,” a metaphorical reference to the political reality in Afghanistan that women have no rights except those specifically given them by the Koran.
An old friend found the metaphor, um, hyperbolic and sent us a thoughtfully scolding note. Curiously, he also expressed a confidence that those same Red states with extreme penalties would soon change their laws to make family planning legal again under reasonable conditions, no big deal. Seems at best like a long, cruel, sadistic slog to wind up where we started… “Well, Gromit, I guess that worked out about as well as could be expected!”
As Attorney General Merrick Garland put it, “The Supreme Court has eliminated an established right that has been an essential component of women’s liberty for half a century and safeguarded their ability to participate fully and equally in society.
The present Ultra-conservative Court majority, ruthlessly constructed by Gollum wannabe and lookalike Mitch McConnell (My Pweshish…!) has finally negated over a century of precedent with the their special brand of “interpretivism:” if the founders didn’t say it explicitly, there is no Constitutional allowance for it unless Congress puts it in a statute.
The alternative to interpretivism is textualism. Yes, yes, it Is confusing, but the textualists, according to influential legal scholar John Hart Ely, recognized that the Founders deliberately left certain things ambiguous for Supreme Courts of posterity to sort out. The “clause-bound” interpretivists, (aka originalists) he argued, had neither the imagination nor the principles the Court must have to balance majority governance with protection of minority rights. That could only happen when the interpretivist view was tempered by the textualist view, making it responsive to the changing wishes of a popular majority. see more
The takeaway is that the present Court majority are interpretivists, relying on their own interpretations of written law. They are also almost all Catholics who have been taught that abortion is a Mortal Sin. By implication, for you non-Catholics, if they allow abortion to exist, they could spend Eternity in Hell. So it seems entirely reasonable to be concerned about their, you know, Objectivity.
The Warren Court, which made the Roe v. Wade decision, was Ely’s perfect example of what the Court should do: “structure decision processes to ensure everyone’s interests will be represented, and apply those decisions in a way that cannot be manipulated to reintroduce in practice the sort of discrimination that is impermissible in theory.” “The Constitution,” he wrote, “has proceeded from the sensible assumption that an effective majority will not unreasonably threaten its own rights, and has sought to assure that such a majority cannot systematically treat others less well than it treats itself.”
Ely thought it was the continuing function of the Courts to balance power and justice between majority and minority in order to sustain democracy that marked the work of the Warren Court through broadened access to the processes and bounty of representative government…Insofar as political officials had chosen to provide or protect X for some people (generally people like themselves), they had better make sure that everyone was being similarly accommodated or be prepared to explain pretty convincingly why not.
This is the very kind of balancing thinking that the current Supremes have just thrown away, demonstrating that Ely was hopelessly optimistic. Today’s Justices do not qualify as either interpretivists or textualists. Rather, they have shown themselves to be self-interested, religious, and political, and NOT, like the Warren Court, equally protective of the rights of the majority and the minority.
This Week’s $5 Tasting
Bodega Garzon Albarino ’19 Uruguay $15
Pale yellow with greenish reflections, this Albariño is intense in the nose, with peach and citrus notes. The freshness and minerality mid-palate is superb, with remarkable acidity and a round, crisp finish.
MAN Vintners Pinotage ’18 South Africa $11
Pleasing character with aromas of mocha and dark coffee beans accented by red berries, nutmeg, and vanilla spice; pairs well with spicy or gamy dishes. Dark berries, plum and a smoke on the nose. Rustic yet silky and juicy, with wild cherry flavors, smooth tannins and well-controlled acidity and good intensity to the plum and mocha flavors.
Chateau la Roque Rouge ’17 France $19
65% Grenache, 25% Syrah, 10% Mourvèdre. A lithe and expressive red, with fine balance and well-structured flavors of dried cherry, plum, and boysenberry, featuring hints of tarragon and cream on the finish.
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2072 Granger Way