lummi island wine tasting july 26 ’19
Friday Breads
Pain Meunier – aka “miller’s bread” and was developed to honor the miller who mills the wheat. It is one of my favorite breads and contains all portions of the wheat berry: flour, fresh milled whole wheat, cracked wheat and wheat germ. Always a favorite and a great all around bread. It makes the best toast! – $5/loaf
Sonnenblumenbrot – otherwise known as Sunflower Seed Bread; made with an overnight pre-ferment before mixing in more bread flour and freshly milled rye, then loaded up with toasted sunflower seeds and some barley malt syrup for sweetness. This is a typical German seed bread- $5/loaf
Pain aux Raisin – made with the same laminated dough as croissants (!) The dough is rolled out, spread with pastry cream and sprinkled with a mix of golden raisins and dried cranberries that have been soaked in sugar syrup. Rolled up and sliced before baking. These are my favorites! – 2/$5
Pic St. Loup, cont’d
Last month we poured the Chateau Lancyre Pic St. Loup Rosé. It hit the spot for most of you, including even Riley (aka “he who only drinks Rosé..”). As we have mentioned from time to time, we maintain a certain fascination with the wines from this little region a short distance north from the French Mediterranean city of Montpellier. Visible in the photo, the “Pic” is a 640-meter “Tooth” of Rock that dominates the view for miles in every direction.
The wines from this place, which must be predominantly syrah, grenache, and mourvedre (as in nearby Southern Rhone) have a certain gravitas. The vines must be at least six years old (not three) before being harvested for making red wine; and because the vineyards are scattered among rugged hills sloping up from the Mediterranean, the climate tends to be cooler and wetter than elsewhere in Languedoc, with numerous microclimates that favor particular varietals.
Typically, Pic St. Loup reds show deep color, good depth of flavor, and bold, spicy, meaty, and earthy complexity, and display more elegance and refinement than wines from the hotter Languedoc plains to the south. This week we are pouring the Chateau la Roque Pic-St. Loup Rouge, a blend of (of course!) syrah, grenache, and mourvedre…easy to enjoy!
Mar a Lago Update: Mueller has spoken…What Now??
As we all know, the big news this week has been the all day testimony of Special Counsel Robert Mueller before the House Judiciary Committee and the House Intelligence Committee. Politicians, pundits, and the rest of us who were hoping he would lead us by the hand through the 400+ page report on his team’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible Obstruction of Justice charges against the Tweetster and other White House personnel were disappointed. Various spokespeople on both sides have claimed vindication, and few minds seem to have been changed by Mueller’s words.
In a persuasive analysis of Mueller’s testimony, former prosecutor and Politico Columnist Renato Mariotti details Mueller’s careful walking of the Tightrope his position required him to maintain: “the verdict of history depends most of all on Mueller’s being seen as nonpartisan, measured, and above the fray—an operator whose work is unimpeachable and can be relied on as a bulletproof statement of fact.”
This argument goes a long way toward putting Mueller’s behavior in context. Always careful not to advocate any conclusion or recommendation, but merely to deliver on his prosecutorial duty to present just the Facts, he deliberately and painstakingly has left it to others to decide what to do with them. He meets all of the very demanding qualifications of a Fair Witness, a concept developed by sci-fi author Robert Heinlein in his classic novel Stranger in a Strange Land, first published in 1961. The Fair Witness is an individual with an eidetic memory who has been trained to observe events and report exactly what is seen or heard making no extrapolations, assumptions or conclusions. An illustration of a Fair Witness testimony when asked, say, the color of a particular house, would be something like, “It was white on the side I saw.”
The one name that popped up several times in the testimony was Don McGahn, former White House Counsel, who according to many reports was prepared to resign rather than comply with the Tweetster’s requests to fire Mueller. So far his testimony has been blocked by the White House, and the case might have to be resolved in court. From what we know about McGahn, he is a right-wing operative responsible for ushering through Congress the nominations of scores of ultra-conservative federal judges. On the other hand his willingness to resign rather than lie suggest the possibility that he would tell the truth to Congress if forced to appear (yes, yes, we know, that is definitely an uncharacteristic Republikan trait) rather than risk being caught in a lie. For the time being, we should keep pressure on Congress to bring McGahn to appear before Congress.
Washington Post Tweetster Lie Count to date: 10,000 as of 5/1/19
This week’s wine tasting
Crios de Susana Balbo Torrontes ’17 Argentina 14
Highly perfumed aromas of lemon drop, grapefruit, white flowers, peppermint and white pepper. Supple, pliant and easygoing, with citrus, herbal and floral flavors joined by a hint of licorice.
Adorada “Eau de California” Rosé ’17 California $19
Brilliant coral color with aromas of strawberries and red grapefruit, rose petal, and jasmine; palate of strawberry, orange zest and a touch of white pepper spice and bright acidity to balance the fruity creaminess.
Linen Red ’15 Washington $11
Syrah-cab blend. Opens with charcoal, blackberry and spice on the nose, with flavors of plum, cassis, and cedar in the
turning to blackberry and peppery black fruits on the finish.
Chateau la Roque Pic-St. Loup Rouge ’16 France $16
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. Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre.
Pomum Red ’15 Washington $19
Cab and cab franc with malbec, petite verdot, & merlot; aromas of both fresh and leathery red fruit and exotic spices; on the palate shows black cherry, cranberry and garrigue, fine elegant tannins and a long finish.
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