lummi island wine tasting july 5-6 ’24
Hours, June 28-29 ’24
Friday 4-6 pm Saturday 3-5 pm
Last night in late twilight we noticed this eagle high in a fir tree about 100 ft away, further shadowed by a thicket of branches. It was without a doubt the biggest eagle any of us had ever seen! Ulee saw it, too, and just stared without barking.
They DO have a Presence…!
Friday Bread This Week
Barley, Whole Wheat, & Rye Levain – a levain bread where the sourdough culture is built over several days and allowed to ferment before the final dough is mixed. Made with bread flour and freshly milled whole wheat, barley and rye flours. – $5/loaf
Rye w/ Currants, Pumpkin Seeds & Cracked Coriander – a bread that I haven’t made on a regular basis. Made with a starter fed with rye instead of wheat flour, the final dough includes bread flour and freshly milled rye flour, some molasses for sweetness and pumpkin seeds, currants and cracked coriander seed make for an interesting flavor profile – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
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. – 2/$5
Island Bakery has developed a rotation cycle of several dozen breads and pastries. Each Sunday Janice emails the week’s bread offering to her mailing list. Orders received before 5 pm Tuesday will be available for pickup at the wine shop each Friday from 4:00 – 5:30 pm. Go to Contact us to get on the bread email list at least a week before visiting!
This week’s wine tasting
Jacob Williams Viognier ’22 WA $32
Melon, pineapple, & confectionary notes on the nose. Green tropical fruits on the palate – a little bit of pineapple and mango. Smooth and rich texture throughout.
Monte Tondo Veneto Corvina ’20 Italy $12
Organically farmed; bright nose of fresh cherries and black pepper; fresh, light, and lively palate of cherry, dark chocolate and spice, with supple, well-integrated tannins and a smooth, seductive, slightly spicy finish. Our go-to red wine for summer lunch on the deck!
Cote 125 Corbieres Rouge ’19 France $15
Classic Corbieres blend of carignan, grenache, syrah, cinsault; rich and concentrated with blueberry and strawberry aromas and flavors, with notes of spices and black pepper, good balance, and a long, smooth finish.
Wine of the Week: Jacob Williams Viognier ’23 WA $32
For some reason a lot of people never get around to tasting viognier, a white French varietal most prevalent in the Northern Rhone region of France. It is now grown across the world, including here in Washington. Styles range from bright, light, and crisp with mouth-watering acidity to voluptuous, nuanced, and lingering. In many places, including Washington, a few percent of viognier is added to red wines, particularly syrah.
Viognier carries an aura of refined elegance compared to, say, chardonnay. You can dress up chardonnay with extended periods in new oak, time on the lees, and other methods, and it can be wonderful. But there is a reason why wine critic Karen Macneil, in her “Wine Bible,” describes viognier as “the most drippingly sensuous white wine.”
Our experience with the viognier at Jacob Williams when we first visited a couple of years ago was definitely in that category. The latest vintage might need a little more time in the bottle, but it is already showing better than many!
Economics of the Heart: The War for Everything Has Begun
Heritage Foundation President celebrates the death of Liberty with Supreme Court AI image from Davinci
The Real Insurrection against our democracy has been afoot for several decades now, with lots of preparation from the the John Birch Society, the legalization of lying talk-radio slanderers (Limbaugh and ilk made it ubiquitous 24/7), and of course Fox news, which only tells lies, usually beginning early morning with the Lie of the Day, repeated over and over and over for 24 hrs. The other Big Player is the Heritage Foundation, as discussed in detail in this in-depth interview by Lulu Garcia-Navarro with new Heritage Foundation President Kevin D. Roberts. Check it out…this man’s words radiate Evil like a Tolkien wraith, steaming with existential Menace. Make no mistake: these guys intend to control everyone and everything, with cold, business-school trained concern only for the bottom line and vast indifference for collateral casualties.
A recent BBC post offers a readable summary of the implications of Project 2025. Its goals are to take away or restrict every Constitutional freedom that we Americans have enjoyed, treasured, and defended for over 200 years. No, we are not making this up; ending democracy is the new Republican platform.
The recent Supreme Court removal of all legal constraints on Presidential “official acts” opens the door for a dictatorial Presidency with no rules at all, a Fascist state where citizens have no legal rights, no protection from politically applied arrests and punishments, while the President remains completely above scrutiny. Project 2025 is designed to guarantee the Far Right to gain and hold complete power, end elections for good as it implements its profoundly dystopian vision.
Therefore, given the ongoing leakage of hope on the left, it is a relief to read Joyce Vance’s most recent post in her daily “Civil Discourse” post, describing in detail her conversation with California Congressman Jared Huffman, founder of the Stop Project 2025 Task Force. The project has an accelerated timetable for researching, analyzing, and sharing data with Congress and the public on the hidden dangers of Project goals and methods, and work to counter them. It’s a late start, but shows promise.
That, together with the peculiar realization that our current President now has all the powers of the “Unitary Executive” the Supreme Court just awarded to “the former guy,” is a flickering glimmer of hope in our unfolding existential battle to preserve democracy. Surely Uncle Joe now has the authority to steal the election himself and lock up the other guy, yes..? I mean, isn’t that what the Justices want him to do…???
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2072 Granger Way