lummi island wine tasting july 8 ’16
(note: some photos will enlarge when clicked)
Friday Breads (email us to get on the preorder mailing list! )
Whole Wheat Levain – This bread is made with bread flour, fresh milled whole wheat and a bit of fresh milled rye for great flavor. A good all around bread – $5/loaf.
Le Pave d’autrefois – loosely translates as “old paving stones…” a mix of bread flour, fresh milled whole wheat, rye and buckwheat flour. The darkness of the whole grains and square shape make it look like old paving stones, but the flavor is full of whole grain goodness – $5/loaf.
And, of course Pastry this week–>
Chocolate Babka Rolls!! – starts with a rich sweet roll dough dough full of eggs, butter and sugar,. Rolled out, spread with chocolate filling, rolled up and cut into individual slices before baking. Delicious – 2/$5
The Italians are back!
It is now a local tradition near each Solstice– the arrival of our semiannual special order shipment from our friends at West Seattle importer Small Vineyards. As most of you know, they specialize in family-owned wineries mainly in Italy, but in recent years also in France and Spain. Many of their member wineries have been handing down traditional methods of farming and winemaking for generations. Virtually all of the SV imports vastly outperform their modest prices, and we always look forward to their arrival.
This weekend we are offering one old favorite and two new wines. The old favorite is the Perazzeta Sara Rosato, a delicious rosé made from sangiovese grosso, the grape that made Brunello di Montalcino one of the most sought-after wines on the planet for the last hundred years. In addition, this weekend’s Italian representatives also include Cannonau, which is basically grenache (a French Southern Rhone varietal) grown in Sardinia, which adds its own distinctive and lingering notes of pomegranate and wool to the more familiar cherry. And, continuing the theme of French varietals grown in Italy, we will be pouring a delightful cabernet sauvignon from the Veneto region of Italy (no, I am not making this up!).
Corrosion
Many of you will recall that last year at the end of August our new little boat Dreamtime was blown off her mooring, washed onto a rocky shore, and took quite a Beating before being Rescued. and Secured. As mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Dreamtime is back in the water, and last Sunday our friend and small-boat sailor extraordinaire Toby and I sailed her back to Lummi Island. It was a good trip, though as you might imagine, fraught with a bit of tension as we tested rigging, power, and electrical connections, and sailed her back home to Lummi Island.
The point that needs emphasizing it that Dreamtime was almost completely submerged for a few hours at a time over several days.
The basic chemistry (I admit being a little “rusty..”!!) of corrosion is (supposedly) shown in the accompanying chart. All you need to know is that all metals and alloys in contact with seawater have a specific electrical potential dependent on the specific pH of that seawater relative to the original material. ranging from Totally Inert to Catastrophically Explosive…you know, just like Human relationships\! That is, electrons are, like, the Ficklest of Particles, ever ready to migrate to higher-charged social levels. So of course we can all like Totally Relate, huh…? Anyway, we are now going through Dreamtime’s various systems, replacing a light fixture here, a circuit breaker there, or wiring both here and there depending on whether the corrosion demands cleaning, replacement, or complete rewiring. In other words, it’s not that different from the Everyday Concerns of All of Us past a Certain Age…!
Justice
It is starting to appear that Justice is the Name of the Game as we approach the Election of Aught-Sixteen. If we consider that there is always a Tension between Polar Opposites (I am So Drawn to you but I Know you will Hurt Me!), then it should he no surprise that the Fundamental Polarity emerging from the American Political Sector this season is between the Right (we must destroy All the Villages to save the Country) and the Left ( we must Save Every Village to have a Country worth Saving!).
This week, nearly Every Day has brought news of yet more Deaths-by-Fanatic, whether by Radical Muslim, Radical Anti-Radical Muslim, Emotionally Undertrained Policemen, or your Garden Variety Sexually Repressed Young Males (not that they are necessarily mutually exclusive). All you need to know is that a study many decades ago ( I believe it involved Margaret Mead) concluded that the two most highly correlated (and therefore most predictive) variables with the Level of Violence in a Society were a: the amount of affectionate touching of infants (more infant touching–> less violence) and the age of availability of sexual unions (the younger the availability, the less violent the society.)
There IS a grain of truth here. Although effective and realistic policy might prove elusive, we cannot dismiss the idea that if more young men had more sex more often, violence in our society might very well take a well-deserved vacation.
This week’s wine tasting
Terra Blanca Red Mountain Chardonnay ’15 Washington $11
Bright aromas of red apple lead to flavors of Fuji apples, mango, pineapple, and a hint of citrus. Barrel fermentation adds body to to the vibrant acid backbone
and leads to a clean and refreshing finish.
Perazzeta Sara Rosato ’15 Italy $14
From the same grape as Brunello (sangiovese grosso), this beautiful rosato is rich, bold, and flinty while also crisp, summery, and light.
Sanguineti Cannonau de Sardegna ’14 Italy $11
This cannonau– a Sardinian varietal known elsewhere as grenache– offers dry and dusty aromas and flavors of cherry, pomegranate and plum that leave lingering, crisp, earthy and briny flavors that beg for food.
Lovo Cabernet Veneto ’15 Italy $11
A new Italian face on a familiar varietal, this surprisingly tasty cabernet is unoaked, bright, clean, and zesty.
Tarima Hill Monastrell ’13 Spain $14
Complex, perfumed scents of dark berry liqueur, cola, incense and smoky oak spices. Plush and expansive, with sweet cherry compote and blueberry flavors with notes of floral pastille and bitter chocolate. Rich and lively, finishing with excellent power, smooth tannins and a late jolt of allspice.
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2072 Granger Way