lummi island wine tasting june 23 ’16
(note: some photos will enlarge when clicked)
Friday Breads (email us to get on the preorder mailing list! )
Pain Meunier –aka miller’s bread, and includes all parts of the wheat berry: cracked wheat, whole wheat, wheat germ, and bread flour – great for toast! – $5/loaf.
Italian Walnut & Golden Raisin – Made with bread flour and freshly milled whole wheat. Full of toasted walnuts for a bit of crunch and golden raisins and a little bit of honey for some sweetness. The walnuts and raisins make this a nice bread to go with cheese – $5/loaf.
Brioche Tart au Sucre – A rich brioche dough that is full of eggs, butter and sugar, rolled out into individual tarts and topped with more eggs, sugar and butter that form a delicious caramelized crust on top of the tart when baked – 2/$5
Sheep and Wine
This weekend our tasting menu includes Writers Block, made from cabernet franc grown in Lake County, California. The Writers Block (and Shooting Star ) labels are among several owned by Steele Winery in Lake County, California. The grapes for Writers Block come from Shannon Ridge Vineyards, where owner Clay Shannon has developed a sustainable farming system which integrates raising sheep and growing healthy vineyards into a symbiotic natural system. Over a thousand sheep wander through the vineyards, eating both grass and protein-rich grape leaves, and and converting it to natural fertilizer to continue the cycle.
About a third of the total acreage is left natural, providing both habitat and migration corridors for the abundant wildlife native to the area, including eagles, bears, elk, lots of smaller mammals and nesting for migrating birds. So this weekend when you enjoy this tasty cab franc, maybe it will taste even better knowing where it comes from! link to video
Cinsault
Cinsault is a red wine grape found across much of Mediterranean France, from the Spanish border across Languedoc, where it is used to add perfume and fruit to red wines, as in Minervois and Corbières, and further east it is often blended into the iconic Provencal rosés, for which its light skin and soft perfume is particularly well-suited, typically blended with some combination of grenache, syrah, and mourvedre.
The grape has also found its way into a few Washington vineyards, including The Benches (formerly Wallula Vineyard), located along the Columbia River. These “Benches” were formed during the Great Lake Missoula floods some 20,000 years ago; their strange resemblance to the little ridges one sees in sand along a beach is what in 1922 prompted Geologist Harlan Bretz to start imagining that they were caused by Catastrophic Flooding. It would be another twenty years before his theories found support in research into Glacial Lake Missoula, a fascinating chapter in our region’s geological history.
This week’s rosé is from Woodinville winery JM Cellars. It is made primarily from cinsault. It is not shy. It does not smell or taste like a typical rosé. It is as full of aroma and flavor as a big fat chardonnay, or viognier, or roussanne. But it’s a rosé, basically a red grape trying to pass as a white wine. Whatever the Big Floods did to the geology of the Benches, it has been great for grapes!
Polarities
There is a lot going on these days in Planetary Politics, nationally and globally. The Familiar Polarities of Right and Left now seem Global. Everyone is Talking with Great Conviction about what needs to be done. Everyone is Talking and No One is Listening. It’s our Own Modern Tower of Babel moment. Scary Stuff– lots of blaming, accusing, finger- pointing, and Bluster. Not a lot of Compromise. Not a lot of interest in “incremental change.”
Maybe this is all the continuing unfolding of the Legacy of 911, by which every Slight is a Grievance; every Grievance demands Vengeance; and every Dishonor demands Blood, to the extent that many entire societies are coming unraveled, collapsing under people’s feet. We stand in long lines and take our shoes off to board an airplane, while entire countries collapse into chaos and suffering. The Right circles its wagons around its Core Values, which are…um…let’s see…well don’t you worry they have them somewhere. And the Left finds itself splitting across different Fault Lines between its own Elite and its Labor Roots.
On the Other Hand, there are a few small but hopeful signs of Thaw in various places. In Colombia the FARC have signed a cease-fire with the Government, possibly ending decades of active warfare. In Congress, a small but dedicated group of Representatives staged a show of Solidarity for the development of a Reasonable set of gun control rules to protect Public Safety after the latest Mass Murder by Assault Weapon. And…and…let’s see there WAS something else Hopeful, let me think a minute…
This week’s wine tasting
Arindo Verdejo ’14 Spain $11
Bright straw. Vibrant, mineral-accented aromas of lime pith, pear skin and white flowers, with a mineral topnote. Dry and sharply focused, with nervy citrus over a hint of bitter quinine with orange zest and jasmine qualities.
JM Cellars Cinsault Rosé ’15 Washington $24
Bigger, more textured, and more aromatic than one expects from a rosé; in the dark could be mistaken for a full-bodied white blend…delicious!
Borsao Garnacha ’13 Spain $10
Expressive aromas of blackberry, licorice and and fruitcake aromas; Juicy, spicy and supple, sweet, red and dark berry flavors; finishes fresh, focused and nicely persistent.
Linen Red ’13 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.
Writers Block Cab Franc ’13 California $15
A perennial favorite here, with aromas of red cherry, raspberry, plum, and licorice. Flavors are of red fruit, raspberry, and plum with smooth acidity, followed by soft tannins.
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