lummi island wine tasting june 4 ’21
Bread This Week
Island Bakery has developed a lengthy rotation cycle of several dozen breads and pastries. Each Sunday Janice emails the week’s bread offering to her mailing list. Orders received before Wednesday 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.
Seeded Multi Grain Levain – Made with a sourdough culture and using a flavorful mix of bread flour and fresh milled whole wheat and rye. A nice mixture of flax, sesame sunflower and pumpkin seeds and some oatmeal adds great flavor and crunch. And just a little honey for some sweetness. A great all around bread that is full of flavor – $5/loaf
Sesame Semolina – Uses a sponge that preferments some of the flour, water & yeast before mixing the final dough. Made with semolina and bread flour as well as a soaker of cornmeal, millet and sesame seeds, and olive oil to round out the flavor and tenderize the crumb. Rolled in more sesame seeds before baking for lots of great flavor! – $5/loaf…
and pastry this week…
Brioche Suisse- A rich brioche dough made with plenty of butter, eggs and sugar, rolled out and spread with pastry cream before sprinkling with dark chocolate. The dough is folded over all that delicious filling and cut into individual pieces. 2/$5
Artist Opening Reception Saturday 4-6 pm
Although we installed Anne Gibert’s latest paintings a few weeks ago, we are just now inviting you to meet the artist and take some time to view the show this Saturday, June 5. You can chat with Anne, enjoy our weekly wine tasting, and maybe even find a painting you would like to take home!
We have posted other photos in recent weeks; here are two more!
Wine of the Week: Shatter Grenache Côtes Catalanes ’17 France $19
The wine is made from grenache grown in vineyards located near Maury in the Roussillon region of Southwest France by California winemaker Joel Gott.
As it turns out, we were lost for a bit in this very area about ten years ago. We were staying in Lagrasse, at the northern edge of the Corbieres wine region, and drove south through the rugged landscape where centuries ago the heretic Cathars fortified themselves in remote mountain fortresses to practice their particular form of Catholicism. It’s a long, sad, and brutal story.
As we moved into Roussillon, we found ourselves on a narrow dirt road winding through farmland when the road took a sudden dip onto a Very Narrow one-lane “bridge,” close to the water and with no guard rails, and from our vantage point no clear sense of where it went after that.
Eventually we got up the nerve to cross it, and within a half mile came to a major highway along the boundary between Corbieres and Roussillon very close to Maury.
The area is known for its nutrient-poor schist soil which forces vines to grow deep to find nutrients, evoking concentrated flavors. The name Shatter and the bottle photo are an homage to the shattered schist soil.
Economics of the Heart: Attack of the Zombie Republicans
It has been a major source of cognitive dissonance over the past few months to try to sort out how worried we should be that Republican Zombies are now outnumbering actual human beings, and therefore posing an Existential Threat to Life As We Know It.
We hear lots of news stories quoting statistics like 75% of Republicans believe the Tweetster actually won the 2020 election. And we think to ourselves, “How can that possibly be…?!” Who are these people? And more importantly, what proportion of the electorate are they? And most important: How Worried should we be??
It turns out that it is not easy to tweak out the essential facts here. In order to gauge how Afraid we should be, we would like to know:
- % of R’s in voting population,
- % of Trump R’s in that overall R base, so we can estimate
- % of Trump R’s in overall population.
Last month a Gallup Poll found that voters self-identified into three roughly equal groups: Republicans 29%, Democrats 33%, Independents 35%. And a 538 poll in April had independents at 40%.
However, Independents habitually lean strongly D or R but are uncomfortable associating themselves with all elements of their habitual party. As a result, they generally continue to vote the same party while also disengaging from political discourse, which then suffers for want of moderating viewpoints.
And this leaves us with the disturbing yet likely possibility that the Silencing of an active Independent voice in recent years, for whatever reason, has contributed to the increasing dysfunction of our political discourse that has fostered the new and explicit rise of Authoritarianism from the ruins of the Dead-since-Gingrich Republican party.
Until we get this sorted out, best lock your doors before you go to bed…
This week’s $5 wine tasting
La Vielle Ferme Rosé ’20 France $10
Classic and tasty blend of grenache, syrah, and cinsault from northern Provence; fruity, dry, crisp, delicious, and smooth, and at a bargain price!
Maryhill Winemaker’s Red ’16 Washington $13 Ripe black fruit notes and a hint of fresh flowers are well backed by leather and cedar wood. Maple bar and black fruit of currant and blackberry appear on entry, with a mid-palate of rich tannins and a smooth finish.
Shatter Grenache Vin de Pays des Côtes Catalanes ’17 France $19
From Old Vines in Roussillon’s black schist soil; nose of dark fruit with a hint of espresso; velvety texture with black currant, spice and cured meat flavors with a touch of coffee; firm structure, supple tannins, excellent acidity and overall balance.
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2072 Granger Way