lummi island wine tasting may 22 ’20

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Bread Friday and Wine Tasting Experiment

As most of you on the Bread List now know, in the interest of Social Distancing, our Famous Wine Tastings have been temporarily shut down because fairly often there isn’t enough Room for social distancing. Back of the envelope calculations suggest that if everyone is supposed to maintain 6′ radius of separation, each person would require 36 sq ft of space. Since our space is an oddly distributed 400 sq. ft., we could only have about 12 people at a time, including one on the stairs and one in the bathroom. Not to mention the tendencies to cluster around the bar in mouth-to-ear proximity just to hear what someone is saying. Let’s just say that “social distance” during our wine tastings would be, um, challenging.

However, bread pickup has become something of an impromptu Covid Aversion Therapy Tailgate party at the Ferry Parking Lot as many of you bring folding chairs, wine, and glasses and share company and conversation (you know, as we have done for years in the Wine Shop!). So this week we will try an experimental mini-tasting of a couple of wines you might enjoy.

So, depending on your Social Distancing choices, you might want to just drive in, pick up your bread, and drive out, or make camp, set up, and Visit-at-a-Distance!

 

Now Accepting Online Wine Orders

We are continuing to take individual wine orders online or by phone for pickup at the wine shop. Click on the “Order Wine”  heading at the top of this page for a partial list of our current offerings. When you have made your selections there are two ways to order:

  1. Click “Contact Us”on the website header bar at the top of this page, enter the names and quantities of each wine you would like to order, and click “Submit,” or…
  2. Phone us your order at the number next to our logo, above.

It’s that Simple!

 

Wine Notes

The wine list mentioned above has a number of new wines we have never poured for you. So each week we will add notes on a couple of them and keep something open to taste when you drop by to pick up an order. Last week we discussed the Pascual Toso Estate Malbec from Argentina, with a few notes on the winery’s 140-year history:

Toso Malbec ’17 Argentina $14
Red ripe berries and plum notes. Smooth and delicious; focused, clean notes of blackberry, plum, dark ripe cherries, and with a plush, elegant mouthfeel with smooth oak, easy tannins.

Pascual Toso is named for its founder, who emigrated from Italy to Argentina in 1880 (OMD, that’s 140 years ago!). Sr. Toso settled in Mendoza. With a family history in winemaking he became intrigued by the exceptional quality of the vineyards in the region, and opened his first winery in San Jose in 1890. In subsequent years he (among others!) discovered the exceptional terroir of the Maipu Valley, bought land and developed vineyards. Today, like many old-time wineries, Toso was bought and owned by the J Llorente and Associates corporation at some point. Today, after 125 years, the winery is exploring the planting and vinification of Bordeaux varietals cabernet sauvignon and cab franc which do very well in Mendoza. This is not surprising given the astonishing success of Argentine malbec worldwide in the last twenty years.

Three months ago (OMD has it really been THAT long?!), we poured the Toso Reserve Malbec from the same vintage, with these notes:

Toso Reserve Malbec ’17      Argentina       $21
Elegant and balanced with food concentration and ripeness; focused, clean notes of blackberry, plum, and ripe,
dark cherries; a plush, elegant mouthfeel, easy tannins, and lingering notes of leather and Spring soil.

We quickly sold out of the Toso Reserve and just today brought in another case, affording the opportunity to taste them side by side! Typically one expects the “Reserve” version of a wine to come from older vines and better soil, with more time in barrel. Does it make a difference? You be the judge!

 

Mar a Lago Update: Twitter As An Offensive Weapon

There is a reason we refer to the Fake President as “the Tweetster.” From Day One of his campaign he has bombarded the platform with offhand commentary, sometimes posting hundreds of Tweets in a single day, thus perpetuating a constant turmoil of network Punditry. It has proved a remarkably effective way to keep the news cycle distracted and speculating on their Meaning.

Most of the World has understood for years that the tweets are aimed solely at stimulating outrage and confusion. Metaphorically they are a kind of ECM – Electronic Counter Measures – which have long been a part of military tactical strategies. The classic example of ECM is for an aircraft which senses it is under surveillance to release tin-foil chaff into the air around it, creating a cloud of conflicting signals that distract and mislead radar tracking. Thus the Tweets: 1) keep public attention riveted on him, which he covets; 2) maintain cover for his ongoing dismantling of our Constitution and the Democracy it has guarded for a quarter-century, and 3) give him control of the group of people that Lincoln realized “could be fooled All of the Time.

We have been recently musing on the singular effectiveness of the Tweetster’s fallback strategy of Relentless Distraction not only at keeping the Public Spotlight on what he says and away from what he has done or not done, but also at neutralizing the impact of public discourse with Constant Lies (see WAPO numbers below) about Reality itself. This is the kind of vaudeville stage magician who is conning us even when we think he is going to explain his last trick from an endless Hall of Mirrors.

The emerging Reality is that we are now many years into a War to Defend Truth against a Master of Illusion and Deception. Every day it becomes increasingly clear that  that this is a man devoid of humor, intellect, responsibility, perspective, respect, or honor.

 

Wine Tasting

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