lummi island wine tasting nov 13 ’20
click on photos for larger images
Friday Bread Crumbs
Last week’s debut of the new outdoors-at-the-wine-shop bread pickup went smoothly. Janice is set up at a table in the garage doorway with another rain-sheltered table nearby so both payment and pickup can be conducted with masks and social distancing and a bit of winter weather protection.
Pick-up hours are from 4-5:30pm. At present sunset is about 4:30, which should provide decent light at least till 5. But as we slide toward winter solstice sunset gets earlier until December 7 when it sets at 4:14pm, and continues to set at 4:14 for another week before starting to creep later until summer solstice in June.
Due to the national surge in Covid cases, we are for the time being backing off from allowing visitors inside for wine shopping. Instead we are going back to email ordering only. Click on the Order Wine link in the header above for currently available wines with tasting notes and prices. Soon we hope to have an actual online store available to make the process more user-friendly. For the time being, when you have made your selections use the Contact Us link above to send us your order. We will contact you to make arrangements for pickup/delivery.
Wine of the Week: Maryhill Viognier
Viognier is known for full-bodied white wines with rich stone-fruit flavors. On the nose they can be quite floral, with lavender and pollen aromas, along with aromas and flavors of apricot, peach, pear, and lychee, and a palate-pleasing textural richness. Or, as wine writer Karen McNeil has put it, viognier is “the most drippingly sensuous white wine varietal.”
Maryhill Viognier has been a staple here at the Wine Gallery for several years, delivering a lot of pleasure for its modest price. The 2018 vintage is a blend from four award-winning Columbia Valley vineyards: 35% Tudor Hills Vineyard, 26% Gunkel Vineyards (Estate), 23% Coyote Canyon Vineyard and 16% McKinley Springs Vineyard.
After a new-normal increasingly hot summer, grapes were harvested during cool morning hours to preserve bright fruit
tanks with French oak staves.
Maryhill Viognier ’18 Washington $14
Vibrant aromas and flavors of melon, pear, and apricot with traces of pineapple and grapefruit that flow into a crisp fruit finish.
Mar a Lago Update: The Looming Socialist Menace
There’s an old Maine story* about two fahmahs (“farmers” if you ain’t from Maine) having a discussion about politics. Enoch was going on about the many benefits of Socialism. Puzzled, but crafty, his neighbor Eben listened. After a while he scratched his chin thoughtfully and said, “All right, Enoch, so if you had two fahms, would you give me one o’ them?”
“Ayuh,” said Enoch, “if I had two fahms, I’d give you one o’ them.”
“Hmm,” said Eben. “And if you had two cows, Enoch, would you give me one o’ them?”
“Ayuh,” said Enoch, “if I had two cows, I’d give you one o’ them.”
“Well, then,” said Eben slyly, “and if you had two hay rakes, Enoch, would you give me one o’ them…?
There was a long pause before Enoch growled, “Damn you, Eben… you Know I got two hay rakes!”
(listen to The Classic Maine Story)
The point here is that a basic human trait is to protect Our Stuff, as in “Don’t you go messin’ with My Stuff!” We all have that wiring, and we all know the sense of violation when Somebody shows that lean and hungry look like they are Fer Sure gonna Mess with our Stuff as soon as we let down our guard. And let’s face it, Republicans only know one way to fish, and that’s constantly throwing blood in the water to convince their base that Democrats’ only goal is to steal their hard-earned money and their guns and leaving them broke and impotent.
Every government in the world operates on some hybrid blend of capitalism and socialism, or as economists would say, between markets and transfer payments. The market function of an economy allocates resources based on demand and supply. When prices rise, investment and output increase. And when prices fall, investment and output decrease. Transfer payments tax one group and redistribute that money to provide benefits to another. Examples are everywhere. Everyone who works pays Social Security taxes which are transferred as benefits to the elderly, disabled, or dependent children. Taxes on property are used to fund municipal services like street repair and fire and police protection. Income taxes fund both federal and state government operations.
At every level of government, tax revenues are collected from one group and spent to benefit others, such as Medicare, Social Security, Veterans benefits, Unemployment compensation, police departments, fire departments, libraries, schools, trash collection, and on and on and on. These are all forms of Socialism, and every government in the world taxes its citizens and businesses to pay for the goods and services it provides. Everyone chips in according to ability, and everyone shares in the overall benefits, according to need.
There is an old party game that provides some interesting insights into our own individual dispositions toward income redistribution. Everyone sits around a table with equal little pile of coins. When the game begins, everyone passes as much or as little as they like to the right, and keeps doing it. That process continues for many minutes until the game is called “over.” At the end people learn how they differ from others with regard to their needs to keep or not to keep some specific amount at the end. Curiously, some people are most comfortable aiming to keep as much as they started with. Others aim to wind up with nothing, and some feel a need to accumulate as much as possible.
More to the point: which are Republicans, and which are Democrats?
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