lummi island wine tasting november 4 ’16
(note: some photos will enlarge when clicked)
Friday Breads
Barley & Rye with Pumpkin Seeds – Made with a levain (sourdoug) that is fermented overnight before being mixed with bread, barley, rye and whole wheat, some buttermilk and honey and then loaded with toasted pumpkin seeds. Makes for a very flavorful bread – $5/loaf.
Kamut Levain – another overnight levain of bread flour with fresh milled whole kamut, also known as khorason wheat – an ancient grain of the middle east now grown in (we are not making this up) Montana. Some people find it easier to digest than the normal hard red wheat most used in bread. – $5/loaf.
And for pastry this week…
Chocolate Croissants– Ooh La La, also made with an overnight levain, and a hint of whole wheat and wheat germ before being rolled out and laminated with rich European butter. and filled with chocolate before baking. – 2/$5
Gilbert Cellars
At a recent trade tasting we spent a fair amount of time talking with Charlie Gilbert, who poured for us a number of current releases from Gilbert Cellars in Yakima. His great-grandfather moved his family to Washington from Illinois in 1897, and over the next fifty years built an extended family business with hundreds of acres of orchards in the Yakima Valley. Charlie’s grandfather Curtiss, returned from the front in WWI in 1918, also became an avid outdoorsman who often hiked with William O. Douglas. Curtiss died in 1947; in 1948 Justice Douglas was instrumental in naming the tallest peak in Washington’s Goat Rocks wilderness– where they had hiked– Gilbert Peak (photo, left), after his old friend. You can read more of the family history here.
Gilbert Cellars began in 2002 as something of an experiment in making wine for the extended family. It has grown into something of a showcase of what careful artisan winemaking can do with Yakima Valley fruit. Under winemaker Justin Neufeld their wines have won numerous high scoring reviews, and over the next few weeks we look forward to pouring several selections for you. We begin this weekend with their Pilgrim Red, a curious blend of malbec, grenache, and (I’m not making this up) pinot noir. Treat yourself by coming by and checking it out.
Last of the Moulinier
Domaine Moulinier is something of an icon here at AWG, as a search through our blog archive will reveal. We visited Moulinier on our first trip to France, around 2011, about a year before many of you also visited there on one of several tours with our own Ryan Wildstar.
As we wrote at the time, “The winery is in its fifth and sixth generations with retiring winemaker Guy Moulinier (we had a great time trying to understand each other while he gave us a tour of the winery) and his son Stephane who now makes most of the wines. In the winery are astonishing displays of fossils and artifacts dug up in the past hundred years in their vineyards, including dinosaur eggs and bones and stone tools of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnon hominids. Their collection rivals anything you would see in a museum, really amazing.”
At this point I am sad to say that the Northeast importer with whom Ryan arranged to bring a number of French wines into Washington is no longer importing them into the country, and therefore they will not be available for the foreseeable future. We will continue to explore avenues to acquire these wines (Moulinier and La Liquiere in particular). This weekend we are pouring our last available case of the Moulinier Cotes du Rhone… 🙁
Life As We Know It
A couple of months ago the NASA Space Station took this photo of two hurricanes about 400 and 1300 miles respectively from the Big Island of Hawaii. This is interesting for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is seeing two hurricanes, not only happening at the same time, but close enough to each other to be visible in the same photo. Like, that’s so Alarming it’s definitely beyond OMD and is a long way toward WTF. Maybe we need a new Acronym that is like those two only, you know, Way More So.
For some years now cyclonic megastorms (Hurricanes, Typhoons, or Cyclones depending on their location) have been getting Worse, causing more Damage, Loss, and Misery. This is not a Surprise. One of the Basic Features of Global Warming is that there is more Heat in the Atmosphere, and therefore there is more Kinetic Energy in the atmosphere, and therefore No One should be Surprised that Big Storms are getting Bigger and do More and More Damage.
Sure, you say to yourself, Everybody Knows That. But what does it have to do with the Election next week?
It has to do with the Fact that apparently millions of our Fellow Citizens will not believe in Climate Change until their houses blow away and Sea Level is up to their Ears. On the Contrary, they are continually on the Lookout for the Snake Oil that will Make Everything All Right Again. They are Angry, they are Poorly Informed, and they are Completely Unaware that “President of the United States” is pretty close to the most demanding job on our Planet, and that, yes, there ought to be some Minimal Qualifications for the job, and no, your vote should not be an Offhand Decision.
This is a Very Scary Time. folks. Be sure to vote. And be sure to drop by the wine shop this weekend. In these Difficult Times, it’s a Welcome Comfort. And May the Force Be With Us…!
This week’s wine tasting
Brancott Sauvignon Blanc ’15 New Zealand $16
Complex nose melds citrus peel and tropical fruits with notes of dill, lemongrass, anise and menthol. Plump and slightly liqueur-like with menthol and anise notes joined by quinine and pepper nuances on the finish.
Gilbert Pilgrim Red Washington $17
Malbec, grenache, pinot noir; nose of dried cranberry and pomegranate with white pepper and mint notes; flavors begin soft, round, smooth and balanced.
Domaine Moulinier Rouge ’12 France $13
70% Syrah, 25% Grenache, and 5% Mourvèdre; Nice spice and garrigue on the nose, with a broad palate of ripe red fruit, with a bit of orange note on the finish. Smooth and soothing.
Lovo Cabernet Veneto ’15 Italy $11
A new Italian face on a familiar varietal, this surprisingly tasty cabernet is unoaked, bright, clean, and zesty.
La Quercia Montepulciano Riserva ’12 Italy $18
100% organic montepulciano from low-yield vines; rich, port-like nose of candied cherries that carry through on the expressive, rich, earthy palate; nice balance of fruit and acidity.
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