lummi island wine tasting october 29 ’21
**** NOTE: As we go to press tonight we are camped in the trailer at Bayview State Park. We have learned that the ferry is out of service for repairs, so we have decided to stay another night here and will NOT be opening the wine shop on Friday, Oct 29. Hopefully the ferry will return to service and we can be home to open on Saturday.
Current Covid Protocols
Last Saturday offered a pleasant taste of the quiet, off-season, pubby days of close neighbors and familiar faces. Very low-key and nourishing!
This week we will again offer indoor tastings on Saturday from 4-6 pm, with our familiar Covid requests:
— You must have completed a full Covid vaccination sequence to participate;
— We ask all to maintain mindful social distance from people outside your regular “neighborhood pods.”
Friday Bread
Each Sunday bread offerings for the coming Friday are emailed to the mailing list by Island Bakery. Orders returned by the 5 pm Tuesday deadline are baked and available for pickup each Friday at the wine shop from 4:00 – 5:30 pm.
Over the years the bakery has established a rotating list of several dozen breads and pastries from which two different artisan breads and a pastry are selected each week.
To get on the bread order mailing list, just click on the Contact Us link at the top of the page and fill out the form.
This week’s deliveries:
Pear Buckwheat – Begins with an overnight poolish preferment mixed the next day with bread flour and fresh milled buckwheat; the preferment allows the dough to begin to develop before the addition of toasted walnuts and dried pears soaked in white wine. – $5/loaf
French Country Bread – A a rustic country loaf made with bread flour, fresh milled whole wheat, and and a bit of toasted wheat germ. After building the levain with a sourdough culture and mixing the final dough it gets a long cool overnight ferment in the refrigerator. This really allows the flavor to develop in this bread. – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Pumpkin Muffins- Made with pumpkin and all the familiar pumpkin pie spices. Topped with a streusel made with butter, brown sugar and pumpkin seeds not to mention then filled with a cream cheese filling. Yum! Caution: may be addictive! – 4/$5.
Wine of the Week: Longship Lady Wolf Malbec ’18 Washington $25
Longship is a fairly new family-owned winery in Richland, in the heart of Washington wine country. Established in 2013, it has focused on producing big, hand-crafted, barrel-aged, red varietals like tempranillo, malbec, syrah, cabernet sauvignon, with at least 60% proportion aged for 18 months in new oak barrels.
The name “Longship,” and the adoption of the Viking Longship as the winery’s logo is a nod to the family’s Scandinavian heritage and the winery’s ongoing journey to produce some of the finest wines in the Pacific Northwest.
The Richland tasting room was added at the end of 2016, not just to feature their wines, but also, as is the case here at the Wine Gallery, to create a social space where friends can gather to relax in a convivial environment while sharing delicious handcrafted wine.
We took an immediate liking to the wine when we tasted it a couple of weeks ago. Chances are you will, too!
The Economics of the Heart: Oil is the New Tobacco
“Climate scientists are now as certain that the burning of fossil fuels causes global warming as public health experts are sure that smoking tobacco causes cancer.” —
The House Committee on Oversight has recently begun questioning energy company executives about the disinformation they have been spreading for decades to minimize the threats of climate change from the burning of the fossil fuels they produce and we all have used.
In 1980 I was involved in a project at Battelle Labs exploring the potential economic impacts of anthropogenic (human-induced) climate change. Though this was very early in the game exploring climate change, there were already several sophisticated climate models sounding the alarm. My portion of the study looked at the likely impacts on marine fisheries, and identified many areas of concern we have been observing right here in our own marine environment and habitat.
Broadly speaking, though the atmosphere is one gigantic element of an intricately interdependent global system, even the pioneering models in the seventies were sophisticated enough to include the interactive thermodynamic relationships among the distributions of global atmospheric temperatures, wind patterns, evaporation, rainfall, ocean temperatures, circulation patterns, and salinity, as well as an intricate array of positive and negative feedback loops that could slow down or accelerate global warming.
The article also highlights obvious parallels between the multi-decades battle between government and Big Tobacco and the current battle to fully expose and end Big Energy’s multi-decade PR campaign to discredit climate change as a global existential threat. Tobacco kept regulation at bay for decades, and Big Energy has presented an even more impenetrable barrier to reducing carbon emissions.
As the beginning quote above suggests, most humans on the planet have seen and experienced the effects of climate change in their own geographical settings. Broad swaths of the planet are drying up, burning, flooding, and starving. Millions of species are in danger of extinction. Billions of human beings will be increasingly competing for dwindling water supplies, arable land, and livable climates.
And right here in our own country many politicians of both parties still seem to believe that ignoring climate change is somehow “better for the economy.”
Old-time science fiction writer Harlan Ellison captured our growing sense of frustration and doom when he titled one of his classic stories, ” I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream!”
This week’s $5 tasting:
Planeta Segreta Il Bianco Sicily $14
Clear yellow with greenish hints; engaging aromas of citrus and flowers and hints of peach, papaya and chamomile. Balanced and refined, with a lingering and refreshing finish.
FontanaFredda Briccotondo Piemonte Barbera ’18 Italy $15
Nose of blackberries and plums, with hints of black pepper and cinnamon. Crisp and fresh on the palate with sweet, soft tannins, silky texture, and great fruit character.
Longship Lady Wolf Malbec ’18 Washington $25
100 % malbec; unfolds with dark, enchanting notes of blackberry, grilled plum, and jammy raspberry with accents of orange peel, vanilla, and tobacco spice, finishing with balanced structure, plush texture, and a lengthy finish.
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2072 Granger Way