lummi island wine tasting sep 9-10 ’22
Notes for this weekend: 4-6pm both Friday and Saturday
Looks like another beautiful weekend, mostly clear, highs around 70. And…for the first time in many years, the ferry will remain in service because this year drydock maintenance was performed in May, so it is logical to expect more visitors than during our typical reclusive September.
COVID continues to demand our individual attention. My college class just had our (I’m not making this up) 55th reunion last weekend, and many of us didn’t go because of COVID worries. Just got an email that lots of attending classmates are reporting that they did indeed come down with cases after they got home. So…although the newly released O variant vaccine promises to keep us inching toward “normalcy,” we are all still in the risk management business.
Photo at left is a bouquet from the extensive flower garden of our neighbor Colleen a couple of houses away. Occasionally in recent weeks she has had extra bouquets which we have made available on the deck at the wine shop during open hours. We mention this because we really like having them around, the season is coming to a close, and we are hoping to have them available for our guests again over the next few weeks.
Bread Pickup This Week
Breton Bread– Made with pre-fermented dough in which a portion of the flour, water, salt & yeast are mixed and fermented overnight before preparing the final dough, which incorporates the flavors of the French Breton region by using buckwheat and rye flour and sel gris -the grey sea salt from the region that brings more mineral flavors to this bread. Goes great with meats and cheeses – $5/loaf
Spelt Levain — Spelt is an ancient grain with a nutty, slightly sweet flavor; it has gluten but it isn’t as strong as in modern wheat. This bread is made with a levain before the final dough is mixed with traditional bread flour, spelt flour, fresh milled whole spelt and rye. – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Brioche Almond Buns – Made with a delicious brioche dough full of eggs, butter and sugar. Rolled out and spread with an almond cream filling. The almond cream is a delicious creamy filling made fresh with even more butter, sugar, eggs, and almond flour. Yum! – 2/$5
To get on the bread order list, click on the “Contact Us” link above and fill out the form. Each week’s bread menu is sent to the list each Sunday, for ordering by Tuesday, for pickup on Friday. Simple, right..? If you will be visiting the island and would like to order bread for your visit, at least a week’s notice is recommended for pickup the following Friday.
Wines of the Week: Cataclysm Chardonnay ’20 Washington $14
Over the years we have enjoyed and carried several wines from a long-established the Montinore winery in Oregon. The winery is one of only a few that is certified both biodynamic and organic, using practices and techniques that produce wines that are not only tasty, but also that sustain the vines and surrounding ecosystem with sound practices that maintain interdependent balance. The winery was established in 1982.
The Cataclysm Wine Company, on the other hand, is “brand” (snicker) new, with no history, no record, no details whatsoever about where exactly the wine was made, by whom, or where the fruit came from. There is, however, a substantial financial relationship between the owners of Cataclysm and the long-time owners of Montinore. We suspect that Montinore made the wine, probably at its main facility in Forest Grove, Oregon, as part of a larger financial arrangement that has allowed Montinore to expand its operations to the point where you cannot reach an actual human being on any of their telephones.
You can decide for yourself whether you like the wine or not, or care at all about its peculiar lack of a backstory. But for some of us, one look at their minimally informative website is enough to make us a little sorry we bought it in the first place. Maybe someday corporations will be able to get along without people at all so they can continue to rack up even more profits after our collective demise. Or, you know, maybe we are just in a cynical mood because of all the other crap that is going on…Sigh…
Economics of the Heart: The End of an Era
courtesy Liverpool Echo
She has been a reliable institution for all or most of the lives of everyone presently living. I was seven years old in 1953 when we watched some of the coronation (it went on for Hours!) on the primitive black and white television in our little living room. The pageantry was an endless parade of solemn pomp and ceremony, with unmistakable religious implications: the imposing, vaulted cathedral, the ornate costumes, the crowds, the horse-drawn carriages, the plodding formality.
We kids had no idea what a Coronation really meant, if anything, besides being a Big Deal. But we have learned what it meant by watching this then-young woman practice it every day of her life since then. For seventy years she was On Duty, day and night, the public face of a world-spanning Commonwealth. She hasn’t been just a queen, she has been The Queen to pretty much the entire world. We all feel, recognize, and grieve now for the passing of another Elizabethan Era.
This timing of her passing underscores the stark contrast between her long career of selfless service to Britain and the unrelentingly selfishness of our own Former Guy. One can’t even consider the two of them in a single thought without short-circuiting. She has been steady through a lifetime, lending strength to all of us, British or not, over all these decades.
By way of comparison, consider the Presidents of our country who have served during her reign: Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush 2, Obama, Former Guy, and Biden. It is a worthwhile exercise to go through the list and see which, if any, of her contemporary US Presidents measured up to her steady decorum, selflessness, and commitment…leaders we admired and took pride in.
Maybe a “Parliamentary Monarchy” offers distinct advantages for separating the functions of statecraft and government. As a symbol of centuries of British influence on the world and on the United States in particular, that model has served Britain very well. But at present it remains to be seen whether the British monarchy (or any other) will be able to survive very much longer in a world where reverence for a lifetime of service in general seems an increasingly scarce commodity.
Nowhere is this more evident than right here, right now in our own dear country, as divisive values, enmity, hostility, petty selfishness, and, oh yes, unbridled ego are continuously generated and amplified on public and social media. At a time when our country and the world must collaborate closely to manage increasingly catastrophic climate and humanitarian disasters, the selfish and the ignorant are doubling down to destroy the planet even faster.
One lesson we can take from the dignity, service, restraint, and commitment of Queen Elizabeth is that these are the glues that bind any nation together, that unite and guide its citizens to be their best selves. A current scan of our country, our media, our government, our judiciary, our Congress, our commerce, and our social institutions reveals a set of increasingly unbreachable divides, as when a large percentage of Americans seems to want every State to be able to legislate cruelty with no federal restrictions.
The passing of the Queen truly marks the end of an era in Western Civilization. We can all feel it. It’s not that she had any actual power to maintain all of civilization. But she symbolized, as no one else on the planet has, that each of us has a duty to make society work for everyone else. Modern politics and social media are products of undisciplined ego and the increasingly popular presumption of entitlement that goes with it. She demonstrated with every gesture that we all share a duty to serve each other and the living planet which which supports us all.
This Week’s Tasting Flight $10
Cataclysm Chardonnay ’20 Washington $14
Aromas of quince, pear, and custard; pleasing mouthfeel, easy to drink. Made with Washington fruit at an undisclosed location by undisclosed people in some kind of financial relationship with Montinore Estate in Oregon.
Rubino Oltreme Susamaniello ’17 Italy $14
Fresh, fragrant notes of cherries, pomegranate, raspberries and ripe plum; fruity, round and minerally, with soft tannins and rich flavors; a versatile pairing with richer dishes.
Daou Pessimist Red blend ’20 California (Paso Robles) $25
Full-bodied, rich and spicy, with balanced layers of elderberry and truffle with accents of cocoa, cardamom eucalyptus, leather, tobacco, and grilled meat, alluring texture, and leisurely finish.
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2072 Granger Way