lummi island wine tasting sept 12 ’20

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Saturday Outdoor Wine Tastings By Appointment!

All of you Regulars know our friend Anne who lives a few hundred yards down the street. In the early days of the wine shop there were more than a few hours when she was our only guest. Many of you also know her daughter Julia who visits periodically from England, and her long-time-ago preppie classmate Jonathan who lives on Cape Cod. They were dimly acquainted back then, “re-met” at a school reunion a few years ago, and are now an established trans-Atlantic “item.” We always look forward to and enjoy their visits, and were pleased to join them on Anne’s flower-rich patio Monday night for wine and catching up.

As can happen these days, conversation centered on politics, and at some point they departed the scene to fetch something. About ten minutes later they came back wearing these Yo! Semite! T-shirts designed and distributed to friends by an iconic schoolmate. You may recognize the featured phrase from recent political news…and sorry, not available in Stores! Fun!

While Covid constrains and good weather continues, we are offering limited Saturday afternoon outdoor wine tastings by appointment for two parties of up to five people each. To minimize overlap between groups we are scheduling the first group for 2:30 and the second at 4:00. Tasting fee is $5 each for a flight of four wines. Social distancing rules will be observed, and hand sanitizer will be provided. See guidelines below.

NOTES:
1. Note that the two slots sometimes fill early in the week;
2. Due to the outdoor venue, reservations are weather-dependent. (We are exploring ways to extend our season a bit, we’ll see how that goes…)

Social Distancing Guidelines:

1. Everyone must wear a mask when they are not seated;
2. Groups sharing a table must be a “pod”of family or close friends that regularly share space together, or otherwise take responsibility for managing social distance within their group; and
3. Everyone agrees not to arrive before their appointment begins and to leave before it ends.

To make a reservation, call number next to our logo (above, right).

Wine of the Week: Pomum Red ’15

For this weekend’s tasting guests we return to an old favorite wine from a favorite Washington winemaker, Javier Alfonso of Pomum Cellars in Woodinville. The wine is his Pomum Red, a compelling blend of cab and cab franc, rounded out with malbec, petite syrah, and merlot. Javier grew up in Spain’s Ribero Del Duero region, and brings his heritage to his winemaking here in Washington. His wines show his preference for highly drinkable wines with rich, evolving, and lingering flavors, silky tannic depth and length, and a Muse that beckons “hey, Amigo, un vaso mas!”

A few years ago (OMD, just realized it has been eight!)  Javier and wife Shyla made a surprise visit to the wine shop on a Saturday afternoon, and it was great fun. We remember this now because this weekend we are pouring his Pomum Red, and this vintage (sampling at this very moment!) is really Quite Delightful, with contrasting aromas and flavors of rich nectarine and blackberry fruit and a juicy, lingering finish.

He also has a second label we have carried for some years called Idilico. At the moment we have his Idilico Garnacha on the shelf, and in warmer weather we generally carry his Albarino as well. Both bear the fingerprints of his winemaking style, which generally means “yes, you’re gonna like it!”

Pomum Red ’15     Washington     $19
Mostly cab and cab franc with malbec, petite verdot, merlot; aromas of both fresh and leathery red fruit and exotic spices; On the palate shows black cherry, cranberry and garrigue,  fine elegant tannins and a long finish.

 

Dreamtime For Sale

For whatever reasons, the way our lives have gone in the last few years has not provided much support for  sailing, and with some ambivalence we have made the difficult decision to put our Montgomery 23, Dreamtime  on the market. She is presently moored at Squalicum Harbor in Bellingham, probably until the end of Drydock, when she will likely go back on her trailer for the winter behind CityMac in Bellingham.

This is a sweet boat to sail, but there never seems to be the time and commitment actually to get underway. Click on the Dreamtime Pics button at top of page to see more photos.

Only about 20 of these boats were made, all between 1979 and 1984. They have become something of a cult classic in a certain circle, along with their smaller counterparts, the Montgomery 17 and Montgomery 15.

Current asking price has been lowered to $15,500, which includes boat, custom trailer, Honda 9.9 outboard, and 8 ft Westmarine inflatable dinghy (with its ever-handy fold-down wheels!).  Call or email for additional information (see logo area, above).

 

Mar a Lago Update: Economic Extinction

This morning, listening to the News on the radio, we had a hard time getting our heads around the number and extent of active wildfires in Washington,  Oregon, and much of California. Huge swaths of forests, grasslands, and meadows have provided explosive fuel under conditions of scorching temperatures, tinder-dry fuel, and high winds. 400,000 acres went up in flames in 24 hours. Even the recently devastated California town of Paradise was revisited by yet another Fire. These fires have come on so suddenly, caused so much damage, and destroyed so much infrastructure so quickly that it is feeling increasingly  Apocolyptic. Yet in the midst of it all, the Tweetster doubles down on subsidies for fossil fuel development on the fragile continental shelf and in sensitive wildlife refuges.

A warmer planet increases atmospheric temperatures and kinetic energy in the atmosphere, causing greater evaporation, more rainfall, and more flooding. We saw it last year in the Caribbean, and we saw it last week as first a tropical storm and then a hurricane hit the Gulf Coast in the space of a week.

As these risks increase, insurance rates and lending rates will be driven upward. At some point well before a property becomes physically uninhabitable, it will have already become economically uninhabitable as both buyers and lenders grow less and less willing to invest in it. Let’s face it; there is no undeveloped habitable place where 7 billion people can all go to find food, water, and shelter. The only sensible thing for us humans to do is to pull the emergency brake on our  destructive habits.

 

 

Wine Tasting

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