lummi island wine tasting sept 17-18 ’22
Notes for this weekend: 4-6pm both Friday and Saturday
Definitely feeling the season changing as we approach the Autumn Equinox next week…more gray skies, cooler winds, and the sights, sounds, and smells of lots of fallen leaves.
COVID continues to demand our individual attention, but Governor Inslee has announced the formal end of restrictions by the end of October. This coincides with (finally!) the establishment of relatively widespread immunity in our region. We will continue to provide ventilation and air filtration here at the shop, and ask that the unvaxed continue find seating outside.
Weather this weekend will be 60-ish, with varying degrees of cloudiness, sunshine, and showers.
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. NOTE: bouquets will be available for sale during Friday’s tasting!
Bread Pickup This Week
Kamut Levain – Kamut, aka khorasan wheat, is an ancient, protein-rich grain discovered in a cave in Iran in the 70’s that many people who can’t tolerate wheat find more digestible. This bread is made with a levain that is fermented overnight before being mixed with with bread flour and fresh milled whole kamut flour. It has a nutty, rich flavor and makes a golden color loaf. A great all around bread – $5/loaf
Barley & Rye w/ Pumpkin Seeds – Made with a levain that was fermented overnight before the final dough was mixed with bread flour and fresh milled rye, barley, and whole wheat flours. Some buttermilk makes for a tender crumb, honey for sweetness, and toasted pumpkin seeds add to the flavor and texture. A really flavorful artisan loaf – $5/loaf
and mmm, pastry this week…
Chocolate Muffins – Rich and delicious, great chocolate flavor and an seductively moist texture: flour, brown sugar, sour cream, and eggs, with lotsa chocolate chips inside and sprinkled on top…AND…
Almond Poppy Seed Muffins – Another rich and delicious muffin…all the things that makes muffins good PLUS almond and poppy seeds instead of chocolate!
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.
Wine of the Week: Rasa Occam’s Razor Red Columbia Valley ’18 Washington $22
With science degrees from MIT and Stanford, an enology degree from UC Davis, and as one of only a handful of “Masters of Wine” on the planet, Rasa winery founder/owner/winemaker Billo Naravane has a special knack for creating balanced, seamless varietal blends. His wines consistently display a perfect balance of texture, richness, personality, and flavors.
Each Rasa wine has its own name, specific varietal blend, and vineyard source. Each blend is sometimes repeated over several years, sometimes not, but each has a story to go with the name.
Occam’s Razor is named for William of Ockham, a 14th century Franciscan Friar and philosopher who coined this frequently quoted lex parsimoniae (law of parsimony), which postulates that other things being equal, the simplest answer to any question is likely to be the most correct. Lex parsimoniae is better known today as Occam’s Razor.
The wine name relates to the precision of the original blend in 2011. This current namesake is a much broader blend of 41% Cabernet Sauvignon, 32% Syrah, 9% Grenache, 8% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, 4% Touriga Nacional, and 2% Petit Verdot…essentially blended from fruit not selected for the limited production wines.
Economics of the Heart: Wind Directions
Recently Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan spoke out in plain terms against the intrusions of the personal politics of the Conservative Court majority in many important recent decisions: “Judges create legitimacy problems for themselves … when it looks like they’re an extension of the political process or … imposing their own personal preferences.”
Kagan cited several examples from the past year’s docket that have severely damaged public confidence in this Court’s ability to make decisions consistent with both sound interpretation of the law and established precedent. Rather, she points out, many recent decisions override the long-established (originalist!) secular values enshrined in the Constitution with their own evangelical Christian superstitions on a broad range of issues. These include voting rights (Brnovich v. DNC), the administrative authority of the Executive (West Virginia v. EPA), gun laws (New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen), flagrant thumb-on-the-scale allowance of school prayer on the football field (Kennedy v. Bremerton School District, Carson v. Makin), and public funding of religious private schools.
As public confidence in the Court plummets toward a 200-year low, self-righteous MAGA mavens whine their practiced victimhood screaming “she stepped on my toe!” against un-named”Democrat elites,” “liberal media” and “fake news.” And btw, while all of that is going on, there is an election coming up in a little over a month that could very well make for a short unhappy future of all Life on Earth. So this election is without a doubt the most important of our lifetimes.
There are some signs of Hope out there for the coming election, the brightest being the visible mobilization of American women for the coming election. The numbers suggest that women– especially young women– are registering to vote around the country in record numbers in response to Dobbs. In just a few months it has become clear that the only way women can assure their right to choose across the country is for Democrats to gain control of both houses of Congress in this year’s election and pass laws enshrining every woman’s right to choose. We should all do everything we can to help them get registered and to vote in those red states that have gone to such misogynistic lengths to make that so very difficult.
Several small breezes seem to be wafting in the right direction at the moment. Dobbs is motivating many more women to vote in this election than men; judicial investigations are increasingly threatening many Republican politicians who took part in the Jan 6 conspiracy; the J6 hearings/publicity are awakening at least some Maga supporters from their collective trance; many hard-won accomplishments of the Biden Administration are increasingly recognized and appreciated; and the same Ukraine that the Tweetster tried to extort is prevailing at the moment against its Russian invader with the strong international leadership of Not-So-Sleepy Joe. Not to mention that last-minute save on the rail strike today…!
Fingers crossed…
This Week’s Tasting Flight $10
Mas des Bressades Rosé ’21 France $12
Bright and dry rosé from a blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre, with a splash of Carignan and Cinsault. Lovely balance of bright red fruit and wild herbs, with a vibrant, spicy finish.
Parducci Small Lot Petite Sirah ’20 Mendocino $15
Rich, dark, and full-bodied wine with dense blueberry and cocoa flavors, and tongue-coating, lingering soft tannins that give pleasing length to the saturated fruit flavors on the finish.
Rasa Occam’s Razor Red Columbia Valley ’18 Washington $22
Bouquet of blackberry and cassis, with nuances of spice, leather, vanilla, and espresso. Full-bodied palate shows suave tannins with rich notes of dark berries, black cherry, and vanilla with hints of cigar, chocolate, cedar, and spice.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
2072 Granger Way