lummi island wine tasting sept 19 ’20

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Saturday Outdoor Wine Tastings By Appointment!

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.Call early, as 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” 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: Marietta Old Vine Red  

This wine is billed as a sort of a “field blend,” but not exactly. A true field blend is when several varietals are planted in the same vineyard and exposed to the same soil, climate, and water conditions over the same growing season, and can be harvested, crushed, fermented, aged and blended together.

It’s a blend of Zinfandel, Cabernet, Petite Sirah, and Syrah from different vineyards near Geyserville (California) near the north end of the Dry Creek Valley, and “field blend” is a bit of a misnomer. Also, we know nothing about the differences among the vineyards these varietals come from, but whatever we call it, it is a festive and enjoyable wine at a modest price.

Predominantly Zinfandel, this wine combines hand selected fruit from multiple vineyards, resulting in a unique, bright red wine with solid structure. For decades the groundbreaking combination of grape varieties and multiple vintages in this wine has set the bar and blazed the path for red blends all throughout North America.

Marietta Old Vine Red Lot 70: A pleasantly bright and lively red wine, plump with blackberries and black cherries. Secondary notes of wild mint, dusty earth and even a hint of mocha provide an alluring, grounded experience in the glass. Comforting and irresistibly familiar, this is one of the original and best known red blends produced in California; a ‘drink now, enjoy often’ wine that can easily be taken more seriously as the moment demands)

 

Mar a Lago Update: Forty-five Days

We are now a mere six weeks till the Presidential Election on November 3. The whole world is feeling the tension, because the outcome will have a profound effect on the future of our entire planet. It is a little like how you would feel as the Dark Side’s Death Star goes into orbit around your planet and starts taking aim; like, Everything is On the Line.

Still, these days we welcome comfort whenever we can find it, and there are a few hopeful possibilities in the news despite the constant weight of the Virus, the Fires, the Hurricanes, the Economy, and the incessant Tweetsteria headlining. Here are a few to ponder.

The Problem Solvers Caucus
Since 2017 there has actually been a bipartisan group of 50 (25-25) Congressional Representatives dedicated to working across the aisle to produce workable compromises that will have a chance  to push past the many entrenched barriers to compromise that have made legislative collaboration nearly impossible. Two days ago the group placed a compromise Covid Stimulus package before Congress. It is the result of a great deal of the kind of work we expect our legislators to do but which has become rare. Their comprehensive bill is putting a lot of pressure on the rest of their Congressional colleagues, and might therefore have a good chance of passing. That would be a Good Thing.

Securing the Election
Former White House Intelligence Chief Dan Coats just posted an op-ed in the NY Times underlining that the stakes in this election together with the distrust and animosity between the two parties make it an immediate imperative for Congress  to  implement a robust election oversight system across the country to insure confidence in the validity of the results. As emotions and rhetoric now stand, without such a well-organized and carefully designed nonpartisan oversight process, many will question the results: “We must firmly, unambiguously reassure all Americans that their vote will be counted, that it will matter, that the people’s will expressed through their votes will not be questioned and will be respected and accepted.” Although time is now very short to create that kind of oversight structure, his idea has a great deal of merit.

Um…in full disclosure, some of us have long been convinced that the Republicans have had a built-in fudge factor of about 4% in several states (FL in ’00, OH in ’04, and WI in ’16), and only huge voter turnout let Obama prevail in ’08 and ’12. But then again, some of us ( the hopelessly naive) think gerrymandering, purging of voting rolls, and making voters wait for many hours to vote are criminal acts.

Unrest at the Dept of Justice
Meanwhile, at the DOJ, the recent resignation of long-time federal prosecutor Nora Dannehy seems to be yet another senior staff resignation in protest to Attorney General Barr’s misuse of his office to manipulate investigation findings to be more favorable to Trump’ s (and Barr’s) political desires. This follows numerous other such resignations, including prosecutors working in the Michael Flynn and Roger Stone cases. Because Ms. Dannehy resigned from DOJ (rather than just withdraw from that investigation) “she can warn Congress and the rest of us about what prompted such a dramatic move by a highly regarded career public servant.”

Well, that would be nice, but the deck seems loaded against it. Everybody now knows that Barr is a dedicated co-conspirator who seems increasingly dedicated to putting the power of the Presidency “Above” (but in reality Below)— the Constitution.

 

Wine Tasting

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