lummi island wine tasting sept 2-3 ’22 artists studio tour
Studio Tour Hours: 4-6 pm Friday and Saturday
The wine shop will be open for tasting this weekend as usual from 4-6 pm on both Friday and Saturday. We are also participating again in the Annual Artists’ Studio Tour, with Anne Gibert as our visiting artist.
Official Tour hours are from 1- 5pm both Saturday and Sunday. However, although before Covid we used to stay open and offer wine tastings all day both days, due to Covid cautions and other constraints our official tasting hours will not change for the tour.
However…if our sandwich board sign is deployed in front of the shop, you may assume we are open for art viewing and possibly wine tasting, so please feel welcome to drop in!
Finally, at the current stage of the global pandemic, anyone can be an unknowing carrier, so even though overall risks are low, we all must manage risk to ourselves and others in our own way. For our part, we will continue taking basic precautions in the wine shop: windows open, air filter operating, outside seating options. We do continue to request that the unvaxed remain outside for tasting.
Fyi, the weekend forecast is for partly cloudy, comfortable (70°) weather both Friday and Saturday!
NO Bread Pickup This Week !!
Janice is away this weekend, so sorry, no bread deliveries…back next week!
Wines of the Week: Cloudlift Cellars Favorites
Friends of the wine shop know that we have a long-standing appreciation for the wine making skills of Tom Stangeland, owner/winemaker at Cloudlift Cellars in Seattle. Tom and his wife Joanie have been making an annual pilgrimage to Lummi Island each August to celebrate their wedding anniversary with a long weekend on the Island and an anniversary dinner at the Willows. This year marked their 25th!
We took advantage of their visit to get a delivery of several of our particular favorites of their wines, and will be pouring them for our tastings this weekend. See tasting notes below…!
Economics of the Heart: The Devil and the Republican Party
image courtesy of www.atlantamagazine.com
The airwaves are lately full of commentary about the handling of classified documents. This public discussion has followed the discovery that The Former Guy had retained possession of dozens of boxes of classified government documents that he apparently had accessed while in office. Despite the nonstop media musing about what that Might Mean, there has been precious little discussion about how exactly such materials are regularly maintained and custody tracked in everyday White House operations. It is actually quite stunning to hear that anyone, including a President, can have custody of such documents even while in office without a clear paper trail showing what document, which copy, when custody began, and when it ended.
It is disturbing enough to hear how not only how cavalierly these documents have been held in unguarded and unsecured locations for all this time. It is even more disturbing to realize that such a thing could ever have been allowed to happen in the first place. Back during the Cold War such materials were taken very seriously, with numbered copies, each with a chain of custody that linked each document to the last person to have responsibility for it. People were trained to take these responsibilities extremely seriously. You took pains to make sure not to lose such materials in your custody or leave it unsecured. You were Responsible for it, and if it got lost or compromised, you were in big trouble.
Probably none of us who never experienced whatever kind of zoo the Tweetster White House really was can even imagine the prevailing levels of chaos. Still, the implication is that the Former Guy had open access to such documents, apparently with no clear chain of custody, and retained possession of them for nearly two years after leaving office.
Really? That certainly sounds like a story worth following…
The other head-scratching piece of this is that until pretty recently Republicans all pretended to be Hawks on America and would have devoured the Tweetster at the first inkling of what we all suspect– that he kept these documents because he knew they would be worth a LOT of $$ to the right buyers. Does anyone really imagine there is some Other reason for his having stolen all these papers and kept them so readily available at his swanky little international golf club? Go ahead, think about it…as Michael Cohen has spelled out in great detail, and as history has continually confirmed, the Tweetster is a con man-opportunist-psychopath with no apparent purpose in life except conning people into trusting him and then pushing them down the stairs. He is to the Republican Party what the Devil was to Faust.
Even after all this, most Republicans across the country still continue to choose the Tweetster over country, over Constitution, over truth, over common sense. Faust is the Republican Party, reveling in the growing Authority of its Christian Fascism, its institutionalization of cruelty, the offhand sacrifice of the entire planet’s ability to support life for a few moments of fleeting riches. There’s a lot at stake, all right…
This Week’s Special Tasting $10
Cloudlift Lucy Rosé of Cab Franc ’22 Washington $18
Pale salmon in color, with aromas of fresh nectarine, citrus peel and strawberry; palate is dry, bright, and focused, with lively, mouthwatering citrus and minerality that extend the finish.
Cloudlift Viognier/Marsanne/Rousanne ’20 Washington $22
We claim a little credit for asking Tom to make a marsanne/roussane blend a few years ago. The blend adds white flowers and honeysuckle, melon and pear nuances to fill out the palate.
Cloudlift Ascent Cab Franc ’13 Washington $27
74% cab franc and 18% merlot with a bit of cab sauv and Petit Verdot; deep ruby color and a rich, smoky nose of raspberry, cherry, and plum with scents of rosebuds, brambles, tobacco, sage and pepper. The flavors follow the aromatics with notes of licorice, dark cocoa, French roast and scorched earth.
Cloudlift Zephyr ’15 Washington $34
Beautiful blend of 44% Syrah, 28% Mourvèdre, and 28% Grenache presents rich aromas and flavors of blueberry, huckleberry, orange peel, garrigue, raspberry, black pepper and sweet fruit flavors that linger like satin on the finish.
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2072 Granger Way