lummi island wine tasting sept 3-4 ’21
Current Covid Protocols
The highly contagious Covid Delta variant continues to infect thousands of Americans, including vaccinated people, who may have no symptoms and no awareness if they/we are carriers. This creates a quandary about how to manage our social interactions.
For our part, because we put high values on both safety and being with “our people,” we have come up with this risk-benefit compromise for wine tasting this weekend:
- 1. Wine tasting this weekend will be Friday and Saturday from 4-6pm, outside on the deck;
- 2. You must have completed a full Covid vaccination protocol to participate;
- 3. Please maintain appropriate social distancing from people outside your regular “neighborhood pod.”
Friday Bread
Each Friday Island Bakery delivers fresh bread ordered by customer email earlier in the week. Each Sunday offerings for the coming Friday are emailed to entire list. Orders must be returned by 5 pm on Tuesday for pickup at the wine shop the following Friday from 4-5:30.
Over the years the bakery has established a rotating list of several dozen breads and pastries from which are selected two different artisan breads and a pastry each week.
If you would like to be on the bread order mailing list, click on the Contact Us link at the top of the page and fill out the form.
This week’s pickup:
Sweet Corn & Dried Cranberry – Made with polenta and bread flour, then enriched with milk, butter and honey for a soft and tender crumb, then loaded up with dried cranberries. Has great corn flavor but is not a traditional quick cornbread. A delicious bread that makes great toast – $5/loaf
Barley, Whole Wheat, & Rye Levain – A levain bread where the sourdough culture is built over several days and allowed to ferment before the final dough is mixed. Made with bread flour and freshly milled whole wheat, barley and rye flours. A hearty whole grain bread that is a great all around bread – $5/loaf
Chocolate Muffins – Rich and delicious, everything you have always wanted in a chocolate muffin. Great chocolate flavor and an incredibly moist muffin. Chocolate muffins can often be dry, particularly the next day, these aren’t those muffins! Made with all the things that muffins good: flour, brown sugar, sour cream and eggs; with plenty of chocolate chips stirred in and sprinkled on top – 4/$5
Wine of the Week: Gamache Boulder Red ’17
In 1982 Roger and Bob Gamache brought a family farming heritage to Washington and planted the Gamache vineyard near the White Bluffs in Columbia Valley under the guidance of Washington wine pioneer Walter Clore. Twenty years later they began making wine under their own label. From their years as vintners they had established symbiotic working relationships with other top vintners in the area that gave them access to the highly sought-after fruit from the iconic Ciel du Cheval vineyard on Red Mountain and Champoux vineyard in Horse Heaven Hills.
All vineyards are not created equal, and great fruit is the necessary ingredient for great wine. Therefore it is not surprising that Gamache wines are highly regarded, including our “wine of the week” Boulder Red.
Sadly, Gamache brothers Bob and Roger sold their 180-acre Basin City vineyard to Sagemoor vineyards in 2016, and have just sold the winery as well, making this their close-out vintage. Read more
The Economics of the Heart: Democracy vs. Corporate Feudalism
The basic idea of medieval Feudalism begins with the concentration of wealth (the ownership of income-producing assets) into the hands of a small number of established families. In exchange for a loyalty oath, the owner-lord grants his sub-lords ownership rights over specific fiefdoms and their inhabitants, with the implicit understanding that they will do whatever is necessary to generate the ongoing income stream necessary to maintain the lord’s standing army. This interdependent relationship between lord and vassal lies at the heart of feudalism. The lord has all the power, and the vassals live at the mercy, whim, and pleasure of the lord. Like overseers in the Confederate feudalism of the Old South, they have their own lines to toe.
Feudalism runs on a hierarchy of power, with the most valuable lands and positions given to the most valued vassals, who have their own sub-vassals, and so on. Each fiefdom depends on system of mutual benefit and obligation among the powerful, living in relative privilege over a larger underclass of subsistence workers.
The feudal model has many parallels to today’s rapidly emerging global economic system, which we could aptly name Corporate Feudalism. A handful of individual billionaires and global corporation CEO’s sit at the heads of global financial empires. Their personal and corporate wealth continues to grow exponentially even as vast areas of the planet become increasingly uninhabitable. Consumption of their products is burying our Planet in single use plastic bottles and toxic chemicals. Authoritarian politicians across the globe (including nearly all of the American Republican Party), like the feudal lords they imagine themselves to be, vie to exploit their lands and their people for a piece of the action.
This dystopian vision was captured powerfully in the classic 1975 film Rollerball, set in a world where sovereign nations had become secondary to a handful of Global Corporations. Jonathan is the star athlete who has grown too powerful and corporate bigwig Bartholomew wants him to retire. The most memorable scene has this dialogue, where Bartholomew is played by John Houseman with his precise and deliberate British accent.
Bartholomew : Jonathan, let’s think this through together. You know how the game serves us. It’s a definite social purpose. Nations are bankrupt. Gone. None of that tribal warfare anymore. Even the Corporate Wars are a thing of the past.
Jonathan E. : I know that, I just…
Bartholomew : Now, we have the Majors and their executives. Transport. Food. Communication. Housing. Luxury. Energy. A few of us making decisions on a global basis for a common good.
Jonathan E. : The (Rollerball) team is a unit that plays with certain rhythms…
Bartholomew : So does an executive team, Jonathan. Now, everyone has all the comforts. You know that. No poverty. No sickness. No needs and many luxuries – which you enjoy – just as if you were in the Executive Class. Corporate society takes care of Everything. And all it asks of anyone…all it’s Ever asked of anyone… is NOT TO INTERFERE with management decisions. (!)
Since the 2021 election we have watched the constantly deteriorating rationality in both the leadership and the followers of the Republican Party. They have become obsessed with their sense of Entitlement to Power, and have drunk Way too much of their own Victimhood Kool-aid over the last six months.
This week’s $5 tasting:
Adorada “eau de California” Rosé ’16 California $14
Brilliant coral color with aromas of strawberries, red grapefruit, rose petal, and jasmine; palate of strawberry, orange zest and a touch of white pepper spice with bright acidity to balance the fruity creaminess. And all presented in a Very Fashionable Package!
Montinore Borealis White Oregon $15
Aromas of orange blossom, honeydew, guava and kiwi; sumptuous flavors of stone fruit, Meyer lemon and juicy pear drizzled with caramel.
Gamache Boulder Red ’17 Washington $16
Malbec 42%, Syrah 23%, Merlot 23%, Cabernet Franc 8%, Cabernet Sauvignon 4%. “Smooth and luscious with heady aromas of dark fruit, loamy earth, vanilla and cedar, and compelling flavors of black cherry, plum and dark berries mingled with graham, vanilla and spice. Refined tannins add depth to the full-bodied finish.”
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2072 Granger Way