lummi island wine tasting sept 30 ’22
Hours this weekend: 4-6pm both Friday and Saturday
The autumn light and color continue to be soothing as we enter October; COVID looks to be evolving into a manageable worldwide woe; and Jupiter is dazzling us every night with its once in a hundred years proximity brightness…all Good Things, and all very welcome!
Here at the wine shop we will continue to provide ventilation and air filtration during open hours, and ask that the unvaxed continue to find seating outside as weather permits.
ALSO… Please note: the wine shop will be closed next weekend, October 7-8 (except for Friday bread pickup)
Bread Pickup This Week
Pear Buckwheat – Begins with an overnight poolish preferment mixed the next day with bread flour and fresh milled buckwheat; the preferment allows the dough to begin to develop before the addition of toasted walnuts and dried pears soaked in white wine. – $5/loaf
French Country Bread – A a rustic country loaf made with bread flour, fresh milled whole wheat, and and a bit of toasted wheat germ. After building the levain with a sourdough culture and mixing the final dough it gets a long cool overnight ferment in the refrigerator. This really allows the flavor to develop in this bread. – $5/loaf
and mmm, pastry this week…
Rum Raisin Brioche: A delicious brioche dough full of eggs, butter and sugar. Filled with golden raisins and chunks of almond paste and (wait there’s more!) topped with a chocolate glaze before baking.- 2/$5
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: Radman Cellars Syrah ’17 Washington $27
A few years ago, pre-Covid I think, we were on a familiar pilgrimage to Oregon wine country, camped for several days at Champoeg State Park in St. Paul. The area is one of the first populated settlements at the north end of the Willamette Valley, in the heart of what is now “pinot noir” country.
Unobtrusively hidden across the road from the park are two of our favorite wineries, Sineann and Lady Hill. On this particular day we spent a good part of the afternoon in the Sineann “tasting room,” really just an open area in the winery barn. It was a warm afternoon, doors were open, and about a dozen of us were gathered around a couple of barrels that served as a “bar.” And there were flies buzzing around, lots of flies, so many that you kept your glass covered. Numerous fly swatters were deployed, including a couple of electric ones that zapped them with a little sizzle. Though it sounds horrible, the situation was strangely festive.
It turned out that the woman (Lisa) who was managing the tasting that day, was also a winemaker with her own label: Radman Cellars. As I recall, the winery name is an anagram of her actual last name plus the R and the A. Or something like that. Anyway…we tasted two of her wines, a cab and a syrah. They were good, very good, and we came home with a case of the cab, made from (I think) fruit from Washington’s legendary Red Mountain AVA, known for its concentrated intensity and flavor. … Philosophy
All you need to know is that “our people” who frequent the wine shop are generally thrifty, so a $20 bottle is a luxury, and anything more $$$ has to Really Ring some Bells. Therefore the fact that we sold most of that case at $40 each the first night we poured it tells its own story. We brought back another case a few months ago, and there may still be a few left. So this weekend we pouring the 2017 syrah. Come by and check it out!
Economics of the Heart: Republican Fascism Proudly Steps Out of the Closet
Benito Mussolini and Donald Trump (Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)
A lot of Republican politics in the past thirty years has been trending closely in the direction of Mussolinian fascism. We’ve all seen it, complained about it, tried to work with it, lamented it, and failed to name it for what it was, and is. Gingrich laid the foundation in the early 90’s, which led directly to the so-called Tea Party of the early 00’s. It then metastasized into McConnell’s sotto voce racist tactics in the Obama years and then directly to the hateful hyperbole of of the Tweetster’s slogan-rich MAGA rallies right out of the Mussolini playbook, which Hitler deeply admired and deliberately adopted. The Fascis-ization process has correlated directly with the increasing prevalence and virulence of right-wing media and its thirty-year War on Facts.
Like the Italian fascist movement, MAGA mobilizes the masses through all available media, with repetitive slogans evoking hyper-nationalism, leader cultism, racism, and violence against vaguely defined social and political rivals. The enemies list– there is always an “enemies” list– includes Democrats, anyone not a Fundamentalist Christian, higher education, critical thinking, science, women’s rights…you know, all the things we used to consider the necessary prerequisites for an informed and empowered electorate in a literate, educated, egalitarian society. In case you hadn’t thought about it for a long time, We are those they referred to as their Posterity. Nowadays we fear there will not necessarily be any posterity for much longer.
Every day brings more revelations about the depth, breadth, and commitment of the movement to overturn Constitutional governance in our country, and yes, replace it with this new Fascism, firmly clutching Jesus on his Cross while loading their AR-15’s to keep women cranking out babies. Millions of Americans who consider themselves devout Christians have giddily embraced this new American fascism. There is no logic that can explain how a follower of the New Testament could support policies that deliberately cause suffering. And yet they do, day in and day out, all in the name of Jesus, he of the Sermon on the Mount.
The breadth and depth of the conspiracy to replace American democracy with a Republican-controlled neo-fascist state has been detailed rigorously over the past week in a series of prime time interviews with Denver Riggleman, an experienced data analysis consultant who has been working with the January 6 committee over the past year. His new book, “The Breach: The Untold Story of the Investigations into January 6th,” lays out in detail the clear and present danger to our democracy that the January 6 plotters still pose to our nation. (watch video)
Mussolini’s stated vision was for membership in his new fascist group to “commit all fascists to sabotaging the candidacies of the neutralists of all parties by any means necessary.” The ongoing revelations before us suggest that the conspiracy against the last election likely includes many more players at many more levels than we had imagined, is backed by very powerful players with very deep pockets, and is committed to making the United States a neo-fascist, racist, fundamentalist Christian state enforced by a white totalitarian elite.
Worst case scenario: the 2020 election conspiracy might be far deeper and wider than we have imagined, and chunks of our legal infrastructure might be unable to find the necessary prosecutorial traction. Hmm…what was that old saying about living in interesting times….?
This Week’s Tasting Flight $10
Natura Rose ’21 Chile $12
Cold-soaked before pressing and cold-fermented on the skins to develop rich and nuanced aromas and flavors of grassy lime, tropical fruits, and lychee, with a crisp, lingering finish.
Dom. Les Gryphees Les Balmes Beaujolais ’20 France $ 17
From 100 yr old vines on a steep slope of limestone from ancient seashells, clay, and “pierres dorees,” the mineral-rich, golden chalk of Beaujolais); shows off this classic beaujolais style.
Radman Cellars Syrah ’17 Washington $27
Made in Oregon with Washington grapes; deep and dark, with concentrated aromas and mouthfilling flavors of fertile earth, dark plum, and umami that linger on the palate.
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2072 Granger Way