lummi island wine tasting aug 18-19 ’23
Hours this weekend: Friday & Saturday, August 18-19, 4-6 pm
This week’s wine tasting:
Abacela Albarino ’22 Washington $22
Bright fruit with aromas of pineapple, pear, lemon and nectarine, crisp acidity,and juicy stone and tropical fruit flavors.
Cala Civetta Sangiovese di Toscana ’21 Italy $13
Earthy nose of red plum accompanies a vibrant yet mildly tannic palate of tart cherry with a hint of smoke and ocean brine – a true expression of Scansano, nestled halfway between the Tyrrhenian Sea and Mt. Amiata.
Toso Reserve Malbec ’18 Argentina $21
Elegant and balanced with good concentration and ripeness; focused, clean notes of blackberry, plum, and ripe, dark cherries; a plush, elegant mouthfeel, easy tannins, and lingering notes of leather and Spring soil.
Friday Bread Pickup This Week
Buckwheat Rye – Fresh milled buckwheat and rye flours are soaked for several hours without any yeast in a method known as an autolyse to start the fermenting process and really gets the enzymes going before the final mix – which is then fermented overnight in the refrigerator. The buckwheat, rye soaker is mixed with bread flour, salt and yeast and a bit of honey.– $5/loaf
Whole Grain Spelt Sweet Levain – Made with a levain preferment of freshly milled whole wheat and whole spelt before mixing with bread flour along with dried apricots, golden raisins, slivered almonds, and sunflower and flax seeds. Chock full of flavor!
and pastry this week…
Chocolate Babka Rolls – A sweet pastry dough full of eggs, butter and sugar, rolled and spread with a chocolate filling, rolled up and cut into individual rolls that are placed in baking forms for baking and then brushed with sugar syrup after baking. 2/$5
To get on the bread order list, click 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: Abacela Albarino ’22 Washington $22
Abacela founder Earl Jones wanted grow Spanish wine varietals in the Pacific Northwest, after his comprehensive research taught him that the the climate in Spain where tempranillo thrives couldn’t be matched in California. Tempranillo vines need a hot growing season between mid-April and October, but cool nights and little rain before harvest in late October, and before the first frost.
His comprehensive research led him to plant Tempranillo (1995) and Albariño (2000) grapes at his Fault Line Vineyards near Roseburg, OR, chosen for its specific micro-climate and soils proving that the varietals can thrive in the Pacific Northwest. Since then, the vineyards have expanded to 25 acres of tempranillo and 12 acres devoted to albariño, along with other site/climate-matched varietals including grenache, malbec, and syrah.
Currently Abecela produces about 2,000 cases of albariño each vintage. It makes a bright, lively, and flavorful white wine with typical aromas and flavors of apple, pear, and white peach, with bright acidity and a pleasant salinity that spreads out the finish: a great summer sipper with lots of afternoon dishes.
Economics of the Heart: Fascism Comes to America
The past 100 years of human history have shown us the pros and cons of various socio-political systems. Much of the last century was a transition from monarchy to various forms of “elected” government. After all, any social system requires a set of rules that its members are either content to follow (or are forced to follow) in the interest of meeting the population’s needs. In our own nation there has been an ongoing philosophical division between Republican support for the business/finance interests of the wealthy, and Democratic support for the interests of everyone else.
In the past decade or two we have seen increasing conflict of values about what is important or not, what is fair or foul, true or false, right or wrong, cruel or just, legal or illegal, deserving or undeserving, noble or corrupt, worthy or unworthy. We have seen our two-party political landscape morph from reasoned argument to entitled assertion, from structured discussion to infantile rant, from conducting the people’s business to keeping the people’s business from being conducted. All of these things are brought even more starkly into relief by the fascisization of Republican politics and the resultant multiple criminal charges against the Tweetster, who meets or exceeds all the qualifications for a Fascist leader.
Every Fascist leader of the last century built around themselves a cult of personality, and this is not lost on fascism scholar Ruth Ben-Ghiat who gives Mussolini credit for creating the mold: “Mussolini would strip his shirt off in newsreels, engaging cheering fans in idolizing their leader.” link
“The primary way the early fascists got to power was by killing off and intimidating their primary rivals, the Socialists, with their own “Squadrists” — terrorists who would descend upon towns in trucks, uniformed in black shirts — had knives and they killed thousands of people in the years 1919 to 1922. The killing went on after Mussolini became prime minister…landowners and businessmen in particular supported the suppression of socialism.” link
Today in our own country and around the world we see an increasing number of world leaders that bear these Fascist characteristics —the hyper-nationalism, the leader cult, the undermining of the independence of the judiciary. And it is happening right here, right now in our own country. Today’s Republican Party has no platform other than Trumpism and limiting the rights of women, immigrants, and people of color, while bowing to the wishes of Corporations and billionaires.
Pretty existential stuff…
lummi island wine tasting aug 11-12 ’23
Hours this weekend: Friday & Saturday, August 11-12, 4-6 pm
stork nest outside our window in Haro, Spain, 2013
This week’s wine tasting:
Maryhill Viognier Washington $14
Carefully picked and slowly pressed to extract vibrant aromas of melon, pear, and apricot with traces of pineapple and grapefruit, continuing into a sensational and crisp fruit finish.
Chateau Cabirau Cotes de Rousillon ’19 $17
The backbone of the Syrah and Carignan ally perfectly with the opulent Grenache, giving a medium-bodied wine of intense black fruit flavors, redolent of mountain herbs.
Muga Anden Estacion Rioja Crianza ’19 Spain $21
Tempranillo/Garnacha blend matured in French and European barrels for 14 months, making for a floral, juicy, open and approachable rioja. read more
Friday Bread Pickup This Week
Pain Meunier -aka “Miller’s Bread”— made with pre-fermented dough it contains all portions of the wheat berry: flour, fresh milled whole wheat, cracked wheat and wheat germ, always a favorite and a great all around bread. It makes the best toast! – $5/loaf
Sonnenblumenbrot – aka Sunflower Seed Bread– made with a pre-ferment that is a complete dough itself. It takes a portion of the flour, water, salt and yeast that ferments overnight before mixing the final dough, made with bread flour and freshly milled rye, then loaded up with toasted sunflower seeds and some barley malt syrup for sweetness. This is a typical German seed bread – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Black Sesame & Candied Lemon Brioche: A delicious brioche dough full of eggs, butter and sugar. Filled with fresh lemon zest and candied lemon and as if that weren’t enough, topped with a black sesame streusel before baking. Ooh la la, what’s not to like…–? 2/$5
To get on the bread order list, click 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: Muga El Andén de la Estación Crianza ’19 Spain $21
same stork nest in Haro
Pied de cuve is a technique used by winemakers to develop a local wild yeast indigenous to a particular vineyard to ferment wines made from that vineyard’s grapes. Muga uses this process int the fermentation of this week’s featured wine. The process begins by picking a small amount of grapes shortly before the full harvest which are crushed and allowed to start fermenting from the native yeasts already present on the grapes. This culture is then added to the rest of the grapes when they are picked to initiate fermentation. In organic and biodynamic viniculture, it is part of the local conditions that define every vineyard…its terroir.
We visited the winery at Muga some years ago. Unfortunately, we also had some kind of bug that forced us to cancel several other winery visits we had scheduled. So we laid low, took some short walks through Haro’s narrow streets, and…during our convalescence we were entertained by the stork pair that were nesting on a rooftop directly across the narrow street from our little second-floor apartment. Curiously, despite being under the weather, our memories are fond ones. Haro is a small community, in a pretty arid landscape surrounded by vineyards, with good food, charming and friendly people, and a surprising number of rooftop stork nests. What more could you want??
By the way, just tasted this lovely Rioja for the first time about an hour ago…it is big, luscious, nuanced, and powerful, from new vineyards acquired and developed by Muga over recent decades. Seriously tasty!
Economics of the Heart: Climate Crisis Deepens
photo courtesy NOAA/NWS
We have known for nearly 50 years that burning fossil fuels was a Faustian bargain. Early models in the 70’s were remarkably accurate in predicting how increasing concentrations of CO2 and other hydrocarbons produced by the combustion of fossil fuels would affect global climate. As models and data got better, our predictions got better; and as our predictions got better, giant energy companies found ways to subvert any attempts to decrease the rapidly growing production and use of the gas, oil, and coal that were adding heat to the atmosphere and more wealth to people who already had plenty.
A warmer atmosphere does all of the things that heat does on a bigger and bigger scale each year. Increasing evaporation of oceans, rivers, and lakes takes more water into the atmosphere and moves it to a cooler latitude, and releases it as rain. The increasing heat in the atmosphere also creates higher winds with more kinetic energy and increasingly destructive winds, rainfall, catastrophic flooding in some places, and stifling drought in others.
Every living thing is threatened by these changes. Entire ecosystems that had slowly developed symbiosis among the life forms around them and thrived for millennia are now threatened. And we humans, we who are causing all this stress and destruction, keep acting as though it’s no big deal, someone will find some way to adapt.
Over the last week or two I have found myself picturing Q, the cynical-yet-God-like-powered character from the Star Trek series, looking down his nose at us deceptive and self-serving human beings and observing with a cynical sneer, “Well, now, isn’t that Convenient for you!” as Corporate Mindlessness rationalizes the continued destruction of the living systems upon which all life depends.
Many places in the world have already experienced devastating climate-related disasters, and this summer has been a particularly sobering Slap in the Face to our short-sighted selfishness. For some reason, yesterday’s sudden, catastrophic, and heartbreaking wind-driven fire-storm in Lahaina, is particularly shocking: so fast, so brutal, so complete, a worst nightmare in a place we all think of as a paradise.
We swear and sob at these things that are happening more and more frequently, with worse and worse destruction, in more and more places. The fires and floods and winds are getting worse and worse, and the prospects of rebuilding are becoming less and less rational in more and more places. The ice is melting rapidly at both poles. People in Arizona can only leave their air-conditioned homes between sunset and sunrise.
Given the human penchant to revert to feudal/authoritarian political economies under enough stress, the rapidly increasing costs of climate disasters, within our nation and across the world, are made even more poignantly disturbing.
lummi island wine tasting aug 4-5 ’23
Hours this weekend: Friday & Saturday, July 28-29, 4-6 pm
This week’s wine tasting:
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.
Idilico Albarino ’22 Washington $17
Fermented on the lees for four months, lightly cold stabilized, fined and filtered before bottling; nose of citrus and tropical fruit leads to luscious, crisp, and refreshing flavors. “Drink anytime the sun shines…”
Lancyre Pic St Loup Vielles Vignes ’17
100 % malbec; unfolds with dark, enchanting notes of blackberry, grilled plum, and jammy raspberry with accents of orange peel, vanilla, and tobacco spice, finishing with balanced structure, plush texture, and a lengthy finish.
Friday Bread Pickup This Week
Fig Anise – Made with a sponge that is fermented overnight, then the final dough is mixed with bread flour and fresh milled whole wheat. Honey, dried figs and anise bring in all the flavors of the mediterranean. A great flavorful bread – $5/loaf
Sesame Semolina – Uses a sponge pre-ferment that ferments some of the flour, water & yeast before mixing the final dough. Made with semolina and bread flour and a soaker of cornmeal, millet and sesame seeds and a little olive oil to round out the flavor and tenderize the crumb; rolled in sesame seeds before baking– lots of great flavors! – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Chocolate Croissants – traditional laminated french pastry with a bit of sourdough flavor and another pre-mass hypnosisferment to help strengthen the dough and create the traditional “honeycomb” interior. Rolled out and shaped with delicious dark chocolate in the center. –2/$5 🙂
To get on the bread order list, click 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: Lancyre Pic St Loup Vielles Vignes ’17 France $22
The “Pic” which dominates the small French wine region of Pic St. Loup is a 640-m (2000 ft.) “Tooth” of granite that dominates the view for many miles in every direction– powerful, beautiful, vaguely remote, and iconic. It looms over a collection of very special, well-drained, limestone-rich vineyards. About an hour north of Montpellier on the Mediterranean coast to the south, it features hot days but is far enough north to have Atlantic-influenced cool nights that induce slow, full ripening.
The wines from Pic St. Loup must be predominantly syrah, grenache, and mourvedre (as in nearby Southern Rhone) and fairly consistently have a certain gravitas. The vines must be at least six years old (not the usual three) before considered mature enough for making red wines, but are perfect for making excellent rosé! Vineyards are scattered among rugged terrain that slopes up from the Mediterranean. Atlantic influences make the local climate cooler and wetter than elsewhere in Languedoc.
We have carried their rosés for many years, but it has been a long time since we have poured one of its old vine reds!
Mar a Lago Update Revisited: Democracy at a Crossroad
We humans are a selfish and brutal bunch with a long history of deceit and violence, and the more of us there are on this tiny planet the worse it seems to be getting.
We are all wired like Gollum, and also like Jesus or Buddha. In any given moment we can all be either one, and it is not a matter of religion. It is an ongoing conflict between our individual ambitions and our ability to have compassion for those who are suffering. It’s not that complicated; it’s as if we all have some crossed wires sometimes about mine, yours, and ours.
Our country’s founding premises some 250 years ago embodied the Enlightenment principles of Humanism. We all have the same needs for physical and emotional safety and nourishment and a sense of belonging in a community of shared values and mutual respect. Those needs made the default organization of the earliest humans a tribal cooperative that needed each other to survive and, when possible, to thrive.
Some evidence suggests that modern homo sapiens first appeared perhaps as recently as 40,000 years ago and subsumed or out-competed and/or interbred with other humanoids, including Neanderthals. (most of us have some Neanderthal DNA). As described in Sapiens, by Yuval Harrari, our species has made a profound mark on our world in a very short period of time. We are both creative and destructive, kind and ruthless, sometimes creators of both beauty and horror.
Several millennia of civilization have put boundaries around many of those instincts, but under enough duress any of us is capable of anything to protect ourselves, our friends, our families, and our communities from outside threats—or, perhaps, to advance our political interests.
During the 2016 campaign it became apparent that the Tweetster (duck in sunglasses!) was able to stoke a latent paranoia among ordinarily rational people that convinced them that various Others were invading America to Steal their Stuff: Muslims, Mexicans, non-whites, non-Christians. Everyone who was different was a threat, and the Tweetster was able to turn those latent fears and prejudices into a political movement. He was able to connect with their inner fears by giving voice to them. At the same time, those same behaviors evoked the opposite reaction from many of us, making him a particularly polarizing and manipulative figure, not unlike Hitler or Mussolini. Our nation is still deeply polarized from the vastly different realities evoked by competing media orientations.
2016 wasn’t a typical political campaign– it was more some kind of mass hypnosis. Even today, as the Tweetster faced his Third (and most compelling) indictment (on the Jan 6 insurrection), no doubt a large number of Americans (perhaps including you) take it for granted that everything he has said and that Fox and Twitter and Christian Radio have echoed for the last six years is True, because somehow that message justifies their own self-doubt, their own dissatisfaction with their station, and their need to have someone to blame for their sense that they deserve more and those Others deserve less.
At root all of this tension has exposed a deep rift in the common values that have held this nation together. Right here on our little island we see in our local social media unkindness and judgment which benefits no one. There is no way of telling if the Tweetster caused all of this fear, anger, and distrust in our nation, or vice versa. Either way, it’s gonna be a long year or two till this gets sorted out.
There is an old Maine story about a young fellow racing along a rural road in Maine in his sports car and hits a cow that stepped into the road. He comes quickly to a stop and walks back to see the cow still standing and the farmer next to it. The kid says hopefully, “Um, well, she seems to be okay…??” The farmer pauses for a long time before saying, “Well sonny, I’ll tell yuh…if yuh think yuh done ‘er any good, I’ll be happy to pay yuh for it…”
lummi island wine tasting july 28 ’23
Hours this weekend: Friday & Saturday, July 28-29, 4-6 pm
painting by Didi Lutz
This week’s wine tasting:
Ryan Patrick Rock Island Chardonnay ’20 Washington $16
Aromas and flavors of wildflowers, crisp apples, honey, and cinnamon roll with a round, crisp, body and a graceful finish of sumac-spiced croutons.
Townshend Cellars T3 Red Washington $16
Bordeaux style blend of cab, merlot and cab franc; fruit forward with hints of black currant and vanilla, with layers of complexity and depth through extensive oak aging in French and American barrels.
Longship Lady Wolf Malbec ’18 Washington $27
100 % malbec; unfolds with dark, enchanting notes of blackberry, grilled plum, and jammy raspberry with accents of orange peel, vanilla, and tobacco spice, finishing with balanced structure, plush texture, and a lengthy finish.
Friday Bread Pickup This Week
Poolish Ale – the preferment here is a poolish, made with bread flour, a bit of yeast and a nice ale beer for the liquid and fermented overnight. Mixed the next day with bread flour and fresh milled whole wheat. This makes a great all around bread with a nice crisp crust – $5/loaf
Buckwheat Walnut & Honey – also made with a poolish of fresh milled buckwheat and bread flours. Buckwheat is not a grain it is actually a seed and closer in the plant family to rhubarb and sorrel than to wheat and contains no gluten– (**note: THIS bread DOES include wheat flour so is NOT gluten free). Buckwheat has an earthy/nutty flavor that in this bread with a little honey and toasted walnuts for a nice crunch. – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Chocolate Muffins – Rich and delicious, great chocolate flavor, and a seductively moist texture: flour, brown sugar, sour cream, and eggs, with lotsa chocolate chips inside and sprinkled on top–2/$5
To get on the bread order list, click 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: Longship Lady Wolf Malbec ’18 Washington $27
Longship is a fairly new family-owned winery in Richland, in the heart of Washington wine country. Established in 2013, it has focused on producing big, hand-crafted, barrel-aged, red varietals like tempranillo, malbec, syrah, and cabernet sauvignon, with at least 60% aged for 18 months in new oak barrels.
The name “Longship,” and the adoption of the Viking Longship as the winery’s logo is a nod to the family’s Scandinavian heritage and the winery’s ongoing quest to produce some of the finest wines in the Pacific Northwest.
The Richland tasting room was added at the end of 2016, not just to feature their wines, but also, as is the case here at the Wine Gallery, to create a social space where friends can gather to relax in a convivial environment while sharing delicious handcrafted wine.
We took an immediate liking to the wine when we first tasted it last year. Chances are you will, too!
Economics of the Heart: Memo to Council
Before this week’s County Council meeting two days ago, Islanders had been assured many times by Council members and County Executive that all decisions regarding ferry matters, including filling the four new vacancies on the Advisory Committee (Lifac), would be on hold until sometime in the Fall. Imagine our sense of shock and betrayal when the Council reversed position on that and voted in favor of adopting the County’s proposed ordinance change, which we all know would remove all the existing guardrails on the expenses that can be charged against fare revenue.
What follows is is a brief summary of arguments to lobby the Council yet again against passing the PW version of the governing ordinance.
The central bone of contention in this long battle comes down to one single idea: the interpretation of the phrase “regular and routine” in the wording of the County ordinance governing ferry fares :
WCC 10.34.001B. “Operating costs” means all actual daily running expenses and all actual regular and routine maintenance and administrative expenses associated with the use and operation of all physical elements of the ferry system.
For many years this definition has served to maintain a balance between annual fare revenue and target fare box revenue goal of covering 55% of annual operating costs. When fares are set correctly, some years will show a surplus and some a deficit, but maintain an equilibrium over many years until a persistent deficit or surplus suggests a fare revision.
That changed last November when Public Works suddenly announced a very large and imminent deficit in fare revenue that was claimed to require an urgent major fare increase to be passed immediately. Over the next several months a citizens’ group managed to hold these efforts at bay while revealing numerous errors in PW claims and calculations, no actual deficit, and no demonstrated need for a fare increase under the existing statute. How can we explain this sense of Urgency?
For starters, a visual examination of charts of annual operating expenses since 2013 reveals substantial increases in unusually high operating costs over time. Note that prior to 2017, individual operating expenses above $20k were rare. Beginning in 2017, individual expenses between $30k and $50k appeared and became larger and more frequent. And now, most recently in 2022 and 2023, we are seeing individual “operating expenses” of $250k and $400k respectively for the major rebuilds of the landing dolphins last year and this year.
A more narrow glance at just the 10 highest individual expenses over this period demonstrates clearly what is going on here: the aging infrastructure supporting our 65-yr-old ferry is wearing out. If it would last until a replacement ferry and new infrastructure could be brought on line, we would just let it deteriorate. But it is already failing and requires major re-investment to add the required longevity.
Under the terms of our existing County ordinance, our annual contract with WADOT, and governing State law, these expenses cannot be charged against fare revenue because they add longevity to these assets and because they are clearly way, way, way above any reasonable interpretation of “regular and routine.” These expenses should be charged to the Road Fund along with other road and bridge improvements constantly going on across the County.
The chart of the ten highest “repair” expenses over recent years shows just how far out of line with “regular and ordinary” these expenses are. It is irrelevant whether they are called capital repairs or capital investments, but they are decidedly NOT “regular and routine” maintenance. Btw, the Corps of Engineers regards ferry routes as public roadways, a further clue that expenses that are not “regular and routine” should rightfully be paid from the Road Fund along with all other highway improvements.
Finally, let’s talk about Fairness, since various Council members are fond of portraying ferry users as wealthy, free-loading island dwellers who want a free ride. It is one thing to talk about the price of a single fare. It is quite another to realize that an island resident commuter with a full-time mainland job makes about 250 round trips a year. That means that each $1 in fare expense translates to a $250 annual expense for a commuter.
Between 2002 and 2011 ferry fares increased five times, from $2 car/driver pass to $13, i.e., from $500/yr to over $3000/yr for a daily commuter. Comparison of US Census data from 2010 and 2020 shows that over the next several years a large number of daily commuters and young families moved away and were replaced by retirees, telecommuters, and home business owners who can much more easily avoid higher fares by making fewer ferry trips.
The easiest way to increase ferry revenue is with a summer surcharge on cash fares. Most ferries use them, but Public Works isn’t interested.
The Takeaways here are that: 1) County Code must preserve the “regular and routine” part of the operating costs definition, and 2) Public Works must start engaging cooperatively with the ferry user community of residents, visitors, contractors, and services to achieve a mutually agreeable path through the Whatcom Chief’s last years of service.
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