lummi island wine tasting jan 19 ’18
(note: some photos will enlarge when clicked)
Bread this week
Barley, Whole Wheat, & Rye Levain – Levain culture is built over several days and allowed to ferment before the final dough is mixed. Made with freshly milled whole wheat, barley and rye flours. – $5/loaf
Buttermilk Currant – A really flavorful loaf using a poolish preferment. A little honey for sweetness balances the flavors of the whole grain; buttermilk makes for a soft and tender crumb. Then lots of currants and just a little rosemary round out the flavors. This bread makes great toast and even better french toast – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Pan de Cioccolate – A delicious rich chocolate artisan bread using a levain with bread flour and fresh milled rye flour, honey for sweetness, vanilla and plenty of dark chocolate. A great bread to go with morning coffee or afternoon tea – $5/loaf.
Illahe Vineyards
Our white wine this week is 
Illahe gruner veltliner, the premier white grape of Austria, brought to the Willamette Valley in 1983 by Lowell Ford. Gruner (aka “gee-vee”) combines a delightful array of unique characteristics, including a complex palate that falls somewhere on the spectrum between riesling and chardonnay, with engaging fruit, complelling aromas, great acidity, and complex flavors.
Lowell Ford began growing gruner in Oregon in 1983, and in 1999 purchased the pasture land west of Salem that over the next several years became Illahe Vineyards. Son Brad Ford became the family’s winemaker in 2006. The vineyard was only tilled once, by horse; the wine is made almost entirely by hand with no electricity or mechanization, using a manual wooden basket press and transported by a team of Percheron draft horses that mow the fields and deliver the grapes to the winery at harvest. They may be the region’s only Completely Sustainable Winery. See video at bottom of this page.
New Year’s Prizes!
Thanks to all of you who slaved for hours in your kitchens, or picked something up somewhere, or just showed up with Whatever. It was Awesome, one of our best New Year’s events ever. Lots of Positive Energy…we are all Lucky Ducks!
Special mention goes to Mary Jane, who not only brings great food to these events each year, but also for being Inspired to bring these amazing Magical Glowing “Ice” Cubes! They are inert until they go into the liquid, and then burst into colors which change from moment to moment from green to blue to red to yellow…Amazing!
Our judge this year had her work cut out for her, because as usual there were many Delicious Dishes! However, after considerable tasting and deliberation, she settled on Mary Beth’s Stuffed Scallops as the Best-Tasting Dish! And they were also Beautiful (our Bad for blurring the pictures..) (:
Best-looking dish this year from from Peter, last year’s winner for “best-tasting” dish. Mexican by birth, Peter has great skill with peppers and salsas, and you gotta keep coming back for more! So yes, they were also Really Tasty! Oh, and yes there was a note on the table to Be Careful adding the Extra Spice…it was, um, Good Advice…! Tasty but mucho picante!
Mar a Lago Update: Hopes, Dreams, Karma, and Sh#*hole Countries
Everyone on the Planet now knows about the Sh#*storm that blew out of the Oval Office last week. And the Tweetster’s Comments have been widely interpreted as “Racist.” Which implies a prejudice against Whole Peoples because of their Race: white, black, brown, red, yellow, and all the shades in between. After due consideration, our Editorial Staff takes a Different View. We don’t think he gives even a single Sh#* about Race, per se. Oh, no, no, no, mes amis…this is not a Race Thing for him. It’s a Class Thing, shared by most Republicans: if people are So Poor they can’t meet their Basic Needs for Food, Clothing, Shelter, Sanitation, and Safety, It’s Their Own Fault!
Forty years ago when I was a grad student in Economics, the prevailing theoretician in Development Economics was Walt Rostow. The basic idea was that the Fundamental Problem with Lesser Developed Economies was Capital Formation, which requires Investment, which requires Savings, which requires (I am not making this up) “refraining from current consumption out of current income.” In practice, there had be some mechanism to turn the Labor and Natural Resources of the Region into Export Dollars so they could Import Capital (infrastucture, factories, technology). Only then could a country achieve the necessary threshold of capital formation for Economic Takeoff, as Rostow put it. This was the Basic Philosophy behind the World Bank and the policies it followed for decades.
Rostow’s Model was very appealing and made a lot of theoretical sense. In practice, however, the Benign Intent of the Model was quite consistently Twisted away from the Needs of the Many to support the “Greegos” (Greed + Ego..?) of the Few, including Local Dictators, Global Corporations, Cold War Strategists, Regional warlords, and Political Players of all Persuasions. The modern-day Fallout from all of this is a World of Heartbreaking Inequality.
Those of us with the Astounding Good Luck to have been born in industrialized nations have, by all historic standards, enjoyed the Regular Fulfillment of our basic needs for safety, food, clothing, and shelter to a degree of Comfort rarely seen in all of Human History. The Deeply Disturbing Fact is that Our Comfort comes at the Cost of most of those people who live in Sh#*hole Countries, which are, most fundamentally, not just places without running water, but places Without Hope. Think about that for a minute: Without Hope. So maybe Our Job As a Nation is to give all those people in Sh#*hole a little Hope that they too could enjoy the simplest of Gifts we Regularly Take for Granted: safety, shelter, food, water, and yes, a Clean Place to Sh#*.
This week’s wine tasting
Illahe Gruner Veltliner’16 Oregon $16
Light yet dense aromas of dried peach, apple, and fresh cedar. Fermented partially in acacia barrels which add herbal flavors and complex texture. Palate also shows red grapefruit, graham cracker, and white nectarine. Balanced and beautiful, great Washington take on Austria’s premier white.
La Rocaliere Tavel Rose ’16 France $14
Scents of dark berries, cherry, and licorice, with a floral accent. Firm and structured, displaying cherry and floral pastille flavors and a hint of bitter herbs, finishing with good power and length.
Tommasi Poggio Al Tufo Rompicollo ’13 Italy $17
Opulent, with an Amarone-like raisiny nuance to the ripe, soft red cherry, sweet spice, and herb aromas and flavors. Velvety, opulent, well balanced and smooth, with long, lush, smooth tannins. Terrific buy!
Terra d’Oro Zinfandel ’14 California $14
Vibrant aromas of clove and big, generous fruit lead to concentrated flavors of juicy plums and blackberries; well-balanced and smooth on the palate; plush but not jammy. Comforting and crisp on these long winter nights.
Maryhill Marvell GSM ’12 Washington $28
Grenache, Syrah and Mourvedre; shows ample tobacco leaf, licorice, cured meats and ripe red and black fruits in its mouth-pleasing, ripe, textured and balanced personality. Beautiful round body with notes of berry, cherry and baker’s chocolate.
lummi island wine tasting jan 12 ’18
(note: some photos will enlarge when clicked)
Bread this week
Sweet Corn & Dried Cranberry – Made with polenta and bread flour, then enriched with milk, butter and honey before being 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
Spelt Levain – Spelt is an ancient grain similar to wheat and has a nutty, slightly sweet flavor. It has gluten but it isn’t as strong as the gluten in traditional wheat. This bread is made with a levain, or sourdough, traditional bread flour and about 1/3 spelt flour, fresh milled whole spelt and fresh milled whole rye. It is a great all around bread – $5/loaf
For pastry this week one of our baker’s favorites:
Rum Raisin Brioche: A delicious brioche dough full of eggs, butter and sugar. Filled with golden raisins and chunks of almond paste and as if that wasn’t enough, topped with a chocolate glaze before baking. Ooh la la, what’s not to like. I can only make a limited number so be sure to get your order in early. – 2/$5.
Hell Freezes Over DESPITE Global Warming
It’s always been The Yardstick of The Unlikely. But here it is in the news: temperatures recently dropped well below freezing in Hell, Michigan. We suspect that upon hearing the news, many young (and not-so-young) men began making phone calls to those ladies they had crushes on all those years ago…“Okay, it Happened! NOW you Have To Go Out with me!!!” And at the same time, Congressional Republicans will no doubt be showing up on the Floor with Snowballs proving there is no such thing as Global Warming.
So let’s take this opportunity to spell out once and for all that the rapid shift in Climate Behavior the World has been experiencing for the last several decades is Way More Complex than “Warming.” If you throw a Stone into a still pond, you will see ripples spreading out over the surface. If you throw an Alligator into a pond where there has never been one, Every Living Thing in the pond knows Immediately and starts changing its behavior. It’s a System, Stupid!
And so it is in Hell. It’s a Zen thing: when it’s Cold, put on your parka; when it’s hot, take it off. Pretty simple, oughta work, right? Well, yes, BUT…Hell being what it is, when you change one thing it changes other things, which change other things, on and on. Hell can freeze over in Michigan while forest fires rage in California followed by rains that dissolve hillsides into Rivers of Mud. The Real Hell of it is that it is Just Beginning, and it’s going to get A Lot Worse. Or to put it another way…sticking your head in a hole is only gonna make it a Lot Worse!
Lost and Found
Every year after our Awesome East Coast New Year’s Eve Party, we invariably are left with items our guests forgot to take home with them. Is some cases we know who they are, but in many we do not. Last year someone left a very nice, relatively new down jacket. Since no one ever called or picked it up, I have recently started wearing it and enjoying it, with gratitude to our anonymous benefactor. But hey, if it’s yours, come by and claim it!
This year we invite your attention to a lovely blue plate left over from someone’s food contribution. It is ceramic, looks hand-painted from Indonesia, the sort of plate one would like to have back.
We also have a lightweight, white Columbia quilted vest, worn enough to be someone’s favorite. Zips like a man’s jacket, but has a feminine feel and a diminutive size…i.e., too small for me!
Mar a Lago Update: Our Tax Bill for Your Kool-Aid
It is really quite Breath-taking how after nearly an entire year of Grumbling and Hand-Wringing, Congressional Republicans are now falling all over themselves Rationalizing What a Great Man and Insightful Leader is the Tweetster. If your teenagers came home from the Dance with a values shift like this, you would immediately suspect they had suddenly become opioid-addicted. Or, worse…you can never completely rule out…Zombies!
Yet here they all are in the last week, making the rounds of the Sunday talk shows, waxing eloquent about how they have come to respect and value the Penetrating Insight and Strategic Acumen of their CIC. Most disturbingly notable among them is CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who dissembled all over himself relating the Great Respect he had for his nearly daily conversations with His President on Matters of National Importance.
At this point we would like to interject that Mr. Pompeo graduated First in his class at West Point in 1986, left the service in 1991 and became a Lawyer. He got into politics in Kansas, and with a great deal of help from the Koch brothers, won a House seat in Congress. He is a Very Bright Guy, no doubt, who had Unlimited Potential to do Good in the world. Our editorial staff has spent some time discussing this, and we find ourselves Deeply Disappointed that someone with Mr. Pompeo’s gifts seems to have learned So Little about Honor in his years at West Point. He could have been So Much More. But he chose the Dark Side, as did so many of the Tweetster’s Appointees. Playing politics is part and parcel of Cabinet posts; but we aspire to a certain Neutral Objectivity in our Intelligence Agencies, and Mr. Pompeo is obviously Deeply Partisan. And that is Deeply Troubling.
One year down, three to go. Dog help us…!
This week’s wine tasting
Folie a Deux Chardonnay ’15 California $16
Good example of Russian River appellation style; bright acidity and seductive notes of pear, apple, pineapple, apricot, nutmeg and vanilla—all framed by a richly textured palate.
Perazzeta Sara Rosso ’15 Italy $12
90% Sangiovese, 10% Ciliegiolo from the Tuscan south; bright and full-bodied with cherry, crisp acidity, and tantalizing earth tones make this pretty wine a winner with savory dishes.
O Wines Red Blend ’10 Washington $9
A Chateau Ste. Michelle project to help send low income, capable young women to college; Rich, dark color with dried herbs, cedar and blackberry with anise. Palate is fruity and has blackberry, anise and black cherry with some black olive.
Ded. Reckoning Cutlass Cabernet ’14 Washington $18
80% cab sauv, with cab franc and merlot. Appealing aromas of cocoa, mocha, herb, cherry and barrel spice lead to full fruit flavors. Muscular, slightly drying tannins.
Esplugen Priorat ’14 Spain $17
Garnacha, carinena, cab sauv; Priorat’s famous slate soil and arid climate give this wine great intensity and structure, with deep and complex aromas of rich ripe fruit, toast, and a long pleasing finish .
lummi island wine tasting jan 5 ’18
(note: some photos will enlarge when clicked)
Bread this week
Flax Seed Currant Ciabatta – Made with a poolish overnight preferment before blending bread flour and fresh milled whole wheat and rye flours. Loaded up with flax seeds and dried currants for a delicious bread. This bread is mixed with a lot of water that makes for a very slack dough so it can’t be weighed out and shaped like other bread, it is just cut into pieces. A really flavorful artisan loaf – $5/piece
Buckwheat Rye – Fresh milled buckwheat and rye are soaked for 8 hours without any yeast in a method known as an autolyse. As buckwheat and rye don’t have much gluten this allows what little gluten there is to start developing and really gets the enzymes going before the final mix. This soaker is mixed with bread flour, salt and yeast and a bit of honey. Would go well with all sorts of meats and cheese – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Bear Claws! – Made with a danish pastry dough rich in cream, eggs, sugar and butter. The dough is rolled out and spread with a filing made with almond paste, powdered sugar, egg whites and just a bit of cinnamon to round out the flavor. Then, because bears love honey, topped with a honey glaze after baking. As always, quantities are limited, be sure to get your order in before you miss out- 2/$5
January Hours
We will be around through January, and so will our Baker, but for Abbreviated Hours!
Therefore take Note: our present intention is to be open Fridays from 4-6pm and Saturdays from 3-6 pm through January.
Speaking of Bear Claws…
Ulee had his First Birthday on Christmas Eve. If we Bear in mind that most breeders have to come up with maybe a hundred new puppy names every year, it’s not surprising that these pups all got Holiday names. His was “Yuletide.” When we brought him home we shortened it to Ulee, which is most commonly a nickname for “Ulysses.”
Ulee is officially a Mini-Australian Shepherd, which basically means that his lineage conforms to AKC standards for an “Australian Shepherd,” though they are deliberately bred smaller, around 30 lbs. on average. They are very popular pets, being easier to manage than their 55# progenitors, but still intelligent, industrious, attractive, loyal, and attentive. And as in this photo, unlike many dogs, they will Look you In the Eye. The Mini Aussie is derived from selective breeding of smaller Standard Aussies.
Our dear boy Cooper (Best Dog Ever!) was also a Mini-Aussie, who weighed in at about 32 lbs. Coincidentally, this is the same weight as our older Aussie, Tator, who is a Working Dog from the somewhat different genetic lineage of Herding Aussies, which conform to ASCA standards. These dogs are longer, lighter-boned, more agile, and a bit, well…over-focused. Though Tator and Cooper weighed the same, Tator was taller, longer, and faster. The point here is that we expected Ulee to be about the same size and weight as Coopie. We haven’t weighed him for a while, but he is taller, longer, wider and heavier than Tator, probably 45 lbs or so at present. His head is noticeably broader and shorter than most Aussies, and his behavior is boisterous, physical, chewing-fixated, and Enthusiastic.You know…Bear-like!
So, a week or two ago we Realized What had Gone Wrong. Above left is a photo of Tator (left) and Ulee (right– with the “cigar”). Here are a bunch of typical Aussie photos. Ulee’s coloring is definitely Aussie-like, but his Shape is not. So he has been a Dog of Mystery until our Recent Insight: we are currently convinced by a year of Close Observation that the only Explanation that Makes Sense is that Ulee’s Ancestry has to include some creature like this!
Mar a Lago Update: is the Button So Big…or My Hands So Small…?!
First, of course, there isn’t any “Button.” Except maybe in the Satirical View of The Onion. So the Good News is that a Single Madman (you know who I mean) can’t Launch the Whole Arsenal Singlehandedly. It is Less Clear how small a number of Strategically Placed Madmen could launch Enough of the Arsenal to render the question Moot. And to be Frank, there seems to be No Shortage of Madmen in Positions of Power Around the World at the moment. At some point we might want to take a look at that, huh…?
Comfortingly, thanks to Dr. Strangelove, Fail-Safe, Seven Days in May, and their ilk, a Lot of Very Smart People have thought about Accidental Armageddon for a Long Time, and we all hope this is a Case where the Military Philosophy of “Two Backups for Every Alternate System” is In Place, Active, and Foolproof. You know, “more or less,” anyway. All should be Well as long as we avoid basic Economic questions like “um, could you remind me again how we computed the Optimal Number of Nukes to Launch under the Present Scenario…???”
There is not a Lot of Difference between what the Republican-controlled White House, Senate, and House are doing to America and what ISIS has done to Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Their recent Tax Bill has much in common with ISIS’ wanton destruction of World Heritage Art Collections in the Fertile Crescent…any Brutish Idiot can Destroy things, but it takes Leadership, Commitment, and Vision to Rebuild them…precious qualities in Very Short Supply these days.
This week’s wine tasting
Gio Chardonnay ’15 Slovenia $11
From Slovenian vines on the Italian border, this freshly styled chardonnay shows delightful and expressive notes of apple, lychee, citrus, warm croissant and sea salt.
Monte Tondo Veneto Corvina ’16 Italy $12
Ruby red colour; bright lively nose with fresh cherry, black berry and black pepper hints; medium-bodied with moderate acidity and supple, well-integrated tannin – well balanced, dark fruit core with cherry, dark chocolate and spicy notes. moderate length with a smooth, seductive finish and a spicy aftertaste.
Marchetti Rosso Conero ’15 Italy $11
Rich and inviting aromas of flowers, plums, brown spices, and hillside brush. On the palate, round notes of cherries, blackberries, cocoa and spice. Culminates in a satisfying, lengthy finish.
Goose Ridge G3 Cabernet ’15 Washington $14
Rich, deep aromatic expression of plum and dark cherry intertwined with toasty notes of vanilla and savory spices. The dark fruit flavors continue to resonate on the palate over a supple tannic structure leading to a long, soft finish.
Orowines Bluegray Priorat ’14 Spain $17
Named for the licorella slate of Priorat, which yields intense, terroir-specific wines from the harsh soils that challenge local varieties like Grenache and Mazuelo to the utmost, yielding tobacco and spice notes to the raspberry jam flavors. Rustic, earthy, spicy, and wildly aromatic.
lummi island wine tasting dec 29 ’17 New Year’s weekend
(note: some photos will enlarge when clicked)
New Year’s Breads
Cinnamon Raisin – Made with a nice mix of bread flour, freshly milled whole wheat and rolled oats. Some honey for sweetness, a little milk for a tender crumb and loaded with raisins and a healthy dose of cinnamon. No swirl of cinnamon sugar in the middle…the cinnamon is mixed in and flavors the entire bread for a hearty rustic loaf. Great for breakfast toast, even better for french toast – $5/loaf
Seeded Country Hearth- Also made with a mix of bread flour and some fresh milled whole wheat. Then loaded up with pumpkin, sunflower and poppy seeds. So good and So good For You! A nice rustic bread. – $5/loaf
and for pastry this week…
Brioche au Chocolate – A rich brioche dough made with plenty of butter, eggs and sugar, rolled out and spread with pastry cream before sprinkling with dark chocolate. The dough is folded over all that delicious filling and cut into individual pieces. As with all pastry quantities are limited so if you want these delightful pastries be sure and get your order in early. 2/$5
Holiday Wine Shop Schedule
Friday, December 29- open 4-7 for wine tasting and bread pickup
Saturday, December 30- open 2-6 for wine tasting as usual
Sunday, December 31- 12th annual East Coast New Year’s Eve Party 7-9 pm!
As the Fortunate Few well know, our annual “East Coast New Year’s Eve Party” has become a Hallowed Tradition. From 7-9pm on New Year’s Eve we provide the wine, you bring Something Delicious to share, and when the ball drops in Times Square three hours away, we all hoist our glasses and toast the New Year! The Young at Heart move on to their next party, and we Old Timers can get to bed at a decent hour! We welcome this annual opportunity to Thank all of you for your support this year, and to toast ahead to even more fun in aught-eighteen. Arrrr, lads and lassies, ye best mark yer calendars now ‘n’ start plannin’ yer Finger Foods!
Important Note! Speaking of Finger Food, we will again this year have a Secret Operative sampling the dishes and Assigning Points! Yummiest Dish wins a $25 credit, and Yummiest-Looking Dish wins a $15-dollar credit! Let’s see if Competition really does improve Quality!
Wine Club Reminder
All Wine Club memberships expire at the end of each calendar year! In order to keep enjoying Membership Savings through 2018 you must renew your membership. Also, we regret that rising costs demand that in order to continue our Generous Pours, we are raising the Wine Club Membership fee for 2018 from $35 to $50 to help close the Gap a bit on our expenses.
The Good News is that to make all of this more Palatable, if you are a current wine club member and buy any mixed case of wine before December 31, you can renew your membership for 2018 for the old rate of $35! Think about it! And while you’re at it, Consider that we have just Replenished our Stock of Theo’s Chocolate, including delicious bars, Almond Butter Cups, and Chocolate Coconut Clusters!
The Good Stuff
Some of you may have noticed a new display in the wine shop the last few weeks. Over the years we find we have built up an eclectic collection of some pretty nice wines. For various reasons most of them have never made it to our shelves: too few bottles or too expensive to pour for a tasting, or got lost in the cellar, any number of reasons.
These are all wines that we consider well above average, including Betz, Long Shadows, Quilceda Creek, Andrew Will, Felsina, Colomé, Ferrand, Osmin, El Nido, and several Brunellos. Since it is the Holiday Season, these are wines are all deserving of a Splurge, Something Special to Accompany a Special Event, or to Be a Special Event. Either way, next time you are in the shop check them out. Tasting notes and critic scores are provided. Bon appetit!
Mar a Lago Update: Opinions are Facts, but Facts are Not Opinion
As 2017 slogs to its Surreal Dystopian Close, Republicans are Giddy with the Final Realization of their Tax Cut Wet Dream Fantasy. They think it’s Step One toward their 80-year Goal of Rolling Back the New Deal and getting back to the Good Old Days of the Great Depression.
It seems to us Wildly Unlikely that any of them actually Believe that Trickle-Down 4.0 will be good for for Anyone but their Über-Rich Overlords and (they hope) Themselves. Over the next year or two we can expect to endure a lot of Self-Congratulatory Chest-Beating and Short Fat Fingers pointing at Piles of Sheeyit and Celebrating it as the Long-Promised Shinola. So this is a good time to start laying out for Them and for Ourselves how to tell One from The Other as the Results come in over the next year.
The First Major Claim of the Plan is that their Drastic lowering of Corporate Taxes will very quickly (this year!) lead to Major New Corporate Investment here in the U.S., increasing wages and employment. Easy to check, huh…? Most economists predict that these Windfalls will instead show up as increases in shareholder dividends, buy-backs of company stock, and yet another round of Executive Bonuses. There is no Quid Pro Quo built in here, no Accountable Requirement that Corporations earn these Gains by Actually Investing in American Infrastructure. It’s just a Giveaway.
So over the next year let’s all keep our eyes on the Facts as they Unfold. “Sheeyit” means middle and lower incomes continue downward while upper incomes continue upward. “Shinola” means corporations invest increasing $$ in the US, and lower and middle class families really do start getting an increasing share of the Economic Pie. No doubt lots of pundits will be following this through the next year. Our prediction: Promised gains for the lowest 90% will continue to remain Around the Next Corner, while riches will pile up even more at the Top. (My, my, how did we get so Skeptical?). Stay tuned; Time and Results will tell. As long as you can tell S…t from S…a you will be able to figure it out. In the meantime, we hope you can drop by this weekend and taste some wine!
This week’s wine tasting
Ruffino Sparkling Rose Italy $13
Elegant and stylish, made primarily from the Glera grape, blended with Pinot Noir. Fresh and fragrant, with notes of strawberry and slight hints of rose petals. Alluring flavors of delicate red berries and white fruits linger through the finish.
Rodney Strong Chardonnay ’15 California $11
60% barrel fermented and aged on lees in barrel for 6 months; 40% cold fermented in stainless steel for a fresh fruit-forward character. Aromas of baked apple, pear and citrus with white blossom aromas. Flavors of baked fruit and toasty brioche with a creamy, well-balanced finish.
Bocelli Sangiovese ’15 Italy $14
Bright,, lush, and appealing; deliciously ripe and smoky, with notes of marasca cherry, granite, and rhubarb compote. Finish is long and dry, with admirable acidity that makes the palate taut and pleasing.
Castano Solanera Vinas Viejas ’13 Spain 92pts $14
Monastrell, Cab, Grenache from high-elevation limestone soils; dense purple color, a big sweet kiss of blueberry and blackberry fruit mixed with crushed chalk, full-bodied mouthfeel, beautiful purity, density and richness with lavish fruit.
Gilbert Cellars Left Bank Red ’14 Washington $18
(Cab, Merlot, Carmenere, Cab Franc and Petit Verdot) Meaty, with notes of tobacco, earth, charcoal and dark fruits, medium+ body, with a firm, structured feel on the palate. 19 months in 80% French and 20% American oak.
2072 Granger Way
