lummi island wine tasting july 15 ’16
(note: some photos will enlarge when clicked)
Friday Breads (email us to get on the preorder mailing list! )
This week’s breads all feature pre-fermented dough (PFD), in which some of the dough is fermented slowly overnight then added to the final dough mix to kickstart enzymatic activity.
Whole Wheat – similar to last weeks whole wheat sourdough, but this bread has close to 50% of fresh milled whole wheat as well as bread flour. When using whole grains I add a little honey to help balance the flavor. A good all around bread – $5/loaf.
Rosemary Olive Oil – mostly bread flour with about 15% white whole wheat, which is naturally a bit sweeter than red w.w. and it keeps the crumb a bit lighter. This bread has a crisp crust and tender crumb from the olive oil. A little fresh rosemary from the garden gives it a really nice flavor. – $5/loaf.
Oh, and did we mention– pastry this week is…Ooh la la, pastry Provencal:
Gibassier – –starts with a rich dough full of eggs, butter and sugar. Then incorporates the flavors of Provence, olive oil, orange flower water and fresh squeezed orange juice, fresh and candied orange peel and anise seed. After baking each one is brushed with melted butter and rolled in sugar. My oh my!- 2/$5
Tough Week
Our experiences this past week bring us to wonder yet again what is it about human beings that allows us to kill all kinds of living things just because they are a little, how shall we put it…Inconvenient. And even more disturbing, when we decide to Kill Something, Our Dear Species can get Disturbingly creative. In the case of Rat Poison, the currently favored chemical concoctions are designed to rob the pesky rodents’ blood of the ability to coagulate. So when you put out that little box of D-Con, you are inviting your cousins of a common ancestor to a tasty meal which will destroy the clotting ability of their blood supply so it oozes right through their veins and arteries, through their tissue and organs, bleeding them to death right inside their own bodies. Essentially they suffocate from lack of oxygen. Yes, folks, this chemical cocktail is brought to you by the same folks that invented Drawing and Quartering, Garroting, and the rest of it. WTF is Wrong with us???
We mention all of this because last Monday morning our generally feisty and cheerful dog Cooper was suddenly disoriented, listless, and nearly limp. A subsequent afternoon at the vet’s followed by a night at the Animal Emergency Center in Bellingham led to a diagnosis of Rat Poison ingestion. The bad news is that we very nearly lost him. The good news is that the caring professionalism and accurate diagnoses of a number of veterinarians, especially that first night, identified the likely cause, hastened to apply the appropriate treatments, and brought him Back from the Brink so that after a pretty Scary week we could bring him home this afternoon, mostly out of the woods, but with lots of healing to go. Whew!
We are deeply Grateful for the help, skill, and kindness of all of the docs who played a role in Coopie’s rescue. We are also, of course, scratching our heads and Worried about the source of the Poison. One Great Big Takeaway from this experience is that Rat Poison is like a Nuke that Blows Up inside the animals that ingest it. The Newer Generation poisons can stay in an animal’s system for up to a month, so they can also linger in the environment for an extended period putting all nearby creatures at risk. Bottom Line: If you Must Kill mice and rats, PLEASE find another way that is precisely targeted, quick, and safe for untargeted animals. PLEASE! PLEASE! PLEASE!
Soave
For some reason soave is one of those wines we have seen from the corners of our eyes in wine shops and grocery stores throughout our lives. Though it is a “mainstay” Italian white wine, most of us seldom run into it. Unless by accident. Which is what happened last week, when I got a phone call from a distributor who was delivering two cases of wine that I didn’t remember ordering. My guess was that they were the remaining few cases missing from our Italian order which had come in the week before. So I signed and wrote the check, only later discovering that I had never even heard of the wine, and as I write tonight I still have no idea how this wine got here. Karma, maybe…? Anyway, we opened one bottle last weekend and poured it for a few people, who liked it and bought some. So we kept it, and are offering it as part of our regular tasting this weekend. It has engaging aromas and flavors with subtle yet refreshing acidity.
It turns out that Soave is a Poster Child for the battle between small, family producers and gigantic mega-producers. The reason we all remember seeing it on shelves all these years is because some producers made millions of cases a year, deeply compromising the quality of the vineyards, the fruit, and the wine. At the same time, however, many small, family wineries made only a few thousand bottles a year, focusing on traditional methods of farming and winemaking. Soave is made from the Garnega grape, which generally produces nicely balanced wines with a fresh, naturally rich consistency, dry minerality, and flavors of stone fruits, honey, and dried sage.
Friction
Basically, everything that exists can move relative to everything else that exists. When that happens, surfaces in contact resist relative lateral motion with each other. This resistance is called “friction.” Between non-moving surfaces, friction is a measure of resistance to the initiation of relative movement and kinetic friction measures the resistance to movement between moving surfaces. I vaguely remember all of this from my freshman (i.e., “Plebe Year) course in structural engineering.
Such considerations have increasing Relevance lately because we have recently returned our boat Dreamtime to the Island for Mooring. There have ensued a number of Complicated Miscalculations, ranging from “our anchor line is not ready to deploy, let’s use this ’empty mooring’ just for tonight” (guy came back about 10pm, yes it was Ugly and Very Mea Culpa), to “that anchor line looked perfectly fine, why is our boat Adrift again???!!”
Presently we are camped out on our Friend Ray’s mooring while his boat is undergoing Some Kind of Surgery, and will soon move to our Friend Hal’s mooring, which has just today been Repaired and Renewed. The important observation of the moment, however, is that after only a Few Days of Friction between our Two Bowlines and the Steel Ring atop the Mooring Ball, there are already Disturbing Signs of Unsustainable Wear where bowline meets mooring ring. In the Larger Picture, all of this reinforces the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which, roughly speaking, says that No One has been Winding the Universal Watch since the Big Bang, and probably won’t anytime soon. Bottom Line: any kind of Sustainability requires continually taking steps to Reduce Friction ever further.
This week’s wine tasting
San Rocco Soave ’15 Italy $10
Beautiful aromas lemon, green apple and fresh apricots. The palate is fresh and clean with beautiful citrus and apple flavors with hints of almond. A great summer wine! Summer wine.
Palama Arcangelo Rosato ’11 Italy $11
100% Negroamaro from Puglia at the hot dry heel of the Italian Boot; big for a rosato– bright, lush, and succulent, with aromas of wild strawberries, crisp acidity, and loads of flavor.
Marchetti Rosso Conero ’13 Italy $10
Rich and inviting aromas of blue florals, plums, brown spices, and hillside brush. On the palate, dry and round textured with red and black cherries, ripe blackberries, cocoa and spice. Culminates in a satisfying, lengthy finish.
Poderi Elia, Dolcetto d’Alba ’11 Italy $12
Clean, stinging rhubarb, pleasant toastiness, and bright red fruits with a nice touch of sweet cigar smokiness. Very smooth, with “cashmere” tannins; a perfect example of classic Piemonte style for an everyday wine.
Perazzeta Erio Supertuscan ’13 Italy $16
An established favorite around here, this sangiovese-cab-syrah blend from Tuscany (we also carry their olive oil!) is rich and concentrated but also balanced, fruity, and delicious–a classic Italian food wine!
lummi island wine tasting july 8 ’16
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Friday Breads (email us to get on the preorder mailing list! )
Whole Wheat Levain – This bread is made with bread flour, fresh milled whole wheat and a bit of fresh milled rye for great flavor. A good all around bread – $5/loaf.
Le Pave d’autrefois – loosely translates as “old paving stones…” a mix of bread flour, fresh milled whole wheat, rye and buckwheat flour. The darkness of the whole grains and square shape make it look like old paving stones, but the flavor is full of whole grain goodness – $5/loaf.
And, of course Pastry this week–>
Chocolate Babka Rolls!! – starts with a rich sweet roll dough dough full of eggs, butter and sugar,. Rolled out, spread with chocolate filling, rolled up and cut into individual slices before baking. Delicious – 2/$5
The Italians are back!
It is now a local tradition near each Solstice– the arrival of our semiannual special order shipment from our friends at West Seattle importer Small Vineyards. As most of you know, they specialize in family-owned wineries mainly in Italy, but in recent years also in France and Spain. Many of their member wineries have been handing down traditional methods of farming and winemaking for generations. Virtually all of the SV imports vastly outperform their modest prices, and we always look forward to their arrival.
This weekend we are offering one old favorite and two new wines. The old favorite is the Perazzeta Sara Rosato, a delicious rosé made from sangiovese grosso, the grape that made Brunello di Montalcino one of the most sought-after wines on the planet for the last hundred years. In addition, this weekend’s Italian representatives also include Cannonau, which is basically grenache (a French Southern Rhone varietal) grown in Sardinia, which adds its own distinctive and lingering notes of pomegranate and wool to the more familiar cherry. And, continuing the theme of French varietals grown in Italy, we will be pouring a delightful cabernet sauvignon from the Veneto region of Italy (no, I am not making this up!).
Corrosion
Many of you will recall that last year at the end of August our new little boat Dreamtime was blown off her mooring, washed onto a rocky shore, and took quite a Beating before being Rescued. and Secured. As mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Dreamtime is back in the water, and last Sunday our friend and small-boat sailor extraordinaire Toby and I sailed her back to Lummi Island. It was a good trip, though as you might imagine, fraught with a bit of tension as we tested rigging, power, and electrical connections, and sailed her back home to Lummi Island.
The point that needs emphasizing it that Dreamtime was almost completely submerged for a few hours at a time over several days.
The basic chemistry (I admit being a little “rusty..”!!) of corrosion is (supposedly) shown in the accompanying chart. All you need to know is that all metals and alloys in contact with seawater have a specific electrical potential dependent on the specific pH of that seawater relative to the original material. ranging from Totally Inert to Catastrophically Explosive…you know, just like Human relationships\! That is, electrons are, like, the Ficklest of Particles, ever ready to migrate to higher-charged social levels. So of course we can all like Totally Relate, huh…? Anyway, we are now going through Dreamtime’s various systems, replacing a light fixture here, a circuit breaker there, or wiring both here and there depending on whether the corrosion demands cleaning, replacement, or complete rewiring. In other words, it’s not that different from the Everyday Concerns of All of Us past a Certain Age…!
Justice
It is starting to appear that Justice is the Name of the Game as we approach the Election of Aught-Sixteen. If we consider that there is always a Tension between Polar Opposites (I am So Drawn to you but I Know you will Hurt Me!), then it should he no surprise that the Fundamental Polarity emerging from the American Political Sector this season is between the Right (we must destroy All the Villages to save the Country) and the Left ( we must Save Every Village to have a Country worth Saving!).
This week, nearly Every Day has brought news of yet more Deaths-by-Fanatic, whether by Radical Muslim, Radical Anti-Radical Muslim, Emotionally Undertrained Policemen, or your Garden Variety Sexually Repressed Young Males (not that they are necessarily mutually exclusive). All you need to know is that a study many decades ago ( I believe it involved Margaret Mead) concluded that the two most highly correlated (and therefore most predictive) variables with the Level of Violence in a Society were a: the amount of affectionate touching of infants (more infant touching–> less violence) and the age of availability of sexual unions (the younger the availability, the less violent the society.)
There IS a grain of truth here. Although effective and realistic policy might prove elusive, we cannot dismiss the idea that if more young men had more sex more often, violence in our society might very well take a well-deserved vacation.
This week’s wine tasting
Terra Blanca Red Mountain Chardonnay ’15 Washington $11
Bright aromas of red apple lead to flavors of Fuji apples, mango, pineapple, and a hint of citrus. Barrel fermentation adds body to to the vibrant acid backbone
and leads to a clean and refreshing finish.
Perazzeta Sara Rosato ’15 Italy $14
From the same grape as Brunello (sangiovese grosso), this beautiful rosato is rich, bold, and flinty while also crisp, summery, and light.
Sanguineti Cannonau de Sardegna ’14 Italy $11
This cannonau– a Sardinian varietal known elsewhere as grenache– offers dry and dusty aromas and flavors of cherry, pomegranate and plum that leave lingering, crisp, earthy and briny flavors that beg for food.
Lovo Cabernet Veneto ’15 Italy $11
A new Italian face on a familiar varietal, this surprisingly tasty cabernet is unoaked, bright, clean, and zesty.
Tarima Hill Monastrell ’13 Spain $14
Complex, perfumed scents of dark berry liqueur, cola, incense and smoky oak spices. Plush and expansive, with sweet cherry compote and blueberry flavors with notes of floral pastille and bitter chocolate. Rich and lively, finishing with excellent power, smooth tannins and a late jolt of allspice.
lummi island wine tasting fourth of july weekend ’16
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Friday Breads (email us to get on the preorder mailing list! )
Fig Anise – a first timer in the bread rotation but one that seems to have a lot of potential. Made with a sponge preferment before final mixing and then a long slow overnight fermentation in the fridge. Made with bread flour and fresh milled white whole wheat with plenty of honey, figs and anise seed for added flavor. – $5/loaf.
Poolish Ale – Made with an overnight poolish of some of the bread flour and instead of water an ale, because what is beer but liquid bread! The final dough is made with more bread flour and a freshly milled whole wheat. A great all around bread – $5/loaf.
and in the pastry dept…Rum Raisin Brioche!! – A perennial favorite, order early or lose out! 2/$5
Costières de Nîmes
The Mediterranean coast of France covers four wine-growing appellations: Languedoc, Costieres de Nimes, Rhone, and Provence. The smallest region, Costieres de Nimes, shoehorns in between the Languedoc to the West and Southern Rhone to the East. In recent years the region has redefined itself as part of the larger Rhone region, arguing that its wines resemble more those of the Rhône valley than those of the Languedoc, which have a reputation as being a bit more rustic (which some of us find very appealing!)
Wine production in this region dates back to Roman times and their history includes centuries of Spanish and Moroccan influences. This weekend we are pouring a rosé from this region, made from 70% syrah and 30% grenache, which sits on the skins from 6 hours (syrah) to 16 hours (grenache), just enough to give it a touch of red. The bottom line here is that rosés from Costieres de Nimes have much of the same character as those from Southern Rhone to the northeast and those from Provence more directly to the east.
The basic takeway here is that Provence does not have a monopoly on making good dry French rosés; they can be found pretty much anywhere on the Mediterranean coast!
Ciao Thyme.
Instead of staying respectably home tonight and focusing on this blog entry, we spent the evening at “Ciao Thyme” for yet another “Incognito Dinner.” Since it is late, and since each picture is worth So Many Words, a few photos will hopefully convey the spirit of the Event. Here’s the menu, photos below.
And here is their website. This is not a regular restaurant (except for lunches.) You need to get on their mailing list for their periodic dinners, classes, and other great food events…!
This week’s wine tasting
Bernier Chardonnay ’14 France $10
Lemon, herbs and lees on the nose. Full-on minerality, with a touch of lemon curd. Driven, salty, refreshing; crisp, elegant, steely, mineral, and citrusy personality. Classic Old World style that will drink beautifully with light fish dishes, or served as an aperitif.
Grande Cassagne Rosé ’15 France 89pts $10
Light, brilliant orange. Aromas of blood orange, raspberry, white flowers and garrigue; Juicy and focused on the palate, offering vibrant red berry and citrus flavors. Fleshy and smooth on the fruity persistent finish.
Garnacha de Fuego ’14 Spain $9
As usual, loads of fruit with strawberry and black cherry notes intermixed with licorice and earth, and great purity and richness for this price point.
Milbrandt Brothers’ Blend Washington $12
“Kitchen-sink” red blend; enticing aromas of fresh blueberry, cherry, plum and vanilla. The palate robust, yet supple, with generous flavors of dark berry, dense cocoa, vanilla and a hint of spice that is beautifully framed by polished tannins and a long finish.
Domaine Moulinier Les Sigillaires ’07 France $15
Aged 12 months in neutral barrels. Nuanced notes of tapenade, dark fruits, and a fresh finish. Harvested quite early to retain acidity; nuanced palate with hints of orange and an elegant finish. We love this wine!
lummi island wine tasting june 23 ’16
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Friday Breads (email us to get on the preorder mailing list! )
Pain Meunier –aka miller’s bread, and includes all parts of the wheat berry: cracked wheat, whole wheat, wheat germ, and bread flour – great for toast! – $5/loaf.
Italian Walnut & Golden Raisin – Made with bread flour and freshly milled whole wheat. Full of toasted walnuts for a bit of crunch and golden raisins and a little bit of honey for some sweetness. The walnuts and raisins make this a nice bread to go with cheese – $5/loaf.
Brioche Tart au Sucre – A rich brioche dough that is full of eggs, butter and sugar, rolled out into individual tarts and topped with more eggs, sugar and butter that form a delicious caramelized crust on top of the tart when baked – 2/$5
Sheep and Wine
This weekend our tasting menu includes Writers Block, made from cabernet franc grown in Lake County, California. The Writers Block (and Shooting Star ) labels are among several owned by Steele Winery in Lake County, California. The grapes for Writers Block come from Shannon Ridge Vineyards, where owner Clay Shannon has developed a sustainable farming system which integrates raising sheep and growing healthy vineyards into a symbiotic natural system. Over a thousand sheep wander through the vineyards, eating both grass and protein-rich grape leaves, and and converting it to natural fertilizer to continue the cycle.
About a third of the total acreage is left natural, providing both habitat and migration corridors for the abundant wildlife native to the area, including eagles, bears, elk, lots of smaller mammals and nesting for migrating birds. So this weekend when you enjoy this tasty cab franc, maybe it will taste even better knowing where it comes from! link to video
Cinsault
Cinsault is a red wine grape found across much of Mediterranean France, from the Spanish border across Languedoc, where it is used to add perfume and fruit to red wines, as in Minervois and Corbières, and further east it is often blended into the iconic Provencal rosés, for which its light skin and soft perfume is particularly well-suited, typically blended with some combination of grenache, syrah, and mourvedre.
The grape has also found its way into a few Washington vineyards, including The Benches (formerly Wallula Vineyard), located along the Columbia River. These “Benches” were formed during the Great Lake Missoula floods some 20,000 years ago; their strange resemblance to the little ridges one sees in sand along a beach is what in 1922 prompted Geologist Harlan Bretz to start imagining that they were caused by Catastrophic Flooding. It would be another twenty years before his theories found support in research into Glacial Lake Missoula, a fascinating chapter in our region’s geological history.
This week’s rosé is from Woodinville winery JM Cellars. It is made primarily from cinsault. It is not shy. It does not smell or taste like a typical rosé. It is as full of aroma and flavor as a big fat chardonnay, or viognier, or roussanne. But it’s a rosé, basically a red grape trying to pass as a white wine. Whatever the Big Floods did to the geology of the Benches, it has been great for grapes!
Polarities
There is a lot going on these days in Planetary Politics, nationally and globally. The Familiar Polarities of Right and Left now seem Global. Everyone is Talking with Great Conviction about what needs to be done. Everyone is Talking and No One is Listening. It’s our Own Modern Tower of Babel moment. Scary Stuff– lots of blaming, accusing, finger- pointing, and Bluster. Not a lot of Compromise. Not a lot of interest in “incremental change.”
Maybe this is all the continuing unfolding of the Legacy of 911, by which every Slight is a Grievance; every Grievance demands Vengeance; and every Dishonor demands Blood, to the extent that many entire societies are coming unraveled, collapsing under people’s feet. We stand in long lines and take our shoes off to board an airplane, while entire countries collapse into chaos and suffering. The Right circles its wagons around its Core Values, which are…um…let’s see…well don’t you worry they have them somewhere. And the Left finds itself splitting across different Fault Lines between its own Elite and its Labor Roots.
On the Other Hand, there are a few small but hopeful signs of Thaw in various places. In Colombia the FARC have signed a cease-fire with the Government, possibly ending decades of active warfare. In Congress, a small but dedicated group of Representatives staged a show of Solidarity for the development of a Reasonable set of gun control rules to protect Public Safety after the latest Mass Murder by Assault Weapon. And…and…let’s see there WAS something else Hopeful, let me think a minute…
This week’s wine tasting
Arindo Verdejo ’14 Spain $11
Bright straw. Vibrant, mineral-accented aromas of lime pith, pear skin and white flowers, with a mineral topnote. Dry and sharply focused, with nervy citrus over a hint of bitter quinine with orange zest and jasmine qualities.
JM Cellars Cinsault Rosé ’15 Washington $24
Bigger, more textured, and more aromatic than one expects from a rosé; in the dark could be mistaken for a full-bodied white blend…delicious!
Borsao Garnacha ’13 Spain $10
Expressive aromas of blackberry, licorice and and fruitcake aromas; Juicy, spicy and supple, sweet, red and dark berry flavors; finishes fresh, focused and nicely persistent.
Linen Red ’13 Washington $11
Syrah-cab blend. Opens with charcoal, blackberry and spice on the nose, with flavors of plum, cassis, and cedar in the
turning to blackberry and peppery black fruits on the finish.
Writers Block Cab Franc ’13 California $15
A perennial favorite here, with aromas of red cherry, raspberry, plum, and licorice. Flavors are of red fruit, raspberry, and plum with smooth acidity, followed by soft tannins.
2072 Granger Way
