lummi island wine tasting july 22, ’16
(note: some photos will enlarge when clicked)
Friday Breads (email us to get on the preorder mailing list! )
Multi Grain –— Half bread flour and half whole milled whole wheat and rye, loaded up with flax, sunflower and sesame seeds. Makes for a flavorful bread with a lot of texture. You’ll feel healthier just eating a slice of this whole grain goodness! – $5/loaf
Black Pepper and Walnut – A new bread this week. Also made with a mixture of bread flour, fresh milled whole wheat and rye, with the addition of toasted walnuts and fresh ground black pepper. This bread should be great with meats and cheese. – $5/loaf.
Brioche au Chocolate – Starts with a rich brioche dough that is fermented overnight, rolled out and spread with pastry cream and then topped with chocolate. Folded over and sliced for a delicious treat – 2/$5
Name That Tune
Events this week at the Republican Convention brought to mind an old line often mistakenly attributed to Sinclair Lewis: “When fascism comes to America, it will be draped in the Flag and carrying a Cross.” When I first heard that a few years ago I did some kind of forehead-slapping mental double-take, because it Rang So True.
Most basically fascism is a concentration of political power into a single party and a single leader. It took form in Italy under Mussolini in the 20’s as a reaction to the social, political, and economic turmoil after WWI, which was magnified further by the humiliation and hardships of the Depression. A Really Tough Time. And as in any time of social disruption, people were fearful and easily persuaded to blame Others for their many difficulties. By amplifying and appealing to Nationalism, frustration, and fear, Fascism offered scapegoats to blame and punish, much-needed personal identification with a national vision of Superiority, the seductive Comfort of an Authoritarian Leader, and the promise of a Bright Future.
If, as we have often suggested in these pages, feudalism is the default system of human political organization, in which the strong Few terrorize the weak Many into complete submission, we very well might view Fascism as Feudalism 2.0, in which complex industrial societies are dominated by a Dictator and a tiny Elite of military, industrial, and financial interests. Interestingly, Fascism does not have a particular ideology; it is more a reactionary being in the sense that it considers all other organizations inferior and threatening, and not to be tolerated. Other textbook indicators of Fascism include: 1) aggressive militarism to claim a dominant place on the world stage; 2) a single political party; 3) willing use of violence to discourage opposing views; 4) deference to an authoritarian leader or ruling elite; 5) militant over-reaction to opposing values; 6) attacking of minorities as inferior and conspiring.
So here we are in 2016, and a major US political party has just put forth a ticket that includes a Narcissistic and Incoherent Billionaire (so he says) who will Make the Country Great Again (you know, like back in, um, hmm, when exactly..?… and how exactly…?) and a religious Zealot for VP who has officially Declared War on women’s rights and our Constitutional guarantee of religious freedom. The Bottom Line is that Your assignment over the next few weeks and months is to watch and listen and notice how much of what either one of them says fits into the above bullet points defining Fascism. read more
Bandol
Bandol is part of Provence, so of course one expects excellent rosé. It lies east of Marseille, on the coast a little past Cassis, and south of Aix. And although the predominant grape in red wines from Bandol is mourvedre, rosé still follows the recipe from much of Provence, which is a blend of cinsault, mourvedre, and grenache. As we mentioned in a previous post some while back, some people (like legendary wine importer Kermit Lynch) think Bandol makes the definitive Provençal rosé. As shown in the detailed notes below, critics have high expectations of rosés from this area, detailing every nuance.
Of course, rosés by their nature are essentially red grapes made into almost-white wine. The color is determined by time on the skins, sometimes measured in mere hours. The flavor profile excludes almost all of the tannins that would naturally come from extended contact with the grape skins over time. So rosé is really about the freshest components of the red grapes that go into it. They are all good, some are just better than others. And this is supposed to be one of the good ones. Come by and check it out!
Music at the Wine Shop
This past Saturday our friend Rob Hutchings dropped by late in the afternoon with his guitar. We had talked the week before about his doing a little gig with us. As we have mentioned before, we encourage musicians to come by with their instruments on Saturday afternoons. Drop by about 4pm, play a 20-mnute set, and enjoy a free wine tasting! The space is very well suited to acoustic music, and we have been really pleased with how good everyone sounds in our space.
We have known Rob for a number of years now, but only recently discovered his musical talents. Many of his songs are original and expressive, hauntingly full of feeling, a little raw in some ways, but maybe Honest is a better word. His style is no doubt influenced somehow by time spent in Nashville ( I am not making this up!). Anyway, it was a Good Time, and made an impression on all of those present! It is our intention to try to persuade him to do a Sunday concert at the wine shop before the summer ends; we think you would all enjoy it. So stay tuned, more on this later!
In the meantime, you learn more about Rob and his music on his website.
This week’s wine tasting
Domaine le Galantin Bandol Rose ’15 90pts $18
Extremely pale orange-pink. Assertive aromas of orange pith, red berries, jasmine and garrigue show very good clarity and a dusty mineral element. Juicy and sharply focused, offering energetic strawberry and tangerine flavors that spread out nicely with air. Silky and dry on the incisive, very persistent finish, which strongly repeats the floral and mineral notes. I find this wine quite graceful and accessible as young pink Bandols go.
Giocato Chardonnay ’15 Slovenia $11
From the Italian border with coastal Slovenia; freshly styled, with notes of apple, lychee, citrus, warm croissant, and sea salt.
Domaine La Croix Belle Caringole ’12 France $10
Syrah, Carignan and Merlot blend from Languedoc’s Cotes de Thongue region; fresh and supple with flavours of cherry, and black olive, and herbs.
Robert Ramsay Mason’s Red ’13 Washington $16
Easy-drinking cinsault-dominant Rhone blend; subtle nose of black cherry paste with a hint of cinnamon spice that expands on the palate to a soft anise finish.
Crios de Susana Balbo Malbec ’13 Argentina 89pts $14
Aromatic and fresh, with notes of violets, ripe plums and a touch of brown sugar, quite showy, with the profile of a cool vintage, the sweet tannins of the Malbec, some sweet spicy flavors, and good length.
lummi island wine tasting july 15 ’16
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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
(note: some photos will enlarge when clicked)
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
(note: some photos will enlarge when clicked)
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!
2072 Granger Way