lummi island wine tasting august 15 ’15
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Reminder: No Friday Bread this week!
Just a reminder your baker Janice is taking the week off for her annual baseball trip with her nieces.
What does that mean to you? Unfortunately it means no bread or treats this Friday! On the other hand, maybe Friday night won’t be so Crazy, and some of you will come on Saturday this week!
Avignonesi
About five years ago we were in Tuscany for a few weeks, exploring hilltop towns, wineries, and vineyards. On a whim one day we made a fairly long drive to visit the Avignonesi winery, located in on beaufiful hillside a few miles east of the town of Montepulciano. The location and its iconic trees were stunning, and all the wines were delicious! We have carried several Avignonesi wines since then, although their Washington distributor has changed several times, making the wines difficult to find.
We are happy to report that the latest distributor has been found, and last week we were treated to a lovely tasting of a number of the latest releases. This weekend we will be pouring the Avignonesi Cantaloro, a “Super-Tuscan” blend of 50% cabernet sauvignon, 40% merlot, and 10% sangiovese. The name “Super-Tuscan” was coined a few decades ago when a few high-end Italian producers challenged the strict, long-standing naming and blending protocols that govern which grapes can be used in which regions by blending sangiovese with cab and merlot. Some of those wines are now among the most expensive and sought after in the world. While Cantaloro is not so rarefied, it is a really nice example of why these blends have gained so much popularity. read more
Thinking about Blends
One of the many interesting things about being a potter was mixing glazes. If you have two or three glazes you have used and like, sometimes the question arises, “what would happen if we blended them?” And it’s not as if you can make any useful inference from their individual appearance to what some blend of them would look like fired. After all, firing pottery is like putting a note in a bottle and throwing it in the Ocean…you have no idea how it will turn out until you try it!
One method for exploring glaze blends is called the “tri-axial blend.” You make some sample tiles like these in the photo for example. The tile on each corner is one of your existing glazes. Each side of the triangle shows a blend series between the two end points of the line: 100/0; 80/20; 60/40; 40/60; 20/80; 0/100. The middle three tiles are blends of all three glazes.
Blending wines is pretty much the same process, except it can be a lot more complicated, even when blending different barrels of the same varietal from the same year into the best possible final blend. All of this is to say that when we think about a Bordeaux blend (cab sauv, cab franc, merlot, malbec) or a Rhone blend (syrah, grenache, mourvedre, cinsault), or a Super-Tuscan (cab, merlot, sangiovese), we don’t think much about how the winemaker came up with that blend. And it turns out that, just as with color in glazes, flavors in blends can be incredibly sensitive to small changes in the final blend. Something to think about next time you taste a blend of more than one varietal!
Reuilly
The little wine region of Reuilly comprises only about 500 acres of vineyards west of Bourges in the Loire Valley of France, where the primary grapes are sancerre and pinot noir. Our interest goes back to a few weeks ago when we were discussing the somewhat arcane topic of “nervosité.” The concept is nicely capsulized in this quote from Kermit Lynch: “If you want to experience minerality, notice the first impression on the palate, which is of fresh, cushiony, Sancerre-like Sauvignon Blanc. Then, immediately, there is a firmness, a stony firmness that appears from within the wine. Pierres Plates is from a specific vineyard with Chablis-like soil full of chalk, fossils and sea shells, making the fruit lively, with white flower perfumes, citrus and minerally finesse and precision.”
We are feeling the tendrils of Fall in the air these days, which remain hot in the afternoon despite the cool of the evening and the night. This is the perfect time to enjoy a really nice sauvignon blanc, and our first wine this weekend fits the bill perfectly. Whether you call it nervosité or something else, this wine’s combination of flavor, acidity, and minerality fits this time of year perfectly. Yum, mmm, and ahhhhh!
This week’s wine tasting
Reuilly “Pierres Plates” Sauvignon Blanc ’12 France $18
Sage, black currant, gooseberry, and lime dominate both the nose and palate, where a suffusion of salt and chalk adds to a palpable sense of extract and invigoration…bring on the shellfish!
Belle Glos Pinot Noir Blanc ’14 California $16
Pale pink with a copper hue; citrus-driven aromas carry through to bright acidity, a creamy orange note and layers of tart apricot. Great balance of texture, fruit, and minerality.
Montes Twins malbec/cab ’11 Chile $7
Richness and fruit from the Cab, and smooth, velvety texture from the Malbec add up to vibrant acidity and integrated layers of plum skin, blueberry, and blackberry flavors and soft tannins.
Tarima Hill Monastrell ’11 Spain 91pts $13
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.
Avignonesi Cantaloro ’13 Italy $16
Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Sangiovese; This Super-Tuscan blend offers lovely aromas of red fruits, sweet spices and tobacco, then fresh and supple on the palate, with ripe red cherry and plum flavors lingering softly on the long, smooth, spicy finish.
lummi island wine tasting august 7 ’15
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Friday Breads (sign up for preorder list! )
Barley & Rye with Pumpkin seeds – Sourdough with a mix of barley, fresh milled whole rye, and whole wheat flours with a bit of buttermilk, honey, and toasted pumpkin seeds.– $5/loaf.
Poolish Ale Bread- A “poolish” is a process that pre-ferments some of the flour, enhancing flavor and jump starting enzyme activity, in this case using ale with fresh milled whole wheat -$5/loaf.
Individual brioche tart au sucre – A traditional rich brioche rolled into individual tarts, then topped with demarara sugar, a mixture of cream, eggs, and even more butter. Rich, delightful, and surprisingly light. – 2/$5.
Warm welcome to La Baronne
While the Lignères family’s ties to the wine world can be traced back to the sixteenth century, its modern history began in 1957 when André and Suzette Lignères bought la Baronne Estate, and gradually expanded its vineyard holdings in the Languedoc along the border between the wine regions of Corbieres and Minervois, which roughly follows the main highway between Narbonne and Carcasonne.
I have a particular fondness for this winery from a spontaneous visit there a few years ago. I had read something that intrigued me about the winery, so late one afternoon I drove in with no appointment, and encountered a lone André, a gentleman of my generation, who had turned over the reins to the winery to his son a few years before. Despite my rudeness in dropping in unannounced, André proceeded to pour samples of a number of wines. His English was even worse than my French, but somehow we got along very well, and I continue to be grateful for his gracious hospitality. Btw, he was having a terrible time with a funky old corkscrew, so I sent him one of ours…hope he received it!
I bought several bottles of his wines to bring back, and have been looking for a source for them ever since. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, when I learned a new distributor now carries these wines, and now we have some! This weekend we are pouring la Baronne Costa Lise, a classic Languedoc blend of carignan, grenache, and syrah. Next week we will pour the old vines Carignan called Piece de Roche, which Really Rings my Wine Chimes!
Read more about the estate on Tom Fiorina’s excellent blog article (we met Tom on the same trip and keep a link to his blog on our site- check it out!)
Dream Time
I learned how to sail in the early sixties when I was a midshipman at the Naval Academy, and found it immediately engaging. For most of the last fifty years I have had a sailboat of one sort or another. For the last dozen years I have co-owned a 32′ boat with a long-time friend, and this year we made the difficult decision to sell the boat. Preparing the boat for sale required a lot of work, and also led to some soul-searching about whether a boat still had a place in our lives.
So the past week has delivered some considerable surprise, excitement, anxiety, smiles, and the occasional philosophical shrug. Just over a week ago our old boat was suddenly sold. A day later, out of curiosity, we drove down to Anacortes to see an unusual little boat we saw on Craigs List, called a Montgomery 23. A couple of years ago we were sailing back from Clark Island when I noticed a small sailboat making tidy progress against the wind and a bit of a chop. Later research revealed it was something called a, you guessed it, Montgomery 23.
Seriously, we just wanted to take a look, the beginning of an open-ended shopping excursion that had not even established an objective. All you need to know right now is that the boat is called “Dream Time.” She was built in 1979, but was substantially rebuilt over the last ten years. Somehow we said “Yes!” and this afternoon we sailed her up here to Lummi Island. And we are both doing a lot of grinning. Bottom line: not quite ready to be without a boat!
Evolution
Somehow it is hard to remember what the wine shop was like BR, you know, “Before Ryan.” I honestly can’t remember if he arrived on the scene two, or three, or four years ago. But we all know he has been a Force for Aliveness and the Founding Energy behind our decision to expand our hours to Friday nights.
As most of you know, over the last few years Ryan has developed his European wine tours, taken over the wine list at the Beach Store Cafe, expanded his wine classes through the Community College and the Food Coop, not to mention his recording business, and generally spread himself down to about four microns trying to Do It All. We all knew that Something would eventually have to give, and the logical First Thing to Give is the one that pays the least.
The Truth is that since we have never made a Profit in our little wine business, we have never been able to pay dear Ryan actual Money for his efforts. Now that he has developed a number of better options, and like all of us, has finite resources, it makes perfect sense that “Somethin’s Gotta Give.”
So it is with the reluctant but inevitable acceptance of Impermanence that we announce that for the foreseeable future Ryan will no longer be your default Friday night host. Like Pat and me, maybe he will prefer dropping in and schmoozing for a time on Fridays, rubbing elbows, enjoying Janice’s bread samples, and coming and going as the mood dictates…!
This weekend’s wine tasting
La Quercia Falanghina ’13 Italy $18
100% Trebbiano from hillside clay soil; a lovely, straw-yellow wine, with rich notes of white flowers, sea salt, and pear.
Perazzeta Rosado di Montalcino ’14 Italy $14
From the same grape as Brunello (sangiovese grosso), this beautiful rosado has it all: rich, bold, flinty, and summery.
Riojanas Rioja Canchales ’11 Spain $12
Pungent red currant and cherry on the nose, with bitter cherry and rose pastille flavors open to deeper blackberry and licorice notes and a taut, youthfully tannic finish.
Grand Bateau Rouge ’12 France $11
75% Merlot, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon; expressive nose of ripe red fruits and spices with an elegant touch of new oak. Harmonious and powerful, with appealing fruit flavors, ripe tannins, and a savory finish.
La Baronne Costa Lise ’12 France $14
Organically grown blend of Carignan, Mourvedre and Syrah from Corbieres; juicy and complex, with luscious, mouth-filling flavors of dark berries and exotic spice.
lummi island wine tasting july 31 ’15
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Friday Breads (sign up for preorder list! )
Walnut Raisin Levain- 30% fresh milled whole wheat and rye with toasted walnuts and dark raisins . – $5/loaf.
Kamut Levain – khorasan wheat is an ancient Egyptian grain with lovely golden wheat berries with a nutty flavor, and leavened with natural starter. -$5/loaf.
Traditional Bagels! Shaped, boiled, topped with seeds, and baked– plain, sesame seed, poppy seed, and mixed; one each per order . – 4 for $5.
This weekend: Cloudlift Cellars Special Tasting
For the past several years, the end of July has brought winemaker Tom Stangeland and his wife Joannie to Lummi Island to celebrate their wedding anniversary, and they have always found time to stop in the wine shop to taste and schmooze about all things wine. Gradually we got to taste a few of his early wines (2013 is only his third commercial vintage!), and I have been very impressed with all of them. In recent years I have even had the opportunity to help out a little with fall crush and spring bottling at the winery in South Seattle. As many of you know, we have carried several Cloudlift wines here in the shop to general enthusiastic acclaim, and I am not shy about saying that these wines all strike a resonant chord with my own palate that sounds something like “Mmmmm!”
So we are very excited to offer Our Faithful the opportunity to taste through five of Tom’s current releases this weekend. Since this is their anniversary, don’t expect that he will be here during all open hours Friday and Saturday, but it is likely he will be in the shop for an hour or two in the middle of our open hours to tell you (in great detail if you like!) about his wines and the Craftsman philosophy that he brings to them.
Our Summer Island
I have been living in these parts for, let’s see, forty years now. Not a long time, geologically speaking. The Blink of an Eye. Certainly, one would think, not enough time to change an Entire Global Climate. Yet across these forty years, this is the first year that we have had what the rest of the country calls “Summer,” though it has been getting noticeably warmer and drier for a few years now. So Something is definitely Afoot. And while this “summer” thing is on some levels quite enjoyable, on the Climate Change Channel it is increasingly disturbing. First comes, “Wow, this is So Nice!” and then another part of us thinks,“Wait a minute…where ARE we?” because we have never seen it be this Hot, or this Dry, and every year it seems to be getting More So.
We did get a little rain last week, and with it a small but welcome sense of Relief for the worrying Spirit, and a little Color back to the landscape. We worry about Fires, and about our flora and fauna getting enough to drink. We worry about the future of salmon fishing everywhere but particularly right out front in Legoe Bay. Last year warm water drove almost all the returning fish north of Vancouver Island, and our local reefnetters were pretty much shut out. Now it seems even hotter, and yes, the boats are launched and in position again, but now it all seems fragile and tentative. Still beautiful, still a great place to be, this Island, this World. But the more we look around lately the more some part of us thinks: “We Really need to start taking better care of this place– Immediately!”
Reefnet rigs in early morning light– ready for salmon that may not come this way– or Any Way– much longer
Great Blue in the Slough knows how to make do…seven million years of adaptation practice
These hydrangeas next door are absolutely irridescent about the heat…
Sunset skies have been unusually cloudless
This week’s wine tasting featuring wines from Cloudlift Cellars
Cloudlift Updraft ’13 Washington $18
Bordeaux-style blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon; aromas of apple blossom, mango, papaya, and lime; flavors of Bosc pear and juicy tropical fruit leading to a palate-cleansing rush of citrus acidity.
Cloudlift Rosé ’14 Washington $14
100% Cabernet Sauvignon; nose of fresh ripe strawberries with a touch of citrus that continues on the slightly off-dry palate, followed by a long, crisp finish.
Cloudlift Ascent ’12 Washington $27
80% cab franc, 18% merlot, 2% petit verdot; aromas of black cherry, dark strawberry, sweet herbs and notes of minerality; light and silky mouthfeel with flavors of black cherry, cocoa powder and crushed herbs with bright acidity and hints of toasted almond on the finish.
Cloudlift Panorama ’12 Washington $26
Enticing aromas of raspberry, cherry, plum and cassis, with scents of roses, mulberry and incense, and balanced flavors of red currant and Rainier cherry.
Cloudlift Stratus ’12 Washington WE 93pts $32
85% PetitVerdot, 15% merlot; brings aromas of fresh and dried herbs, pencil lead, mocha, potting soil and flowers; in the mouth shows rich coffee and cherry notes backed by exceptionally integrated tannins and a lingering finish.
lummi island wine tasting july 25 ’15
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Friday Breads (sign up for preorder list! )
Multi Grain -Half bread flour and half a mix of fresh milled whole wheat and rye flours with flax, sunflower, and sesame seeds. – $5/loaf.
Whole Wheat -Half bread flour and half fresh milled whole wheat with a bit of honey for sweetness.
– $5/loaf.
Sourdough English Muffins – These delightful treats are made with a sourdough culture, bread flour, and some fresh milled whole wheat for extra texture and flavor. — 2/$5.
Willows Inn revisited
Back in the old days a lot of us here on the Island ate at the Willows fairly often, especially in the first few years of Sunday Grilled Prawns on the Deck, when you could have a great afternoon of delicious fresh prawns, beer, and Island camaraderie for about thirty bucks. Much has happened since those days, beginning with the arrival of young chef Blaine Wetzel a few years ago at age 24, and the NY Times article that put him, the Willows, and Lummi Island on the Global Food Map.
It’s been several years (and about four price hikes) since we last ate at the Willows. Let’s face it, the model of striving to be one of the best restaurants in the World is not that compatible with serving the needs of a small rural island population in the Pacific Northwest. However, we have family visiting this month, renting Anne’s apartment down the street for the month of July, and after all, Everyone should experience the Wetzel Willows at least once, so last night we went back.
All you need to know is that every one of the twenty or so — hmm, not “courses” in the usual sense– let’s call them “culinary presentations”– was imaginatively conceived, perfectly assembled, impeccably delivered, and exquisitely delicious. The best metaphor I can come up with is that generally even good meals are like ordinary fireworks…the rocket goes up, explodes, makes a noise, maybe even with some really nice effects, and fades away. And that’s generally the best you can hope for. But these dishes are more like the “end of the show” fireworks, where each explosion morphs into the next and the next and you can’t help going “Mmmm…MMmmm….MMMmmm” as the flavors unfold. For example, shown here is delicate grilled kale with dollops of black truffle and herbs…crispy, fragile, and cascading with flavor.
Edible blossoms
One big takeaway from the Willows dinner was the incredible depth of flavor in the tiny flowers of many common herbs. Sure, we all know the flavors of the fresh or dried leaves of borage, chives, marjoram, sage, savory, rosemary, thyme, basil, or coriander (aka cilantro). But the tiny flowers also have their own flavors, similar to the leaves, but with their own special intensities or nuances. When masterfully combined with otherwise ordinary dishes, they yield a surprising range of gustatory experience.
Often the flavors of these herbal flowers are similar to the leaves of the same plants, but with curiously intensified, sweetly floral, mildly bitter, or surprisingly spicy flavors like the edgy bite of watercress.
And of course, before eating any unusual plant, always make sure it is safe!
Nervosité
Some of you may remember that a year or two ago we partnered with our Friday night host Ryan along with Kevin of Dickerson Distributing in bringing a number of lovely French wines into the Pacific Northwest. These are all wineries that Ryan built relationships with many years ago when he was a wine importer in Los Angeles.
Many of you probably attended the inaugural tasting of these wines at Lis and Mark’s two years ago. If so, almost certainly you ordered some of the La Renaudie Sauvignon Blanc, which turned out to be the most popular wine of the tasting, with total orders twice the next most popular wine. Obviously it struck a nerve with many of you!
Interestingly, there is a French term, “nervosité,” used to describe some white wines, especially sauvignon blanc, and especially from the Loire region. And although everyone who uses the term seems to know what it means, the precise definition remains quite elusive. At one level it means a combination of vigor and firmness, while at another it suggests a more vaguely defined tension. Metaphorically, it kinda suggests “ten pounds of something in an eight-pound bag.”
So as you taste this wine this weekend, be mindful and consider: IS there such a thing as nervosité? And if so, does this wine have it…???!!!
This week’s wine tasting
Domaine la Renaudie blanc ’13 France $15
Benchmark Loire Sauvignon Blanc with a great balance between nervous, lean acidities and restrained grassy, elderflower character.
La Croix Belle Caringole Rosé ’14 France $11
Syrah-Grenache blend; intense nose of rose petals and pear-drop candies; palate of alpine strawberries, raspberries, and cranberries, with a citrus accent on the crisp finish.
Owen Roe O’Reilly’s pinot noir ’13 Oregon $17
This ruby red-hued Willamette Valley Pinot Noir is filled with bright flavors of cherry, fresh summer raspberry, silky chocolate and subtle oak undertones.
Eric Texier Cotes du Rhone ’11 France $15
Bright ruby-red. Lively aromas of cherry, lavender and white pepper with a delicate floral component. Silky, seamless, and plump in the mouth, with sweet, ripe red fruit flavors, a solid spine of acidity, and supple tannins.
Marchetti Rosso Conero ’13 Italy :$22
All from “free run juice,” yielding enticing notes of exotic spice, vanilla, dried cranberry, and bitter dark chocolate.
2072 Granger Way