lummi island wine tasting may 15 ’15
Bread Friday (sign up for preorder list! )
Buttermilk Currant – 50/50 bread flour and fresh milled whole wheat, with buttermilk for some tang and then loaded with currants and just a hint of rosemary. – $5/loaf.
Ale Bread – Bread flour, fresh milled whole wheat, and hearty ale to boost the flavor. – $5/loaf.
Sourdough English Muffins – These delightful treats are made with a sourdough culture and taste great. Limited, order early! 4 for $5.
Exploring the Solera System
An old favorite with us, St. Cosme Little James Basket Press Grenache is unusual in several respects. First, it is made by a winery that has been around for something like 14 generations, with family ownership dating back to 1490 in France’s southern Rhone region (yes, we have visited!).
Second, unlike most wines, which are either from a single vintage or a non-vintage blend of two or three recent vintages, this wine, like a sourdough bread, is created from a solera system started in 1999. Each year the current wine is bottled from the aging solera, a blend of all the vintages since the solera was started. Therefore it tends to have about 50% of the most recent vintage blended with the moving average of the previous vintages. It’s an unusual way to make wine, but it has been the standard method for making Sherry in Jerez, Spain, for centuries.
As a result, the wine slowly evolves, with any rough edges smoothing out over time. So, like a “Heinz 57” puppy, it tends to be well-balanced and versatile year after year, yet with its own personality and charm, slowly changing its personality while keeping the varietal’s underlying sense of softness, fruit and texture.
Infrastructure: the Private Sector Won’t and the Public Sector Can’t
“Collapsed Railroad Bridge” by firskey is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Periodically we need to call a Special Assembly and bring Everyone together to review a few Important Things so we can (oh, please, let it be!) get on the Same Page about our Cultural (I use the term loosely) Reality. Today’s topic is “Infrastructure.” Just think of it as all the long-lasting Stuff we have built over a long period of time that is still yielding services that have Value, like bridges, highways, airports, railroads, public buildings, ferries, parks, public services (and their employees), police, fire departments, and so forth. Without a modern, viable, healthy Infrastructure, every effort of labor or investment bears less fruit than it might.
Investment in infrastructure can be viewed as the essential Oiling of the Wheels of Progress. It boggles the mind to see Right convinced that Somehow the Private Sector will step up and take care of it better than G’ummint ever could (not Bloody Likely!), and the Left Stingless after too many decades of Groveling for Corporate Dollars. It’s like we are all Dorothy in Oz, just trying to get back to Kansas, but we are constantly confounded by every conceivable kind of straw man, tin man, brainless man, and charlatan Wizard. Wtf is Wrong with these people???!!!
Look. This is not complicated. All the Very Rich need to do is look at their annual tax deductions for Depreciation, i.e.,”Stuff Wearing Out and Needing Replacement.” The latest Amtrak Tragedy rivets our attention on the problem. Chinese, Japanese, and European trains go hundreds of mph. Our trains go 60-80 mph, maybe 100 on a good day on a straight stretch. That’s all you really need to know– a society can survive many things, but Collective Stupidity is not one of them. As on a ship listing heavily to one side, what is Desperately needed here is for Everyone to Stand up and Come to the Center, ignoring the Mind-Numbing Newspeak from all sides, wrest Command from the Idiots, and get the ship back on course and on an Even Keel.
Lummi Island Women: Memorial Day Studio Tour Opening Reception Friday. May 22!
Okay, I admit it, I love this whole idea! Our old friend Anne down the street has been painting up a Storm for the past few years– a Legacy thing, she says, because she is getting on in years– (see her blog) Ah, we should all age so gracefully! I confess I have not seen any of these paintings yet. But I have a feeling this will almost certainly be the Best Show we have had the privilege of presenting in the Gallery, for a couple of reasons.
First, Anne is our First Best Customer! For the first few years we were open, back in aught-five to aught-seven and only on Saturday Afternoons, there was many an afternoon when Pat and I and Anne had the place to ourselves and mused about Life, Love, and the Meaning of Meaning over the day’s tasting menu. For many years a Painter, in the last few years Anne has been particularly Prolific, and we have done several shows of her latest works. But we are particularly looking forward to this one!
All you need to know is that (we will remind you again next week) we will have a Special Opening Tasting on next Friday, May 22, from 4-7. Anne will be in the wine shop to talk about the paintings, and all of you women who are subjects (sorry, I have No Idea who you are!) will be entitled to Free Tastings!!!
This week’s wines
Rio Madre Rioja Rose ’14 Spain $10
Strawberry, raspberry and blood orange on the fragrant nose, along with peppery spices and potpourri. Palate of supple cherry and blackberry, with tangy minerality and acidity adding vivacity and verve.
Altos Hormigas Malbec Clasico ’13 Argentina $10
Aromas of blackberry, strawberry, mocha and smoked meat, plus a hint of violet. Supple, soft and sweet flavors of black fruits and licorice, finisheing with smooth tannins and hints of chocolate and licorice.
St. Cosme Little James Basket Press Grenache ’14 France $11
An ongoing solera* with an aromatic nose of cassis, cherry and lavender; rustic Old World style, with a firm mineral spine giving clarity and lift to the dark berry and bitter cherry flavors.
Shooting Star Blue Franc ’11 Washington $12
From slate soils; nine months in French oak. Lively and vibrant, with aromas of blueberry, blackberry, cocoa, pepper, and clove. Flavors of cranberry, blueberry, and blackberry with cinnamon and licorice on the velvety smooth finish.
Kentia Albarino ’13 Spain 89pts $12
Pale gold. Spicy pear and lemon on the nose, with candied ginger and chalky mineral with lemon curd and pear flavors. Clean, tangy finish with good clarity and a subtle touch of tarragon.
lummi island wine tasting may 8 ’15
Bread Friday (sign up for preorder list! )
Breton Bread – inspired by the Brittany region in France, bread flour and buckwheat with fresh milled whole rye and sel gris. – $5/loaf.
Seeded Country Hearth Bread. Bread flour with a third fresh milled whole wheat flour, toasted hazelnuts, pumpkin seeds, and sunflower seeds – $5/loaf.
Pain aux Raisin. Delightful treats laminated like croissants– rolled out, spread with pastry cream, sprinkled with golden raisins and dried cranberry, rolled up, sliced and baked. Absolutely delicious but limited supply! -2 for $5.
OMD, China now has more vineyards than France!
Well, we all suspected it was coming– you know, Some Day, Way in the Future maybe– and yet here it is: China now has nearly 800,000 hectares of land devoted to vineyards, second only to Spain (over a million hectares), and ahead of France in overall grape production. Non, tsk, tsk, alors, un moment, Monsieur, c’est pas grave; parce que France still makes the most wine despite being #3 in vineyard acreage. Still, China now ranks #6 in the world in wine production, having recently surpassed Australia. Further, some of the top names in French wine have invested heavily in vineyards in China, including the iconic Lafite-Rothschild. Read more
On the one hand there is something Deeply Disturbing about this development. Ah, oui, it makes me want to lean back, light up a Gauloise, shrug a few times, and bubble something about “boof, alors, these Chinese, what could they know about wine…? I mean, besides the fact that they may have discovered fermentation something like, you know, 8,000 years ago…?
Well, I dug up part of an old Chinese poem (from 850 years ago!), by Lu Yu, by then (1170 AD) an old man, who wrote of his time:
“Wild flowers blue and purple– gather them by the fistful,
Valley fruit green and red– now just right for picking;
On the way I found some wine, watery but still not bad, at river’s edge;
Getting drunk as I please, no regret in the world;
A thousand years of history’s ups and downs here before my eyes…” — Drunk Song, by Li Yu, translated by Burton Watson
I suspect there will be a huge Chinese wine business soon. I also suspect it will have its own earmarks, fingerprints, and footprints to distinguish it from Elsewhere, and I expect I will treat it with some suspicion. Because of the traditional Chinese penchant for imitation, it seems entirely likely that in the not-too-distant future there will be a scandal involving Chinese wine with forged labels from extraordinary French vintages of Bordeaux and Burgundy. Think about a Chinese version of Peter Mayle’s A Good Year…hmmm…is wine a Simple Product or a Profound Cultural Expression?
“Who Are We and What Are We Doing?”
This has become my Centering Mantra for the past six or seven years. It works for beginning any meeting or encounter, or even just getting up in the morning. And judging from the words of the elderly Chinese poet from nearly a thousand years ago mentioned above, not much has changed since his time in our understanding of that mysterious Crystal Pearl of Human Consciousness we inhabit (or which inhabits us) that reflects the World into our little Minds. Our lives are an ongoing kaleidoscope of experiences, feelings, thoughts, and reflections, and our Minds are like those little sticky rollers that you can use to lift the lint from your clothing, especially, you know, wool and fleece. And of course the older we get, the more wool and fleece, or so it seems.
Anyway, one of the many wonderful things about being Old is that one starts to see how it really doesn’t matter what you Believe, or in which Time you appear in this world, because there is only this One Game in Town and we will all eventually Lose. This idea has been exquisitely illuminated by an old and respected acquaintance* who has contemplated these issues for a long time and put it this way:
Everybody knows that the Fight was fixed,
The Poor stay poor and the Rich get rich;
That’s how it goes…
And Everybody Knows…”
I mention these things because we are Wired to care about our Group. Some people don’t have a Group. They suffer for that. Some people think their Group is their Family. They suffer for that. Some people think their Group is their Neighborhood, or their Country, or their Species, or their Planet, or their Universe, and they suffer for that. So the ongoing answer to the Question above is that we are Social and Mortal Beings and it is the nature of such beings to need to be in relationships that Nourish us, and for a lot of reasons we are not very good at giving or getting the Nourishment we need. More important, we are vulnerable to manipulation by those who promise Nourishment in exchange for Power, and who give back far less than they take.
Bernie Who?
Here 
we are in another election season. Election seasons have been going on for thousands of years in one form or another, and will go on for as long as our species lasts. We will reserve discussion of the merits of our species to another time, and for now will focus on the immediate issue of Our group of primates’ (“Americans”) choosing a Leader for the next four years. Btw, this is probably a good place to note that Some People think that our Big Brains evolved NOT to invent Quantum Physics and Arcane Stock Derivatives, but mainly to navigate the swirling, treacherous waters of individual Status and Reward in the many Social Hierarchies which are constantly breaking onto our Personal Shores. Sometimes they nourish us, and sometimes they drag us into the surf, spin us around, slam us against the Bottom a few times, and then give us five seconds to breathe before starting the whole cycle again.
Nowadays National Office holder are Rich and want to be Richer. That’s just who they are. Some of us just want to have a modest but secure life, but some need to have such Power that their Little Follies can easily — yes, Easily– make stupid decisions that threaten Life As We Know It.
So, enter unknown and eccentric Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who has just announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for President in 2016. He is what was once called a “Dark Horse,” with extremely high odds against his ever getting nominated.
Still, out Nation and our Planet can wait no longer for the Candidates of the One Percent to act rationally. The Republican so-called candidates are Nut Jobs, every single one. Hillary is pretty opaque, and though her heart may be in the right place, she arrives with a lot of Baggage.
So comes Progressive, Socialist, ethically driven, truth-telling Dark Horse Bernie Sanders into the National political arena, raising questions that only a Third-party candidate can raise, and depending on the masses for support against the concentrated power of the 1%. Go Bernie, let’s talk about all the things the 1% don’t want us to talk about!
This week’s tasting
J Laurens Cremant de Limoux Rose France $16
Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc and Pinot Noir; shows a gentle yeastiness accompanying its effusive effervescence and rich, tangy, mouth-filling fruit. The perfect match with a sunny afternoon and smoked salmon!
Chateau L’Ermitage France $10
Roussanne, grenache, and viognier. Light gold in color with aromas of peach, flowers, and honey; the Grenache provides the richness and the Roussanne the balancing acidity.
Campo Viejo Tempranillo ’12 Spain $11
Aromas of ripe red fruit followed by gentle sweet notes of vanilla and spices. Perfumed, soft and fresh with a lingering finish of red fruit, vanilla and cocoa. A perennial go-to value here at AWG.
Estezargues Cuvee des Galets ’14 France $10
Grenache, Syrah and Carignan from organic and biodynamic vine, fermented with natural yeast, and bottled without filtration. Explodes with plump juicy berry fruit, liquorice and spice, showing appealing character and freshness.
Pomum Red ’11 Washington $19
Bordeaux blend with a bit of syrah– Inviting, open-knit aromas of plum, raspberry and tobacco. Supple, sweet and mellow; plummy and broad in the mouth, displaying good depth of texture.
*Leonard Cohen
lummi island wine tasting may 2 ’15
(Note: many images will open to larger versions when clicked)
Bread Friday
Sorry, Janice is still away, no bread this week. Ryan is also away, but yes, the wine shop will be open as usual on Friday evening, 4-7. Come on by!
Dude, it’s May Day! Workers of the World Unite!
As we have mentioned before in these pages, there is a War going on, and it seems to have been going on since our species first appeared in the Ongoing Kaleidoscope of Evolution. Some say it’s our Big Brain that made us (in our own Humble Opinion) the Best Species Ever, with, you know, a shot at the Evolution Hall of Fame for Longevity. Others muse that it’s really our Big Hearts and ongoing acts of unselfish Love and Kindness that make us, you know, God’s Favorites. Well, we’ll see, maybe that will all work out.
So it is a continual Shock that our news for the last many months has been dominated by cell-phone video coverage of Murders of young men of Color across our country by the Policemen who are supposed to protect Everyone. Tragically, we All Know that this has been going on for a Long Time, but it is only in the past year that the Cell Phone has become So Ubiquitous that, like, Hello, maybe No One can Get Away with Anything any more, not even the police.
While all this is tragic, on this May Day it is worth taking note that this Omnipresent Witness of the Cell Phone is starting to get some Traction in taking the “Plausible” out of “Plausible Deniability,” and That is going to have Profound repercussions. Which makes us wonder, hmmm…how long before it becomes illegal to take photos of The Authorities as they go about their business. And just to tie this back into the title of this entry, Marx’s Main Point is that it is the Goal of the One Percent to capture for themselves the Productivity Dividends of Labor, and everything we are seeing around us these days, including the senseless murders of young black men, the export of the means of production from America to Elsewhere, the proliferation of War across the Globe, and so much more, is Testimony to it.
So on this May 1, we offer a Toast to Cell Phone Photography, which plops Truth right there on the table whether it is wanted or not; and which has its inevitable and unpredictable way of changing things. And we do definitely need some Changes.
Analemma
(photo of Budapest Analemma by György Soponyai)
We all know what a dilemma is, since they happen pretty much all the time. But an “analemma?” Huh??
Well, according to this very interesting blog entry by David Dickinson, an analemma is the figure-8 traced out by the Sun in the sky through an entire year as seen at the same time from the same geographic point over the course of one solar year. As he points out (news to us!), many Globes include the Figure of the Analemma, curiously reminiscent of the Infinity Symbol.
The important point here for us on this May Day, this cross-quarter day about midway between the Spring Equinox and the Summer Solstice, is that the analemma traces out in the sky both Equinoxes, both Solstices, and all four Cross-Quarter days, including of course May Day.
Winter Solstice is at the lower right, and Summer Solstice is at the upper left. Both Equinoxes are where the lines intersect, and the four cross-quarter days are at either side of the widest bights in the two curves. And the reason why the figure-8 is not symmetrical is mainly because the Earth’s orbit around the Sun is elliptical rather than circular. Cool, huh???!!
SAAA
Here is Tator modeling her “Lummi Island Run” hat from a few years ago. Tator has a certain Wisdom, as do all dogs. Their Wisdom is about bringing our attention back to Basics. Like “I’m a little insecure, wouldn’t you like to pet me and snuggle me a little?” Or, “Why are you just Standing there…this stuff smells Great, why aren’t you Rolling in it with me?”
Back when I was a body-centered psychotherapist for a bunch of years, I developed the notion that every being was driven by Four basic needs: Safety, Affection, Attention, and Approval, or “SAAA” for short. All are forms of psychological Nourishment;, and though most of us have made up all kinds of reasons why we can’t get them, don’t deserve them, or can get along without them, of course, they are all complete nonsense. We need Nourishment to survive. And Nourishment is feeling Safe from harm, feeling that we Belong, feeling that we Count, and feeling we are valued in our community. Without these things, life is ongoing Suffering, and we need to do better than that.
The growing problem of the moment is that there is a War going on and we are all caught in the Crossfire. The war is between the one tenth of one percent who own Everything, and Everyone Else. Even Feudal Lords took at least a little responsibility for the well-being of their serfs. But now it’s harder to see that WalMart, or McDonald’s, or any other Corporate Employer sees workers as anything more than slaves who want too much.
Fortunately, some of us still have access to wine, which in most cases will make Everything Better.
This week’s tasting
Idilico Albarino ’13 Washington $14
Full spectrum of floral, almond and white peach aromas leading to flavors of apricots and peaches with a bit of citrus to make it really bright. Albariño has bracing acidity from those cool nights
Venta Morales Tempranillo ’13 Spain $9
Deep ruby/purple color in addition to lots of berry fruit and a touch of licorice presented in a lush, Spanish fruit-bomb style.
Casa Contini Biferno Riserva ’09 Italy $12
80% montepulciano, 20% aglianico; wonderfully smooth and balanced, with smoky blackberry, chestnut, and peppery aromas.
La Renaudie Tradition ’11 France $16
Côt and Cab Franc; aromas of cherries, blackcurrant, and dark fruit with fine, silky tannins.
Orowines Bluegray Priorat ’11 Spain $16
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 April 24 ’15
(Note: many images will open to larger versions when clicked)
Bread Friday
Sorry, Janice is away, no Bread this week. Also, Friday regulars take note– Ryan will also not be behind the bar here on Friday night for the next month or so as he prepares to take the next group of you to Tuscany next week.
Up in the Sky…it’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s a Kite!
We have been away for a few days with our little trailer out on the Peninsula. Monday and Tuesday we were at Pacific Beach State Park adjacent to the little settlement of the same name. We parked next to Mike and Diane, who insisted we buy a kite for the occasion because this is Kite Country. And, to be sure, there was a constant wind from the north seldom getting below a “fresh breeze,” and often considerably more energetic than that. Here’s our little kite, above.
We also met a couple from Olympia who are kite addicts of a sort who have been making their own kites for many years…here’s the one they brought, complete with fifty-foot tails…! (That’s our kite at lower right)
Looking out from the Edge of the World
Pacific Beach was was not so long ago home to a small Naval Base th at may have been at the time a high-tech communications facility. At present, like many small coastal communities, there’s not much of an economic base. The whole area feels tired from the constant roar of wind and surf, the emptiness emphasized by this tiny couple on a vast and empty beach.
O
Fort Worden
This post is being written from our site at Fort Worden in Port Townsend. It’s been cool, cloudy, blustery, and spitting rain from time to time, but cozy in the trailer. Late this afternoon the sun emerged briefly with a spectacular Rainbow framing our little trailer. That’s gotta be a good sign, right???
We’re even getting used to our lost car-trailer color coordination…
All Betz are off!
Again we are pouring from our library of Betz wines; however, we have no idea which one we will be pouring…gotta get home and check the cellar!
All you really need to know is this: take off 10% on any Betz wines in stock! AND, if you are a wine club member, WE PAY SALES TAX, too!
This week’s tasting
For a Song Chardonnay ’13. Washington $10
Apple blossom and citrus aromas; broad, flavorful palate of quince, lemon custard, lime, and honey-tinged mineral notes; bracing acidity;
Mouchao Dom Rafael Tinto ’09 Portugal $12
60% Aragonez (Tempranillo), 20% Alicante Bouschet, and 20% Trincadeira; Nose of strawberry fruit and leafy Tempranillo notes turning sultry and earthen-mushroom; palate is fresh, intense, vibrant.
Riojanas Rioja Canchales ’11 Spain $12
Pungent redcurrant and cherry on the nose, with a peppery lift and focus. Firm bitter cherry and rose pastille flavors, with juicy acidity; aeration brings up deeper blackberry and licorice notes that linger on the taut, youthfully tannic finish.
Bocelli Sangiovese 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.
2072 Granger Way
