Lummi Island Wine Tasting May 3 ’14
Got tree pollen?
Been outside with the wood chipper the last week or two grinding up branches from February’s limb-snapping snowstorm. So that’s Item One. Item Two is that most of us have noticed the extraordinary layer of golden pollen that has been piling up on our cars, houses, and every other outdoor surface over the last month or so. Yesterday I was chipping a pile of small fir branches that were lying under a couple of willows right behind the wine shop. Fairly quickly I noticed the air filling with a golden dust cloud, with very strong aromas of pitch, pepper, and something akin to nutmeg. (sounds like wine tasting notes, huh…?) Powerful stuff! I had been imagining that this golden layer of pollen was coming from the fir trees. But interestingly, in the last few days willows have been heavily casting their spawn to the winds, and I imagine that’s what I was stirring up yesterday.
Fortunately I do not seem to be sensitive to it, so no ill effects, but in thirty-some years in these parts I have never seen a Pollen Spring like it. Many of you, I know, have been suffering with intense allergy issues over the last month. Someone suggested that because of the cold early Spring, everything is popping out at once, concentrating the pollen season.
The Rosé Shrine is back!
These last couple of days, reaching all the way up into the (I’m not making this up!) seventies* is Reason Enough to take a moment for a long exhalation, a relieved smile, and most definitely, a cool, crisp, summery glass of rosé. Pour it, take it outside on the deck, sit back. Sip and listen to the birds. Feel the warmth of the Sun. Unclench. Let yourself sigh with the pleasure of it. Yes, your senses tell you: this moment is perfect. This moment is magical. And this wine is perfect…!
*for those of you from Hot Places, all you need to know is that out here on The Island we all staht fannin’ ahselves and talkin lahke Tennessee Williams charactahs any tahme the temperatuah goes ovah sixty-nahn…ah’m just sayin’…
Climate Change, Local Version
Like the snow, like the pollen, like the Winter, like the Spring, it feels like something is changing in the wine shop. And like Mr. Jones in the classic Bob Dylan tune “Ballad of a Thin Man,” (click on the image to play) We Don’t Know What It Is. And although the Wine Shop is, like, picking up the Vibes, it doesn’t feel to be About the Wine Shop. Rather, there is Something stirring in the larger Human Field that smells of Change, and it’s a little Creepy.
Consider a few Items: Item 1: Malaysian Airlines plane goes offline, flies for seven hours, and disappears. Item 2: The other-worldly, cruelly capricious landslide not far away from here in Osso. Item 3: A bizarre “court” in Egypt sentences about a thousand people, many or most in absentia, to Death, for vague political crimes. Item 4: Vladimir Putin stakes a claim to parts of Ukraine, echoing fading notes of the Merry Old Cold War that defined our generation (when I was little I thought there really was, somewhere, you know, an actual Iron Curtain); Item 5: Red State Executions go terribly wrong, but no one goes so far as to think “Hmm, maybe institutionalized vengeance has some karmic problems”…Item 6: Climate change is striking back in oh so many ways.
I’m just saying there has been a deluge of Weirdness unfolding lately. One way or another it seems to be cutting into our weekly attendance, as if– I mean, really, AS IF, something else were more important. Since that can’t Possibly be true, obviously it must have something to do with something bigger, something Karmic involving All of us. And I fear that maybe we have gone as far as mostly-chimp mutants can go, and we are running hard against our genetic limitations. Like 24/7 estrus, insatiable needs for power, unrelenting self-delusion, and of course your basic anthrocentrism, i.e., it’s All about Us. What if– and I am laughing as I say this– I mean, just try this absurd idea on for a moment– what if the Wine Shop weren’t the Center of the World?!!!
This week’s tasting notes
Altavins Blanc ’12 Spain $11
65% grenache blanc, 30% macabeo, 5% muscat, from 400m, 45-yr old vineyards planted in chalky, silty, low-permeability soil, yielding fruity aromas and palate of mango, apple, and apricot, with a bright dash of zesty citrus.
Chateau Lancyre Rose ’12 France $15
Light orange-pink. Fresh tangerine and strawberry aromas with notes of white pepper and white flowers. Juicy and seamless on the palate, offering plump red fruit, candied citrus, and a hint of bitter herbs.
Venta Morales Tempranillo ’12 Spain $9
Bright purple; pungent aromas of cherry, blackcurrant and dark chocolate. Supple and juicy in the mouth, with spice-accented cherry and fresh herb flavors, finishing on a tangy note.
Napa Cellars Merlot ’11 California $14
Aromas of toasty baking spices, vanilla, malt and fresh, ripe plums alongside alluring flavors of warm berry compote, juicy blueberry, blackberry, cherry, and a hint of dark chocolate and toffee.
William Church Bishop’s Blend ’10 Washington $18
Cab-dominant Bordeaux blend with a splash of Grenache; lush and round with notes of grenadine, black cherry, sweet tobacco and forest spice.
Lummi Island Wine Tasting April 26 ’14
Touring French Wine Country, Part I
Saturday night at 7:30 pm at the Island Library Ryan will present photos and descriptions of vineyards in France, which he has been visiting annually for the last 14 years, working directly with independent winemakers as an importer and tour guide. Many of you, our members, have participated in his tours, and will be familiar with many of the people and places. His presentation will focus on the “terroir” of the specific regions as well as the organic farming and biodynamic viticulture techniques that affect how grapes are grown, harvested, vinified, and even bottled according to natural cycles. It promises to be an informative and enjoyable evening, so mark your calendars. If you come by the wine shop for the preparatory tasting, there is just time after our wine tasting to grab a bite of dinner before heading on down to the Library to put it all into perspective…!
Touring French Wine Country, Part II
Since wine tasting is not permitted in the Library, we are filling the hospitality gap by adapting our wine tasting this weekend to Ryan’s presentation. As you can see from the list below, we will be pouring five (maybe even six!) wines from three French wine regions: Loire, Languedoc, and Southern Rhone. Loire is particularly famous for its array of well-crafted white wines, all designed, arguably, for pairing with shellfish. Quincy (Keh(n)-see), like nearby Sancerre, is superb sauvignon blanc, laced with bracing acidity, seashell minerality, and lovely lemon-lime-grapefruit citrus notes…yes, even I would eagerly eat a raw oyster with this wine in hand!
The other four wines are grown and produced on a line that stretches from Narbonne in the west to Entrechaux near the eastern edge of the southern Rhone Valley. What all of these places have in common are many centuries of wine-making dating back to Roman times. In fact, the last wine comes from an area very close to the town of Vaison-la-Romaine, which we visited two years ago. It is home to some of the best-preserved Roman ruins (photo, above left) on the planet. We happened to be there on Market Day, which made for strange transitions from Roman ruins to streets teeming with vendors, shoppers (this is SO much more fun than Walmart), delicious aromas, and general Festivity. It is probably an exaggeration to say that wine has anything to do with it, but on the other hand places like this beg the Big Question…is Unbridled 24/7 Economic Consumption really an adequately nourishing substitute for, you know, an actual Culture…?
Chimps and Compassion
Recently this story caught my attention, about a Japanese man who had been on Death Row for fifty years, essentially his Entire Life. How horrible is that? But the most arresting thing about the story was the astonishing fact that, although capital punishment is rare in Japan, it has a long history, evolving to the present day, of only giving the convict about an hour’s notice of his/her impending execution. So that is Item 1— the real meaning of what it is to be on Death Row— for years and years and years.
Item 2 is a recent story revealing that current Current Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts was, some years ago, appointed Defense Attorney for accused murderer John Errol Ferguson, who was executed by the State of Florida last August for crimes committed in (I am not making this up) 1977. Given that Ferguson was pretty likely Out of His Frigging Mind (his last words were “I just want everyone to know that I am the Prince of God.”), you have to wonder what exactly Society gained by his Execution.
What comes up for me in these stories is that sentencing people to Death Row for perhaps decades under completely Inhuman conditions while their Fate is slowly, painstakingly, and completely Impersonally determined, is pretty much a Textbook case of Cruel and Unusual Punishment. Some years ago I was invited to speak of the Buddhist viewpoint at an anti-capital punishment gathering, and I had a difficult time sorting out the contradictions. Now, however, it is much more clear. No crime, however heinous, can justify 50 years of subhuman, solitary incarceration. Indeed, it is difficult even to imagine such a thing. So my take-away from this recent series on the Death Penalty is that it is in the Nature of Chimps to jump up and down and kill each other for really Stupid Reasons. Our country is one of a tiny minority that still murders people in the name of some kind of “Justice,” and it is shameful beyond comprehension. Surely we can do better than this…
This week’s wine tasting …
Dom. Tremblay Quincy ’11 Loire Valley $18
Nose of yellow grapefruit, tangerine and sea air. Suave, fine-grained and concentrated, with zesty green apple & citrus flavors with a surprisingly creamy mouthfeel and finish.
Villa des Anges Cinsault Rosé ’13 Capestang (near Beziers) $10
Pale peach color. Aromas of tangerine, pit fruit, lavender and chalky minerals. Juicy and focused with sappy nectarine and citrus fruit flavors sharpened by a kick of white pepper.
Pech Celeyran Ombline Rouge ’12 Fleury (near Beziers) $10
Nose of black fruits; flavorful mouth that calls for a second glass, especially with barbecue sausages and spicy meats.
La Rocaliere Lirac Rouge ’10 Lirac $16
Equal parts grenache, mourvedre, and syrah. Clay hillsides and serene aging in cement tanks yield this
inky purple wine with deeply pitched aromas and flavors of cherry-cola, licorice and violets.
Mas Oncle Ernest Instant Present Entrechaux, Rhone $19
80% grenache, 20% syrah; from Cotes de Ventoux in southern Rhone Valley, this wine seduces with Old World charm, dark fruit, and earthy richness.
Lummi Island Wine Tasting April 19 ’14
Attention Shoppers! Help Island Library just by Shopping…!
Community Food Co op: Friends of Island Library (FOIL) has been awarded a Community Shopping Day at the Food Co op. Our day is this Saturday, April 19th! FOIL representatives will be at both stores from 1:00-4:00 PM to cheer you on. The Co op will donate 2% of the total sales for that day to FOIL. So come one, come all to either the downtown Co op (1220 N. Forest St.) or the Cordata Co op ( 315 Westerly Rd.) on April 19th,! Stock up and shop till you drop! It’s for a worthy Cause!
smile.amazon.com: Next time you are making an online purchase from Amazon, instead of going to “amazon.com,” go instead to “smile.amazon.com”. In the Your Account drop-down, select “Choose your charity,” and fill in “Friends of the Island Library.” A number of choices will be displayed, and probably our (Lummi Island) library will be first, but read carefully to be sure. Make your selection and follow a few more simple instructions, and you are signed up! Future purchases through “smile.amazon.com” will continue to benefit the library!
Disclaimer: Artisan Wine Gallery does not encourage wasteful consumption (duh, any non-wine-related products and services!), especially from gargantuan, worker-exploiting outfits like Amazon.com. But if you are going to buy from them anyway, please be sure to take that little cut for our sweet Library, which needs all the help it can get!)
Domaine Rouge-Bleu
On our last trip to France we visited Jean-Marc Espinasse at Rouge-Bleu, in the southern Rhone area west of Cairanne and north of Orange. We got terribly lost on the way and were very late arriving, but Jean-Marc was the perfect host, tasting us through his palette of wines very late on a fall afternoon. His wife, Kristin, it turns out, is from Bellevue, and the suggestion to go there came from a conversation with acclaimed Washington winemaker Bob Betz (Betz Family Winery in Woodinville). The setting, the wines, and the broad, flat vista of the vineyards were all on the Rustic side, the sorts of wines I like to explore but which may be a bit challenging to Western palates.
After our return from France, I did expend some effort trying to connect Jean-Marc with a Washington distributor, to no avail. So it was with some pleasure that I found his wine in a recent catalog, and we ordered a few bottles for you to try. It also seems that in the past year the winery has been sold to a young couple (Caroline and Thomas), and Jean-Marc (toujours l’entrepreneur) has gone ( je ne sais pas ou)…! Nevertheless, we are pouring for your pleasure this weekend the 2011 Rouge-Bleu Mistral, a blend of very old-vine grenache with some syrah and bits of mourvedre and roussanne, all aged in cement tanks with the skins. Which is to say, if you like Rustic, you will like this wine!
Wine Club Dudes Dues Due
In case you haven’t noticed, it has been 2014-ing out for several months now. If we had been smarter when we launched our Wine Club last year, we would have devised a calendar-year system so that all memberships would become due at the same time, like, say, January 1. Unfortunately, we didn’t do that. In retrospect, getting the Wine Club off the ground at all was a major Accomplishment. We are grateful to those of you who have joined and become Supporters, and we hope that you will choose to renew your memberships.
The main perk for membership is, of course, the $5 member discount on tasting fees, which can save you a bundle…I mean, really, the more you taste the more you save! In addition, last year we also offered discounts based on total wine purchases since joining, with white card, pink card, red card, etc. However, as mentioned recently, for 2014 we are doing away with these cards and embarking on a simplified set of purchase benefits for the Wine Club, to wit:
– 8.6% discount on any mixed-case purchase (we pay sales tax!)
– 5% discount on any 6-bottle purchase
– 15% discount on any special-order case
In addition we would still like to reward members who choose to bring us more of their wine business, as we did last year with the different expenditure-based cards. So 2013 members will be able to choose either the discount they have earned through cumulative purchases (card level) or the everyday bulk discounts above, whichever works better. All of this basically boils down to: 2013 members may choose whichever set of rules works better for them!
This Week’s Tasting
Mt. Baker Siegierrebe ’11 Washington $14
This early ripening cross of Gewürztraminer and Madeleine Angevine grows well here in Western Washington. The wine is light, bright, crisp, and refreshing, perfect with a fresh summer salad.
Andrew Murray Elleven Pinot Noir ’12 California $16
A first picking of five pinot noir clones planted in 2009, already showing medium body, soft texture, and Central Coast pedigree…we managed to get the last case for this vintage, check it out!
For a Song “The Score” Merlot ’11 Washington $11
Lush and concentrated, with big New World notes of dark plum, blackberry, and cherry, and earthy Old World notes of coffee, dark chocolate, and leather.
Poderi Elia Barbera d’Asti ‘11 Italy $14
Balanced, soft, and rich, with freshly pressed cranberries on the nose, and lush palate of pomegranate, bright acidity, and soft tannins that beg for pairing with a savory meal.
Rouge Bleu Mistral ’11 France $23
Bold and toasty, with espresso and baker’s chocolate notes up front, followed by gutsy blackberry cobbler and blueberry paste flavors, all with a hearty Old World feel through the finish that lends rustic character.
Lummi Island Wine Tasting April 11 ’12
In Search of Terroir
One objective of the blog this year is to provide more information about wine “footprints and fingerprints,” aka terroir — the particularities of where the grapes were grown and who made the wine. At it turns out, this information is not so easy to come by for a lot of wines, so it is a great pleasure when a winery website goes into some detail about these things. Such is the case with Chateau Montfaucon (see slide show), which makes the Cotes du Rhone rouge we are pouring this weekend, and which has been in the same family for many generations. If you browse their website you will find some great photos of the landscape and a sense of the local history and their winemaking philosophy:
“From the vineyards to the cellar we work delicately and with maximum care to preserve the quality and purity of the fruit: We only pick the grapes by hand. In order to enhance the balance of the wine, we co-ferment up to five varieties in the same tank. This increases the exchange and integration of different grapes during the important fermentation time. By controlling temperature and time on skins, typically 8 to 14 days, I am looking to extract only soft and silky tannins.”
Wine Club Members Only: Our Own French Imports!
Join us on Sunday, April 27th, 2014, 3-5pm for a spectacular pre-order tasting of Ryan Wildstar’s French wine portfolio. These wines are currently available nowhere else in Washington and are being offered exclusively to Artisan Wine Club Members at one-time only pre-sale prices! Ryan is the US representative for each of the wines we will be tasting and many of you have visited some of these wineries on Ryan’s Wine Tours over the last two years. So you know how good they are!
At this special tasting event you will get an in-depth perspective on the wines, their regions, and their winemakers, accompanied by tasty cheeses, knockout chocolate, and charcuterie. Time and location are still being worked out, but space is limited so please RSVP to reserve a spot. Tasting will include several wines from each of:
- Domaine Ferrer-Ribiere, Languedoc-Roussillon
- Domaine Moulinier, St. Chinian, Languedoc
- Château La Liquière, Faugères
- Château Rayssac, Cabardès, Languedoc
- Domaine De La Renaudie, Touraine, Loire Valley :
Chocolate Therapy
Let’s face it, Life is often challenging, and at those times we all need a little help, a little boost. The downer you are the bigger boost you need, and that’s where Chocolate comes in. Chocolate is there for you. It doesn’t criticize; it’s never passive-aggressive; it doesn’t make judgments. It’s There for you in the deepest possible way: sometimes it’s your Only Friend. Yes, yes, Sad but True. Because we never know when Life’s Delivery Person is going to show up with something indigestible, we all need to keep a little secret stash of Chocolate tucked away. File it under “Emergency Preparedness;” when the worst happens, you don’t want to be without it.
For all these patently Sensible reasons, we have restocked our chocolate shelves with more offerings from Theo, Seattle’s Premier Chocolatier, and we have also just brought in more of the very refined bars from “Dick Taylor,” a surprisingly elegant outfit in Arcata, California. “Dick” and “Taylor” are the last names of two of the partners in the firm, who have come to making chocolate from the somewhat unusual practices of building wooden boats and playing acoustic music. When you taste their chocolate, you will Understand: this is about taking Chocolate to higher level than we usually experience. No, these are not bars you wolf down; these are bars you can enjoy looking at. and inhaling, as well as savoring…definitely a Cut Above. Like, if you just spent your entire fortune on some hopeless cause, and you needed just the right taste of antidote to make it All Right, this is The Stuff…I’m just sayin’…!
The War for Everything: Chapter Whatever: Images
In many respects it’s been a Quiet War, mostly fought sotto voce across the Globe over the last 30 years. There was a scene early in the recent TV series (which I liked a lot) Battletar Galactica in which the President (played by Mary McDonnell) says to the Galactic Captain, who wants to continue the Fight, words to the effect: “There was a War. It’s Over. We lost. ” Implication: “It’s not about trying to Win, it’s about trying to Survive.”
Last week I mentioned a bit about how the World of Digital Images is being controlled by a few giant companies which have been harassing bloggers and web designers for years to pay outrageous penalties for “illegal use” of images found online, and which are very difficult to trace to a definitive origin. I was pleased to learn this week that the company harassing us has recently adopted a new strategy. Instead of its usual practice of releasing packs of Legal Hounds onto the foggy e-moor of the Internet to track us down and devour us, they have decided to take a new direction, opening up some 30 million images for free use by bloggers. In return they ask that we use “embed codes” which generate images as in this post from last July.
I am hoping that this decision will get these harpies off our backs, but the larger implication here has not changed. What is really going on is that the Very Few now own so much of Everything that it is inevitable they will own All of Everything before very long, like one big Company Store. In a way, that’s just the latest form of Feudalism, which I have always considered the “default” human socioeconomic system, so we shouldn’t be surprised. On the other hand, it means that, as Marx predicted, the inevitable result of marrying “private enterprise” to government is the reduction of the working class to a struggle for bare subsistence. What’s the matter with us? Why aren’t we all marching in the Streets?
This Week’s Tasting
Andrew Murray Elleven “Unplugged” White ’12 California $16
Unoaked, crisp, dry blend of chenin blanc (smooth and haunting) and sauvignon blanc (bracing and racy).
Ventisquero Carmenere ’10 Chile $10
Glass-staining purple. Smoke-accented aromas of black and blue fruits and violet, with a peppery topnote. Juicy and light on its feet, with a seamless texture and good clarity to the fresh blackberry and blueberry flavors.
Montfaucon Cotes du Rhone ’11 France $13
50% Grenache co-fermented on skins with syrah, cinsault, carignan from 40 yr old vines; matured in concrete tanks. Good ripeness and lots of minerality along with fleshy plum, blackberry and licorice notes. A floral hint adds charm on the finish. (read more)
Maryhill Winemaker’s Red ’11 Washington $11
Aromas of berry jam, chocolate, and cinnamon, with fruity notes of strawberry, caramel, and hints of white pepper, oak, and tart marionberry.
Ciacci Piccolomini Ateo ’10 Italy $16
Juicy cab-merlot blend that shows excellent up-front intensity, with notes of freshly cut flowers and mint that give the dark berry fruit an attractive sense of lift.
2072 Granger Way