Lummi Island Wine Tasting December 28 ’13
Where gold comes from
We all know that gold is both rare and desirable, and from basic economics we know that means it is expensive (just the thing for making jewelry!). It is pretty stuff, and has a lot of very intriguing properties you may not know about, such as its amazing malleability: “One ounce of gold can be beaten out to 300 ft2 foil or stretched into a wire 2000 kilometers long and one-millionth of a meter (1 μm) thick, ” about 50 times thinner than a human hair! Gosharootie, kids, that’s Really Thin!
So it’s small wonder that Way Back When people put a lot of effort into trying to change lead (slightly more dense, plus plentiful and cheap) into gold. Recent observations suggest the task was unimaginably more difficult than the would-be alchemists could have imagined; scientists now believe most of the gold in the Universe was created when the very occasional collision of two neutron stars created a black holes, and by the way, turned lead and other heavy elements into gold. A neutron star is the super-dense core left after a big star explodes into a supernova and its core atoms collapse in on themselves. And then…and this is the point that the Alchemists couldn’t have imagined…it is pretty much only when two such neutron stars collide that the extraordinary conditions necessary for the creation of gold can occur. We already knew that most of the elements of which we and our world are made were created in supernovas billions of years ago. Now it appears that gold is created under even more extraordinary circumstances. Next time you look at your gold watch or ring, reflect for a moment on its origin! Check out the video by clicking on the image or here.
Sabrage!
I have actually only seen sabering of a champagne bottle done once, many years ago. One can use an actual saber or any kind of sword, or even a metal bar if that’s all you have, or more often a special, heavy, dull-edged tool for the purpose . In this case we had this lovely bottle of champagne I had acquired as a generous promotion from one of our distributors (Dickerson) a year or two ago, and “the kids” were here for Christmas dinner. Thus it ensued that, armed with a brief lesson, a great bottle, and my old Navy dress sword (yes my name is engraved on it) we went outside (a lot can go terribly wrong) and had a go at it.
A brief explanation from Wikipedia: “The saber is slid along the body of the bottle to break the entire neck away from the bottle, leaving only the base of the bottle open and ready to pour. The force of the backside of the blade hitting the lip breaks the glass to separate the collar from the neck of the bottle. The cork and collar remain together after separating from the neck.”
The pros do it in three strokes– two light taps and a final coup. It took me a lot more as I experimented and learned; in the end it doesn’t take a great deal of force, and it is quite magical when the top pops off the bottle, leaving a clean and very sharp edge where the top of the bottle split away! (click images for close-up)
Holiday Case Sale–One more weekend!
Our annual Holiday Case Discount continues through the weekend. Buy any twelve bottles, and we will pay the sales tax (8.6%)! Even better …if you are a Wine Club member, buy any twelve bottles and get 15% off! Offer good through closing time on Saturday, December 27!
Not only is this a great deal for both members and non-members, but it is also a good time to stock up for January, because the current plan is to close the wine shop until the first weekend of February!
Eighth Annual “East Coast New Year’s Eve” Party December 31, 7-9pm
Well after eight years our “East Coast New Year’s Eve Party” has become an established Tradition! From 7-9pm on New Year’s Eve we provide the wine, you bring something delicious to share, and when the ball drops in Times Square three hours away, we all hoist our glasses and toast the East Coast New Year! The young folks can move on to the next party on their dance cards, and we old timers can get to bed at a decent hour!
It’s also our chance to thank you for your support this past year, and to look ahead to more fun in aught-fourteen. Mark your calendars and start planning your finger food.
NEW!! Though there are never guarantees, it is possible we can apply the aforementioned “sabering” technique to some of the bubbly we will be opening for our New Year’s toasts! Come on, you know you want to take a whack at it!!! Or, as Napoleon supposedly said (and whose soldiers supposedly invented “sabrage”): “Champagne! “In victory one deserves it; in defeat one needs it”
January Schedule
After much deliberation, we have decided to take January off. We usually take a couple of weeks off for inventory and tidying up, but this year we feel like a little longer break. Therefore the wine shop will be closed until Saturday, February 1 (Groundhog Day weekend!) all the more reason to take advantage of our end-of-year sale through this weekend!
This week’s tasting
Farro Falanghina ’11 Italy $18
Fresh, vibrant nose full of citrus, melon and mineral notes—a good example of a tighter, leaner version of golden yellow grape falanghina, common in the mineral-rich Campi Flegrei area of Campania.
Stonecap Cabernet Sauvignon ’11 Washington $9
Opens with aromas of blackberry, spice, and oak followed by flavors of currants, raspberry, and hints of chocolate and coffee on a smooth finish; a perfect companion to grilled meats.
Breca Garnacha de Fuego ’12 Spain $9
Dark ruby/purple color; nose of jammy black cherries intertwined with crushed rock minerality. Full-bodied, with notes of ripe raspberries and black currants intermixed with camphor and forest floor.
Sorenson Malbec ‘07 Washington $18
From an artisan winery in Port Townsend ; complex aromas of bright black cherry, juniper, and smoke lead to a satisfying palate with intriguing layers of fruit, berry, and spice flavors.
Borsao Tres Picos Garnacha ’10 Spain 92pts $15
Deep notes of roasted herbs, sweet black cherries and raspberries, peppers and spice soar from the glass of this dark ruby/purple-tinged wine. Full-bodied, rich, ripe, silky textured, pure and long
Lummi Island Wine Tasting December 21 Winter Solstice 2013
BIG Solstice Thoughts
Our distant ancestors had perhaps a more vested interest in the passage of the seasons than most of us. Still, followers of this blog will have observed our fascination with the annual cycle of solstices, equinoxes, and cross-quarter days, which define the solar year. Today the thought occurred to me that we usually visualize our solar system as a sort of disc, with the Sun in the center and the planets orbiting it more or less within the plane we call the ecliptic. In that view, it is easy to imagine that each year on the winter solstice the Earth occupies again the same spot in the Universe as it does every year.
So it occurred to me today while walking the dogs that of course that isn’t exactly true, because as we all know, the whole Solar System is hurtling through space at something like 70,000 kph in its 220 million year trip around the Milky Way Galaxy. So of course, even though we are moving pretty slowly relative to the incomprehensible vastness of the Galaxy, it is breathtaking to realize that each year the Winter Solstice “place in Space” moves something like 375 million miles, and elliptical planetary orbits aren’t really “elliptical” at all, more like spirals. So of course when I got home I Googled “solar system movement through space” and man, did I hit a Jackpot of Far Out graphics! Click on the image for the first video. Please note that these images have NOT earned the approval of the scientific community, but there is something intuitively appealing about the basic idea of spiral movement. For more graphics, here are two more interesting videos:
Corkscrewing around the galaxy and The Earth does not revolve around the Sun
Mundane Solstice Thoughts
On a more familiar and more mundane level, on the left-above is a photo (tampered with) from several days ago, and another (below) from a few years ago of the actual Solstice sunset, about where the arrow is on the first photo. Considering all of the present day evidence of ancient solar observation (Stonehenge, Chaco Canyon, e.g.), this “Sun in Everyday Life” stuff has been around for a long time and is part of our inquisitive nature. Or as I have been putting it for some years now, at least several times a day, “Okay who are we, and what are we doing?” Or, as Suzuki Roshi put it, “before you chew your food there is rice, pickle, and soup. When you have chewed your food there is no rice, pickle, or soup. Otherwise the food will not serve its purpose.” Whichever way you look at it, infinity is still infinity, even if we can’t understand it!
The Alaskans
As often happens this time of year, last weekend was a quiet one in the wine shop, marked by a curious confluence of Alaskans on Saturday. Anne and Jerry, just back from New Zealand and soon to head off to Brittania, have a place up there right next to the Edge of the Earth as I understand it, where Jerry spent some decades. Nancy, our resident spinner and knitter (Gude Erth Knitware), spent many years in Alaska as an outdoors photographer; and first-time wine shop visitors (but long-time Islanders) Bruce and Karen have spent lots of time visiting, working, and hiking in Alaska over many years. Arrrrr, they’re a hardy lot, these Alaskans, ya gotta give’em credit for that! On the other hand, you gotta ask yourself what kind of person can spend many winters in a place where you need a special heater to keep your car alive overnight, and where the sun doesn’t come up for months at a time. Yep, they’re a breed unto themselves!
Holiday Case Sale!
It’s the end of the calendar year; winter is pretty convincingly already here; and business has been slowing way down, as it usually does this time of year. Contrary to what one might expect on the mainland, we don’t get a lot of holiday shoppers. More often, the holidays take people off the island, and the shop gets pretty quiet. That makes it a good time to offer our annual Holiday Case Discount: Buy any twelve bottles, and we will pay the sales tax (8.6%)! Even better …if you are a Wine Club member, buy any twelve bottles and get 15% off! Offer good through closing time on Saturday, December 27!
Holiday Schedule
We will be open our regular hours on Fridays (Dec 20, 27) 4-7pm, and Saturdays (Dec 21, 28) 2-6pm. We hope you can join us.
Eighth Annual “East Coast New Year’s Eve” Extravaganza
Well after eight years our “East Coast New Year’s Eve Party” has become an established Tradition. From 7-9pm on New Year’s Eve we provide the wine, you bring something delicious to share, and when the ball drops in Times Square three hours away, we all hoist our glasses and toast the New Year! The young folks can move on to the next party on their dance cards, and we old timers can get to bed at a decent hour! It’s also our chance to thank you for your support this past year, and to look ahead to more fun in aught-fourteen. Mark your calendars and start planning your finger food. And please–RSVP if you are coming! (758-2959 or Email us.)
This week’s tasting
Cottat “Grand Caillou” Sauvignon Blanc ’11 France $11
Offers a light, crunchy feel, with lemon peel, thyme and tarragon notes, showing a flash of gooseberry on the finish.
Patton Valley WV Pinot Noir ’12 Oregon $18
Aromas of graphite, cherry crumble, coriander and rose petals, with flavors of brown sugar, red cherry and citrus rind and big, soft tannins and a rich mouthfeel.
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.
Eguren Codice ’09 Spain 90pts $11
Aromas of cassis, cherry, licorice and mocha. Dense, alluringly sweet and juicy, with excellent concentration to its chewy dark berry and bitter chocolate flavors. Silky, fine-grained tannins and lingering spiciness.
L’Ecole No. 41 Syrah ’10 Washington 91pts $23
Black raspberry and exotic nutty oak aromas; plush, dense and generous palate with creamy-sweet black raspberry fruit. finishing with sweet, easy tannins and lingering berry flavors.
Lummi Island Wine Tasting December 14 ’13
Uh-oh, where did all this wine come from??
It’s not as if this is our first December with the wine shop. We know that many locals go away for the winter or get caught up with holiday activities, and that many of our urban second-home-on-Lummi friends from Seattle or Vancouver won’t be back until Spring. Given all of that, it is difficult to understand why we just keep buying wine, when we know that in a few weeks we will just have to count it all for annual inventory. Suffice it to say that we have gotten loaded up with a lot of really good wines at really good prices, and we would love to see a lot of them go out the door before the end of the month! By the way, we WILL BE CLOSED most of January– so this would be a good time to load up your wine larders and to do your part to resolve this difficult overstock problem!
Which brings us to our next point:
Holiday Case Sale!
It’s the end of the calendar year; winter is pretty convincingly already here; and business has been slowing way down, as it usually does this time of year. Contrary to what one might expect on the mainland, we don’t get a lot of holiday shoppers. More often, the holidays take people off the island, and the shop gets pretty quiet. That makes it a good time to offer our annual Holiday Case Discount: Buy any twelve bottles, and we will pay the sales tax (8.6%)! Even better …if you are a Wine Club member, buy any twelve bottles and get 15% off! Offer good through closing time on Saturday, December 27!
Holiday Schedule
It is now Thursday, December 12 as I write this. That means we have just two weekends before Christmas, and three weekends before New Year’s. Christmas and New Year’s Day fall on Wednesdays this year, making long weekends a bit complicated for lots of people, but leaving Fridays and Saturdays relatively intact for visiting the wine shop throughout the month! Hey, how lucky can you get? So be reassured: we WILL be open our regular hours on Fridays (Dec 13, 20, 27) 4-7pm, and Saturdays (Dec 14, 21, 28) 2-6pm. We hope you can join us.
Eighth Annual “East Coast New Year’s Eve” Extravaganza
Well after eight years our “East Coast New Year’s Eve Party” has become an established Tradition. From 7-9pm on New Year’s Eve we provide the wine, you bring something delicious to share, and when the ball drops in Times Square three hours away, we all hoist our glasses and toast the New Year! The young folks can move on to the next party on their dance cards, and we old timers can get to bed at a decent hour! It’s also our chance to thank you for your support this past year, and to look ahead to more fun in aught-fourteen. Mark your calendars and start planning your finger food. And please–RSVP if you are coming! (758-2959 or Email us.)
This week’s wines
Dom. Tremblay Quincy ’11 France $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.
Montfaucon les Gardettes Rouge ’11 France $10
Syrah, Mourvèdre, Grenache and Carignan; blueberry and plum fruit, with a snap of dark licorice and modest cedary toast framing the juicy finish.
Jordanov Merlot ’11 Greece $10
Notes of blueberry and densely concentrated fruit with a dusty, rich, long finish of cherry and cherry pit minerality.
Grand Bateau Rouge ’11 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.
Avante Tineta Tinto Fino ’11 Spain 91 pts $12
100% tempranillo; copious notes of creme de cassis intermixed with hints of wood smoke and charcoal. Medium to full-bodied, juicy, succulent and sensual.
Lummi Island Wine Tasting December 7 ’13
Andrew Murray
Sometime around 2004, a road trip took us to Los Olivos, California, near Santa Barbara, where we found the tasting room for Andrew Murray Vineyards. The winery itself is a few miles away on Foxen Canyon Road– by my reckoning one of the most beautiful spots on Planet Earth. I liked the wines so much I joined their wine club, and every few months ever since I have been shipped four wines that I can always turn to when I need something soft, smooth, and satisfying. So yes, folks, even though I have the wines of the world at my fingertips, these wines from Andrew Murray, mostly Rhone blends, have been my go-to “comfort wines” for nearly a decade. All I’m saying is this young man consistently makes really nice wines.
Therefore it should be no surprise that I have been trying for a long time to get some of these wines into the shop so you can all enjoy them! Unfortunately, Andrew does not export his wines to Washington. Last April on our road trip we finally got a chance to visit the winery, meet Andrew, and talk about wine, and explore ways to get his wines here. That conversation has evolved into the recent arrival of three of Andrew’s new wines, under a new label called “Elleven,” which he explains in some detail here. We are very excited to offer you these wines to taste this weekend. Btw, Andrew saved us the last case of this year’s vintage (the very first from this vineyard) of the Elleven pinot noir. Young vines being what they are, almost certainly next year’s vintage will be even better…but this one is pretty tasty already!
Flying South? You call this flying south?
On today’s walk this group of Mallards (click image for larger version) caught my eye. Some weeks ago there was one pair, then two, then several. At the moment their paddling range is severely limited by ice to a tiny area of open water. So today I imagined the conversation they might be having as they foraged…
–You promised, George. You promised that this year we would migrate to some place warm for the winter! But just look at this ice! You call this warm??!!
–Well dear, the good news is that what I actually promised was that we would head south for the winter, as we always do.
–Well, thank goodness, because this place is freezing! When are we heading south?
–Umm…well, dear, I’m sorry to tell you that this IS south…!
Italian arrivals
Usually our semi-annual shipment of special order Italian wines arrives in late October, but this year it just arrived. So over the next few weeks we will be offering selections for our weekly tastings. This week’s wine is from one of our favorite wineries in Orvieto, best known for its lovely white wines. This wine is an unoaked red blend of 60% cab franc and 40% canniolo. It really got our attention when we tasted it back in August, and we are hoping you will like it as much as we did!
This week’s wines
Andrew Murray Elleven “Unplugged” White ’12 California $16
Unoaked, crisp, dry harmony of chenin blanc (smooth and haunting) and sauvignon blanc (bracing and racy).
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. Already a hit, we managed to get the last case for this vintage.
Altarocca Librato Rosso ’11 Italy $16
Unoaked, from volcanic soil; zesty, spicy, dark, and smooth, with a hint of eucalyptus on the finish. Terrific!
Altavins Tinto Joven ’11 Spain $11
Mouth and sense-filling blend of garnacha, syrah, and carinena, full of ripe dark fruit and berry flavors from Terra Alta’s hot days and cool nights close to Tarragona and the Mediterranean.
Andrew Murray Elleven Big Bottom Cabernet California $16
From south-facing hillside vines, mostly dark and concentrated cab sauv mellowed with a bit cab franc and syrah to yield complex notes of graphite, forest floor, flowers, and bright cherry.
2072 Granger Way