Lummi Island Wine Tasting October 12 ’13
Near Miss
We’ve all seen the movies and the images of The Big One that may be Out There somewhere with our planet’s number on it. We are here at all largely because the Really Big One 66 million years ago dropped by and snuffed out 99% of extant species, giving our tiny mammal ancestors some empty niches to call their own. We feel sad for the dinosaurs, but really, Darwinian creatures that we are, we are primarily concerned about our own survival, as individuals and as a species. I do confess that I might feel somewhat comforted if I knew the whole human race was going extinct if I new that, you know, puppies, flowers, and bees would survive…how about you?
The reason I am bringing this up is because last Friday night at home after wine shop I had the very scary and sobering experience of a brief “TIA,” (transient ischemic attack), aka “mini-stroke.” It only lasted a few seconds, but it definitely got my attention. Having spent most of Friday night in the ER, and most of this week having tests to sort out causes and strategies, I find that my entire perspective on Life, the Universe, and Everything has changed and will likely never be the same. I suspect the same is true for all of us who survive “near misses” of any kind, surviving any life-threatening disease, accident, or catastrophe. I am grateful to be here, grateful for all of you, and grateful for this wonderful life that we share in this beautiful place. At various times this week I have thought, “yes, this is just where I want to be right now.” It’s a good feeling. As an old friend said recently, “we are all lucky ducks!”
Another year, another Lullaby
Many of you were lucky enough to be with us a year ago this past August when our friend and winemaker extraordinaire Virginie Bourgue (at right in photo) came to the wine shop to pour wines from her own winery, Lullaby. We first met Virginie shortly after we opened the wine shop in 2005 when she was the winemaker for Bergevin Lane in Walla Walla, and we always enjoy it when our paths cross. Unfortunately, schedules did not permit her to visit for a tasting this summer. However, I just received a shipment of her current wines, and we will be tasting two of them this weekend. She is a very accomplished French winemaker who has brought with her to Washington the sensibility and skills of letting the grapes become the wines they want to be.
This is one of the primary philosophical differences between Old World and New World styles of winemaking, and one we have been increasingly learning to appreciate in recent years; New World style tends to over-engineer each wine to achieve a particular profile, while Old World style is more oriented toward evoking the unique expression of fruit and vintage that is present in this year’s harvest from this vineyard. For example, many winemakers in America, including Washington, age all or nearly all of their wines in new oak barrels, while European winemakers often use the same barrels over and over, year after year, so the effect of oak on the wine’s development does not mask the unique characteristics (for better or for worse!) of this particular year’s vintage. To some degree I am reflecting on these things because at this moment I am previewing Virginie’s Lullaby Rouge, and finding it very agreeable indeed, and much more reminiscent of favorite wines from France than favorite wines from Washington. So there is a definite Old World stylistic expression in Virginie’s wines that I very much enjoy, and I think you will, too!
Coming next week: Judy, Judy, Judy!
Believe it or not, I have just learned, while researching this paragraph, that Cary Grant never actually said the line, “Judy, Judy, Judy” in a movie. Supposedly that myth was initiated by comedian Larry Storch during a night club act, in the middle of a Grant impersonation, when actress Judy Garland walked in and he ad-libed the line. However, Cary Grant DID (supposedly) say “Susan, Susan, Susan” in Bringing Up Baby (1938) (sorry, could not find a video clip). Even though the line was never said in any of Grant’s movies, Storch’s impression inexplicably stuck and was often used by other impressionists. Who knew?
What is important here is that we are off to France on Monday, and Ryan is off to France on Sunday, leaving neither of us to open the wine shop the next two weekends. However, fear not dear friends, because Judy Arntsen and Judy Olson have volunteered to open the shop for the next two Saturdays during the usual hours, 2-6. PLEASE NOTE THE SHOP WILL NOT BE OPEN THE NEXT TWO FRIDAYS, October 18 and 25, but WILL BE OPEN THE TWO SATURDAYS, October 19 and 26. We are grateful to Judy and Judy for taking on this burden, and it promises to be a lot of fun. We will remind you again about this next week!
This week’s tasting
Famega Vinho Verde ’12 Portugal $8
Refreshing, crisp with a tingly sparkle and notes of tart apple tartness and delicate citrus; pleasant and mellow, it’s the perfect accompaniment to fresh seafood, salads, and mild cheeses.
Lullaby Rosé de Virginie ’12 Washington $18
(67% mourvedre, 33% grenache) Virginie’s version of Provencal rose; light, crisp, delicate, and refreshing, with just the right balance of fruit, acidity, and minerality.
Borsao Garnacha ’12 Spain $9
Inky purple. Aromas and flavors of blueberry, blackberry and bitter cherry are brightened by peppery spices. Concentrated and velvety in texture, with good finishing breadth and cling. An outstanding value.
Palama Primitivo ’11 Italy $13
Floral aromatics mix with notes of tobacco, citrus, and wild herbs; ripe, fresh, lush, and bright, with notes of dark anise, cedar, and blackberry confit.
Lullaby Rouge de Virginie Washington $27
A luscious blend of both 2009 and 2010 merlot and cab, with earthy notes of black berries, creamy vanilla, forest floor, and eucalyptus on a voluptuous texture.
Lummi Island Wine Tasting October 5 ’13
What? Hungarian Wine? Dahling, you must be joking!
Okay, okay, so I have no idea at all what this wine tastes like. But it was recommended by the distributor I bought it from, so how bad can it be? (actually, so far he hasn’t steered me wrong). And, I have to admit I like the label a lot. Over the years I have developed a philosophy of “show me a good winemaker and I will show you someone who is about equal parts Artist and Geek.” The Artist is at some level a sensualist who knows what good wine tastes like, and the Geek has the techno-mind and intellectual discipline that wine chemistry requires. So I think there may be some case to be made that artistically interesting labels should predict artistically interesting wines. So we shall see…!
Besides, this particular wine is also interesting because it is from a grape (furmint) and country (Austria) we gringos rarely associate with wine. However, most of us have heard of Tokai (tokaj, or tokaji) the legendary dessert wine of Austria, of which furmint is the predominant grape, traditionally grown on a small volcanic plateau near the Carpathian Mountains with harsh winters, cool dry springs, and lingering hot summers allowing a very long ripening period. Read more
Verdicchio Dei Castelli Di Jesi
Meanwhile, across the border in Italy, in the eastern region of Marche, since Roman times has grown another noble white wine, verdicchio. a versatile and seductive wine that goes well with pungent Italian cheeses like Pecorino and Parmesan, and with nuts, olives and seafood dishes. Way back in 410 AD, when Alaric, king of the Visigoths, was passing through the Marches on his way to sack Rome, (any excuse to head for a sunnier climate…?) he reportedly ordered that 40 mules be loaded with barrels of Verdicchio to take along with him because he held that the wine was excellent for maintaining and stimulating the strength of his soldiers. Another ancient endorsement came from Tuscan poet of the 16th century Pietro Aretino, who, despite his reputation as a cynic, had nothing but warm words of praise for verdicchio’s gustatory virtues. You should also know that a Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi can only be labeled with the geographical qualification Classico when it is produced in the oldest sector of the zone…like the one we are pouring this weekend. Finally, do you suppose Alaric ever reached Rome, whether he did indeed sack it, and whether he found any wines there he liked better than verdicchio? Do we suppose the Sacking of Rome was just a bunch of teenaged heathens out to Party? Read more
Republican Crackpots: The Trendy New Terrorism
OMD..is Ted Cruz channelling Joe McCarthy…??
I’m thinking about a new sci-fi script we could pitch. It would make a great movie. It’s set far in the future (like later in 2013), and the main character is this guy who has a really bad hairline and a really bad tailor. And, like Marlon Brando’s character in Waterfront, he really, really wants to be a Contender, but he has, you know, a big Trashbag full of Flaws that he pushes around dark streets at night in a stolen IGA shopping cart.
Despite his flaws, somehow, through various twists of fate, he gets to be an actual US Senator, and in a Flash of Brilliance he realizes that he can say or do anything he wants, and the more outrageous it is, the more air time he gets! He is working hard on figuring how to play it when he is visited in a dream by Joe McCarthy and Newt Gingrich, who equip him with the Chutzpah to think he is a real player, and even to believe that his idiotic ideas have some kind of screwy merit. We leave the viewer wondering if the Populace will realize before it’s too late that this guy is a Crackpot, or if they will follow him like the Pied Piper over the Fiscal Cliff, or if they will start putting Liberals into Concentration Camps– are you now or have you ever been a member of the Green Party…???!!!
First Warning: Mark your calendars!
This is a Countdown of sorts, toward something new for the wine shop. In a little over a week, Pat and I will be heading to France for a few weeks of wine-cation. One complication is that part of the time we will be taking part in Ryan’s Loire Valley wine tour, which means that for a couple of weeks neither he nor we will be available as your dutiful weekend hosts. What to do, what to do, such a Dilemma!
The plan for the moment, modelled vaguely after our elementary school days, is to offer you Substitute Hostesses who will pour your wines, lift your spirits, take your money, and show you a good time. (Hint: they both have the same first name…!)
Your Takeaway from this is that the wine shop will be CLOSED on BOTH Friday, October 18 and Friday, October 25th, but it will be open for tastings on every Saturday in October for the usual hours, 2-6pm. More on this next week!
This week’s Tasting
Tavignano verdicchio Castello di Jesi Classico ’11 Italy $11
Bright straw. Pure, penetrating aromas of apple and pear. Clean, fresh flavors of apple and apricot lead to a long, spicy, tannic finish and archetypal, chewy verdicchio character.
Evolucio Furmint Tokaj ’11 Hungary $11
100% Furmint, unoaked. Aromatic, richly flavorful, and bursting with citrus, fresh market apples, cantaloupe, and apricots, floral, and mineral notes. Slightly off-dry, with faint hint of tangerine just enough to bid this summer a fond adieu.
St. Cosme Little James Basket Press Grenache ’12 France $12
Precise, aromatic nose of cassis, cherry and lavender. Tightly wound, rustic Old World style, with a firm mineral spine giving clarity and lift to the dark berry and bitter cherry flavors.
Rigal Malbec ’10 France $11
From Cahors, the birthplace of malbec in France (not Argentina!); lots of plum and a bit of oak on the nose and palate, with lively notes of raspberry and licorice and a touch of earthiness.
Bodegas 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.
Lummi Island Wine Tasting September 28 ’13
Another Equinox
This photo was actually a couple of days late (too cloudy on actual equinox). But you can compare the photo from last year (the camera was failing) and see that indeed the point of sunset has moved further south from our view of last year’s equinox point. All of you (both of you…?) who have followed this blog for awhile know that this business of the solar and lunar years holds a fascination for me, something about the Drama of how these huge Cycles of Sun and Moon and Earth affect everything we do. It is easy to understand how obvious it must have been to our distant ancestors that our Fate rested in the constancy and predictability of these repeating seasonal cycles.
Nowadays we can back far enough away from this sunset image to visualize our planet’s rotation and its annual orbit of the only Star we really know: all intimations of Infinity. So it makes perfect sense that our ancestral mortal beings on tiny planet Earth should have been awestruck enough by the Miracle of the Sun to have deemed it worthy of worship. Makes sense to me on these occasions when we take a moment to reflect on the celestial phenomena that define our existence…it’s almost enough to make you want to create some kind of ritual in which you sit in a group around a fire and eat and drink and dance and celebrate the Mystery of it All …!
(as usual, click on images for larger versions)
Newlyweds, Zero to Ten
Some stroke of fate last weekend brought us two couples celebrating wedding anniversaries. The newlyweds were celebrating their wedding, of course, which we could call their 0th annniversary (go ahead, say it out loud– “zeroth;” it’s perfectly acceptable mathematical Jargon!), while another couple were celebrating their 10th. One important take-way from their visits is the delightful contact jolt of well-being we all get when we are around people who are happy. It’s a drug we all love, and I’m sure you will all join us in wishing these two couples long and happy lives together, full of deep affection and good fortune. (Can you tell which couple is which…??!!)
It’s the Bottle, Stupid!
On most Mondays I join a group of curmudgeonly contemporaries for “brown-bag” lunch. Our friend and long-time member Bob Fodor, who passed on to the next world last winter, referred to us affectionately and jokingly as the “Manly Men,” which is quite a chuckle because this is a group of card-carrying nerds (I mean that in the nicest possible sense!); creative, inquisitive, curious, a little technical, a little artistic, a little independent, and more than a little skeptical of any and all Sacred Cows. In other words, like me, only, you know, more so…i.e., not your usual image of “manly men.”
One of these fine gentlemen recently encountered a wine he particularly enjoyed, and suggested I order a few for him, so of course I ordered a whole case so we can ALL try it! The wine arrived today (Hurray, Drydock is over!!!), so we will be pouring it this weekend: Villa Sparina Gavi di Gavi. I have never tasted this wine, and am looking forward to it. By the way, the lovely bottle mimics blown-glass bottles used in the region hundreds of years ago.
Gavi is a famous white wine DOCG zone in Piedmont, Italy, surrounding the city of Gavi. Dating back to the 17th century, Cortese is the grape behind the wines of Gavi di Gavi, distinguished by its crisp, floral, peachy, aromatic qualities. It is mostly found around the city of Alessandria and the Monferrato hills. The wines are best enjoyed young; it goes well with Asiago and Parmesan cheeses, and is often paired with seafood.
Geese
Most days around noon we walk the dogs from the house down to Legoe Bay. Last week I posted a photo of the Great Blue Heron we encountered along the wetland just inland from the Bay. This week, with mostly gray skies and curiously little wind, I was struck by a collection of Canada Geese which had settled onto a small bar in the part of the wetland. Like monks in a Zendo, they sat very still most of the time, and the still water added glassy reflections. The combination of still birds all oriented in the same direction (sunlight from the left), the perfect reflections in the still water, and the soft fall colors in the grass and brush formed a compelling image….
This week’s tasting
Three Rivers Steel Chardonnay ’11 Washington $13
Notes of stone fruits, mineral, and green apple; medium-bodied, lively and fresh on the palate, with a clean, focused texture, juicy acidity and a good finish.
Villa Sparina Gavi di Gavi ’11 Italy $17
Bright golden color. Scent of overripe pears, spices, citrus fruit and aromatic herbs; Well balanced notes of honey and butter; full-bodied and savory.
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.
Domaine Escaravailles les Sablieres ’10 France $14
(70% Grenache and the rest Syrah and Mourvedre) exhibits a seductive style filled with black cherry and strawberry fruit intermixed with Provencal herb and earth notes. Medium-bodied, deliciously fruity, pure and well-made.
Avignonesi Rosso de Montepulciano ’11 Italy $17
Perfumed aromas of red berries, violets, cinnamon, and almond flower. Juicy and bright, with precise strawberry and redcurrant flavors and lively acidity. Finishes long and fresh, with lingering floral perfume.
Lummi Island Wine Tasting Autumn Equinox ’13
Great Blue
Last week we had an up close encounter with a great blue heron , and it was absolutely breathtaking! We were walking the dogs on Legoe Bay Road, along the little slough across from the old aquaculture school, when we startled into flight the Greatest Blue Heron I have ever seen! It must have been standing in the water very close to the road, hidden from view by the rose bushes, when very suddenly, with Great Whooshing-Flapping it filled the air right in front of us, huge and angular, massive wings unfolding and grabbing air, reaching for altitude. Even when it landed fifty feet away on the other bank it seemed the biggest Great Blue I had ever seen! (this is the very one, left, just sitting…ah, so very Zen…!)
I spent some time online looking for a photo that captured what we had experienced, but none of the hundreds of photos I found captured the sense of looming closeness, mighty power, and fluid angularity that came from being only ten or fifteen feet away from this sudden, primeval takeoff. Together, though, they might convey a suggestion of the feeling, especially if you imagine yourself right next to the bird in the photo, so that the air would seem for a moment full of wings! It was Amazing! (click on the thumbnails for larger images)
Destemming
A few weeks ago we posted the photo at left of once-a-year visitors Tom and Joannie Stangeland, who annually celebrate their anniversary with a few days at the Willows. Tom is a longtime master furniture maker (see photos) and relatively new commercial winemaker (Cloudlift Cellars). This year on their annual visit to the wine shop we finally finagled a bottle of one of Tom’s wines to try out, his current release of “Updraft,” a delicious white Bordeaux blend of semillon and sauvignon blanc. (Tom in pink shirt, Joannie holding wine bottle)
This past Sunday I drove to Seattle to help with “crush” of the new grapes he had picked up in Eastern Washington on Saturday. My menial jobs involved mostly sorting (not that much to it because the vineyards do a nice job of minimizing leaves, dirt, and bugs) and dumping grapes into the destemming machine. This particular machine leaves a fair number of grapes amidst the stems, so he likes to do a second sort by hand to retrieve the fairly large number of grapes that aren’t separated initially– so I spent a good part of the day shaking down the pile of stems to retrieve a few more grapes. It was meditative if sticky work, all quite enjoyable.
Images, above: 1) destemmer hopper; 2) close-up of destemmer worm gear that gently separates grapes from clusters; 3) resulting bin of stems that requires a second pass to get all the grapes (no, the Big Guys don’t bother with this step!). (click on the thumbnails for larger images)
The other thing you all need to know about this is that I brought back a case of the Cloudlift Updraft white blend ( $17, delicious!) and one of his Bordeaux blends (“Panorama,” $23), which we will be pouring this weekend. Don’t miss it: Tom is one of the most focused winemakers I have met in Washington, and you are really going to like this wine!
Autumn Equinox
September Equinox in Bellingham, Washington, U.S.A. is on Sunday, September 22, 2013 at 1:44 PM PDT, shortly after noon. So you can look up at that time and see the sun and know that for that one moment the sun is directly over the Equator on its way south, marking the beginning of the winter half of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. Spiralling into six months of colder and darker is probably a great time to stock up on wine, and to help you out with that, there is one more weekend of our fabulous Drydock Case Sale. See last week’s post for details!
This Week’s Tasting
Leonildo Pieropan Soave ’12 Italy $15
Well-balanced, lively, and tangy, with distinct minerality and appealing flavors of cantaloupe, pear, blood orange and ginger.
Borsao Rosado ’12 Spain $9
Spicy strawberry and orange zest on the nose, with a light floral quality. Juicy and clean, offering tangy red berry flavors, a kiss of white pepper, good focus, and a light touch.
Garmendia Tempranillo ’10 Spain $12
Organically grown grapes ferment in carbonic maceration, yielding a balanced, round wine with sturdy tannins and notes of strawberry, raspberry, banana, and a note of fennel.
Pugliani Treggiaia 09 Italy $11
A smooth and satisfying blend of sangiovese, canniolo & cabernet, serious but friendly, delightful with anything from pizza to lamb chops.
Cloudlift Panorama ’09 Washington $23
Boysenberry, black currant and cherry accents include hints of graphite, cedar and bittersweet chocolate, with nice balance of fine-grained tannins and bright acidity, backed by hints of violet and tobacco leaf in the finish.”
2072 Granger Way
