This Friday at Artisan Wine Gallery May 25 ’12
SPECIAL FRIDAY NIGHT EVENTS THIS WEEK
This Friday evening we are changing our usual 4-7 tasting to two special events to kick off the annual Memorial Day Weekend Lummi Island Artists’ Studio Tour.
#1: Artist’s Opening Reception 4-6pm
From 4-6pm we will be having an opening/artist’s reception for our Studio Tour artist, Kathy Elston, who has created a new series of “fantasy dolls” especially for this show. Each doll is a unique construction inspired by art, poetry, literature, nature, myth, history and, of course, fabric. Kathy has shown her work around the world, and we are fortunate to have her right here on Lummi for this show, which we expect to be up for several more weeks. So come for a preview of her work and visit awhile. (And of course there will be a bit of wine!) See Kathy’s Bio
click on photos for larger view
#2: Special Wine Tasting Class: Spanish Wines 101 6-7:30 pm $10
In keeping with our return last week from a few weeks in Spain, this Friday we will be offering a special opportunity to taste an array of Spanish wines while learning a bit about the varietals and the areas they come from. Our guest host for the tasting is our friend Tristan, who represents the importer who brings in many of the Italian and Spanish wines we carry in the shop. This will be a sit-down tasting with a few tapas to accompany. YOU WILL NEED TO RESERVE A SPACE ASAP IF YOU WANT TO ATTEND THE CLASS! Limit is about 12 people. Send an email NOW to reserve a spot!
Lummi Island Wine Tasting May 19 ’12 Back from Spain
We made it home last night on the midnight boat after a really long day of traveling, finishing with a record-breaking (for us) under-two-hour drive from Seatac to the ferry dock. And that after about 24 hours of flying, waiting, flying, waiting beginning in Rioja at 5am (when it was still 5 in the evening Tuesday here on LI.) We’re still a little groggy, so this will be short.
In honor of our recent trip, our tasting Saturday will feature four Spanish wines, each from a different region. We actually visited one of the wineries (Borsao) last Tuesday, and have a few pictures of the vineyard where the grapes for the wine (Tres Picos) were grown. After a tour of the winery and a tasting of all the wines, we were treated to a lovely dinner, of course with a nice wine accompaniment.
The winery, Borsao, is actually a cooperative, like many we encountered elsewhere in Spain. The business model here is that there is a corporate “front office” that manages all aspects of vineyard management, harvest, winemaking, and marketing. Each member-grower is required to follow specific rules and guidelines, and in exchange they are guaranteed purchase of their fruit. Borsao has hundreds of small vineyards as their member growers.
This week’s wines:
Martina Prieto Verdejo ’10 Spain $14
Verdejo thrives in the hot days and cold nights of the mesa and, when harvested with extreme precision, yields one of the very best fresh white wines of the world; this one delights the palate with flavors of nettles, ripe pineapple, dried mint, and pencil dust on a crisp, fresh frame. From vines planted in clay, shells, and limestone in Rueda.
Emilio Moro Resalso ’07 Spain $13
Nice density to the berry, floral and vanilla notes in this lively red. Medium-bodied, with light tannins and enough acidity to balance the sweet oak. From younger vines in soils of clay with gravel and chalk at about 2000 ft. elevation in Ribera del Duero.
Borsao Tres Picos Garnacha ’09 Spain $14
Heady black cherry and blackberry aromas, Asian spices, incense, and mineral notes lead to a dense, layered, rich old-vine Garnacha that over-delivers in a big way. From a mature vineyard on the rugged, rocky slope of Moncayo Mountain in Campo de Borja that consistently delivers exceptional wines.
Finca Sandoval 05 Spain $27
76% Syrah, 13% Mourvedre, and 11% Bobal co-fermented on the lees with native yeasts, a year in French and American oak. Purple-colored, with alluring nose of toasty oak, mineral, floral notes, blueberry, and blackberry, leading to a full-bodied, ripe, layered wine with superb integration of oak, tannin, and acidity. From Manchuela where soils have a dominant clay-limestone component and the climate is very harsh continental.
Storks
This little post is a test to see if I can learn to post a photo to the blog using the &!## IPad…..which after several frustrating weeks of trial and error has revealed—reluctantly!— a couple of useful features.
It took awhile to find out there is a WordPress app (see, now I am throwing around meaningless Jargon as if I actually knew what “app” really means).The main thing I have learned about these app things is that some of them are fully functional right on your iPad, you know like a program on a pc. But most are not like that at all, because they require online access to be complete, because they sort of meta-exist in the so-called Cloud. All I’m saying is that the big problem with all of this is that you have to have web access All the Time to make these things worthwhile. And we don’t. Especially here en Espana.
Across the street from our little apartment is a tower with a couple of storks. We have been a bit under the weather so have stayed in a lot last few days. Storks are beautiful birds, very big and
Heron-like. so let’s se if we can show you what they look like…
Spain notes April 27, ’12
Trip notes
As our Gps is fond of saying (and it always is a welcome sound) “You have arrived.” So we have arrived in Barcelona, after a series of halting steps. First, we missed our Airport shuttle by about a minute at Tulalip…saw it there from I5, but gone three minutes later. So we had to make an unplanned trip to Seatac to find parking ($$$!), etc….not the leisurely trip we had pla nned. Call that Ouch #1.
Got to Dallas ok (surprise, no food on board for 4hour flight, never ran into that before…who knew?) Enough of a layover there to grab a quick bite before the next leg to London. Went through boarding, waited…..waited…for mechanical problem remedy, finally we all got off and a couple of hours later boarded new plane for uneventful flight to Heathrow. A little side note…I hadn’t recalled how Hot and Sweaty it was on planes during boarding! Or feeling so grungy so early in the trip!
Delay at Dallas made for close connection in London, but late afternoon flight to Barcelona on British Airways Airbus was smooth, beautiful, and comfortable, with roomier, more comfortable seats, a quiet ride, and a spectacular approach over the Pyrenees, then swinging out over the Med for sunset view of the city, the coast, and layers of mountains stretching away into the Twilight.
More later!
Ipad
This post is done on our new iPad…still low on the learning curve. So e.g., I make lots of typos, and the iPad corrects them by guessing what words Asia thinks I am at hyping and then Fills the a in S is thinks it should, willy-nilly making up words as it goes along…this last sentence is a pretty good example. All you experts feel free to lend tips!
Wine Shop
The most important thing for you to know is that while we are away Ryan will be opening the wine shop on Fridays from 4-7 and Saturdays from 2-6. I hope you will all drop in to taste wine and sChmooze with the Faithful. And just to make it more appealing…
CASE SALE!
For the next three weeks the $99 case sale we had before New Years is BACK! So come by and load up! OR call Ryan (758-2020) and ask him to put one together for you…just specify how many reds and whites!
2072 Granger Way