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Lummi island wine tasting fall studio tour September 6-7 ’15
(note: some photos will enlarge when clicked)
Friday Breads (sign up for preorder list! )
Buckwheat with dried apples and cider– Bread flour + thirty percent buckwheat flour and whole buckwheat for added texture. Buckwheat pairs well with apples and using apple cider in place of water adds to the flavor $5/loaf.
Sonnenblumenbrot – also known as Sunflower seed bread. This bread is made with a mix of rye and bread flours and loaded with sunflower seeds $5/loaf.
Hamburger buns- These soft buns are made with a mix of bread and whole wheat flours and have an onion topping. 4/$5
Featured Artist
Our featured artist for Studio Tour is Meredith Moench, with a series of new watercolors. We have enjoyed watching Meredith’s watercolors evolve over the past several years, skillfully using light to evoke the emotional qualities we all experience in our Pacific Northwest landscape. Meredith will be in the shop Saturday and Sunday mornings from 10- 1 to meet you and talk about her new works.
Uh-oh…!
A few weeks ago we talked about our excitement at having fallen for a sweet little sailboat which we had just bought. Well, merely a month later Lummi Island and the rest of the PNW were visited by a Freak windstorm of the sort that sometimes occurs in late fall or winter, but which has not occurred in recent recorded history earlier than mid-October. This past Saturday we were hit by S and SE winds of 45-50 kts with sustained gusts up to 60. Our dear little Dreamtime was caught on her mooring with inadequate lines to meet the challenge (we hadn’t gotten around to it yet…dumb mistake), and snapped free around noon. Within about 15 minutes she was swept a quarter mile north onto the rocky beach just south of the ferry dock.
This photo must have been taken next morning, after an intense community effort pulled her high up on the beach on the late night high tide. Obviously much work remained if she were to be saved.
The Power of Community
Within minutes of the beaching, a large group of islanders appeared on the scene to help. The boat was mostly on coarse gravel, leaned steeply to starboard with low rocks to either side. Two-foot waves kept coming in from astern. Initial attempts to refloat the boat were dashed when it became obvious she was full of water. Effort then shifted to dragging her higher on the beach as the tide continued to rise (a period of very high tides). At low tide near midnight, she was bailed out to reveal serious hull damage.
Low tide next day (Sunday) brought more volunteers, who focused on jacking up the damaged side to get a better look at the damage and attempt makeshift repairs. Those were sufficient to slow but not stop the leak on the midnight high tide, but did provide enough flotation that she could be tipped enough to settle on her port side as the tide receded. On Monday the extent of hull damage was evident. By mid-morning the pros had arrived, and by the next high tide a serious patch had been applied to the damaged area. By early evening she was floating prettily on a mooring just north of the ferry, and by mid-morning on Tuesday she had been hauled out at Gooseberry Point. She now sits in Bellingham being cleaned and prepped for repair.
We would like to express our Warm Gratitude to all of you who played a part in this Saga for the breadth and depth of your support during this crisis. We press our palms together and bow to you in thanks: no gift is more precious than being part of this wonderful community. Over the next few weeks we hope to thank each of you personally. Despite the chaos of the unfolding events, each of you was an essential part of the resultant positive outcome. Like dozens of hands on some Cosmic Ouija Board, the Group Effort proved effective in finding a Solution.
This week’s wine tasting
Naia Naia ’13 Spain $14
100% Verdejo with 12% fermented in French oak. This fragrant, medium-bodied offering displays enticing aromatics of grapefruit, lime, and kiwi, a round, smooth-textured mouth-feel, and a crisp, refreshing acidity.
Cloudlift Rosé ’14 Washington $14
100% Cabernet Sauvignon; nose of fresh ripe strawberries with a touch of citrus that continues on the slightly off-dry palate, followed by a long, crisp finish.
Septima Malbec ’13 Argentina $9
Musky, ripe aromas of currants, leather, chocolate and espresso. Supple and generous flavors of sweet currant and tobacco flavors with a note of pepper, soft tannins and good length.
Tarima Hill Monastrell ’11 Spain 91pts $13
Complex, perfumed scents of dark berry liqueur, cola, incense and smoky oak spices. Plush and expansive, with sweet cherry compote and blueberry flavors with notes of floral pastille and bitter chocolate. Rich and lively, finishing with excellent power, smooth tannins and a late jolt of allspice.
La Quercia Montepulciano riserva ’11 Italy $18
100% organic montepulciano from low-yield vines; rich, port-like nose of candied cherries that carry through on the expressive, rich, earthy palate; nice balance of fruit and acidity.
lummi island wine tasting august 7 ’15
(note: some photos will enlarge when clicked)
Friday Breads (sign up for preorder list! )
Barley & Rye with Pumpkin seeds – Sourdough with a mix of barley, fresh milled whole rye, and whole wheat flours with a bit of buttermilk, honey, and toasted pumpkin seeds.– $5/loaf.
Poolish Ale Bread- A “poolish” is a process that pre-ferments some of the flour, enhancing flavor and jump starting enzyme activity, in this case using ale with fresh milled whole wheat -$5/loaf.
Individual brioche tart au sucre – A traditional rich brioche rolled into individual tarts, then topped with demarara sugar, a mixture of cream, eggs, and even more butter. Rich, delightful, and surprisingly light. – 2/$5.
Warm welcome to La Baronne
While the Lignères family’s ties to the wine world can be traced back to the sixteenth century, its modern history began in 1957 when André and Suzette Lignères bought la Baronne Estate, and gradually expanded its vineyard holdings in the Languedoc along the border between the wine regions of Corbieres and Minervois, which roughly follows the main highway between Narbonne and Carcasonne.
I have a particular fondness for this winery from a spontaneous visit there a few years ago. I had read something that intrigued me about the winery, so late one afternoon I drove in with no appointment, and encountered a lone André, a gentleman of my generation, who had turned over the reins to the winery to his son a few years before. Despite my rudeness in dropping in unannounced, André proceeded to pour samples of a number of wines. His English was even worse than my French, but somehow we got along very well, and I continue to be grateful for his gracious hospitality. Btw, he was having a terrible time with a funky old corkscrew, so I sent him one of ours…hope he received it!
I bought several bottles of his wines to bring back, and have been looking for a source for them ever since. Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago, when I learned a new distributor now carries these wines, and now we have some! This weekend we are pouring la Baronne Costa Lise, a classic Languedoc blend of carignan, grenache, and syrah. Next week we will pour the old vines Carignan called Piece de Roche, which Really Rings my Wine Chimes!
Read more about the estate on Tom Fiorina’s excellent blog article (we met Tom on the same trip and keep a link to his blog on our site- check it out!)
Dream Time
I learned how to sail in the early sixties when I was a midshipman at the Naval Academy, and found it immediately engaging. For most of the last fifty years I have had a sailboat of one sort or another. For the last dozen years I have co-owned a 32′ boat with a long-time friend, and this year we made the difficult decision to sell the boat. Preparing the boat for sale required a lot of work, and also led to some soul-searching about whether a boat still had a place in our lives.
So the past week has delivered some considerable surprise, excitement, anxiety, smiles, and the occasional philosophical shrug. Just over a week ago our old boat was suddenly sold. A day later, out of curiosity, we drove down to Anacortes to see an unusual little boat we saw on Craigs List, called a Montgomery 23. A couple of years ago we were sailing back from Clark Island when I noticed a small sailboat making tidy progress against the wind and a bit of a chop. Later research revealed it was something called a, you guessed it, Montgomery 23.
Seriously, we just wanted to take a look, the beginning of an open-ended shopping excursion that had not even established an objective. All you need to know right now is that the boat is called “Dream Time.” She was built in 1979, but was substantially rebuilt over the last ten years. Somehow we said “Yes!” and this afternoon we sailed her up here to Lummi Island. And we are both doing a lot of grinning. Bottom line: not quite ready to be without a boat!
Evolution
Somehow it is hard to remember what the wine shop was like BR, you know, “Before Ryan.” I honestly can’t remember if he arrived on the scene two, or three, or four years ago. But we all know he has been a Force for Aliveness and the Founding Energy behind our decision to expand our hours to Friday nights.
As most of you know, over the last few years Ryan has developed his European wine tours, taken over the wine list at the Beach Store Cafe, expanded his wine classes through the Community College and the Food Coop, not to mention his recording business, and generally spread himself down to about four microns trying to Do It All. We all knew that Something would eventually have to give, and the logical First Thing to Give is the one that pays the least.
The Truth is that since we have never made a Profit in our little wine business, we have never been able to pay dear Ryan actual Money for his efforts. Now that he has developed a number of better options, and like all of us, has finite resources, it makes perfect sense that “Somethin’s Gotta Give.”
So it is with the reluctant but inevitable acceptance of Impermanence that we announce that for the foreseeable future Ryan will no longer be your default Friday night host. Like Pat and me, maybe he will prefer dropping in and schmoozing for a time on Fridays, rubbing elbows, enjoying Janice’s bread samples, and coming and going as the mood dictates…!
This weekend’s wine tasting
La Quercia Falanghina ’13 Italy $18
100% Trebbiano from hillside clay soil; a lovely, straw-yellow wine, with rich notes of white flowers, sea salt, and pear.
Perazzeta Rosado di Montalcino ’14 Italy $14
From the same grape as Brunello (sangiovese grosso), this beautiful rosado has it all: rich, bold, flinty, and summery.
Riojanas Rioja Canchales ’11 Spain $12
Pungent red currant and cherry on the nose, with bitter cherry and rose pastille flavors open to deeper blackberry and licorice notes and a taut, youthfully tannic finish.
Grand Bateau Rouge ’12 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.
La Baronne Costa Lise ’12 France $14
Organically grown blend of Carignan, Mourvedre and Syrah from Corbieres; juicy and complex, with luscious, mouth-filling flavors of dark berries and exotic spice.
2072 Granger Way