lummi island wine tasting sep 9-10 ’22
Notes for this weekend: 4-6pm both Friday and Saturday
Looks like another beautiful weekend, mostly clear, highs around 70. And…for the first time in many years, the ferry will remain in service because this year drydock maintenance was performed in May, so it is logical to expect more visitors than during our typical reclusive September.
COVID continues to demand our individual attention. My college class just had our (I’m not making this up) 55th reunion last weekend, and many of us didn’t go because of COVID worries. Just got an email that lots of attending classmates are reporting that they did indeed come down with cases after they got home. So…although the newly released O variant vaccine promises to keep us inching toward “normalcy,” we are all still in the risk management business.
Photo at left is a bouquet from the extensive flower garden of our neighbor Colleen a couple of houses away. Occasionally in recent weeks she has had extra bouquets which we have made available on the deck at the wine shop during open hours. We mention this because we really like having them around, the season is coming to a close, and we are hoping to have them available for our guests again over the next few weeks.
Bread Pickup This Week
Breton Bread– Made with pre-fermented dough in which a portion of the flour, water, salt & yeast are mixed and fermented overnight before preparing the final dough, which incorporates the flavors of the French Breton region by using buckwheat and rye flour and sel gris -the grey sea salt from the region that brings more mineral flavors to this bread. Goes great with meats and cheeses – $5/loaf
Spelt Levain — Spelt is an ancient grain with a nutty, slightly sweet flavor; it has gluten but it isn’t as strong as in modern wheat. This bread is made with a levain before the final dough is mixed with traditional bread flour, spelt flour, fresh milled whole spelt and rye. – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Brioche Almond Buns – Made with a delicious brioche dough full of eggs, butter and sugar. Rolled out and spread with an almond cream filling. The almond cream is a delicious creamy filling made fresh with even more butter, sugar, eggs, and almond flour. Yum! – 2/$5
To get on the bread order list, click on the “Contact Us” link above and fill out the form. Each week’s bread menu is sent to the list each Sunday, for ordering by Tuesday, for pickup on Friday. Simple, right..? If you will be visiting the island and would like to order bread for your visit, at least a week’s notice is recommended for pickup the following Friday.
Wines of the Week: Cataclysm Chardonnay ’20 Washington $14
Over the years we have enjoyed and carried several wines from a long-established the Montinore winery in Oregon. The winery is one of only a few that is certified both biodynamic and organic, using practices and techniques that produce wines that are not only tasty, but also that sustain the vines and surrounding ecosystem with sound practices that maintain interdependent balance. The winery was established in 1982.
The Cataclysm Wine Company, on the other hand, is “brand” (snicker) new, with no history, no record, no details whatsoever about where exactly the wine was made, by whom, or where the fruit came from. There is, however, a substantial financial relationship between the owners of Cataclysm and the long-time owners of Montinore. We suspect that Montinore made the wine, probably at its main facility in Forest Grove, Oregon, as part of a larger financial arrangement that has allowed Montinore to expand its operations to the point where you cannot reach an actual human being on any of their telephones.
You can decide for yourself whether you like the wine or not, or care at all about its peculiar lack of a backstory. But for some of us, one look at their minimally informative website is enough to make us a little sorry we bought it in the first place. Maybe someday corporations will be able to get along without people at all so they can continue to rack up even more profits after our collective demise. Or, you know, maybe we are just in a cynical mood because of all the other crap that is going on…Sigh…
Economics of the Heart: The End of an Era
courtesy Liverpool Echo
She has been a reliable institution for all or most of the lives of everyone presently living. I was seven years old in 1953 when we watched some of the coronation (it went on for Hours!) on the primitive black and white television in our little living room. The pageantry was an endless parade of solemn pomp and ceremony, with unmistakable religious implications: the imposing, vaulted cathedral, the ornate costumes, the crowds, the horse-drawn carriages, the plodding formality.
We kids had no idea what a Coronation really meant, if anything, besides being a Big Deal. But we have learned what it meant by watching this then-young woman practice it every day of her life since then. For seventy years she was On Duty, day and night, the public face of a world-spanning Commonwealth. She hasn’t been just a queen, she has been The Queen to pretty much the entire world. We all feel, recognize, and grieve now for the passing of another Elizabethan Era.
This timing of her passing underscores the stark contrast between her long career of selfless service to Britain and the unrelentingly selfishness of our own Former Guy. One can’t even consider the two of them in a single thought without short-circuiting. She has been steady through a lifetime, lending strength to all of us, British or not, over all these decades.
By way of comparison, consider the Presidents of our country who have served during her reign: Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush 2, Obama, Former Guy, and Biden. It is a worthwhile exercise to go through the list and see which, if any, of her contemporary US Presidents measured up to her steady decorum, selflessness, and commitment…leaders we admired and took pride in.
Maybe a “Parliamentary Monarchy” offers distinct advantages for separating the functions of statecraft and government. As a symbol of centuries of British influence on the world and on the United States in particular, that model has served Britain very well. But at present it remains to be seen whether the British monarchy (or any other) will be able to survive very much longer in a world where reverence for a lifetime of service in general seems an increasingly scarce commodity.
Nowhere is this more evident than right here, right now in our own dear country, as divisive values, enmity, hostility, petty selfishness, and, oh yes, unbridled ego are continuously generated and amplified on public and social media. At a time when our country and the world must collaborate closely to manage increasingly catastrophic climate and humanitarian disasters, the selfish and the ignorant are doubling down to destroy the planet even faster.
One lesson we can take from the dignity, service, restraint, and commitment of Queen Elizabeth is that these are the glues that bind any nation together, that unite and guide its citizens to be their best selves. A current scan of our country, our media, our government, our judiciary, our Congress, our commerce, and our social institutions reveals a set of increasingly unbreachable divides, as when a large percentage of Americans seems to want every State to be able to legislate cruelty with no federal restrictions.
The passing of the Queen truly marks the end of an era in Western Civilization. We can all feel it. It’s not that she had any actual power to maintain all of civilization. But she symbolized, as no one else on the planet has, that each of us has a duty to make society work for everyone else. Modern politics and social media are products of undisciplined ego and the increasingly popular presumption of entitlement that goes with it. She demonstrated with every gesture that we all share a duty to serve each other and the living planet which which supports us all.
This Week’s Tasting Flight $10
Cataclysm Chardonnay ’20 Washington $14
Aromas of quince, pear, and custard; pleasing mouthfeel, easy to drink. Made with Washington fruit at an undisclosed location by undisclosed people in some kind of financial relationship with Montinore Estate in Oregon.
Rubino Oltreme Susamaniello ’17 Italy $14
Fresh, fragrant notes of cherries, pomegranate, raspberries and ripe plum; fruity, round and minerally, with soft tannins and rich flavors; a versatile pairing with richer dishes.
Daou Pessimist Red blend ’20 California (Paso Robles) $25
Full-bodied, rich and spicy, with balanced layers of elderberry and truffle with accents of cocoa, cardamom eucalyptus, leather, tobacco, and grilled meat, alluring texture, and leisurely finish.
lummi island wine tasting sept 2-3 ’22 artists studio tour
Studio Tour Hours: 4-6 pm Friday and Saturday
The wine shop will be open for tasting this weekend as usual from 4-6 pm on both Friday and Saturday. We are also participating again in the Annual Artists’ Studio Tour, with Anne Gibert as our visiting artist.
Official Tour hours are from 1- 5pm both Saturday and Sunday. However, although before Covid we used to stay open and offer wine tastings all day both days, due to Covid cautions and other constraints our official tasting hours will not change for the tour.
However…if our sandwich board sign is deployed in front of the shop, you may assume we are open for art viewing and possibly wine tasting, so please feel welcome to drop in!
Finally, at the current stage of the global pandemic, anyone can be an unknowing carrier, so even though overall risks are low, we all must manage risk to ourselves and others in our own way. For our part, we will continue taking basic precautions in the wine shop: windows open, air filter operating, outside seating options. We do continue to request that the unvaxed remain outside for tasting.
Fyi, the weekend forecast is for partly cloudy, comfortable (70°) weather both Friday and Saturday!
NO Bread Pickup This Week !!
Janice is away this weekend, so sorry, no bread deliveries…back next week!
Wines of the Week: Cloudlift Cellars Favorites
Friends of the wine shop know that we have a long-standing appreciation for the wine making skills of Tom Stangeland, owner/winemaker at Cloudlift Cellars in Seattle. Tom and his wife Joanie have been making an annual pilgrimage to Lummi Island each August to celebrate their wedding anniversary with a long weekend on the Island and an anniversary dinner at the Willows. This year marked their 25th!
We took advantage of their visit to get a delivery of several of our particular favorites of their wines, and will be pouring them for our tastings this weekend. See tasting notes below…!
Economics of the Heart: The Devil and the Republican Party
image courtesy of www.atlantamagazine.com
The airwaves are lately full of commentary about the handling of classified documents. This public discussion has followed the discovery that The Former Guy had retained possession of dozens of boxes of classified government documents that he apparently had accessed while in office. Despite the nonstop media musing about what that Might Mean, there has been precious little discussion about how exactly such materials are regularly maintained and custody tracked in everyday White House operations. It is actually quite stunning to hear that anyone, including a President, can have custody of such documents even while in office without a clear paper trail showing what document, which copy, when custody began, and when it ended.
It is disturbing enough to hear how not only how cavalierly these documents have been held in unguarded and unsecured locations for all this time. It is even more disturbing to realize that such a thing could ever have been allowed to happen in the first place. Back during the Cold War such materials were taken very seriously, with numbered copies, each with a chain of custody that linked each document to the last person to have responsibility for it. People were trained to take these responsibilities extremely seriously. You took pains to make sure not to lose such materials in your custody or leave it unsecured. You were Responsible for it, and if it got lost or compromised, you were in big trouble.
Probably none of us who never experienced whatever kind of zoo the Tweetster White House really was can even imagine the prevailing levels of chaos. Still, the implication is that the Former Guy had open access to such documents, apparently with no clear chain of custody, and retained possession of them for nearly two years after leaving office.
Really? That certainly sounds like a story worth following…
The other head-scratching piece of this is that until pretty recently Republicans all pretended to be Hawks on America and would have devoured the Tweetster at the first inkling of what we all suspect– that he kept these documents because he knew they would be worth a LOT of $$ to the right buyers. Does anyone really imagine there is some Other reason for his having stolen all these papers and kept them so readily available at his swanky little international golf club? Go ahead, think about it…as Michael Cohen has spelled out in great detail, and as history has continually confirmed, the Tweetster is a con man-opportunist-psychopath with no apparent purpose in life except conning people into trusting him and then pushing them down the stairs. He is to the Republican Party what the Devil was to Faust.
Even after all this, most Republicans across the country still continue to choose the Tweetster over country, over Constitution, over truth, over common sense. Faust is the Republican Party, reveling in the growing Authority of its Christian Fascism, its institutionalization of cruelty, the offhand sacrifice of the entire planet’s ability to support life for a few moments of fleeting riches. There’s a lot at stake, all right…
This Week’s Special Tasting $10
Cloudlift Lucy Rosé of Cab Franc ’22 Washington $18
Pale salmon in color, with aromas of fresh nectarine, citrus peel and strawberry; palate is dry, bright, and focused, with lively, mouthwatering citrus and minerality that extend the finish.
Cloudlift Viognier/Marsanne/Rousanne ’20 Washington $22
We claim a little credit for asking Tom to make a marsanne/roussane blend a few years ago. The blend adds white flowers and honeysuckle, melon and pear nuances to fill out the palate.
Cloudlift Ascent Cab Franc ’13 Washington $27
74% cab franc and 18% merlot with a bit of cab sauv and Petit Verdot; deep ruby color and a rich, smoky nose of raspberry, cherry, and plum with scents of rosebuds, brambles, tobacco, sage and pepper. The flavors follow the aromatics with notes of licorice, dark cocoa, French roast and scorched earth.
Cloudlift Zephyr ’15 Washington $34
Beautiful blend of 44% Syrah, 28% Mourvèdre, and 28% Grenache presents rich aromas and flavors of blueberry, huckleberry, orange peel, garrigue, raspberry, black pepper and sweet fruit flavors that linger like satin on the finish.
lummi island wine tasting aug 26-27 ’22
Hours this weekend: 4-6pm both Friday and Saturday
Th
e wine shop will be open this weekend as usual from 4-6 Friday and Saturday. Covid continues to be a threat, even for those fully vaccinated. Limited outdoor seating is available on the deck for those who wish to stay outside.
At the current stage of the global pandemic, anyone can be an unknowing carrier, so though overall risks are low, we all must manage risk to ourselves and others in our own way. You are welcome to wear a mask , stay outside, or otherwise distance as additional precautions to protect yourself and others. For our part, we will continue taking basic precautions in the wine shop: windows open, air filter operating, outside seating options. We do continue to request that the unvaxed remain outside for tasting.
Btw, the weekend forecast is for partly cloudy, comfortable (70°) weather both Friday and Saturday!
Bread Pickup This Week
Pain Meunier -Aka Miller’s Bread to honor the miller who mills the wheat. Made with pre-fermented dough it contains all portions of the wheat berry: flour, fresh milled whole wheat, cracked wheat and wheat germ. Always a favorite and a great all around bread. It makes the best toast! – $5/loaf
Sonnenblumenbrot – Aka Sunflower Seed Bread, made with a pre-ferment that takes a portion of the flour, water, salt and yeast that ferments overnight before mixing the final dough with bread flour and freshly milled rye, then loaded up with toasted sunflower seeds and some barley malt syrup for sweetness. – $5/loaf
and mmm, pastry this week…
Kouign Aman with Cream Cheese filling : Made with the same traditional laminated french pastry used for croissants. Has both a little levain for the sourdough flavor as well as another pre-fermented dough to help build strength. When rolling out however, instead of using flour to prevent sticking, sugar is used. The dough is cut into squares, placed in cupcake tins then filled with a cream cheese filling… so a cheese danish and croissant walk into a bar… – 2/$5
To get on the bread order list, click on the “Contact Us” link above and fill out the form. Each week’s bread menu is sent to the list each Sunday, for ordering by Tuesday, for pickup on Friday. Simple, right..? If you will be visiting the island and would like to order bread for your visit, at least a week’s notice is recommended for pickup the following Friday.
Wine of the Week: Lyrarakis Plyto Psarades ’21 Crete $20
https://wineanorak.com/2020/11/09/lyrarakis-visiting-this-leading-winery-in-crete/
The very rare Plyto (aka Dafni) grape variety was saved from imminent extinction in the early ’90s by the Lyrarakis family when it was planted in their “Psarades” family vineyard at 480m (1500′) altitude in central Crete.
The varietal’s name derives from the laurel (bay leaf) plant, which is called “Dáfni” in Greek, as the wine shows distinctive herbal nuances, a clean and refreshing mouthfeel, and a clean, lingering, aromatic aftertaste. Its unique characteristics offer great food-pairing versatility: if it is served outdoors in the summer, this wine will very likely pair very well with it.
Tasting notes: Engaging aromas of peaches, grape-nuts (yes those grape-nuts!), with a spicy-minty background of garrigue, bay leaf, and warm earth that linger through a long, clean finish.
Economics of the Heart: Trances People Live
This week’s title comes from a powerful book written about 30 years ago by psychologist Stephen Wolinsky. One basic takeaway from the book is that we are all constantly going in and out of “trances,” in the sense that in one moment we can be functioning rationally, logically, and functionally, and in the very next, without any conscious sense of anything having changed, we are operating from an unconscious trance state. Such a “trance” is not some kind of unaware sleepwalking. It is a seamless shift from one sense of self-and-other to another, without even noticing.
With a bit of reflection we all recognize that these “mood shifts” can happen with road rage, or feeling shame, or rejection, or hopelessness, or any of the other Buttons. We all have our own deep wells of experience, unresolved conflicts, and the meanings we have made from them– private prisons of our own making that we carry with us wherever we go. We are not a single constant self, but an ongoing set of responses to inner and outer stimuli. We all have our training, habits, beliefs, needs, desires, hopes, dreams. Still, we must respond to each moment as it arrives, and ideally our best self emerges. But too often our habitual selves arrive first and make everything more difficult.
These thoughts arise as our nation approaches a consequential electoral crossroad in November. After two years of doomsday predictions, there have some recent signs of hope for these challenges.
Much of that hope is coming from a growing backlash against the draconian anti-abortion legislation being passed by Republican State Houses across the nation after the Dobbs decision. Additional heads are being turned by the recent (finally!) legislation package passed by Congress to address a number of issues of equity, education, public health and safety, and climate change, among others. The Jan 6 Committee has brought public attention to the ties of the Trump Administration to many crimes committed against the country, and recent document seizures at Mar a Lago threaten serious legal action against the Tweetster.
At the moment there is a little glow of hope in the air that our country and our planet can find a way to unite for the common good of all.
This Week’s Tasting $10
Lyrarakis Plyto Psarades ’21 Crete $20
Engaging aromas of peaches, grape-nuts (yes those grape-nuts!), with a spicy-minty background of garrigue, bay leaf, and warm earth that linger through a long, clean finish.
Lancyre Pic St. Loup Rosé ’21 France $15
Raspberry and pear aromas on the nose, with distinctive notes of garrigue. Big, bold and firm on the palate, ending with a long, clean finish; pairs perfectly with hearty salads, grilled vegetables, kebabs, stuffed tomatoes or charcuterie.
Bluegray Priorat ’20 Spain $21
Named for the licorella slate soil of Priorat, which yields intense, terroir-specific wines with ripe black fruit and cherry flavors with herbal, mineral and spicy notes; expressive, with well integrated tannins. Shows good balance and elegance with a long, lingering finish.
lummi island wine tasting aug 19-20 ’22
Hours this weekend: 4-6pm both Friday and Saturday
The wine shop will be open this weekend as usual from 4-6 Friday and Saturday. Covid continues to be a threat, even for those fully vaccinated. Limited outdoor seating is available on the deck for those who wish to stay outside.
At the current stage of the global pandemic, anyone can be an unknowing carrier, so though overall risks are low, we all must manage risk to ourselves and others in our own way. You are welcome to wear a mask , stay outside, or otherwise distance as additional precautions to protect yourself and others. For our part, we will continue taking basic precautions in the wine shop: windows open, air filter operating, outside seating options. We do continue to request that the unvaxed remain outside for tasting.
Btw, the forecast is for sunny, comfortable (70°) weather both Friday and Saturday!
Bread Pickup This Week
Whole Wheat Levain – Made with a sourdough starter built up over several days before a levain is made and fermented overnight to start fermentation and gluten development. The bread is made with levain and bread flour and about 25% fresh milled whole wheat for a ‘toothy’ crumb, great texture and flavor and a nice crisp crust. – $5/loaf
Semolina w/ Fennel & Raisins – A levain bread made with bread flour, semolina and some fresh milled whole wheat. A little butter for a tender crumb and fennel seeds and golden raisins round out the flavors. These flavors go really well with meats and cheese, but it also makes pretty darn good toast – $5/loaf
and mmm, pastry this week…
Chocolate Babka Rolls – A sweet pastry dough full of eggs, butter and sugar, rolled and spread with a chocolate filling, rolled up and cut into individual rolls that are placed in baking forms for baking and then brushed with sugar syrup after baking. – 2/$5
To get on the bread order list, click on the “Contact Us” link above and fill out the form. Each week’s bread menu is sent to the list each Sunday, for ordering by Tuesday, for pickup on Friday. Simple, right..? If you will be visiting the island and would like to order bread for your visit, at least a week’s notice is recommended for pickup the following Friday.
Wine of the Week: El Nido Clio ’19 Spain $45
Though we have had a few of these in the cellar for some years, we rarely let ourselves drink one…it’s that good. It used to be very hard to get because of the high demand and low production. So on a whim we ordered some this week and hallelujah, it arrived today, and you can all get to taste it this weekend!
Clio is a blend of 70% monastrell (known as mourvedre in France) and 30% cab sauv. Monastrell, a somewhat demanding grape to cultivate, has been developed to a high standard in the Murcia wine region in recent years. At the same time international demand for wine has also led to widespread planting of cab sauv in many parts of Spain, where it has thrived and developed its own Spanish footprint, and this wine showcases the blend very well. Lucky for us…come on by and try it!
Tasting notes: Inky purple in color, opaque and bright; nose of blueberries, cassis, black cherries, toast and baking spices. Full bodied, with lots of fresh black cherry and black raspberry on the palate, with underlying spice and long finish. Delicious now, but best after five years and good for another twenty after that.
Economics of the Heart: Fascism and the Holy Book
image created with Midjourney art app
The Jews have the Torah. The Muslims have the Quran. Christianity claims authority from both the Torah (Old Testament) and the Gospels, Epistles, and Acts (New Testament). All claim special relationships with the One omnipotent God such that their founder/prophet (Abraham, Mohammed, or Jesus) was The One chosen by God to be his messenger and representative on Earth. From those assumptions it was a very short step for all of these religions to claim Divine Right over the behavior of not only their own followers, but literally, Everyone on the Planet.
On reflection, these religions of the Book all seem to have started with the fundamental idea of Patriarchy– one Head Guy with Divine Right to Rule, who could proclaim a comprehensive list of rules, practices, behavioral limitations, duties, and rituals that everyone was Required to follow or suffer punitive consequences, including confinement, exile, torture, mutilation, and death– not forms of Justice, but forms of Punishment that we should all now recognize as Pavlovian Behavioral Conditioning.
It doesn’t take a great deal of contemplation to see that these structures did not come from some Omnipotent God, but rather from a bunch of ordinary men (not women) who craved Authority and Position in their culture. These Books are the foundation of centuries of feudal oppression by small groups of psychopathic men who wanted personal Power.
Why ever would an Omnipotent Deity have the slightest interest in being worshiped or obeyed by its little Creations? Why ever would any, you know, well-adjusted, Omnipotent, and Eternal Deity capable of creating Time, Space, and Infinity have any need for a mean streak?
These “Religions of the Book” account for 2.2 billion Christians (32% of the world’s population), 1.6 billion Muslims (23%), and 14 million Jews (0.2%) around the world as of 2010, about 56% of global population. Another 16% follow no religion, 15% are Hindu, 7% are Buddhists, and the rest follow one of very many more local or regional practices.
The main takeaway here is that over half the world adheres to the beliefs of male-dominated, hierarchical feudal religions, complete with authoritarian titles, lack of accountability, sins and punishments, everlasting damnation, and Divine Dictatorial Authority of the currently ruling dominant male. Really?
Et tu, Republicans?
We leave you today with this little Buddhist sutra, which takes the view that acts of loving kindness are the better measure of our worth.
Let none deceive another
Or despise any being in any state;
Let none through anger or ill will
Wish harm upon another;
Even as a mother protects with her life
Her child, her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Should one cherish all living beings;
Radiating kindness over the entire world.
Metta Sutta
This Week’s Tasting $10
Montinore Borealis White Oregon $15
Aromas of orange blossom, honeydew, guava and kiwi; sumptuous flavors of stone fruit, Meyer lemon and juicy pear drizzled with caramel.
Mas des Bressades Rosé ’21 France $12
Bright and dry rosé from a blend of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre, with a splash of Carignan and Cinsault. Lovely balance of bright red fruit and wild herbs, with a vibrant, spicy finish.
El Nido Clio ’19 Spain $45
Seductive nose of blueberries, cassis, black cherry, toast, and baking spices; full bodied, with lots of fresh black cherry and black raspberry on the palate, with underlying spice and lingering finish.
2072 Granger Way