Artisan Wine Gallery

Lummi Island Wine Tasting

lummi island wine tasting june 11 ’21

Bread This Week

 

Island Bakery has developed a lengthy rotation cycle of several dozen breads and pastries. Each Sunday Janice emails the week’s bread offering to her mailing list. Orders received before Wednesday will be available for pickup at the wine shop each Friday from 4:00 – 5:30 pm. Go to Contact us to get on the bread email list.

Seeded Multi Grain Levain – Made with a sourdough culture and using a flavorful mix of bread flour and fresh milled whole wheat and rye. A nice mixture of flax, sesame sunflower and pumpkin seeds and some oatmeal adds great flavor and crunch. And just a little honey for some sweetness. A great all around bread that is full of flavor – $5/loaf

Polenta Levain – Also made with a levain in which the sourdough starter is fed and built up over several days, then mixed with bread flour and polenta in the final dough mix. This is not the sweet corn cranberry bread that I have done in the past that is enriched with milk and butter, this bread is a nice rustic loaf with great corn flavor. – 5/loaf…

and pastry this week…

Brioche Suisse- A rich brioche dough made with plenty of butter, eggs and sugar, rolled out and spread with pastry cream before sprinkling with dark chocolate. The dough is folded over all that delicious filling and cut into individual pieces. 2/$5

 

Wine of the Week: Willamette Valley Vineyards Estate Pinot Noir ’18

 

Aromas of raspberry, blackberry, currant, earth, dried herbs and roses, with full-bodied palate of cherry, bramble fruit, cedar, anise and minerality; silky mouthfeel and flavors, with exceptional balance of velvety tannins, lifting acidity, and a lingering finish. 

Objectively speaking, during our tasting Judy (our island wine professional) didn’t care for it particularly (usually we agree). But there is an elusive quality– part of it is a background nose of fresh roses– that is hard to define, but it does have a certain draw. See what you think!

 

 

RAF Mildenhall

Yesterday President Biden gave his first address to our European Allies at the RAF Mildenhall air base, located about 80 miles northeast of London.  The base first became an airfield in the 1920’s, very early days in the game of aviation.

It then became a key base for bombers during WWII, and after the war it became primarily a base for in-flight refueling tankers and transport aircraft in collaboration with the US Air Force. For some years during the Cold War it also was a primary base for the long-range, high altitude reconnaissance aircraft (“spy planes”) the U-2 and the SR-71 during the Cold War.

As it turns out, I spent several days at Mildenhall back in 1967, just after graduation from the Naval Academy as a new Ensign. I had been corresponding with a girl I had met in Copenhagen during a training cruise in 1964 (see photo, left). By 1967 she was working in London as an au pair, so before reporting to my first duty station, I caught a hop to England from Dover AFB in Delaware for a visit. By day I was a tourist on my own in London, and in the evenings we would meet up with an eclectic group of her international friends for food, conversation, and entertainment.

After most of a week in London, I took the train back across the countryside to Mildenhall to wait for a flight back home (about three days). In those days Mildenhall was much as it must have been during the War…small, tidy, friendly, easy-going. The accommodations and food were entirely pleasant, and there were trees and lawns, and I had enough time on my hands to read most of Dr. Zhivago. All of which is to say that Mildenhall represents a pretty comfortable set of memories and associations, and to my knowledge I have not seen or heard the name mentioned for a very long time. Have you ever heard of it before?

 

 

Economics of the Heart: Renewing Alliances for the Future

In 1939 at the very beginning of WWII, the movie The Lion Has Wings was released by the Brits to stir national support for the coming war effort. Back then, the Nazis had built a formidable war machine and gave every sign of intending to deploy it against the rest of Europe. Fascist dictators had taken over Germany, Italy, and Spain, and Stalin had not been an ally. Whatever hopes anyone had that Hitler would not use his arsenal against other European countries was dashed to pieces when he invaded Poland and put it firmly under the Nazi heel.

The history of American alliances with nations in Europe is largely a history of providing a common defense against the Hitlers of the world. President Biden is on a mission to repair and renew the apparatus of common defense as authoritarianism is on the rise around the world and even here in our own country as Red states rush to enact an orgy of voter suppression laws before the 2022 Congressional election.

At the same time, the common habits of humanity of irresponsible procreation, production, pollution, exploitation, acquisition, and hubris are relentlessly shredding the interwoven fabric that makes existence even possible on our tiny, isolated, and increasingly beleaguered planet.

We applaud Mr. Biden’s understanding of the gravity of this present moment in the history of life on Earth, and his efforts to unite us to save it from our collective hubris. 

Another way of looking at this is that some humans are like chimps, and some like bonobos. Chimps have a mean streak, and every once in while the dominant males cross into another tribe’s territory and stomp one of the Others to death. Bonobos don’t work like that, probably because they spend a lot more time making whoopee. Or, as Margaret Mead found in her research, the level of violence in a culture was most explained by the amount of physical contact with infants (more touching–> less violence), and the age of consent for sex (younger age –> less violent).

 

 

This week’s $5 wine tasting

K Vintners Art Den Hoed Viognier ’18    Washington    $22
Medium gold hue and beautiful notes of orange blossom, ripe peach, and a touch of quince; density and richness reminiscent of southern Rhone style; full-bodied with a solid center palate and a long, flavorful finish.

UDACA Eloquente Dao Tinto ’18      Portugal     $9
Touriga Nacional, Tinta Roriz, Jaen, and Alfrocheiro Pret; rich and intense, with clear ruby color, clean aromas of red and ripe fruits; soft, balanced flavor, and  a lingering finish.

Willamette Valley Vineyards Estate Pinot Noir ’18     Oregon     $28
Aromas of raspberry, blackberry, currant, earth, dried herbs and roses, with full-bodied palate of cherry, bramble fruit, cedar, anise and minerality; silky mouthfeel and flavors, with exceptional baance of velvety tannins, lifting acidity, and a lingering finish. 

 

 

 

lummi island wine tasting june 4 ’21

Bread This Week

 

Island Bakery has developed a lengthy rotation cycle of several dozen breads and pastries. Each Sunday Janice emails the week’s bread offering to her mailing list. Orders received before Wednesday will be available for pickup at the wine shop each Friday from 4:00 – 5:30 pm. Go to Contact us to get on the bread email list.

Seeded Multi Grain Levain – Made with a sourdough culture and using a flavorful mix of bread flour and fresh milled whole wheat and rye. A nice mixture of flax, sesame sunflower and pumpkin seeds and some oatmeal adds great flavor and crunch. And just a little honey for some sweetness. A great all around bread that is full of flavor – $5/loaf

Sesame Semolina – Uses a sponge that preferments some of the flour, water & yeast before mixing the final dough. Made with semolina and bread flour as well as a soaker of cornmeal, millet and sesame seeds, and olive oil to round out the flavor and tenderize the crumb. Rolled in more sesame seeds before baking for lots of great flavor! – $5/loaf…

and pastry this week…

Brioche Suisse- A rich brioche dough made with plenty of butter, eggs and sugar, rolled out and spread with pastry cream before sprinkling with dark chocolate. The dough is folded over all that delicious filling and cut into individual pieces. 2/$5

 

Artist Opening Reception Saturday 4-6 pm

 

Although we installed Anne Gibert’s latest paintings a few weeks ago, we are just now inviting you to meet the artist and take some time to view the show this Saturday, June 5. You can chat with Anne, enjoy our weekly wine tasting, and maybe even find a painting you would like to take home!

We have posted other photos in recent weeks; here are two more!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wine of the Week: Shatter Grenache Côtes Catalanes ’17      France       $19

The wine is made from grenache grown in vineyards located near Maury in the Roussillon region of Southwest France by California winemaker Joel Gott.

As it turns out, we were lost for a bit in this very area about ten years ago. We were staying in Lagrasse, at the northern edge of the Corbieres wine region, and drove south through the rugged landscape where centuries ago the heretic Cathars fortified themselves in remote mountain fortresses to practice their particular form of Catholicism. It’s a long, sad, and brutal story.

As we moved into Roussillon, we found ourselves on a narrow dirt road winding through farmland when the road took a sudden dip onto a Very Narrow one-lane “bridge,” close to the water and with no guard rails, and from our vantage point no clear sense of where it went after that.

Eventually we got up the nerve to cross it, and within a half mile came to a major highway along the boundary between Corbieres and Roussillon very close to Maury.

The area is known for its nutrient-poor schist soil which forces vines to grow deep to find nutrients, evoking concentrated flavors. The name Shatter and the bottle photo are an homage to the shattered schist soil.

 

 

Economics of the Heart: Attack of the Zombie Republicans

 

It has been a major source of cognitive dissonance over the past few months to try to sort out how worried we should be that Republican Zombies are now outnumbering actual human beings, and therefore posing an Existential Threat to Life As We Know It.

We hear lots of news stories quoting statistics like 75% of Republicans believe the Tweetster actually won the 2020 election. And we think to ourselves, “How can that possibly be…?!”  Who are these people? And more importantly, what proportion of the electorate are they? And most important: How Worried should we be??

It turns out that it is not easy to tweak out the essential facts here. In order to gauge how Afraid we should be, we would like to know:

1. % of R’s in voting population,
2. % of Trump R’s in that overall R base, so we can estimate
3. % of Trump R’s in overall population.

Last month a Gallup Poll found that voters self-identified into three roughly equal groups: Republicans 29%, Democrats 33%, Independents 35%. And a 538 poll in April had independents at 40%.

However, Independents habitually lean strongly D or R but are uncomfortable associating themselves with all elements of their habitual party. As a result, they generally continue to vote the same party while also disengaging from political discourse, which then suffers for want of moderating viewpoints.

And this leaves us with the disturbing yet likely possibility that the Silencing of an active Independent voice in recent years, for whatever reason, has contributed to the increasing dysfunction of our political discourse that has fostered the new and explicit rise of Authoritarianism from the ruins of the Dead-since-Gingrich Republican party.

Until we get this sorted out, best lock your doors before you go to bed…

 

This week’s $5 wine tasting

La Vielle Ferme Rosé ’20    France    $10
Classic and tasty blend of grenache, syrah, and cinsault from northern Provence;  fruity, dry, crisp, delicious, and smooth, and at a bargain price!

Maryhill Winemaker’s Red ’16      Washington       $13 Ripe black fruit notes and a hint of fresh flowers are well backed by leather and cedar wood. Maple bar and black fruit of currant and blackberry appear on entry, with a mid-palate of rich tannins and a smooth finish.

Shatter Grenache Vin de Pays des Côtes Catalanes ’17      France       $19
From Old Vines in Roussillon’s black schist soil; nose of dark fruit with a hint of espresso; velvety texture with black currant, spice and cured meat flavors with a touch of coffee; firm structure, supple tannins, excellent acidity and overall balance.

 

 

 

lummi island wine tasting may 21 ’21

Last weekend we opened our first art show in well over a year. Our dear friend, neighbor, and indefatigable artist Anne Gibert has maintained great discipline throughout this strange period, completing more new paintings than we have room to show.

These are some wonderful works that will be up for some time so you  can all get a chance to come by and visit them…there are many scenes that Islanders will recognize…! Compare, for example, the landscape on the far left in the photo below with this photo that appeared in last week’s blog.

 

 

 

 

Argento Malbec ’20       Argentina       $11 
 This organically grown Malbec is deep purple, with powerful aromas of red berries and floral notes. Flavors of plum and sweet blackberry. Finishes with ripe, balanced tannins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Economics of the Heart:   The Habit of War

Over the past two weeks Israel has once again been unleashing its military might against the long-suffering nation of Palestine. Since the invasion and takeover of Palestine in the late 1940’s, sanctioned by Britain and the League of Nations after WWII, Israel has thrived economically and internationally, while the former citizens of Palestine have been systematically and relentlessly crammed into ever smaller and more dire economic dead ends.

We and a lot of our wine club members, born about the same time as the modern State of Israel, have been witnessing the ongoing regional strife there for our entire lives. We have seen attempt after attempt at peace fail. We humans seem to believe that Our tribe is the deserving heir to certain historical property entitlements that were somehow “stolen unfairly” from us by other groups, or “won fairly” from others by Our group. The default organizational principle for most of human history has been to treat   ethics a matter of political luxury, and competition for limited resources a matter of life and death.

There is an old story about the seasoned samurai who encounters the spiritual Master on the road and asks him to be his teacher. When the Master asks him what he wants to learn, the warrior says he wants to learn about Heaven and Hell.

The Master laughs, and says with a dismissive gesture, “Oh, I could never teach something so complex to an idiot like you.” Angered, the warrior draws his sword as if to cut off the Master’s head. The Master interrupts with, “Welcome to Hell.” The warrior, taken aback, replaces his sword in its sheath. “Welcome to Heaven,” said the Master.

The Middle East– the whole World, really-  has been in dispute for millennia. Every participant in the conflict has some historic rationale for why their side is historically entitled to dominion over particular pieces of geography and their resources. As climate change advances, our collective ability to cooperate around the distribution and health of rainfall, temperature, fresh water quantity and quality, and wildlife sustainability might hold the key to the survival of our species.

 

 

lummi island wine tasting may 13 ’21

<div This weekend we are opening our first art show in well over a year. Our dear friend, neighbor, and indefatigable artist Anne Gibert has maintained great discipline throughout this strange period, completing more new paintings than we have room to show. They will be up for some time so you all can get a chance to come by and visit them! Here are a few pictures…they are much more captivating in person!

Tannat originated in the Southwest of France near Madiran in Gascony close to the Pyrénées where it has thrived for centuries. It has been known for its muscular tannins and was often blended with Bordeaux varietals cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc. It was planted in Uruguay by Basque settlers in the nineteenth century, and has evolved into the dominant red wine of the country.

The Uruguayan evolution of the grape has developed wines characterized by soft and elegant and tannins and complex blackberry fruit notes. It has also developed several new clones which as a group have brought more ripeness, but higher alcohol and lower acidity and fruitiness. There is ongoing development of the wine’s potential by blending it with cab sauv, merlot, or cab franc. At present it offers a unique array of flavor and textural characteristics unlike any other varietal.

Bodega Garzon Tannat Reserve ’18        Uruguay        $15
Opaque deep, dark red; opens with an enticing, delicious aroma of very ripe, dark fruit and berries stewed in their own liqueur, with a melange of spice, wood. The palate is steeped with vermouth-like spice, herb, and licorice notes that are seamlessly balanced and integrated with the robust tannins of this rustic grape.

 

 

The Economics of the Heart– The New Political Polarities

Most of Our People here at the wine shop have one foot planted in Middle Age and the other looking for a toehold on the rocky path into Old Age. As children of the Fifties, we have lived through many Illusions of America and its political parties. We have sixty or seventy years’ experience with the many media faces of the Two Parties.

Politics wasn’t an issue for most of us until the late sixties, when the cognitive dissonance of the Vietnam War forced us to face the possibility that we Were Not the Good Guys anymore. What was our objective? What were our guiding values? For many of us it was a difficult time. The good guys and the bad guys were not so easy to tell apart.

As we fast-forward fifty years to the Chaos of Today, it is hard to find consistent philosophical markers of either the Right or Left. Rather, what we have seen in the past decade in general, and the last four years in particular, is a disintegration of the entire philosophy of political partisanship.

We have mentioned many times the observation of economist Joan Robinson that every society/economy needs
“a set of values, a set of rules, and a will in the people to carry them out.” What we have learned over the last ten years in general, and in the last five years in particular, is that the Real World is much more cruel than that. The combination of the Ubiquitous Internet and the astonishing concentration of wealth and power into a very few Hands has exposed a more stark set of political divisions.

There are no more “Democrats” or “Republicans.” It is probably more precise to say there are people who believe in and work toward a common good and those who believe only in private power. The 2020 election and subsequent Capitol rioting have exposed a Republican Party without a shred of ethical constraint or moral principle. They would more aptly be named the “Authoritarian Party.”

 

 

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