Artisan Wine Gallery

Lummi Island Wine Tasting

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.”

 

 

lummi island wine tasting may 7-8 ’21

 

The Economics of the Heart– Everybody Loses in Proxy Wars 

Tonight’s exploration was inspired by a recent PBS News video essay by persistent special correspondent Jane Ferguson, who has been interviewing ordinary people in ravaged and war-torn hell-holes in the Middle East for several years on PBS. This report was a couple of days ago, and centered around the truly desperate situation in Yemen.

Ferguson shows us the ongoing Devastation of an entire society, where some 90% of the population are reliant on food supplied by NGO’s just to stay barely alive. There are relentless bombings of buildings and infrastructure, ongoing malnutrition, and limited access to potable water, food, shelter, and medicine. Not even the most basic survival needs are being met, and it is heartbreaking to see children reduced to skin and bones, barely able to breathe for lack of food and water, the most basic of needs. Millions are so malnourished that many die, and even the survivors will never reach the potential they were born with. What infrastructure there was is constantly being bombed out of existence by Saudi Bombs and Hoofi rockets.

What the World is experiencing, and millions of people are suffering, is the fallout of the latest in the long series of Proxy Wars around the Globe in which large, industrialized countries have found it expedient to confront their political and economic adversaries indirectly. They do not risk their own civilian populations or industrial bases, and they do not openly declare their involvement. Rather, each nation supports the local players which best align with its own broad interests.

To see what is happening in Yemen is to see the unraveling of hope for a global humanity. Maybe this is what WWIII looks like; no one sure if they are on offense or defense, the good guys or the bad guys. But we should all be able to agree that starving millions of children is Way over the Line, and we should make it clear to our Leaders that stopping it is a First Priority. If we can’t get that right, it’s all downhill from here.

 

 

lummi island wine tasting april 30 ’21

Please note: ONLY those who have completed their Covid shot sequence are welcome Upstairs, while All are welcome downstairs on the deck. For probably a few more months we are all still obligated to maintain prudent social distance and to refrain mindfully from expelling droplets by yelling, coughing, cackling, hooting, spitting, cheering, or singing in proximity to people outside one’s own “pod.” …You know, the kinds of things people might do after a bit of wine…!

While it IS a huge and welcome relief to be able to visit face to face again (and maybe to cop a few hugs!), for the time being we prefer that our guests avoid crowding around the bar as in pre-Covid, and to spread out into the shop in smaller groups of three or four.

 

The Spanish brought wine grapes to the Americas early in their explorations of the New World. These included two white Spanish varietals, Moscatel de Alejandría,  and Criolla Chica, which were very often planted together, harvested, and fermented as a field blend. Though sometime in the 1800’s it was determined that the two varietals had spontaneously crossed into a new grape, but before that it had already been mistakenly identified as a white grape from Rioja called torrontés.

Eventually three different clones of the grape were identified as native to Argentina: torrontés riojano, torrontés sanjuanino, and torrontés mendocino. All three are unrelated to the Spanish grape of the same name. The riojano is considered the best structured, the sanjuanino a close second, and the mendocino a distant third with regard to aromas and flavors.

Not surprisingly, all of the clones bear resemblance to the two parent grapes, some with floral aromas of jasmine and honeysuckle from the muscatel, and some with more citrus, orchard, or even tropical fruit notes from the criolla. This inherited combination of aromas and flavors makes torrontés a versatile pairing for warm afternoons with a range of light and fresh summer dishes from spicy entrees to fresh salads.   (see notes below…)

 

 

There is always a gap between the rich and the poor, the powerful and the powerless. Everyone falls into a class, and it seems to be human nature to strive to improve one’s class standing. That being the case, there are many strategies we primates employ to advance our power and security in the group hierarchy, by effort, by alliance, or by deceit.

Over the millennia of human existence, we have learned that physical survival requires social intelligence, practicality, and adaptability. We all are born into sets of constraints and opportunities, needs and values, and the ability to learn from our experience. But we are also all born into different endowments of intelligence, courage, strength, and empathy.

In the institution of slavery we see these forces in sharp hierarchical relief, with wealth and power highly concentrated in the hands of a small group of plantation owners, enforced by a class of hired Overseers who have been elevated from slavery by their willingness to inflict punishment on slaves who resist Authority. They maintain order. And inevitably they must come to terms with the moral contradictions of their lives.

 

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