lummi island wine tasting new year’s day 2021
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A Toast to the Good Old Days
Let’s face it, 2020 has been emotionally and economically challenging, an endurance test for most of the planet. Humankind enters 2021 with hope for a better world that brings the pandemic, climate change, inequality, and social division into peaceful integration– all very big challenges as long as environmental destruction remains profitable to the unscrupulous.
So, as we turn the calendar to the New Year of 2021, we can find some encouragement by looking back to a few reminders of the good times, good friends, and good cheer we have enjoyed in in our little wine shop over the years…in the collective hope that we may begin enjoying them again soon in 2021!
After all, we are social animals, and we need each other. We need food, clothing, and shelter to get by, and conversation, humor, closeness, and hugs to thrive.
Aye, let’s all raise our glasses to that!
Best wishes to all for the Best Year Ever in 2021!!
Standing By For Wine Emergencies
While Covid continues we will continue to be here for your wine needs. When a wine emergency strikes YOUR wine pantry, just click on the Order Wine link in the header above to browse our list of currently available wines with tasting notes and prices. When you have made your selections you can phone us with your order or email us using the Contact Us link above. We will confirm your order and make arrangements for pickup/delivery at your convenience.
Mar a Lago Update: Duck Season Ending Soon
please stand by…
lummi island wine tasting dec 25 ’20
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Bread Countdown
The whole year has been strange and stressful. Now here we are at Christmas Eve, just home from a “drop by” outdoor gathering on Mike and Diane’s back deck down the street. Lots of munchies, a bit of wine, beautiful view…and…brrrr…cold!
Pat made some simple and delicious piroshkis (left) that were hot when we left home with them, but the heat didn’t last long. Still, they were very satisfying with a little soy sauce and mulled wine! Diane made lots of lots of delicious goodies, and several other neighbors dropped by. Social distancing protocols were followed and it was reminiscent of pre-Covid days…except of course that we were Outside and it was Cold (temp in mid-thirties). It will be lovely when we can be social animals again.
Bread will return in two weeks, on Friday, February 8. Look for your pre-order email on Jan 3. In the meantime, we will continue to accept wine orders as requested.
Annual New Year’s Party canceled
This will be the first New Year’s Eve since 2005 that we will not be holding our annual New Year’s Eve celebration. Since this blog didn’t start until 2009, the first blog entry about the party was the Fifth Episode of our Annual “East Coast New Year’s Eve” celebrations. Losing a tradition brings a little sadness, so to help us all through it we will post a few photos of past parties over the next few weeks.
2009
2015
Standing By For Wine Emergencies
We will be staying close to home through the holidays. So please be assured that we will continue to be here for your wine needs. As you all know this may be the Only kind of Emergency that CANNOT be resolved with duct tape! So if a wine emergency should strike YOUR wine pantry, just click on the Order Wine link in the header above to browse our list of currently available wines with tasting notes and prices. When you have made your selections you can phone us with your order or email us using the Contact Us link above. We will confirm your order and make arrangements for pickup/delivery at your convenience.
Mar a Lago Update: Running on Empty
As we approach the end of 2020 and the end of the Tweetster regime, it is a good time to reflect, metaphorically at least, on the many obvious overlaps between the Tweetster and, of course…Chicken Little. After all, let’s admit it, over the past five years we have all been thinking about it but too shy to talk about it. Am I right? You know I’m right. So let’s just bring it out into the open while (giggle) there’s still time.
The story of Chicken Little, in various forms (my childhood reader named her Henny Penny), dates back some 2500 years. In the earliest version, a hare is hit on the head by a falling fruit, and rouses other animals into a panic. A lion, seeing the turmoil, investigates the cause of the panic and restores calm, teaching the importance of calm deductive reasoning.
Though there are countless variations on the theme of the fable, they really boil down to two. They both begin with a less than brilliant chicken who experiences a blow on the head by something falling, probably from a tree, like an acorn, but for whatever reason, decides that “the Sky is falling!” and rushes about trying to warn people of the coming catastrophe.
It appears that for some many centuries, most of the variants of the story one way or another led the predator Foxy Loxy to deceive Chicken Little and his panicky followers, leading them to his den where they are all killed and eaten by “Foxy and Friends.” The moral of this version is “Don’t believe everything you hear.” It was used in Nazi propaganda to help stop rumors.
In the other major variant, Chicken Little earns the respect of the Emperor with her concerns and saves the day, with the moral “have courage and stick to your convictions.”
And here we are today, with pretty much everyone actually believing the sky IS falling, and convinced The Other Guys are making it happen. Meanwhile, Foxy Loxy and Friends are very busy convincing both sides they are right…while also keeping them afraid they are wrong. It is a cynical but very effective strategy.
lummi island wine tasting dec 18 ’20
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Holiday Bread Crumbs
As all of you on the Friday Bread List already know, because Christmas and New Year’s both occur on Fridays this year, this weekend will be the last Friday bread delivery until January 8. No need for panic, however — even though we will be closed we will continue to accept wine orders by phone/email through the holidays for pickup by arrangement.
Just click on the Order Wine link in the header above to browse a list of currently available wines with tasting notes and prices. When you have made your selections you can phone us with your order or email us using the Contact Us link above. We will confirm your order and make arrangements for pickup/delivery at your convenience.
Wine of the Week: Gamache Boulder Red 2016 Washington Columbia Valley $20
Malbec 42%, Syrah 23%, Merlot 23%, Cabernet Franc 8%, Cabernet Sauvignon 4%. “Smooth and luscious with heady aromas of dark fruit, loamy earth, vanilla and cedar, and compelling flavors of black cherry, plum and dark berries mingled with graham, vanilla and spice. Refined tannins add depth to the full-bodied finish.”
In 1982 Roger and Bob Gamache brought a family farming heritage to Washington and planted the Gamache vineyard near the White Bluffs in Columbia Valley under the guidance of Washington wine pioneer Walter Clore. Twenty years later they began making wine under their own label. From their years as vintners they had established symbiotic working relationships with other top vintners in the area that gave them access to the highly sought-after fruit from the iconic Ciel du Cheval vineyard on Red Mountain and Champoux vineyard in Horse Heaven Hills.
All vineyards are not created equal, and great fruit is the necessary ingredient for great wine. Therefore it is not surprising that Gamache wines are highly regarded, including our “wine of the week” Boulder Red.
Mar a Lago Update: The Art of Exhalation
This particular editorial spot in the wine blog actually began on our nation’s last “Inauguration Day” in 2017. Spurred on by the Women’s March, it evolved into a commitment to maintain a sort of Vigil, a weekly reflection of sorts, on the inevitable unfolding Disaster of Trumpism. But it wasn’t until our April 28. 2017 post that we first began the “Mar a Lago Update” name that we have maintained ever since, on the order of some two hundred posts. It’s been something of a Solitary Solidarity thing. Like how crying releases toxins.
The toy duck photo had been taken some years earlier at the little park near the ferry landing in Friday Harbor on San Juan Island. The image captures perfectly (for us, anyway) the grotesque whimsy of a narcissistic psychopath bumbling into becoming the World’s Most Powerful person. Or, to paraphrase Bob Dylan, “it just does not Equaaate…blame it on a simple Twist of Fate.”
It’s been a Long Slog and we are all Exhausted. Spent. Just beginning to dare to Hope. It’s a fragile place. Trauma is like that. When nourishment is consistently pulled out of reach for no apparent reason but entertainment, and the beatings continue randomly, it is reasonable to feel hopeless and powerless.
That said, this week is the first time in four years that there might be an actual glimmer of Light at the end of what has been a very Long and very Dark Tunnel. It’s hard to let that nourishing feeling in, because it might be yanked away at the last minute. But it will bring a long-longed-for nourishment to have a Good Joe in the White House And we now know that IS going to happen!
lummi island wine tasting dec 10 ’20
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Friday Bread Crumbs
Bread pickup continues for the next two Fridays from 4-5:30 in our open garage (see photo at left). And as long as the national surge in Covid cases continues, we are not allowing visitors inside to shop. It’s chilly, but still festive. Wear your mask and hang out for a few minutes of socially distant schmoozing!
Similarly, for wine sales we are going back to email/phone ordering only until Covid is under better control, whether it be sooner from a return to more responsible social behavior, or later from the hoped-for but slow to realize effects of budding vaccination programs.
Click on the Order Wine link in the header above to browse a list of currently available wines with tasting notes and prices. When you have made your selections you can phone us with your order or email us using the Contact Us link above. We will confirm your order and make arrangements for pickup/delivery at your convenience.
Wine of the Week: The Wolftrap Syrah Mourvèdre Viognier ’18 South Africa $11
Boekenhoutskloof farm was established in 1776. Located in the furthest corner of the beautiful Franschhoek Wine Valley of South Africa, about 50 km east of the Cape of Good Hope, the farm’s name means “ravine of the Boekenhout” (pronounced Book-n-Howed), which is an indigenous Cape Beech tree greatly prized for furniture making. In 1993 the farm and homestead were bought and restored and a new vineyard planting programme was established that now includes Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Grenache, Semillon and Viognier.
When the farm was founded, the Franschhoek valley was far wilder than it is today. Though the mountains are still alive with indigenous animals, including the majestic leopard, the only evidence that wolves once roamed here is an ancient wolf trap found long ago. This wine was named in homage to the mysteries and legends of days gone by.
Most of the Syrah in The Wolftrap comes from the Swartland region (photo, left), where it develops its robust character and elegant aromas of violets and ripe plums, accentuating its spicy, peppery profile while retaining the juicy, fruity character which is its hallmark. The Mourvèdre, also from the Swartland, lends a red fruit character and smoky body while the dash of Viognier brings perfume and vibrancy to the blend and makes for a rustic Rhône-style blend that seriously over-delivers for its $11 price point.
The Wolftrap Syrah Mourvèdre Viognier ’18 South Africa $11
Ripe plums, red currants, violets, Italian herbs and exotic spice dominate the nose. The perfume of the nose follows through with a certain smokiness and flavours of darker berries, liquorice, cardamom, star anise and cinnamon. The wine is fresh, plummy and vibrant with hints of fennel seed, orange peel, cloves and black pepper lingering on a juicy finish.
Mar a Lago Update: Uphill In Every Direction
Back in the 80’s when I was a potter, I had a little gallery in Laconner, WA, a charming little town on the Swinomish Channel. I became friends with poet, artist, and calligrapher Robert Sund, who had lived there for a long time among the likes of painter Guy Anderson (who also came by the shop occasionally). Robert came by the shop from time to time, and we had many enjoyable conversations over several years. We also displayed some of his work, including what he called “Wind Letters.” These were pieces of heavy paper on which he would pen haiku-like quotations in lovely calligraphy. One that I have always treasured is a quote from DT Suzuki: “To judge the direction of the wind it is enough to look at a single blade of grass.” (photo below; click to expand). So let’s look at a few blades and guess which way the wind might blow.
If we have learned anything in the month since the 2020 election, it is that Trump Nation is not a political party in the usual sense. Rather, it is a Cult, reminiscent of the “Unification Church” followers of South Korean guru Sun Myung Moon (hence the term “Moonies”) who were for many years the young, spaced-out, shiny-eyed fixtures accosting travelers for donations at airports around the world.
Like the Moonies, Trump supporters are immune to facts. They are completely committed to Trumpism, whatever that means to them. As reported during the 2016 election campaign, supporters often became attached to a single sound byte Trump might have uttered in passing. For some it was about immigrants, for some about racism, for some about taxes, for others about feeling oppressed by “liberal elites.” Like Reverend Moon, Trump has built his entire career on his Gift for Grift, and for the last four years Congressional Republicans have been willing accomplices in supporting his lies. As with Woody Allen’s fictional brother, they know he’s a phony, but they “need the eggs too much.” Which is why most Republicans are afraid to cross him.
The crisis of this particular moment is typical of what we can expect for the next four years if Darth McConnell maintains control of the Senate. For the past several days we have seen glimmers of hope that members of Congress might pull together to help American families keep roofs overhead and food on the table until the risk of contagion is brought under control by newly developed vaccines. But today the process has again gotten stuck over the details.
It is wonderful that in six weeks a new Biden administration will control the Executive branch of government and Democrats the House. It would be even more wonderful if Democrats could win control of the Senate in the Special Election in Georgia on January 5, so our country could finally begin to move forward against the ticking clock of climate change. Sadly, it is likely the Evil Mr. McConnell will remain in control and extract a heavy tab for even the slightest cooperation toward that goal. So we must make him offers he can’t refuse. All we have to do is find ways to make carbon reduction more profitable than carbon production.
And we can do that. Yes, we can…!
2072 Granger Way