Artisan Wine Gallery

Lummi Island Wine Tasting

lummi island wine tasting feb 5, ’21

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Bread This Week

 

Mutiny and Betrayal

For the last couple of weeks at least some of us are feeling a modicum of increased Security. The incessant tinnitus tweetsteribus that has plagued our nation for the past five years has begun to fade. We can hear the wind again, and the rain on the roof. The crackle of the fire in the stove, and the snoring of the dog on his cushion. And the beginnings of…what is that feeling…ahh, yes, we begin to remember…intimations of what we used to call relaxation. Yes, we think, “more feelings like this one, please!”

At the same time, the relentless dissonance of the last four years lingers in our bodies as a fatigue, like the exhaustion one would feel after countless days in the desert, parched and directionless. Finally we have reached an oasis, but we will need time to regain our center. So it’s a good time to sit back and take stock.

On a decidedly positive note, the Mutiny has been quashed, at least for the moment; we have regained control of the Ship and placed reliable people in strategic positions who are reshaping priorities and policies by the hour. At the same time, due to the depth and breadth of betrayal in recent events, long-term investigations have been opened which may go on for some long time. For the moment we are left with questions about how we got here and what happens next. There follow a few insights from today’s readings.

The Tea Party and the Remaking of Republican Conservatism
Written some ten years ago about the rise of the Tea Party faction of the Republican Party after the election of Barack Obama in 2008. Funded by Republican business elites and reinforced by a network of conservative media sources including especially Fox News, the movement recruited people who were generally of middle age whose self-image was of having worked hard all their lives to achieve a modest sense of economic stability along with a resentment of people who, to them faced similar hardships but turned to government for handouts rather than work as they had done.

Curiously, as a group they are in favor of social security and medicare payments for people like them who worked hard all their lives, and were therefore deserving of such benefits. But they have deep resentment against perceived “handouts” to “undeserving” groups, the definition of which seems heavily influenced by racial and ethnic stereotypes.  According to a CBS/New York Times national poll, 63 percent of Tea Party supporters regularly watch Fox News.

Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF)
This fund is a 501(c)(4) arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), most of whose members signed on to the lawsuit filed by the Texas AG to overturn the 2020 election. The organization played a major role in organizing the Capitol protest preceding the deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. The RLDF is a political organization to help elect Republican attorneys general and can accept unlimited contributions from wealthy individuals and corporations. Recent supporters include Koch Industries ($375k), Comcast Corporation ($200k), Walmart ($140k), Home Depot ($125k), Amazon ($100k), TikTok ($75k), 1-800 Contacts ($51k), Chevron ($50k), The National Rifle Association ($50k), Monsanto ($50k), Facebook ($50k), Fox Corporation ($50k), Uber ($50k), Coca Cola ($50k), Exxon ($50k), and Google ($25k).

How Inexperienced Candidates and Primary Challenges are Making Republicans The Protest Party
The GOP has become the more disruptive, volatile party in the last ten years. Since the 1994 Gingrich revolution, candidates with no political experience have more often defeated experienced candidates in Republican primaries than in Democratic primaries. That trend continued in 2016 and 2020, paving the way for today’s stripping of committee assignments from undisciplined Republican Representative Greene. As we have seen over the past four years, the rising stars of the Republican Party are consistently angry, dismissive, and personally insulting to their Democratic colleagues while offering little substantive argument to support particular positions. And these attitudes have in turn shaped the volatile new Republican coalition of racist white supremacists and evangelical Christians who consistently show little respect for the offices they hold or the responsibilities they bear.

lummi island wine tasting january 29 ’21 Groundhog Day Weekend

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Another Groundhog Day

Here at the wine shop we are big fans of Groundhog Day. From time out of mind, human beings have been attuned to the regular passage of the seasons, year after year, observing, counting, and eventually  being able to predict the “Quarter Days:” the Solstices when the sun was furthest north and furthest south, and the Equinoxes when the sun was halfway between. Many cultures also noted and celebrated the four “Cross-Quarter” days that fall between each solstice and equinox.

 

Just The Facts, Please, Ma’am…

lummi island wine tasting jan 22 ’21

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Bread This Week

Poolish Ale – the preferment here is a poolish, made with bread flour, a bit of yeast and a nice ale beer for the liquid and fermented overnight. Mixed the next day with bread flour and fresh milled whole wheat. This makes a great all around bread with a nice crisp crust – $5/loaf

Buckwheat Walnut & Honey – a flavorful artisan bread also made with a poolish, fresh milled buckwheat and bread flour. Buckwheat is not a grain it is actually a seed and closer in the plant family to rhubarb and sorrel than to wheat and contains no gluten. Buckwheat has an earthy flavor that in this bread is balanced with a little honey. Some toasted walnuts add a nice crunch. This bread goes well with meats and cheeses – $5/loaf

Individual Cinnamon Rolls – These are made with a rich sweet roll dough that is full of eggs, butter and sugar. The dough is rolled out, spread with pastry cream and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. Then rolled up and sliced into individual rolls for baking. Then topped off with a cream cheese glaze. And boy are they delicious!! I can only make a limited number so get your order in early so you don’t lose out – 2/$5.

 

Wine of the Week: Penley Phoenix Cabernet

A bouquet of dark, berried, inky fruit with plenty of sawdusty/smoky oak. While it’s warm with alcohol it remains smooth, supple and persistent. It’s all blackcurrant, bay leaves and rich palate. Tannin is fine-grained. This is a complete and harmonious wine with great persistence of flavor. Bright and delicious.

Penley Estate Phoenix Cabernet Sauvignon ’17 Australia $18
The first vines were planted in Coonawarra in South Australia in 1890, predominantly shiraz. The terra rossa soil was quickly recognized as something special covering limestone and dolomite bedrock.

And yes, we will have a bottle open if you drop by!

 

 

 

 

Wine Emergencies…Who Ya Gonna Call?

While Covid continues to limit our movements and associations, we will continue to help you keep your wine shelves topped up. We know how it is…one minute your wine shelves are reassuringly stocked, and the very next day you reach for something and OMD, where did it all go?? It happens to all of us during these undifferentiated days and weeks of semi-quarantine.

But fear not, mis amigos! 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. EZ-PZ!

 

 

 

 

Mar a Lago Update: And We Thought Nixon Was A Long National Nightmare…!

The last five years (including the 2016 primaries) have revolved around 24/7 chaos kept churning  by the now-silenced (!) Tweetster. Shhh….listen…for a moment, could it be…? Yes, the noise has stopped!  Order is being restored, and we find ourselves in a state of weary exhaustion, wrapped in warm blankets waiting for it all to make some kind of sense.

We have been thinking the last few days about the role of Populism in the rise of Trumpism. During the Primary Campaigns in 2015, we all noticed the curious parallels between the rise of Trump on the Right and Sanders on the Left. Both were mavericks from their party mainstreams, and drew wide support. Trump, already a media creation, drew constant press attention, while  Sanders, despite drawing huge crowds, got far less coverage than Trump or Hillary Clinton. The point here is that Populism was a big draw among voters on both sides, suggesting that a large swath of the population was dissatisfied with the direction of the country.

Populism generally arises from voter alienation from bread and butter economic issues and social hardships that cause resentment among the affected populace. As we discussed last week, the Tea Party had been active against Obama from the beginning, and Trump had already jumped on that bandwagon with his Birther conspiracy against Obama. It was only a few short steps from Birtherism to the need for a Border Wall.

Historically, right-wing populism has relied on the appeal of xenophobic and racist anger against the Other of the moment, whoever could be blamed for their fears and failures, their dwindling share of the pie. A good example is the Know-Nothing Party, “a xenophobic political movement that arose in the 1840s, in reaction to a huge influx of Irish Catholic and German immigrants.” Native-born Protestants saw these immigrants as job-stealing threats to their cultural and religious identity. Btw, as recently as the 1920’s my Mother’s Irish Catholic family in Maine experienced KKK cross burnings on their lawns.

Such groups also proliferated in Europe as Nazis and Fascists in the 1930’s. Clearly Donald Trump represented right-wing populism, inflaming his followers (all, ironically, including him, descendants of immigrants) against more recent immigrants.

Left-wing populism has generally expressed a desire for a more equitable sharing of the economic pie. William Jennings Bryan stoked such a national movement for decades around 1900. His work was eventually manifested in much of FDR’s New Deal, redistributing wealth and opportunity from richer to poorer, favoring unions, an eight-hour workday, women’s suffrage, and a progressive income tax. It is worth noting that Republicans who tout the “Good Old Days” of the Fifties always fail to mention that the New Deal still included a 90% marginal tax rate on the most wealthy, and yet the economy grew handsomely.

Today Trump is out and Biden is in. That’s very Good News, Hallelujah, brothers and sisters, for those of us on the Left. With the Miracle of Georgia’s two Senate seats, we have a narrow path to progress over the next two years for an agenda of equal opportunity, more equitable distribution of wealth and income, universal health care, and, perhaps most important, saving Life on Earth from Climate Extinction.

It’s a small and temporary opening against the formidable enemies of democracy we have seen clearly over the past three months. After two decades of Mitch McConnell’s lies we should take a lesson from legendary coach Vince Lombardi: Winning isn’t the Most Important Thing; Winning is the Only Thing.

 

 

 

 

 

lummi island wine tasting jan15 ’21

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Bread This Week

Pain au Levain – “Levain” is more familiat to Americans as sourdough. It’s made with a nice mix of bread flour and freshly milled whole wheat and rye flours. After building the sourdough over several days and then mixing the final dough the dough gets a long cool overnight ferment in the refrigerator. This really allows the flavor to develop in this bread. A great all around bread – $5/loaf

Cinnamon Raisin – Made with a poolish of bread and fresh milled whole rye flour fermented overnight before the final dough is mixed with bread flour and freshly milled whole wheat and rolled oats. Unlike a sugary cinnamon roll, this is a hearty rustic loaf with the cinnamon is mixed throughout the dough. Great for breakfast toast, even better for french toast.  – $5/loaf

 

Chocolate Babka Rolls – A rich pastry dough full of eggs, butter and sugar, rolled out, spread with a chocolate filling, rolled up and cut into individual rolls.  – 2/$5

 

Wine of the Week: Maryhill Winemaker’s Red ’16

Over the last decade Washington’s Maryhill Winery has been making more and more, and better and better wines. The winery is located at a “wide spot in the road” in the town of the same name on the Columbia River near Goldendale. The town has a fascinating history. Perched high on the north bank of the Columbia, the winery provides visitors with a panoramic view of the Columbia Gorge. Quite spectacular.

The winery produces some fifty different wines from vineyards across Eastern Washington. Therefore, like most large wineries, there is a lot of fruit left over after the best fruit is selected for flagship wines, the next best for its second tier, and so forth. Each year the leftover red juice is blended in many different combinations to find the best blend for that year’s juice, and put into the Winemaker’s Red. Similarly, the leftover white juice is blended into that year’s Winemaker’s White.

All of that results in wines that are tasty and inexpensive. And since we are devoted advocates of wines that offer a lot of quality per dollar, we often stock this wine.

We will be offering complimentary tastings of this wine during Bread Pickup!

Maryhill Winemaker’s Red ’16      Washington       $13

 

 

Wine Emergencies…Who Ya Gonna Call?

While Covid continues to limit our movements and associations, we will continue to help you keep your wine shelves topped up. We know how it is…one minute your wine shelves are reassuringly stocked, and the very next day you reach for something and OMD, where did it all go?? It happens to all of us during these undifferentiated days and weeks of semi-quarantine.

But fear not, mis amigos! 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. EZ-PZ!

 

 

 

 

Mar a Lago Update: Tea Party Grieves Loss of Mad Hatter

In 2011 A Pew Research study based on the 2010 mid-term national election showed that Tea Party supporters made up 41% of the electorate, and 86% of them voted for Republican House candidates in that year’s election. The study found that those who self-identified as Tea Party supporters not only had substantially more conservative views on taxation, government spending, and corporation rights than other Republicans, but also had more conservative views on abortion, immigration, and gun rights. It was a growing political force, dating back to Gingrich.

In 2018, Lawrence Rosenthal wrote a lengthy and absorbing piece for the Othering and Belonging Institute at Berkeley called
Trump, The Tea Party, The Republicans, and the Other.  The article clarifies and unifies a number of seemingly disparate trends we have all observed over the past four years…and which relate in a very real way to the finding noted above in 2010.

We all remember when Trump became a viable candidate in the Republican debates and began surging ahead in the polls. It was his promise to build The Wall that would keep out “those Mexican rapists and murderers” who were swarming across our Open Borders by the tens of thousands. This position was not something he made up. Rather, he learned it was the Tea Party’s No. 1 issue by listening to right-wing talk radio and hearing Tea Party Nation’s Judson Phllips say, “…amnesty is the defining issue. There is no middle ground. There cannot be any form of amnesty. We need a president who will put the interests of Americans first.”

And that was that. Trump is not without skills. He has been a professional con man his entire life. He was in his element. Everything after that was easy: he had the Tea Party, the new majority of Republican voters, in his pocket. In fact there was a report during his ascension in the polls when numerous supporters were interviewed. Curiously, they all dismissed everything he said except for one or two phrases that convinced them that He Understood their particular kind of pain. This kind of emotional salesmanship is the hallmark of a true psychopath, who unconsciously knows when to use the lure of carrot and threat of stick to elicit the desired behavior.

Later in the article Rosenthal discusses how, philosophically, the broader context of the Tea Party illustrates Nietzsche’s view of the interplay between Resentment (anger toward members of the Superior classes), and Contempt, its opposite (disdain for members of Inferior classes.). Very broadly speaking, this point of view suddenly sheds a new light on the last ten years (or more) of American politics, one which has really come into sharp focus in the past few months and days. Numerous liberal late night talk show hosts regularly taunt their attitudes to the point that “The Tea Party Right is acutely aware of, and deeply resents, an attitude in the liberal world that regards them as the backward, almost premodern, fraction of American society.” Ouch!

It is a terrible thing to feel inferior, and it is a terrible thing to make another feel inferior. It is (by definition) the mark of Gentlefolk do neither. Could it be that the root of all human discontent derives from such a simple thing as feeling inferior or making another feel so? Is that why Tea Party Republicans are always so Angry? Why at Congressional hearings they are incapable of talking in declarative sentences? Why they seem incapable of speaking without raising their voices, without sarcasm, without exaggerated disrespect? Why people invade the Capitol with willingness to kill and destroy?

Two thoughts:

1.  It is always a bad idea to confuse people by acting angry when you feel hurt, because people respond to what they see. Show me anger, I will be defensive, show me hurt, I will be supportive. It’s not complicated. Just ask for what you need; don’t confuse people.
2. An old Kung Fu episode ended with Caine lamenting to an angry young man he has befriended, “My friend…what a difficult path you have chosen.”

 

 

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