lummi island wine tasting may 15 ’20
click on photos for larger images
Bread Friday, Covid Rules
While Social Distancing remains in place to limit the spread of Covid-19, those of you on the Friday Bread mailing list will continue to receive a Sunday email from Janice with the week’s bread order menu and have until Wednesday to submit your orders. Until Social Distancing protocols, are loosened, Friday bread pickups will be from 4-5pm at the North Exit of the ferry overflow parking lot across Nugent Road from the ferry dock.
Bread pickup has become something of an impromptu Covid Tailgate party, with people setting up lawn chairs and wine glasses to hang out for awhile. So, depending on your Social Distancing choices, you might want to just drive in, pick up, and drive out, or make camp, set up, and Party. As you can see, people are keeping a safe distance while managing to schmooze, sip wine, and enjoy the sunshine! (This photo was taken around 5pm last Friday…can you find nine people* in it??)
Now Accepting Online Orders
Since it may be a long time before we can return to our elbow-to-elbow wine tastings, we have taken the first step toward an “online store.” As mentioned last week, from time to time over many years we have explored that possibility, even had a couple of versions up and running briefly before abandoning the idea. While a lot of those early files are still in the website somewhere, many are years out of date, so we are now exploring a new array of online ordering options, starting this weekend with this simple email order form you can use to order wine in a few easy steps:
- Click “Contact Us”on the website header bar at the top of this page.
- Fill in the Contact Form per instructions;
- Submit your order.
It’s that Simple!
Wine Notes
The wine list mentioned above has a number of new wines we have never poured for you. So each week we will add notes on a couple of them and keep a bottle open should you drop by to pick up an order! This week we feature the Pascual Toso Estate Malbec and the Juggernaut Hillside Cabernet.
Toso Malbec ’17 Argentina $14
Red ripe berries and plum notes. Smooth and delicious; focused, clean notes of violets, plum, and red cherry notes with very good freshness and a plush, elegant mouthfeel with smooth oak and easy tannins.
Pascual Toso is named for its founder, who emigrated from Italy to Argentina in 1880 (OMD, that’s 140 years ago!). Sr. Toso settled in Mendoza. With a family history in winemaking he became intrigued by the exceptional quality of the vineyards in the region, and opened his first winery in San Jose in 1890. In subsequent years he (among others!) discovered the exceptional terroir of the Maipu Valley, bought land and developed vineyards. Today, like many old-time wineries, Toso was bought and owned by the J Llorente and Associates corporation at some point. Today, after 125 years, the winery is exploring the planting and vinification of Bordeaux varietals cabernet sauvignon and cab franc which do very well in Mendoza. This is not surprising given the astonishing success of Argentine malbec worldwide in the last twenty years.
Juggernaut Hillside Cabernet ’17 California $19
Huge, rich, and opulent, with complex flavors of chocolate, coffee, blackberries, cassis, mint, and velvety tannins. New French oak adds notes of vanilla and toast; concentrated, rich, and smooth on the palate.
One good way (besides tasting it!) to get a felt sense of this particular wine (or its Image) is to watch its website open up…! Clearly this wine and its image are very Madmen-designed products. That said, and cabernet sauvignon being what it is, there a Power and Depth to these grapes that makes for a very satisfying wine experience. We also confess a Weakness for red wine from the Sierra Foothills wine regions just south of Sacramento. We have found that these wines, many from very old vines (100 yrs.++), have a certain richness, depth, and power that certain moods just Require.
Mar a Lago Update: Capitalism, Freedom, and Tyranny
When I was a grad student in Economics in the Seventies, Milton Friedman, a Conservative economist at the University of Chicago, had reached the Top of his Game, winning the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1976. Friedman’s whole Schtick was a defining Update of Adam Smith’s Invisible Hand , asserting that the self-interested motives of individuals in markets would inevitably lead the the best Overall Outcomes for all.
Last week we explored the tension between the idea of representative democracy and the tendency of human economy to concentrate power and wealth in few hands, a fairly useful definition of Tyranny.
There are numerous markers on the table that we are now in a Tolkienesque struggle between the Good of Democracy and the Evil of Authoritarianism. The last four years of the heartless and mindless confederacy of the Tweetster and his minions like Fox News, the Republican Party, the Militia-minded Racists, the Wall Street Grifters, the Gun-Toting Rednecks, the Bible-Thumping Authoritarians, and the rest of their Ilk and their Kith and their Kin have faithfully represented the resurgent Dystopias of Hitler, Mussolini, Franco, Stalin, Amin, Kim Jongs Il and Un, Mao, Saddam, Gaddhafi, and and on and on and on throughout human history. From the wills and unmet psychological needs of deeply disturbed and unfulfilled men have come thousands of years of astounding acts of stupidity, cruelty, and waste.
We continue to read, recommend, and contemplate On Tyranny by historian Timothy Snyder, who puts these men and their history in a stark and relevant perspective to our present global and national crises. As the old warning says, “Awake, awake, be mindful in practice; time flies like an arrow, it will not wait for you!”
lummi island wine tasting may 8 ’20
click on photos for larger images
Bread Friday, Covid Rules
Although Social Distancing remains in place to limit the spread of Covid-19, those on the Friday Bread mailing list will continue to receive a Sunday email from Janice with details about the week’s bread menu. And to maintain Social Distancing protocols, for the time being Friday bread pickups will be between 4-5-ish pm at the North exit of the ferry overflow parking lot across from the ferry dock.
It has become something of an impromptu Covid Tailgate party, with people setting up lawn chairs and wine glasses to hang out for awhile. So…depending on your Social Distancing parameters, you might want to just drive in, pick up, and drive out, or make camp, set up, and Party. At a safe distance, or course…!
Btw, this photo was taken a few years ago about this time of year at a friend’s 80th birthday party held at Curry Preserve. We brought raw materials and were instructed on how to make a punch bowl of May wine, a blend of bubbly and riesling steeped with newly picked sweet woodruff Today here on Lummi Island has felt very much like that particular day — cool air, warming sun, deep blue Spring sky, and colors to make an Impressionist Weep. Absolutely lovely!
Redefining Our Mission
When we started this venture back in Oh-Five we had No Intention of being shopkeepers in a Wine Store. From the beginning our curiosity was in having a tasting room where we could explore the world of wine. Yes, there had to be wine sales to keep it all going, but the Tasting was the Thing, and it has been deeply engaging for us and the many people who have hung out with us for a few hours schmoozing with friends over a little vino.
The present Global Pandemic has put that model on a back burner for as long as it takes to make it safe for all of us to be crowded into a small space again. Could be many months. So for the time being our “business” will have to be wine sales only, hopefully with at least a few minutes of appropriately distanced conversation and maybe a taste of a new wine.
From time to time over the years we have explored adding an online store to the operation, even had a couple of versions up and running briefly. A lot of those files are still in the website somewhere so we have begun the process of re-exploring it all to find the easiest way to take orders online and arrange with you for pickup. Our first steps will be to develop the Order Wine and Contact Us links at the top of this page to provide you with information on wines in stock and some options for pick-up. We will keep you posted on our progress!
Until we get that sorted out, we have been doing just fine with ordinary Wine Emergency emails or phone calls. Even now you can click on the ORDER WINE link at the top of this page for a partial list of current offerings with tasting notes. And while there is not yet an online order form, you can; 1) send us an email using the CONTACT US link atop this page (coming soon!) ; or phone us (number next to logo above right); or (we are working on this) use the online order form when it becomes available.
Wine Notes
Periodically our friend and wine distributor Judy drops by the shop with her sample bag (it holds a whole case, has wheels, maybe even its own cooling system, who knows?) which we taste through and discuss. Often she has a Special Deal on buying X cases from a selection of wines being promoted for a particular mega-producer. We should say at this point that over the last decade or two hundreds of established family wineries in California have been bought from aging owner-winemakers by corporate conglomerates, who then own the land, the vineyards, and the Names of the established wineries and wines. That’s a whole topic in itself which we will leave aside for another time.
The point for today is that we just bought (from Judy) a bunch of wine from a conglomerate that evolved from a long-established Napa winery, Caymus, famous for its cabernet sauvignon almost from its first vintage in 1972. The founder, Charles Wagner, died in 2002, and the winery passed on to sons. Properties and labels were bought and sold, and an array of new wines were created. As we like to point out, a key difference between Old World and New World wines is that in Europe there is no distinction between a wine and the particular piece of land it comes from. There are Rules established so that Place is Sacred; every wine tells the story of a particular varietal from a particular vineyard in a particular year. The story changes from year to year, but there is a consistent underlying theme and identity. So when you taste an Old World wine, you are tasting a particular footprint of the land and fingerprint of the winemaker.
Not so in the New World. This group of wines we just brought in from Judy are very much New World style. Modern winemaking technology allows juice from any place to be engineered and blended with juice from other places to taste like juice from somewhere altogether different or even imaginary. Or, what is the same thing in the New World, grapes are raw materials that can be engineered in countless directions. The Takeaway is technology is to some degree a substitute for terroir; or, to put it another way, unless designated vineyard-specific, a New World wine aims for predictable outcomes every season, while Old World wines aim for the best outcome available within the constraint of a particular piece of geography in a particular season. They have different things to offer, and they can both knock your socks off. While some of us admit a bit of snobbery about terroir-driven wines, we all like it when a wine knocks our socks off.
Well that got longer than I intended! Anyway, here are some of these wines from the Wagner conglomerate that we have in stock. They are reasonably priced for their quality, engineered for enjoyment, and definitely Not Plonk!
Mer Soleil Reserve Chardonnay ’17 California $25
All the things you hate that you love about rich Chardonnays: Fresh, bright notes of white peach with vibrant acidity balanced by lush flavors and texture of ripe apple.
Conundrum Red ’17 California $22
Petite Sirah, Zin, and Cab; rich, complex and seductive, with round notes of cherries and baking chocolate, fine tannins, and a silky smoothness.
Bonanza Cabernet Sauvignon ’17 California $22
Aromas of blueberries and blackberries ride on silky-smooth tannins; mouthwatering, lengthy finish trails off with hints of unsweetened chocolate and cassis.
Mar a Lago Update: Tweetster’s Last Stand
The Chaos we are all feeling at such a deep emotional level seems only made Bearable by the Magic of the Spring unfolding around us (see above!). Nevertheless anyone paying attention should be deeply worried that the breathtaking hubris and incompetence of the Fake President and his Unconfirmed Cabinet of Incompetents who have, like the Famous Chickens, Come Home to Roost. Tens of thousands of our fellow citizens have died needlessly from this sheer Incompetence, and thousands more are certain to die before he can be voted out of the Office he is so gravely unfit to occupy.
None of this is a Surprise. The past three and a half years have been a steep downhill slide for our country’s position on the World stage. There is no international or domestic problem that he has not made Worse, no alliance he has not frayed, no balance of power that he has not tipped to our disfavor.
What we see before us in this Crossroads Election Year is a formidable power structure poised to take complete control of our country under rigid authoritarian rules. As we have suggested many times before, the Default political organization for human beings is Feudalism, where a small group of dominant males enslave or subjugate every source of resistance to their authoritarian power. They control all production and distribution, make all the laws, and wield Authority over every aspect of their subjects’ lives. Nowadays we call it “Populism.” On the one hand it sounds like “popular,” as if everyone really wants it.
But in reality Populism, by abandoning the cautions of History, becomes the codependent sidekick of Tyranny by failing to question its rise, by failing to stop its dismantling of checks and balances, and by failing to support and strengthen the Institutions which provide checks and balances against tyranny. In his recent short but powerfully focused book On Tyranny, historian Timothy Snyder has built a compelling case that our country and much of the World are experiencing a resurgence of Authoritarianism. Using examples from Nazi Germany and other historical regimes, he makes a strong case that our Acting President and the Republican Party at all levels across the country are moving toward one-party control of Congress, the White House, and the Courts, aimed at the creation of a Corporate State that serves an emerging, highly concentrated Feudal Capitalism that is above any level of government.
There’s a lot on the Political Plate right now.
lummi island wine tasting may day ’20
click on photos for larger images
Bread Friday, Covid Rules
Although Social Distancing remains in place to limit the spread of Covid-19, those on the Friday Bread mailing list will continue to receive a Sunday email from Janice with details about the week’s bread menu. And to maintain Social Distancing protocols, for the time being she will continue doing the weekly bread deliveries from her car (you know, the black Tesla that is So Popular with bakers!) from 4-5 pm at the North exit of the ferry overflow parking lot.
It has become something of an impromptu party, with people setting up lawn chairs and wine glasses to hang out for awhile, some kind of new Covid Tailgate event. So…depending on your Social Distancing parameters, you might want to just drive in, pick up, and drive out, or make camp, set up, and Party. At a safe distance, or course. Just sayin’…
Wine Shop Remains Open for Wine Emergencies!
As most of you know, our fifteen-year run of Friday and Saturday Happy Hours have been suspended until social gathering is safe for the retirees that make up most of our membership.
On a more positive note, we have been called in to resolve numerous Wine Emergency orders over the last few weeks, including several who responded to our post last week of a list of recommended wines we currently on board.
The Takeaway here is that when you find yourself in this precarious position, Help is just a phone call away. Click on the ORDER WINE link at the top of this page for a list of many of our current offerings. Then forward your choices to us by using the CONTACT US link above, or by phoning us (number next to logo above right) to arrange a pickup appointment at your convenience. And maybe an elbow bump and a taste of something… 🙂
Wine Notes
The wine list mentioned above has a number of new wines we have never poured for you. So each week we will add notes on a couple of them and keep a bottle open should you drop by to pick up an order.
The Terre Brulee Swartland Chenin Blanc is a new arrival along with a few other wines from South Africa. For some reason we have rarely crossed paths with this French varietal that originated in France over a thousand years ago as Chenere. It was renamed Chenin Blanc in the 15th Century, and introduced to South Africa, where it is the dominant white wine grape, by the late 17th Century. There is some speculation that the grape is an offspring of savagnin, the dominant white grape of the French Jura region, where it is traditionally allowed to oxidize during fermentation. In the current manifestation offered here is evidence of this long history. The wine is pleasing on many levels, with aromas of soft, ripe aromatic stone fruits and crisp acidity of Spanish verdejo, to which it may also be related. All in all, it’s an intriguing and enjoyable wine for the season.
Notes: Enticing floral aromas of white flowers, honeysuckle, yellow apple, and citrus; palate shows textural richness and precision, juicy and vibrant acidity, and lingering notes of yellow apple and grapefruit.
We brought in the Summers Andrianna’s Cuvee ’17 several weeks ago on the recommendation of one of our reps. It is a California cab blend from Calistoga and shows overlapping influences of the Sonoma and Napa wine regions. See Tech Sheet As it was recommended to us for some reason the wine usually sells for around $20, but was available for a price that would allow us to sell it for $14. So we bought two cases a few weeks ago, and have poured it for some of our recent Emergency customers, who all bought some. We just got another two cases (!). The main thing here is that this wine really is worth the price it usually sells for, and we have No Idea why it is for the moment such a bargain, but this is a tasty wine at an exceptional price.
Notes: A blend of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes procured from several select vineyards in Napa and Sonoma Counties, including the Summers’ own vineyards. A medium-bodied wine with a deep ruby plum color, rich in texture, showing notes of black currant, cedar and spice. Laced with plums, espresso and dark cherries, with subtle floral notes rounding out the finish.
Mar a Lago Update: Let Them Eat Surplus Labor!
Never let it be said that the Tweetster hasn’t Outdone Dubya, who in his last year in office presided over what was then the worst economic Crash since the Great Depression. President Obama stepped into that mess and over the next eight years carefully and deliberately kept a Steady Hand on the Tiller. Using the same Keynesian economic rationale as FDR used during the Depression, Obama used government deficit spending, tax cuts, and government loans to stimulate economic activity. Progress was slow but steady, and by the end of his second term in office, the economy had been rebuilt and was working again.
Why did that work? Because in the Keynesian model, the economy is a circular flow where investment produces infrastructure, which produces demand for labor, which pays wages, which pay for household goods and services, which pay businesses, and so on. The message: if aggregate demand falls, stimulate the economy by lowering taxes and increasing spending.
The Republicans have never grokked Keynes, preferring to imagine that Investment is the main driver of the economy, and therefore Investors must be coaxed to invest by low interest rates and low taxes, which will allow them to create capital, start new businesses and pay higher wages, which will increase consumer spending. So, they imagine, it is the same thing as Keynes, only better, because basically they like the picture that has the money start at the top. Unfortunately it didn’t work with Reagan, or with Bush, or with the Tweetster. The tax cuts have never delivered the promised economic growth, because consumer spending is the largest force in the circular flow. If consumers don’t earn, they don’t spend, and the whole machine slows down.
At present Social Distancing has shut down extensive parts of the economy, and the government has agreed upon a pretty good (Keynesian) plan to keep the circular flow going with huge increases in unemployment subsidies and rent and loan payment deferments. These are good ideas that are very likely to keep a light on in the window while we fight the Covid virus.
Yet in the last few days we now have a Movement among Red State Republican pols to relax social distancing protocols sooner rather than later. At root what is driving these guys crazy is the idea that working people should get anything for “free” while at the same time their entire Class gets Fat from a deep Matrix of interconnected laws that lets them pass Go and collect a Prize every time anyone uses a credit card just because they wear a fooking necktie.
At the end of the day we stick with our belief that the Default political economy of human beings is Feudalism. It’s not about Honor, or Valor, or Honesty, or any other known Virtue. It’s about raw selfishness, power, and Entitlement. Maybe we should work on a vaccine against Tyranny…
lummi island wine tasting april 24 ’20
click on photos for larger images
Bread Friday, Covid Rules
Although Social Distancing remains in place to limit the spread of Covid-19, those on the Friday Bread mailing list will continue to receive a Sunday email from Janice with details about the week’s bread menu. And to maintain Social Distancing protocols, for the time being she will continue doing the weekly bread deliveries from her car from 4-5 pm at the North exit of the ferry overflow parking lot.
When we stopped by last week, there were people with lawn chairs and wine glasses, looked like some kind of new Covid Tailgate. So…depending on your Social Distancing parameters, you might want to just drive in, pick up, and drive out, or make camp, set up, and Party. Just sayin’…
Wine Shop Declares Constitutional Right to Remain Open for Wine Emergencies!
As we all continue to adapt to Covid-19 Battle Protocols, our regular Friday and Saturday Evening Wine Tastings have been suspended until further notice. This is a big change from the past fifteen years of our collective building of the Friday and Saturday tastings into an ongoing Community where everyone is welcome and everyone is happy.
Btw, speaking of Good Cheer, since Social Distancing was initiated by Governor Inslee a month ago, we have found ourselves enjoying most evenings an episode or two of the early-80’s TV series Cheers, a sitcom set in an old pub in Boston. The neighborhood atmosphere in the show reminds us a lot of the positive energy that you all bring and share chez nous, and which we have very much been missing!….sigh!
On a more positive note, it has become clear over the last few weeks that many of you are avoiding going to the mainland for the time being, and when you run out of wine have taken the opportunity to Declare (gulp!) a Wine Emergency (OMD..are those Sirens??!!) to which we are pledged to respond as best we can as needs arise!
Should you find yourself in this precarious position, we are Here for you Right Here on the Island! You can order by phone (see below or use your Island Directory) or explore the BUY WINES link at the top of the page on our website. (sorry,not sure if all the links appear in the email version of this post) and we will assemble your orders for pickup at your convenience.
The wine shop remains a pretty safe environment, with very few visitors for very short periods of time, and with all contact surfaces disinfected before and after each visitor leaves.
We currently have several orders ready for pickup. Let us know if we can help You with Your Wine Emergency!
Mar a Lago Update: Things Keep Getting Worse Faster than We are Getting Older
In the late evening of Election Day 2016 we got a phone call from a neighbor. She had heard that the Tweetster had won the election. She was crying. She was Very Upset. Don’t worry, we said with confidence, that is Impossible and it will all clear up in the morning….but it didn’t. And life has been Surreal ever since.
Many times Every Day since then we have been forced to witness ever more bizarre and illogical behavior, with scores of documented Lies every single day. He lies and is caught lying, and nothing changes. Every time he opens his mouth he broadcasts breathtaking ignorance of science, history, economics, government, politics, and his Believers Defend him. He is the consummate Snake Oil salesman; and with the Obeisance of Republicans across the Nation, he is continually putting our country, our Planet, and the future of Life Itself in deeper and deeper Grave Peril.
The current Covid Pandemic is stark and undeniable. The usual ploys of blaming Democrats, or blaming reporters for Fake News, or blaming scientists for the idiotic and ignorant things he says and does every day are finally getting a little less Traction with his Base. But with few exceptions (like Maryland’s Republican Governor) Republican Senators and Representatives are still drinking the Kool-aid that keeps them rich and powerful but politically emasculated (Lindsay Graham the best example…) So many of his Cabinet appointees have quit or been fired that to a large extent all that are left are political Weathermen with an instinct for Knowing which way the wind blows.
The only conclusion is that our nation has been in a Trance since 2016, and unable to wake up from it. It feels like the scenes in Alien where many crew members have been captured and cocooned by the Aliens, aware they are dying but completely helpless to fight back. Another metaphor is from the science fiction writer Harlan Ellison named one of his stranger stories, “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream,” very disturbing.
How to Declare a Wine Emergency!
1. If you are on our website, scroll up to the very top of this page, click on “ORDER WINE” at top of screen, and follow the instructions.
2. If you have received this post as an email subscriber and you do not have that link on your email, click here.
3. If none of those work, phone us a 360 758-2959.
2072 Granger Way