lummi island wine tasting march 6-7 ’20
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Friday Breads This Week
Barley, Whole Wheat, & Rye Levain – made with a levain also known as sourdough which is built over several days and allowed to ferment before the final dough is mixed. Made with bread flour and freshly milled whole wheat, barley and rye flours. – $5/loaf
Fig Anise – One of the more popular breads in the rotation. Made with a sponge that is fermented overnight, then the final dough is mixed with bread flour and fresh milled whole wheat. Honey, dried figs and anise bring in all the flavors of the Mediterranean. A great flavorful bread – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Morning Buns – Made popular by Tartine Bakery in San Francisco, and this is my interpretation. Made with the same laminated dough as croissants. The dough is rolled out, spread with a filling of brown sugar, orange zest, butter and cinnamon. Rolled up and sliced before baking. – 2/$5
(breads must be pre-ordered by Wednesday for pickup here at the wine shop at our Friday wine tasting, 4-6pm. Planning a visit to the Island? Email us to get on the mailing list!)
Corona Virus
Technically speaking, viruses are not living organisms. Since they cannot replicate on their own they must invade and hijack the cells of living organisms to reproduce. They are more like Zombies than living beings, half-alive and half-chemical, invading actual living organisms and using their reproductive systems to survive and reproduce. (You know, like Alien.) Since viruses can’t perpetuate on their own, they can only reproduce by commandeering cellular machinery from another organism’s genome. Btw, the word “virus” derives from Latin for “poison.”
Viruses are made of DNA/RNA enclosed in a protein coat that can shelter the viral proteins that cause infection, making a virus more like a chemistry set than an organism. But when a virus enters a cell (called a host after infection), it uses the cell’s own replication machinery to reproduce its own DNA or RNA and make more of itself.
The upshot is that the Corona Virus is more like a spill from Dow Chemical than a disease like the Measles: if you don’t get any on you, it won’t hurt you. So the Big Takeaway here is Let’s Not Get Any On Us!
To that end, we invite our faithful members to attend our Open Hours this weekend (4-7 Friday, 2-6 Saturday) as long as you feel Healthy and are not running a temperature, coughing, sneezing, or sniffling. Let’s take care of ourselves and each other by erring on the side of Prudence and staying home if we are feeling at all unwell. Let’s support each other in getting through this thing in good health!
Mar a Lago Update: The Comfort Factor
The world of Presidential Nominating Politics has had quite a week, huh? For nearly a year some two dozen hopeful candidates have thrown themselves into crowded and turbulent political waters. Over the last few months the field has continued to narrow as one by one has exhausted their resources and bowed out. A week ago we were all still fretting over How to Decide from the surviving (and mostly appealing) group of Sanders, Warren, Buttigieg, Biden, Klobuchar, Steyer, and that other guy, you know, the one from New York City with Bottomless Bank Account.
Then, beginning Saturday, in the space of a few days the field narrowed to Only Two. Something coalesced in the Group Unconscious beginning with the South Carolina Primary stunning victory to former VP Joe Biden. Three days later on “Super Tuesday,” a Domino-like wave of support rippled forth for Biden as if a long-constipated Political Lake Missoula had suddenly broken through its surrounding glacier and burst forth like a Tidal Wave across an up-till-then Quiet Palouse. No One predicted That!
Though Biden was broadly presumed to be the Safest candidate (most likely to beat the Tweetster), he entered the race later, raised far less money, and until about a week ago performed with less energy and charisma during the debates than many of the other candidates. He also had a series of disappointing finishes in Iowa, NH, and Nevada, and looked like a Goner. So it was quite amazing how he Crushed the South Carolina Primary, so Decisively that on Super Tuesday he swept five of the remaining six opposing candidates out of the race Just Like That! Which leaves us with Bernie and Joe.
As a good friend put it, Biden is like a comfy old easy chair. You shop around for something newer and better, but when you get really tired of shopping, it’s just such a Relief to let it all go and relax into that old familiar chair with a nice glass of wine…Ahhhhhhh. At the same time, we have great respect and affection for Bernie’s commitment to advancing the Progressive cause. IOHO, his one little Mistake has been incorrectly calling himself a Democratic Socialist, when the correct term for his values is “Social Democrat.” And that semantic difference, at a time when so much is at stake in selecting the Tweetster’s Rival, is likely to make all the difference.
Washington Post Tweetster Lie Count to date : 16,241 as of 01/24/20
This week’s tasting
La Bella Prosecco NV Italy $11
Italy’s refreshing, festive and crisp sparkling wine; aromatic, fresh and lively with a distinctive taste; fine, persistent perlage, good minerality and notes of apple and peach.
Folie a Deux Pinot Gris ’18 Calif $14
Guava, pineapple and lemon-lime flavors make for a fleshy, brightly layered expression of the varietal, both soft on the palate and crisp on the palate.
Tenute Rubino Oltremé Susumaniello ’17 Italy $14
Fresh, fragrant notes of cherries, pomegranate, raspberries and hints of ripe plum; fruity, minerally, and round on the palate with soft, pleasant tannins, a versatile and seductive pairing with richer dishes.
Oregon Solidarity Pinot Noir ’18 Oregon $25
Rich and intense fruit flavors that reflect the warm and dry growing season. Aromas and flavors of cherry, blackberry and spice. Excellent balance, with solid structure, concentration and firm tannins.
Seven Hills Walla Walla Red ’14 Washington $20
85% Cab, 10% Malbec and 5% Petit Verdot; green herb, black fruit, coffee and anise aromas give way to beautifully balanced red- and black-fruit flavors. The acidity brings a sense of vibrancy, while the tannins provide plenty of structure.
lummi island wine tasting feb 28 ’20
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Friday Breads 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. Though this bread is not gluten-free (it is includes bread flour made from wheat) it has an earthy buckwheat flavor balanced with a little honey. Some toasted walnuts add a nice crunch…goes well with meats and cheeses – $5/loaf
Brioche Tarts au Sucre – aka brioche sugar tarts. A rich brioche dough full of eggs and butter is rolled into a round tart and topped with more eggs, cream, butter and sugar. – 2/$5
(breads must be pre-ordered by Wednesday for pickup here at the wine shop at our Friday wine tasting, 4-6pm. Planning a visit to the Island? Email us to get on the mailing list!)
Climate Notes: Anti-Greta
Over the last decade in general and roughly coinciding, we notice, with Darth McConnell’s Death Grip on control of the US Senate (Abandon All Hope All Bills Which Enter Here…), our country has been taken down an evolving (devolving?) road of Epic Environmental Ignorance and Catastrophe which threatens the existence of All Life on our Dear Planet Earth. One of the bright lights that has recently buoyed both our spirits and our hopes for continuing Life on Planet Earth has been the emergence this year of the young voice of unlikely environmental heroine Greta Thunberg. In the past year, young Greta has reflected our complacency back upon us, basically pointing her finger at us and crying a deeply touching lament: we are killing the Planet that sustains what may be the only Life in the entire Universe. Heavy stuff, bringing a Profound sense of Grief to those of us who have studied and warned about these things for the last fifty years, to no avail. And we keep asking, WTF is wrong with our species?
The latest entrant in this ongoing-for-a-few-more-years Existential Moral Combat is a young woman named Naomi Seibt, who has been recently recruited/created by the Heartland Institute, a right-wing think tank committed to Denying that the global climate is getting dangerously hostile to Life because of human destruction of the thermodynamic balance that brought forth and has maintained Life in this tiny, fragile, unique, and fleeting Oasis for hundreds of millions of years.
Nineteen-year-old Naomi has been designed and weaponized to counter the visceral emotional appeal that Thunberg evokes when she speaks of the Global Destruction Sequence that has already been initiated by two hundred years of exponentially increasing combustion of fossil fuels by our species.
Naomi Klein introducing Greta Thunberg
Mar a Lago Update: At Stake This Weekend
As one would expect, fivethirtyeight.com has some very interesting takes on the importance of the coming week in determining who will be the Democratic Presidential candidate in this year’s election. We have the South Carolina primary this weekend followed by “Super Tuesday,” when another dozen states including delegate-rich California and Texas hold their primaries on March 3.
At the moment the race is leaning toward Bernie Sanders, but Joe Biden is expected to do well with black voters who make up the majority of the electorate in South Carolina. The link above analyzes three different scenarios for the SC primary outcomes, all looking closely at the likely Sanders-Biden relative outcomes. Although Biden did not show well in the Iowa, NH, or Nevada caucuses/primaries (all of which Sanders won), his long relationships with SC politics make him the favorite in this particular primary.
When the primaries are one at a time, winning can give a candidate something of “Bandwagon Effect” that adds Momentum to a campaign in States to follow. All that adds up to a lot of pressure on Biden to achieve a strong showing in SC this weekend, and he is widely expected to do quite well. The big Takeaways from the 538 article are that: 1) the better he does in SC, the better he will do on Super Tuesday (the Momentum factor), and 2) the better he does on Super Tuesday, the better shot he has at the nomination.
All of that adds up to a lot at stake for them and for the country in the coming week. This article does not even look at other candidates than Biden or Bernie in this piece. We are still trying to decide our votes for our own WA primary on March 10, though of course we all have our leanings. But one thing is for sure: Anyone but the Tweetster! So say we All!
Washington Post Tweetster Lie Count to date : 16,241 as of 01/24/20
This week’s tasting
Terra d’Oro Moscato ’18 California $14
Intoxicating aromas of perfumed peach blossom and fresh honeysuckle with sweet, creamy lemon cheesecake flavors and bright, fresh apricot and white peach on the palate. Crisp, rich, and balanced with lingering notes of rose petal.
Chat Auzias Cabardes Red ’17 France $11
Dark berries with a hint of eucalyptus; medium body with good acidity and notes of raspberry and sweet oak on the lingering finish.
Townshend Cellars T3 red blend Washington $17
Bordeaux style blend of cab, merlot and cab franc; fruit forward with hints of black currant and vanilla, with layers of complexity and depth through extensive oak aging in French and American barrels.
Edi Simcic Duet ’16 Slovenia $30
Merlot, Cab Sauv, Cab Franc; bold and compelling, with notes of chocolate, cherries, cheesecake, and coffee on silky tannins and a lush, ripe, fruit-full body that goes on and on.
Lady Hill Cabernet Franc ’16 Oregon $32
Aromas of raisined berry fruit, sugared dates, chocolate, caramel and orange peel lead to a rich, lush, palate with flavors of raisin, cocoa, coffee and toffee. Great on its own or with any kind of chocolate, Stilton cheese. or toasted walnuts.
lummi island wine tasting feb 21 ’20
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Friday Breads This Week
Pain au Levain – Made with a nice mix of bread flour and freshly milled whole wheat and rye flours. After building the sourdough and mixing the final dough it 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
Semolina Levain – Semolina is made from durum wheat, which is a hard wheat and often used in pasta. The flour has a lovely golden color that comes through in the bread. This bread is made Using a sourdough starter to mix a levain that ferments overnight before mixing the final dough with bread flour, semolina and some fresh milled whole wheat. A little butter is added for a soft crumb. Makes great toast – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Individual Cinnamon Rolls – 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 baking forms for baking. And boy are they delicious!! – 2/$5.
(breads must be pre-ordered by Wednesday for pickup here at the wine shop at our Friday wine tasting, 4-6pm. Planning a visit to the Island? Email us to get on the mailing list!)
Climageddon Outlook: Thwaites Glacier
Last night PBS included a very alarming report on the Thwaites glacier in Antarctica melting and sliding into the sea much more rapidly than global warming models have been predicting. Thwaites is about the size of Florida and is partly floating and partly on land. In the last few years large chunks of the floating ice have broken off as icebergs that eventually melt into the ocean. (see video, left)
When floating ice melts, sea level does not rise. However, as the report points out, the structure and location of the Thwaites glacier is partly floating and partly on land. This recent study confirms the fear that the temperature of the seawater under the glacier is now several degrees above freezing and will continue to erode the glacier from underneath, causing giant icebergs to break off into the sea to melt, as shown in the video at left.
The melting of the shelf ice would raise sea level by about two feet worldwide, and, like a broken dam, would open a pathway for the entire West Antarctic ice sheet to start sliding into the ocean. We have known for some time that increasing global temperatures would accelerate the melting of ice in polar regions (and they have). The melting of floating sea ice will not increase sea level, but it does reduce the reflectivity of the polar regions and further acceleratea global warming. But the melting of the land-borne glaciers, particularly in Greenland and Antarctica, will cause sea level to rise as well.
The melting of Thwaites will raise global sea level by about two feet. The melting of all of it would raise sea level by about ten feet. Scientists are uncertain how fast these things will happen. But the recent confirmation of above-freezing seawater below Thwaites strongly implies they are happening faster than we imagined.
Mar a Lago Update: Holy Smoke-Filled Room, Batman!
Well. Last night we once again battled the complexity of watching the Debate online, always a challenge for those of us without TV Cable subscriptions. It takes a while to find the right page, and even then it required constant rebooting.
It looked a lot less like a serious Candidates’ Debate than an adolescent and unruly game show. The candidates were often all talking at once while the moderators looked more and more like first grade teachers who had completely lost control of the class. All it lacked was actual hair-pulling and snappy back and forth banter like: “Oh, yeah?..Yeah!” “Oh, yeah?..Yeah!”
And you keep reminding yourself OMG these people all want to be President! No, no, not of their High School Class…of the Country!
In that sense it was not particularly different from the Republican debates in 2016, with 17 candidates that dwindled to three by mid-March: Tweetster, Kasich, and Cruz. By May 3 the Tweetster had won a plurality of delegates and became the Republican candidate. We couldn’t believe it then. We still don’t believe it. And then of course, it got Much Worse in November. (though of course Cruz would have presented his own kind of existential disaster…but we digress…)
Which takes us back to the Dilemma of the Democratic voter here in 2020: we don’t feel free to vote for the candidate we personally prefer! No, we feel an Existential Fear that the “wrong candidate” will get the nomination, the Tweetster will get another term, and Life on Earth will be Doomed. So there is, you know, reason to feel some pressure to get this right.
Meanwhile, we remind you that after the 2016 primary campaign, the progressive wing of the Democratic Party was able to get convention rules changed for 2020 so that so-called super-delegates, generally centrist Party People, would not get to vote on the first ballot in the next convention. However, party rules still say that a candidate must win a majority of delegates (1991) to win the nomination on the first ballot. This is important because if no candidate wins a majority of delegates on the first ballot, two things happen: 1) 771 super-delegates (members of the DNC, Congressional Democrats and Governors, and former Presidents and VPs.) get to vote, and 2) All delegates are free to vote their own preferences in subsequent ballots. And that opens the door for some old-fashioned smoke-filled room horse trading for votes.
Since this kind of brokered convention is starting to look like a real possibility, it is safe to assume that all the candidates’ organizations are already working the crowd, as Bloomberg seems to be doing.
Washington Post Tweetster Lie Count to date : 16,241 as of 01/24/20
This week’s tasting
Terra d’Oro Pinot Grigio ’18 California $14
Nose of ripe, bright pear and clover blossom. Rich and dense, and oozing with juicy pear and stone fruit flavors, finishing with an elegant touch of toasted French oak. Try pairing this delightful wine with a mild cheese and fruit plate.
Terra d’Oro Petite Syrah ’16 California $14
An exotic earthy character dominates this dark-colored, full-bodied and firmly tannic wine, giving it a rustic feral appeal that gets progressively more enjoyable on the palate and finish. Blackberry and blueberry flavors underneath add to its appeal.
Indaba Merlot ’17 South Africa $10
Carefully crafted in a bright, clean style, this velvety Merlot offers appealing aromas and bright, succulent flavors of cherry, dark berry and plum backed by subtle mocha and herbal nuances and a delicate minerality.
Folie a Deux Alexander Valley Merlot ’17 California $16
Spicy aromas of dark fruits, cassis, cherry, plum, vanilla, oak and a hint of chocolate in the glass. This wine has broad mouth-feel with flavors of cherry, blackberry, cassis, plum and chocolate.
Toso Reserve Malbec ’17 Argentina $20
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.
lummi island wine tasting feb 14 ’20
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Friday Breads This Week
Levain w/ Dried Cherries and Pecans – Made with a levain that is made the night before using a sourdough starter. This allows the fermentation process to start and adds a lot of flavor to the bread. The final dough is mixed the next day with the levain, bread flour and fresh milled whole wheat and then loaded up with dried cherries and toasted pecans. A nice rustic loaf that goes well with meats and cheese – $5/loaf
Pan de Cioccolate – A delicious chocolate artisan bread that isn’t an enriched sweet pastry dough with lots of eggs, butter and sugar. Rather this bread is a rich chocolate bread made with a levain, bread flour and fresh milled rye flour, honey for sweetness, vanilla and plenty of dark chocolate. Makes fabulous toast, even better french toast – $5/loaf.
…and pastry this week is something really special and I don’t make it often as it is a really loooong process.
Panettone – an Italian brioche-like sweet bread, generally made during the Christmas holidays. It has become quite popular and one company (Panetonne from Roy) sells a large size Panetonne for $50! These panettone are a smaller version but are every bit as good. Requires building a sweet Italian levain over several days before the final dough is mixed with lots of sugar, butter, eggs and honey and flavored with candied ginger, lemon peel, and chocolate before being topped with a chocolate glaze. Great as a pastry, sliced for toast or french toast, or for bread pudding – 2/$5
(breads must be pre-ordered by Wednesday for pickup here at the wine shop at our Friday wine tasting, 4-6pm. Planning a visit to the Island? Email us to get on the mailing list!)
Climageddon Outlook
Like most of you, we have been wondering more and more about how we as individuals can make a difference in the climate crisis we humans have created. Since the beginning of the “Industrial Revolution,” we have mined and burned coal, oil, and natural gas at exponentially increasing rates to heat our buildings, fuel our transportation systems, and power our electric grids and Global Twitter accounts. These hydrocarbon deposits are the organic remains of hundreds of millions of years of life on our planet. Those of us fortunate enough to have been born in the developed world have enjoyed luxuries and lifestyles Royalty of the past could not even have imagined. We found the Golden Goose, brought it home, and have had a good run cashing in those golden eggs.
Everyone has known at some level that these resources wouldn’t last forever, and someday we would have to come up with another way to power our exploding population and energy-intensive technologies. But we find ourselves in a collective Shock and Denial that this threat that was vaguely Out There Somewhere is now in 3D, standing on our doorstep like a Depression hobo for a handout or maybe The Devil with a Major Accounting. There’s a collective Uneasiness, so we all muse about how we might help. One thing we have mused about lately is whether there is any way we could store more carbon in our undeveloped five-acre woodland. If different species grow faster, last longer, or store more carbon for longer, there might be some net benefit to such efforts.
A recent article in the NY Times explores recent proposals to plant a Trillion Trees to combat global warming. And a series of tweets starting with Greta Thunberg discusses the merits. The upshot is that planting and maintaining millions of new trees would help a little, so the more the better! At the same time, the Sheer Scale of the Problem– so many people burning fossil fuels so often in so many places– is such that there is No Substitute for Not Burning the hydrocarbons in the first place. So yes, by all means plant more trees, cut fewer down, and build things with them that last for a long time.
As shown in the chart, since 1950 world population has tripled from 2 to over 7 billion people, and continues to increase by about 3 people per second, mostly in the less developed countries of Asia and Africa. At the same time the availability of food and water fluctuate dangerously in those same places. Thirst, hunger, and poverty are on the rise, driving both climate and politically induced migrations and resistance to them across the globe. (cont’d next week)
Mar a Lago Update: Taking Bearings
One of the classic characteristics of the Psychopathic character strategy is the Tough/Generous duality. It boils down to an exaggerated punishment/reward system: please me and you get Big Rewards; let me down and you will get Totally F#*ked. We have seen this so often with the Tweetster that it is now a cliché when he throws yet another government professional under the Bus for crossing his interests; the list grows almost daily. Today’s headlines feature the T’s bashing of the career DOJ attorneys who tried the case against the T’s friend and co-conspirator Roger Stone, causing them all to resign from the case.
That has led to a public outcry about yet another Twoverreach conspiracy with AG Barr to get Stone’s likely sentence reduced or eliminated. So there is a New Big Kerfuffle and political Over-reach just when Susan Collins had assured us that he “had learned his lesson” during the impeachment process. Well, it seems, not so much!
Meanwhile, Democratic challengers to contend this Fall are regrouping after their first public skirmishes in Iowa and NH, with a few big Surprises, with Sanders and Buttieg emerging as leaders, Klobuchar surging ahead of Warren, and Biden dropping to the rear…surprising results.
The really Bizarre thing about all of this is the sort of hysteria that is settling in around this year’s election. Somehow we have all been convinced that a majority of our countrymen have lost their minds and will lurch to the polls like a great Zombie Army and make the Tweetster a permanent Evil Dictator like Ming the Magnificent. Even as we write this in the wee hours of the night, and logically see it for the madness it is, we can feel the icy reality of our Fear. We see the continuing blind allegiance of so many of our countrymen to this coarse, ignorant, and self-aggrandizing imposter and find it so completely incomprehensible that it’s hard to find solid ground to stand on.
So here’s the key: he’s making us all Crazy with the endless tweets, the constant assault on Truth, and the incomprehensible ability to get away daily for years with words and actions that would have had any of his predecessors run out of town in Tar and Feathers. Like any Cult Leader, he has the entire Audience in a Trance with his little Magic Show.
Well, it’s time for everyone to wake up, grab an oar, and pull together. Fight for your favorite candidate without putting down any of the others. And be willing to support our collective candidate 100% without reservation. So say we all.
Washington Post Tweetster Lie Count to date : 16,241 as of 01/24/20
This week’s tastingit
Folie a Deux Russian River Chardonnay ’18 California $16
Exuberant white with vibrant acidity; clean, rich, and bright on the nose and palate of sweet melon, golden apple and bright perfumed pear. Flavors of ripe vanilla, mandarin, toasted marshmallow, butterscotch, banana and citrus blossom are accompanied by a creamy mid-palate.
La Quercia Montepulciano ’17 Italy $13
100% organic montepulciano d’abruzzo from low-yield vinification by winemaker Antonio Lamona for one of the best, most expressive, and balanced Montepulcianos around. Opens with aromas of sour cherry with a hint of new leather; ripe fruity palate exhibits juicy blackberry, raspberry and a hint of anise; easy drinking with soft tannins.
Sharecroppers Red Blend ’17 Washington $14
Merlot-syrah blend; bright garnet hues lead to aromas and flavors of fresh herbs, vanilla, sweet tobacco and candied berries with underlying nuances of wet stone, cedar and earth on the lasting finish.
Folie a Deux Dry Creek Zinfandel $15
Fermented 20% whole cluster and aged four months in neutral oak; the aromas are pure, bright and fruit filled, with notes of raspberry, ash, cherry and flower; light, elegant, smoky finish.
2072 Granger Way