lummi island wine tasting Groundhog Day ’19
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Bread Friday
Our baker has taken this week off…so sorry, no bread this week. If you have signed up for her mailing list, you can expect an email with next week’s breads on Sunday.
But Bread or Not, we will be open for wine tasting on Friday!
Another Cross-Quarter Day
This Saturday is Groundhog Day, a good time to reflect on our seasonal place in the Great Sidereal Movement by which we humans reckon Time and the passing of the Seasons. As we discuss periodically in these pages, we are all familiar with the greater solar holidays– the two equinoxes and the two solstices– that mark the official transitions from one season to another.
Lesser known is the ancient tradition of celebrating the “cross-quarter days” that fall halfway between these quarterly events. February 2, aka Groundhog Day in our time, falls midway between the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox, and has been variously known as Candlemas, Imbolc, Oimelc, Brigit, Brigid’s Day, Bride’s Day, Brigantia, or Gŵyl y Canhwyllau by various cultures, many of which consider it the beginning of spring. In the picture, it is labeled 1st.”
The Solstices and Equinoxes divide the year into four quarters; the addition of the four cross-quarter days further divide it into 8 six-week periods, important for planting and harvesting over millennia. Together they refine our view of the changing seasons. This all becomes clear to kids when they realize with a start that there are always six weeks between Groundhog Day and the First Day of Spring, whether the Groundhog sees his shadow or not!
Lirac
Lirac is a small wine region across the Rhone River from, and shares the same geologic history and grape varietals, terroir, and climate as the more famous Chateuneuf-du-Pape region, just across the river. One of our favorite regions, it consists of a layer of marine molasses of the Miocene period covered by alpine alluvium. Deposits of a great number of round stones known as “galets” were formed when the current tore fragments of rock from the Alps and deposited them downriver on the plain.
This weekend’s Lirac, as reviewed by Robert Parker with a stellar 93 pt rating, is a “serious, large scaled, voluptuous effort that has lots of ripe tannin, a bold mid-palate and copious amounts of blackberries, black cherries, scorched earth, licorice and roasted herbs. One of the bigger boned and concentrated reds in the lineup, it will have a decade of longevity.”
Our tasting yesterday suggests that the tannins have yet to settle down, suggesting the wine needs a bit more aging. Even so, we are fond of the wines of Lirac, sort of a poor man’s Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Come by and see what you think!
Mar a Lago Update: Learning is a Beautiful Thing
It has been a Long Two Years, and if you are like most of us, this Anniversary is deeply Sobering. Those of us who have steadfastly refused to mention the Tweetster by any other name have always maintained the Conviction that this Mistake, this Miscarriage, this Farce, this Outrage could last even for a few months. Yet here we are, two years into our worst Dystopian Nightmare and almost certain to continue for another two, regardless of eventual findings by the Mueller Investigation. It is sobering and distressing, but blessedly tempered by a more balanced distribution of power in Congress, and the recent failure of the infantile Tweetster to get his way with his Shutdown. Or to put it another way, at least one of the Parents is home now and things are gonna stop getting worse faster than we are getting older, we hope. Hallelujah!
On a more micro level, there are signs on the Horizon that the Tweetster is starting to come out of his childhood Trance. This is, to be sure, a tentative observation on the Sartorial Mystery of the Tweetster’s Necktie Practices. I know, I know, most of you have No Idea what we are talking about here, but those of us who spent time in the Service learned that whatever kind of knot you put in your necktie, the fat end may hang to your belt buckle and no further; the skinny end must be clipped or tucked into your shirt so as not to show; and the knot, whether four-in-hand or Windsor, Must have a Dimple. As we all know the Tweetster’s “style” is to make the fat end long enough cover his Private Parts, uses the four-in-hand (a Child can learn it), not the Windsor, and is seldom seen with a Dimple. However, that has recently started to change. This is, admittedly a pretty crappy dimple (and does he look as menacingly Froglike to you in this photo as to us…?), and maybe he is starting to suspect that OMG, there are Other People besides me!
Okay, admittedly we are grasping at straws trying to create a little positive spin. But maybe the Dimple and the new Dem control of the House are simple signs of Progress.
Washington Post Tweetster Lie Count to date: 7,546 as of 1/1/19
This week’s wine tasting
Montinore Borealis White Oregon $15
Aromas of orange blossom, honeydew, guava and kiwi; sumptuous flavors of stone fruit, Meyer lemon and juicy pear drizzled with caramel.
Domaine La Croix Belle Caringole ’14 France $11
Syrah, Carignan and Merlot blend from Languedoc’s Cotes de Thongue region; fresh and supple with flavors of cherry, and black olive, and herbs.
Tommasi Poggio Al Tufo Rompicollo ’14 Italy $17
Amarone-like raisiny opulence to the ripe, soft red cherry, sweet spice, and herb aromas and flavors. Velvety, well balanced and smooth, with long, lush, smooth tannins. Terrific buy!
Amalaya Malbec ’16 Argentina $15
From high in the Andes, notes of crushed currents, plums, fig, and raisins.
Alain Jaume Clos Sixte Lirac ’15 France $25
Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre. Aromas of kirsch and wild blackberry; full on the palate, with notes of black currant and spice. Fleshy, elegant tannins with hints of licorice and vanilla on the finish.
lummi island wine tasting jan 25 ’19
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Bread Friday
Rustic French Country Bread – A levain bread made with mostly bread flour, fresh milled whole wheat and and a bit of toasted wheat germ. After building the levain with a sourdough culture 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. Not a refined city baguette, but a rustic loaf that you would find in the country to go along with a hearty soup or stew. A great all around bread – $5/loaf
Sweet Corn & Dried Cranberry – this could be Sweet, corn & cranberry or sweet corn, & cranberry – either way it is delicious. Made with polenta and bread flour, enriched with milk, butter and honey for a soft and tender crumb, then loaded up with dried cranberries. Has great corn flavor but is not a traditional quick cornbread. A delicious bread that makes great toast and even better french toast- $5/loaf
And pastry this week…
Traditional Croissants – Made with two preferments, a levain as well as prefermented dough – which is also known as old dough where a portion of the flour, water, salt and yeast is fermented overnight. The final dough is then made with more flour, butter, milk and sugar, laminated with more butter before being cut and shaped into traditional french croissants. 2/$5
Savoie
This weekend we offer a sparkling wine from the Savoie region of France. It lies east of the Burgundy wine region and reaches well into the French Alps, and like Jura, its neighboring wine region to the north, borders on Switzerland to the east. It also offers a number of unusual varietals, grown in a large number of subregions shown in the map at left (click here for a larger view). The micro region of Seyssal has been producing wine grapes for about a thousand years.
The region’s vineyards average between 1000 and 2000 ft. elevation, often with southern exposures and favorable growing temperatures. Today’s wine is a blend of two varietals from the Seyssal subarea: altesse and molette. As in most sparkling wines, the flavor profiles of the grapes become subtle and yeasty, but with definite local nuances. Thus, sparkling wines from the Savoie and its neighbor Jura to the north have an appealing freshness and rustic complexity. Altesse adds notes of honey, toast, nuts, and truffle, while Molette adds floral notes of magnolia and acacia, reminiscent of Viognier, and excellent acidity.
This wine is made from the traditional method, aging for two years sur latte, i.e., in bottle after injecting with yeast for the second fermentation that makes bubbly, you know, Bubbly.
We like it, hope you do, too! read more
Lemberger
Around here we know it as lemberger, a lesser known red varietal with flavors that always remind me of ripe thimbleberries– yes, those weeds that line many of the roadsides here on Lummi Island and which usually ripen in mid-Spring (soon!). In Austria lemberger is more commonly known as Blau Frankisch, literally “blue grape from France.” In the past we have found that under either name it goes really well with spicy food, a revelation a few years ago when we were pouring it along with a tasting of jalapeno cheese– one of those Perfect Pairings one occasionally discovers.
The grape comes up today because it is seldom seen, and it appears this weekend as one of the grapes in an unusual blend in wine #5 that also includes sangiovese, zinfandel, and malbec. It plays a minor role in the wine (19%), behind two big grapes, so probably indetectable. Still…it would be fun to try it with something spicy just to taste how it goes….!
Mar a Lago Update: The Language of Politics
Some time around 1980 Republicans began a continuing attack on Language and the Meaning of Meaning, a long term campaign of Orwellian Newspeak and DoubleThink, by hijacking familiar words and giving them different meanings. Businesses, which have always had the goal of minimizing wages, began referring to themselves as job creators, to whom Workers should be grateful for being hired, Cities should be grateful for being selected for corporate locations, and Consumers should be grateful for the glittering mountains of products and services the Corporate World was trying to Poison them with, Charge them interest for, and Bury them in.
Back then it made a certain amount of Karmic Sense that the Last President of the US would be a mediocre Cowboy Actor in an Empty (but expensive!) Suit with a Nice Voice. But I was naive; it has gotten Far Worse since then. The Litany of Real , Nonfiction Newspeak has since then brought us terms like political correctness, coastal elites, death tax, pro-life, pro-choice, extraordinaty rendition, IED, downsize, enemy combatant. infomercial, pre-owned, insurgent, welfare moms, anchor babies…the list goes on and on and on. Each one is a deliberate strategy to reframe an otherwise nondescript phenomenon with a pejorative tag for a political purpose.
There is much that is disturbing about this Weaponization of Ordinary Language to mislead, confuse, and reprogram target audiences— the same tactics that are, or may be, the target of investigation by Special Prosecutor Robert Mueller. One can only reflect and be sobered by the complexity of the international Media Rabbit Hole at issue in that investigation. And, as in the arcane Olympic Sport of Curling, every play involves numbers of trained operatives with Brooms continually brushing away Every Trace of Actual Facts.
Despite all that, there is for the first time since the Tweetster’s Coup, in the form of the U. S. House, the potential for some Leverage against the Boldfaced Lying we have been observing since 2016 in the persons and words of the Tweetster, abetted at every turn by Darth McConnell, his Soulless Henchman Graham the Empty, and their Undead Army of Avaricious Orcs in Red State Legislatures. It’s a welcome foothold in what looks to be a Long Siege, probably not Survivable without the Circle of Good Friends and Copious amounts of Wine you have come to depend on here at the Wine Shop!
Washington Post Tweetster Lie Count to date: 7,546 as of 1/1/19
This week’s wine tasting
Seyssal Petit Royal Brut France $16
Traditionally made from Savoie white varietals Molette and Altesse, with extended time on lees and two years sur latte before rebottling, yielding a yeasty complexity and fine bubbles.
Matorana Nero d’Avola ’17 Italy $14
From Sicilian volcanic soils; full-bodied and fresh with big notes of ripe plums, berry cobbler, dark chocolate, and almonds, melting into earthy flavors with good minerality.
Altarocca Rosso Librato ’15 Italy $14
Unoaked blend of canolao and cab franc from volcanic soils. Zesty, spicy, lush, and smooth.
3 Rings Shiraz ’15 Australia $17
Rich and full-bodied with attractive aromas and flavours of fleshy ripe black plum and blackberry liqueur; squid-ink black with expressive and powerful aromas of dark and exotic berries and palate of chocolates, tar, leather and spice.
Owen Roe Abbot’s Table Red ’16 Washington $22
Charming blend of sangiovese, zinfandel, lemberger, and malbec showing rich notes of black currant, blueberry, cherry, white pepper spice, tobacco, and roasted red pepper, with gripping acidity and balanced flavors.
lummi island wine tasting january 18 ’19
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Bread Friday
Poolish Ale – In place of water in the poolish, the liquid is a nice ale beer. I
look for one with a lot of flavor and this week I’m using a nice Belgian ale. The
final dough is 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 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 it 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. – $5/loaf
Ann another delicious pastry this week…
Chocolate Babka Rolls – A sweet pastry dough full of eggs, butter and sugar, rolled and spread with a chocolate filling, rolled up and cut into individual rolls and brushed with sugar syrup after baking. – 2/$5
Pomum
This week we return to an old favorite wine from a favorite Washington winemaker, Javier Alfonso of Pomum Cellars in Woodinville. The wine is his Pomum Red, a compelling blend of cab and cab franc, rounded out with malbec, petite syrah, and merlot. Javier grew up in Spain’s Ribero Del Duero region, and brings his heritage to his winemaking here in Washington. His wines show his preference for highly drinkable wines with rich, evolving, and lingering flavors, silky tannic depth and length, and a Muse that beckons “hey, Amigo, un vaso mas!”
A few years ago (OMD, just realized it has been seven!) Javier and wife Shyla made a surprise visit to the wine shop on a Saturday afternoon, and it was great fun. We remember this now because this weekend we are pouring his Pomum Red wine, and this vintage (sampling at this very moment!) is really Quite Delightful!
He also has a second label we have carried for some years called Idilico. At the moment we have his Idilico Garnacha on the shelf, and in warmer weather we generally carry his Albarino as well. Both bear the fingerprints of his winemaking style, which generally means “yes, you’re gonna like it!”
Pasanau
In the classic film “Sideways,” there is a scene where our male anti-hero asks our female heroine (as I see it) what was The Wine that made her Love Good Wine, like, OMD, I never knew Wine Could Taste This Good!
In our boy Donald’s case the wine that did it for him was Pasanau Finca de Planeta, a blend of cabernet sauvignon and garnacha from the iconic Spanish wine region of Priorat, about two hours west of Barcelona.
Pasanau is located in the Northwest corner of this very dry, rugged DOC very reminiscent of the American Southwest. Because its old vines have to grow deep into the ancient schist, limestone, and licorella soils to survive and produce fruit, they develop a certain profundity. We visited the winery a few years ago and were moved by its gnarly old vines and spectacular setting.
More important for you, by chance we have acquired a few bottles of the 2012 vintage of this wine at a substantial discount, allowing us to offer our limited supply for $29 each, a Substantial Discount…and we are pouring it for your tasting pleasure this weekend!
Mar a Lago Update: Bringing Back the Progressive Income Tax
Last week Nobel economist/ NY Times writer Paul Krugman wrote an interesting article about proposals of new Congress member Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for increasing the marginal tax rate on the extremely wealthy to something over 70%. Btw, that doesn’t mean the Super-Wealthy would pay 70% tax on their entire incomes; it means they would pay an increasing amount of tax per dollar earned as income increased, topping off at 70 cents per dollar earned over some very high amount.
The two main arguments for such progressive taxation, which worked extremely well in the U. S. between the Thirties and the Sixties, are 1) the marginal utility of money, and 2) the importance of competitive markets. In the first case, if you are living at subsistence level, a thousand dollars of additional income makes an enormous difference in your quality of life. But if you are a Bazillionaire, an additional thousand or even ten thousand dollars is completely inconsequential. In the second case, despite decades of Republican Trickle-Down Propaganda to the contrary, rigorous data analysis has shown clearly that Social Benefits to the Economy as a Whole are not at all decreased by higher marginal tax rates until they are between 70 and 80 %.
The Big Takeway here is that all The Economy got from the Reagan, Bush I, Bush II, and the Tweetster Tax Cuts was a Smaller Overall Pie, Huge Increases in the National Debt, and exponentially increasing disparities between the Rich and Poor. As is clear from the graph in Krugman’s article, the exponentially increasing wealth of the Very Rich and the stagnation of the Overall Economy under Reagan, Bushes I and II, and the Tweetster have been the only consistent result of Tax Cuts for the top 1%, and Krugman is making a strong case that the Return of those very high marginal tax rates would make for a Bigger Overall Pie shared much more Equitably.
Washington Post Tweetster Lie Count to date: 7,546 as of 1/1/19
This week’s wine tasting
Palama Salento Bianca Verdeca ’17 Italy $11
Refreshing, flavorful, and aromatic, with notes of lemon zest, salty minerality, and green herbs.
Sharecropper’s Pinot Noir ’17 Oregon $15
Aromas of bing cherry, rose petals and pomegranate with hints of baking spice and forest floor, and flavors of cherry, and olive with toasty cinnamon notes.
Martoccia Poggio Apricale ’17 Italy $15
Sangiovese Grosso with a little Merlot and Cab Franc; Fruity and persistent nose of wild berries and spice. Soft and balanced with fine tannins this Sant’Antimo Rosso works well with any meal!
Pomum Red ’14 Washington $19
Mostly cab and cab franc with malbec, petite verdot, merlot; aromas of both fresh and leathery red fruit and exotic spices; On the palate shows black cherry, cranberry and garrigue, fine elegant tannins and a long finish.
Celler Pasanau Finca La Planeta Priorat ’12 Spain $29
Crisp, focused aromas of ripe berries, tar, and spice; flavors of spicy plum, crushed peppercorn and mineral-rich schist; thorough and complex; drink through 2028.
lummi island wine tasting jan 12 ’19
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Bread Friday
Rosemary Olive Oil – made with bread flour and freshly milled white whole wheat for
a little more flavor and texture. Fresh rosemary from the garden and olive oil make
for a nice tender crumb and a nice crisp crust. -$5/loaf
Multi Grain – Made with pre-fermented dough of bread flour, fresh milled whole wheat, and rye with flax, sunflower, rolled oats and sesame seeds for a nice crunch and extra flavor. -$5/loaf
Pain aux Raisin – From the same laminated dough as croissants, rolled out, spread with pastry cream and sprinkled with a mix of sugar-soaked golden raisins and dried cranberries, rolled up and sliced before
baking. These are my favorites! – 2/$5
Thackrey and Co.
Sean Thackrey (see website) has been an iconic California winemaker for several decades, based mostly north of San Francisco in Marin County, where “normal” has, at best, a Vague Meaning. He has many eccentricities (read more), including skepticism about Global Warming and the importance of terroir in viticulture. A bit of a “wine outlaw,” he ascribes to numerous arcane winemaking practices (like letting newly picked grapes rest overnight to begin fermentation).
Over the years his wines have earned serious acclaim from major wine critics, so he must be doing something right, right…?
Pleiades is essentially a non-vintage “field blend” of sangiovese, pinot noir, viognier, zinfandel, syrah, and more, mostly from the Rossi vineyard in St. Helena in the heart of Napa Valley, but which may include fruit from different California regions and vintages. As a result he has developed the habit of naming each vintage in sequence; this weekend as the photo shows, we are pouring version XXVI , released last spring. It looks like pinot noir, but the complex flavors are not quite like any other single wine you have likely tasted. Come by and check it out!
Mar a Lago Update: Graham-A-Doodle Shows His Stuff
1/6/19, 2:12pm ‘The goal is not to open up the government’
Graham repeated his belief that because the Radical Left Wing of the Democratic Party are (sic) not being “reasonable partners,” the Tweetster “is right to dig in to get money for a wall as part of border security.” He continued: “We’re not going to put any offers on the table as long as people in charge of these negotiations accuse all of us who want a wall of being Racist…” Graham said. “Until you get that crowd put to the sidelines, I don’t see anything happening.”
1/09/19, 7:45pm Graham launches last-ditch push to end shutdown
As a Petulant Tweetster keeps refusing to play with the other kids visiting the White House this week until he gets his way, Republican boot-lickers have become increasingly more concerned, not as one would expect, about how the lingering Ego-Tantrum that is the Shutdown can be Ended, but how they can each play their conniving little hands to avoid being Gutted by a Tweet of Pique for appearing Disloyal. As if, you know, the one who can hold his breath the longest at the Ship Goes Down wins some kind of Prize.
1/10/19: 02:01 PM ‘Never been more depressed’: Trump kills Graham effort to end shutdown
Supposedly Graham and other GOP Senators had been working So Hard to come up with a plan the Tweetster would like enough to reopen the Government they were, like, So Surprised and Disappointed when the Tweetster didn’t go for it that they haven’t been able to stop wringing their Tiny Hands. Awwwww
1/10/19: 6.55 pm EST: Graham calls for Trump to use emergency powers to fund border wall
With this last we see the Uncanny Resemblance of Graham to a deranged mini-poodle running in circles trying to catch its tail, putting on a Good Show although it has No Idea what a tail Is, or whether it has one, but Does know how to Bark, Distract, and, you know, Suck Up to Power. But then, if you think about it, he Does have his Buddy Mitch to Lead him down the Slimy Path of the Spineless Toadie…
Washington Post Tweetster Lie Count to date: 7,546 as of 1/1/19
This week’s wine tasting
Maryhill Viognier ’16 Washington $14
Vibrant aromas of orange zest, honeysuckle, and pink grapefruit; flavors of lemon, pear, and white peach. The mouthfeel is delicate, yet full-bodied, withnotes of fresh flowers.
Domaine Donjon Minervois Tradition ’15 France $16
60% Grenache, 30% Syrah and 10% Carignan; aged 12 months in stainless steel. Meaty and complex, with sweet, ripe red and black fruits, loads of white and black pepper, bay leaf and wild roses, it stays fresh and lively on the palate, with medium-bodied richness and length.
Tenuta Rubino Oltreme Susamaniello ’14 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.
Can Blau Can Blau ’16 Spain $16
Long a favorite; always shows aromas and flavors of ripe, dark fruits and berries, a seamless texture, and long, silky finish. Generally improves with lots of aeration.
Sean Thackrey Pleiades XXVI California $23
26th version from this semi-legendary winemaker, an eclectic blend of sangiovese, pinot noir, viognier, zinfandel, syrah, and more; voluptuous and fragrant now, likely to improve with age.
2072 Granger Way
