{"id":644,"date":"2011-07-21T23:15:39","date_gmt":"2011-07-22T06:15:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artisanwineclub.com\/?p=644"},"modified":"2011-07-22T09:37:09","modified_gmt":"2011-07-22T16:37:09","slug":"lummi-island-wine-tasting-july-11","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artisanwineclub.com\/index\/lummi-island-wine-tasting-july-11\/","title":{"rendered":"Lummi Island Wine Tasting July 23,   &#8217;11"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes a lot happens from one week to the next, and this has been one of those weeks: lots of new and interesting experiences, several prompted by visiting friends. So where do you\u00a0 take friends from Afar? To answer this question we have to imagine what it&#8217;s like to be a visitor in our own backyards, which is inevitably much larger philosophical question about Identity.<\/p>\n<p>This has been such a week.<\/p>\n<p>On Monday we blipped on down to Seattle for a tasting of particularly good Italian wines. We will have more to say about that in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday we visited two highly recommended spots: <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.mountbakervineyards.com\/\">Mt Baker Vineyards<\/a><\/strong> in Deming, and <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.milanorestaurant.us\/\">Milano&#8217;s<\/a><\/strong> restaurant in Glacier.<\/p>\n<p>It has been a couple of years since we tasted through the Mt. Baker wines. In case you are not familiar with them, they are perhaps Whatcom County&#8217;s Premier winery, started back in the seventies, I think. We were so impressed with the wines that we bought several for the shop, which we will be pouring in the next weekend or two&#8211; this weekend we will be pouring their l<em>ight, crisp, and aromatic Riesling (see below).<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img data-opt-id=773189762  fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.milanorestaurant.us\/photos\/foodsetup.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"467\" height=\"350\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Our visit to <strong>Milano&#8217;s<\/strong> came by a slightly more circuitous route. During our tasting of some lovely Italian wines in Seattle on Monday, I met Jeanne Debari, owner of Milano&#8217;s. I was so impressed with her knowledge of Italian wines that the very next day we and our visiting friends took an afternoon drive that included wine tasting at<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mountbakervineyards.com\/\"> <strong>Mt. Baker vineyards<\/strong><\/a> and late lunch at Milano&#8217;s, followed by (I&#8217;m not making this up) a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/108763682508642\"><strong>tea tasting<\/strong><\/a> at the Lynden Library which has renewed our interest in tea. Like wine, tea has an ancient and complex history.<\/p>\n<p>All you need to know is that Milano&#8217;s gets our highest recommendation. We all ordered different dishes, and they were all exceptionally good.<\/p>\n<p>The wine tasting at Mt. Baker Vineyards was also illuminating! Almost EVERYTHING we tried was really, really tasty, and we bought a bunch of their new wines, which we will be tasting with you over the next few weeks.<\/p>\n<p><strong> <span style=\"color: maroon;\">This week&#8217;s wines:<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Mt. Baker Riesling\u00a0 &#8220;09\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Washington\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 $14 <\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Lean and crisp, while at the same time being fragrant and alluring, this one is a crowd-pleaser.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong> Olivares Monastrell Altos de la Hoya\u00a0 &#8217;09\u00a0\u00a0 Spain\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 $12 <\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Ungrafted Old-Vines Monastrell contains 8% Garnacha in its blend. It delivers high-toned black and blue fruit flavors and aromas framed by a ripe wine with lively acidity, a smooth texture, and a pure, silky finish. Drink this outstanding value over the next 3-4 years.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong> Pago de las Capellanes &#8217;09     Spain    WA90pts     $17 <\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Spicy black fruit aromas, lavender, and leather lead to a ripe, intense, savory wine that will pair beautifully with grilled foods over the next 4-5 years&#8230;.an outstanding value.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ksana Malbec Mendoza Reserva 2006\u00a0     Argentina\u00a0    $24\u00a0\u00a0 WS 92 pts<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Very ripe, but also superfresh, with velvety texture and a long, beguiling palate of fig sauce, melted licorice, Turkish coffee, macerated currant and blackberry fruit. Long and dense on the finish, but pure and vivid.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes a lot happens from one week to the next, and this has been one of those weeks: lots of new and interesting experiences, several prompted by visiting friends. So where do you\u00a0 take friends from Afar? To answer this question we have to imagine what it&#8217;s like to be a visitor in our own [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wine-tasting"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artisanwineclub.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artisanwineclub.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artisanwineclub.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artisanwineclub.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artisanwineclub.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/artisanwineclub.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artisanwineclub.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artisanwineclub.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artisanwineclub.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}