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lummi island wine tasting july 30 ’21
Covid Notes: New Restrictions in Place
We are still operating under reduced hours 4-6 pm Friday and Saturday for wine tasting and sales. However, given the surge of the thousand-times-more-contagious (no, we are NOT making this up) Delta variant in some parts of our state and across the country, and given the vulnerability of our many senior members, for the time being we will not be serving individuals who have not completed their Covid shot sequences.
In addition, over the past few weeks we have been seeing larger groups of first-time visitors as families and friends gather together from far and wide to celebrate our new collective freedom to associate. Such visiting groups are welcome for service outside on the deck only if all present have completed their full shot sequence.
Covid is a deadly disease that is completely indifferent to our political beliefs and preferences. Our collective responsibility is to protect our neighbors by protecting ourselves. Thanks for honoring our boundaries.
Friday Bread This Week
Toasted Pecan & Flax Seed – Made with a starter fed with rye flour instead of wheat flour, for a different flavor profile. The final dough is made with bread flour as well as fresh milled whole wheat. Toasted pecans, flax seeds and honey all add up for a very flavorful bread – $5/loaf.
Heidebrot – which roughly translates to “bread of the heath.” This is a farmhouse bread, an aromatic, lighter sourdough made with whole grain rye, made with a rye-fed sourdough starter along with substantial fresh milled whole grain rye flour and regular bread flour. – $5/loaf
and pastry this week…
Kouign Aman with Cream Cheese filling : Made with the same traditional laminated french pastry used for croissants. Has both a little levain for the sourdough flavor as well as some pre-fermented dough to help build strength. When rolling out however, instead of using flour to prevent sticking, sugar is used. The dough is cut into squares, placed in cupcake tins then filled with a cream cheese filling. It’s as if a cheese danish and croissant were in a car wreck! – 2/$5
Wine of the Week: Kerloo Majestic GSM ’17 Washington $24
Kerloo Cellars was started on a shoestring in 2007 by beginning winemaker Ryan Crane after studying enology at Walla Walla CC and apprenticing at Forgeron and Va Piano. His interest has always been to produce wines that told of their place of origin (terroir) through all of one’s senses…a vaguely spiritual quest, perhaps, or just a desire to make us all smile. To this end he contracts with growers for fruit from specific blocks of their vineyards that he calculates will help him achieve his broader goal:
“to build a portfolio of wines that made you feel something versus just taste something.”
This week’s featured wine is his version of the popular Rhone blend of syrah, grenache, and mourvedre, now Americanized to “GSM” on many labels. His Old World approach to showcasing place of origin even extends to foot-stomping the whole grape clusters before fermention. Yeah, it’s pretty good, we have been fans for some years now. 🙂
74% Grenache, 21% Mourvedre, 5% Syrah; smoky-meaty nose of blackberry cobbler and dusty terrain, with a soft, seductive mouthfeel, and red and dark fruit with shades of pipe tobacco and leather.
Thimbleberries
Thimbleberries are something of a local curiosity here on the island, growing in thick banks alongside our roads, often alongside salmonberries, another Northwest native. According to Wikipedia they are, like other raspberries, not a true berry, but instead an aggregate fruit of numerous drupelets around a central core. The drupelets may be carefully removed separately from the core when picked, leaving a hollow fruit which bears a resemblance to a thimble, perhaps giving the plant its name.
We often find wines with flavors reminiscent of thimbleberries, definitely raspberry-like, but somehow brighter and more acidic, and often with a sort of dusty quality (probably from dirt blown onto them by passing cars!). For the past week we have been harvesting little handfuls of them on our dog walks, as this year seems to be delivering a bumper crop. Each day we pick the ripe (i.e., bright red) ones we can reach and eat them on the spot.
Look for them along roads, driveways, or the edges of fields. The leaves are quite large, with a maple leaf shape. And yes, they are a perfect match for the many dry rosés we have in stock right now!
Economics of the Heart: Wake-Up Call
Some people sleep more soundly than others. They can be hard to wake up. The alarm has to be louder, the barking dog more insistent, the bucket of cold water even colder. Even those who have chosen to live in denial of inconvenient truths might eventually wake up to climate change when things get bad enough. Since that will almost certainly happen too late to matter, our only hope for Life to endure on out Dear Planet Earth is for the rest of us to commit ourselves to making it happen with or without them. We have maybe ten years to start making things better faster than we are making them worse.
The recent record-breaking heat wave here in the Pacific Northwest, across the Great Plains, and even surging Northward into the Canadian Arctic should have been enough of a shock to grab everyone’s attention. For several days, it got much hotter in many places than it had never been before. Climate change may already be taking off the training gloves, and we are totally not ready for it.
We clever humans find ourselves suddenly out of charted territory. Our models of the Future have of necessity been based on observations of the Past, and the Past is a very long time. But we have no records to show us how oceans and atmosphere will respond to the rapid warming we humans have unleashed. How will the ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica respond to a warming atmosphere and warming oceans? How can living ecosystems survive rapidly changing temperatures and patterns of water distribution?
A couple of recent articles in the Washington Post expand on two very important aspects of global warming that have been predicted but seldom discussed. The first explores the practical issue of how we can use passive cooling methods and materials to cool our homes and workplaces without energy-intensive air conditioning. It offers many encouraging and interesting suggestions.
The second article explores our human biological limits to heat adaptation. Using the metaphor of wet bulb vs. dry bulb temperature, the authors give a clear description of the limits of human heat endurance, beginning with the limitations of our perspiration/evaporative cooling under conditions of high temperature combined with high humidity. As we read it we found ourselves reminiscing about the complex water-preserving culture, ritual, and technology of the desert-dwelling Fremen in Frank Herbert’s iconic novel Dune.
The history of hunter-gatherer societies is centered around a somewhat spiritual concept of sustainability, in which there is a constant awareness of the fragility of abundance and the need to hold reserves against unfavorable futures. Today’s human economy has separated production and consumption so thoroughly that we have lost the precious awareness of ancient hunter-gatherers to remain prepared for periods of scarcity.
This week’s $5 tasting:
Bargemone Provence Rose ’20 France $14
Beautiful pale pink, with bright, mineral-dusted aromas of pink grapefruit and dried red berries. Light and racy on the palate, with tangy citrus and redcurrant flavors. Finishes brisk and dry, with good lingering spiciness and length.
Conundrum White ’15 California $17
Blend of Chardonnay, Sauv Blanc, Viognier, and Muscat Canelli. Nose of citrus orchard in bloom. Tastes sweet without being cloying, showing fig, apricot, exotic spice and melon flavors. Ends clean, crisp, and pure.
Kerloo Majestic Syrah/Grenache ’18 Washington $24
74% Grenache, 21% Mourvedre and 5% Syrah; smoky-meaty nose of blackberry cobbler and dusty terrain, with a soft, seductive mouthfeel, and red and dark fruit with shades of pipe tobacco and leather.
lummi island wine tasting groundhog weekend ’20
click on photos for larger images
No Friday Breads This Week
Baker’s week off. Bread returns next week!
(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!)
Fior D’Arancio
This week we bring back an unusual sparkling dessert wine from Colli Euganei, a series of ancient volcanic hills north of Venice, where 50-million year old mineral deposits add depth and character to local wines.
The wine is a clone of muscat from this region, which either through its own genetic identity or from some kind of symbiosis from nearby orange orchards, has strong scents and flavors of orange. This wine is unusual, surprising, and pleasing in many ways, with its lovely orange blossom bouquet, fine perlage, and fluffy mousse. It makes a great afternoon treat on the deck, or a fine accompaniment with fruit tarts, pies, puddings, or cakes.
We poured this wine a year or two ago, and it sold out quickly as people tasted it. As the season gets colder, it’s a great wine to have on hand for cozying up to a fire!
Wine Club Membership Renewal Time!
Thanks to all of you have already re-upped for Aught-Twenty; it is gratifying to have your continuing support! Our membership renewal campaign will continue for another couple of weeks.
Annual membership is $50 per person, for which you get $5 weekly tastings (save $5/week!) AND we pay the sales tax on all purchases, a hefty 8.7% discount!
Yes, yes, we must be Crazy to offer this incredible Bargain, but there it is, time to sign up for another year to enjoy this great community AND great savings!
Lemberger
Around here we know it as lemberger, a lesser-known red varietal with flavors that always remind us of ripe thimbleberries– yes, those weeds that line many of the roadsides here on Lummi Island and which usually ripen in mid-Spring. 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.
This week’s version is from Kiona winery on Red Mountain here in Washington. Rumor has it that Washington winemakers love the varietal but universally hate the name because too many people imagine some relationship with the famously smelly cheese (limburger) of similar name. We were impressed with this one at a tasting a few months ago. The warmer weather in Eastern Washington provides this version with an enjoyable richness. (photo by Richard Duval)
Mar a Lago Update:
4pm: As we write, the Senate Impeachment hearings are nearing a close for the day, leaving on the table a modest proposal from minority leader Schumer to bring in additional witnesses, while limiting additional testimony to one additional week. While there is little doubt that the Tweetster will not be impeached, there is still at this moment a slim possibility that the four Republican Senators (Romney, Collins, Murkowski, Alexander) necessary to join Democrats in favor of additional testimony might step forward. If they do, there will be witnesses, possibly including Bolton, Mulvaney, and a few others. But if even a single one does not, the trial will be over.
Republican pressure for party conformity being what it is, each of these Senators is facing enormous pressure from McConnell and the rest of the the Hive Brain they all share not to allow witnesses under any circumstances. So chances are that not even a single one of them will dare defy the Pack. But whether there are additional witnesses or not, it is certain that this Fake President will be acquitted, setting the stage for the coming year which is in many ways shaping up to be the World’s Last Chance to save Life As We Know It.
8pm: Home from a lovely dinner break at neighbor Anne’s; six people present, and for statistical purposes, I was the youngest person there at 74. So we are all people with, shall we say, an “experienced historical perspective.” Over dessert I asked everyone to comment on their feelings about the day’s political developments. The common thread was an increasing sense of unease and shock at the relentless Republikan spouting of Orwellian Newspeak. Paraphrasing Orwell: The political purpose of Newspeak is to reduce the expression of ambiguity and nuance to simplistic concepts of pleasure and pain, happiness and sadness, goodthink and crimethink, linguistically reinforcing the State’s totalitarian dominance. Or, as we quoted Hitler recently, “Their character, thought, and conduct are ruled by sentiment rather than reasoning, and neither their intellect nor their sentiment is differentiated enough to understand more than a childlike binary view of love and hate, right and wrong, truth and lie.
We share a growing disbelief that every day since the disaster of the 2016 election has brought yet another outrage, another 50 Outright Lies (see Latest Count below), another full day of Tweets belittling his latest target, destroying yet another American institution and its values, alienating another historic ally, appointing yet another unqualified but subservient cabinet member or another twenty-five Ultra-Conservative federal judges, or conspired to rig the next election.
The basic feeling we share is this: there has been a War. Our side has done our best, and we have Lost, and it Hurts All Over. So let’s take a little break, exhale for a few days, then regroup and come back with Determination. A majority of Americans still believe in the Constitution as our guiding moral principles, but Republicans have shown in the past two weeks that they would repeal the Bill of Rights in a heartbeat. They continually turn upside down Maury’s famous words over a century ago: “Where principle is involved, be deaf to expediency…” Every day of these hearings it has become increasingly clear to all that Republicans have neither honor or principle, and we are depressed because we need our country to be better than that.
Washington Post Tweetster Lie Count to date : 16,241 as of 01/24/20
This week’s tasting
Lovo Fior d’Arancio Sparkling Moscato ’18 Italy $15
A very rare clone of Moscato with an unmistakable citrus scent from nearby orange groves for a sparkling wine with refined bubbles and beautiful, pearlescent color, a perfect accompaniment to dessert, or maybe dessert all by itself!
Kiona Lemberger ’18 Washington
Perfumed aromas with traces of orange zest and flower, along with notes of blueberry.
Marchetti Rosso Conero ’17 Italy $11
Rich and inviting aromas of flowers, plums, brown spices, and hillside brush. On the palate, round notes of cherries, blackberries, cocoa and spice. Culminates in a satisfying, lengthy finish.
Lagone Aia Vecchio ’16 Italy $15
“Super-Tuscan”blend of Merlot, Cab Sauv, and Cab Franc. Rich and expressive, with aromas of cherry, vanilla, raw beef, and herbs; structured palate of plum, wild berries, and hints of spice, with a long finish that begs for food.
Alexander Valley Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon ’17 California $20
Nose of black plum, blackcurrant and black cherry fruit open to leather, graphite and cast-iron pan with red cherries and chocolate; medium to full-bodied, with chewy tannins and a long, refreshing 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 august 4 ’17
(note: some photos will enlarge when clicked)
Bread this week
Sonnenblumenbrot – aka Sunflower Seed Bread made with a pre-ferment that is a complete dough itself. It takes a portion of the flour, water, salt and yeast that ferments overnight before mixing the final dough. The final dough is made with bread flour and freshly milled rye, then loaded up with toasted sunflower seeds and some barley malt syrup for sweetness. This is a typical german seed bread- $5/loaf
Honey, Wheat, Lemon & Poppy seeds – Made with a poolish that ferments some of the flour, yeast and water overnight before being mixed with the final ingredients which includes a nice mix of bread flour and fresh milled whole wheat. Some honey, poppy seeds and freshly grated lemon peel round out the flavors in this loaf. A great all around bread – $5/loaf
And for pastry this week:
Pan de Cioccolate – A delicious chocolate artisan bread. Not a typical enriched sweet pastry dough made with plenty of eggs, butter and sugar, but rather a rich chocolate bread made with bread and freshly milled rye flours, honey for sweetness, vanilla, and plenty of dark chocolate. Makes fabulous french toast! $5/loaf
The Italians are back!
It is now an established tradition each summer– the arrival of our semiannual special order shipment from our friends at West Seattle importer Small Vineyards. As most of you know, they specialize in family-owned wineries mainly in Italy, but in recent years also in France and Spain. Many of their member wineries have been handing down traditional methods of farming and winemaking for generations. Virtually all of the SV imports vastly outperform their modest prices, and we always look forward to their arrival.
Over the next several weekends we are offering some old favorites as well as a few new imports. The old favorites are the Perazzeta Sara Rosato, a delicious rosé made from sangiovese grosso, the grape that made Brunello di Montalcino one of the most sought-after wines on the planet for the last hundred years. In addition, this weekend’s Italian representatives also include Sanguineti Cannonau Di Sardegna, which is basically grenache (a French Southern Rhone varietal) grown in Sardinia, where it develops its own distinctive and lingering notes of pomegranate to the more traditional red fruit notes. Locals claim grenache (cannonau) originated in Sardinia long before being exported to Spain and France, when the island was part of the kingdom of Aragon.
Moon and Tides
A few days ago I got Dreamtime out for a bit of a sail with my friend Mike, a former Army pilot who understands navigation principles, but the Army being what it is, never had to think much about tides.(!) We discussed my ongoing project to learn to predict where the Moon is in the sky by observing the Tide, and similarly, knowing where the tide must be if you know where the Moon is in sky.
Those of you who have been bored enough with your everyday lives that you have actually read any of these “Moon and Tides” musings the last several weeks should have picked up the basic tenet: when the Moon is highest in the sky the Tide will be pretty close to Low , and when the Moon is near the horizon, the tide has to be pretty close to a High. So imagine my Consternation as we were sailing, noting that the Moon (just past First Quarter) was High in the sky, and yet precious little of the shore was showing. In fact, it looked a lot like High Tide! Huh? Whazzat?
So of course when we got back in I checked my Tide App and was comforted by an interesting revelation, something I sort of knew theoretically, but hadn’t actually observed before. That is, when the Moon is at First or Third Quarter, it Is high in the sky at dinner time and the Tide is Low. However…I forgot that we also know that the tidal range between High and Low is at a Minimum at the Quarter Moon. Indeed, the day we were sailing there was only about a half-foot difference between the afternoon high tide (5.6′) and the evening low tide (5.1′)…! So yes, after Due Consideration, we are Happy to Report that it IS Intuitively Obvious!
Time Tide Height
0702 low 1.57′
1406 high 5.64′
1725 low 5.11′
2400 high 8.07′
Thimbleberries
Thimbleberries are a local curiosity, growing in banks alongside the road, often alongside salmonberries, another Northwest native. According to Wilipedia they are, like other raspberries, not a true berry, but instead an aggregate fruit of numerous drupelets around a central core. The drupelets may be carefully removed separately from the core when picked, leaving a hollow fruit which bears a resemblance to a thimble, perhaps giving the plant its name.
We often find wines with flavors reminiscent of thimbleberries, definitely raspberry-like, but somehow brighter and more acidic, and often with a sort of dusty quality (probably from dirt blown onto them by passing cars!). Today is the first day we have found some bright red ripe ones, and lots of hard pink ones which may or may not reach maturity. This summer has been very dry, so pickings are slim. Look for them along roads or driveways or around the edges of fields. And yes, they are a perfect match for the many dry rosés we have in stock right now!
Mar a Lago Update: New Hall Monitor?
Things have happened very fast the last week or two. Let’s just call it a series of “Staff Adjustments.” The thing one would expect about Staff Adjustments is some Overall Rationale, you know, “Okay, we are not meeting our goals so we need a Change in Strategy.” But that implies that you Actually Have Goals and a Strategy for Achieving Them! So somewhere in this picture we would expect “Tweetster and Team” to be able to Articulate their Goals and Strategies and gather Data to Assess their Progress.
But, to our Immense Relief, six months into Ruling the Most Powerful Nation on Earth, these Clowns haven’t even figured out where the bathrooms are, and who gets to use which ones at what times. No Wonder they’re Frustrated! It is, as Any Observer might note, Time for some Discipline. It’s Time for some Leadership. It’s Time to Send In the Marines!
And so it is that Arch-Republican Priebus is Out and New Chief of Staff and retired Marine Corps General John Kelly is In. The Question on the Floor is whether Kelly, by all accounts an accomplished Leader, yet lacking Political Experience, will be able to Establish Discipline in the Chaos that Follows the Tweetster like a Burlesque Theater Company with Trailerfuls of Baggy Pants, Feathered Boas, and Rhinestone Pasties. Stay tuned!
This week’s wine tasting
Finnriver Apple Abbey Belgian-inspired Craft Cider Washington $11
A silky, full-bodied cider. Lingering apple sweetness with tropical aromas of ripe banana and hints of pepper and clove spice. Nutty, bread-like finish.
Emmolo Sauvignon Blanc ’16 Napa $18
Aromas of honeydew melon, cashews, apple, which continue on the crisp palate with notes of nougat, tangerine, and peach, with good minerality on the finish.
Perazzeta Sara Rosato ’15 Italy $14
From the same grape as Brunello (sangiovese grosso), this beautiful rosato is rich, bold, and flinty while also crisp, summery, and light.
Cecilia Covolo ’13 Italy $16
A blend of cab and merlot aged in concrete; lush and mouth-filling, sunny expression of Cab with engaging aromas of spearmint and warm cocoa. Palate of extured black currant fruit, dark chocolate, and a lively acidic core.
Sanguineti Cannonau de Sardegna ’15 Italy $12
This cannonau– a Sardinian varietal known elsewhere as grenache– offers dry and dusty aromas and flavors of cherry, pomegranate and plum that leave lingering, crisp, earthy and briny flavors that beg for food.
Ramirana Cab Reserva ’15 Chile $12
Expressive notes of red and black berries, with notes of black pepper, chocolate, and tobacco. Nicely balanced body, acidity, and tannins, with a pleasing finish.
2072 Granger Way