Happy Monday...
There are days that I write these newsletters in a vacuum. My own ideas, churned over at 4am or so, and finally tossed forth from coffee-enabled hands into my computer around 8. However today...and by extension the past few days and the coming many...my thoughts tie so well into our Wine of the Week and the ethos behind it, as well as the sheer madness of the world around us, both micro and macro, that it seems kismet.
Let us ponder the concept of death and rebirth. It is, of course, spring, the time when we traditionally celebrate things like the re-emergence of perennials, bird chirps, and saviors of humanity if that's your thing. The time we all slough off the white coat of winter...(Side note: did you hear me, Mother Nature? We SLOUGH OFF THE WHITE COAT. What's with this morning?) and prepare for what the new season holds. But first we clear the remains, what is now past...in the case of my yard, downed tree limbs only now emerging and destined for a mighty Viking-like burial in my fire pit.
The wine this week is from Ruth Lewandowski Wines. Much as a producer famously asked of Roger Waters, "Which one's Pink?" there is no Ruth. Well...there is, but winemaker Evan Lewandowski is only, perhaps...a distant relation. The Ruth in question is from the Book of Ruth, a part of the Hebrew Bible that, to Evan, expresses the hard truth in things having to pass so that new life might spring from them...in this case, Ruth's husband, etc, so that she might later marry, with her mother-in-law's blessing, the man Boaz, and conceive a son who would himself have a grandson, who would be King David, who if memory serves was kind of a big deal...if you'd like to know more, please consult your local temple, church, or library. The point is...there was loss, loyalty, and ultimately, reward and rebirth. I think. I'm not a biblical scholar.
Anyhow, in the description below I've included some of Evan's thoughts. And the wine...once this snow gets on outta' here...it's the ultimate "let's get out and fire up that grill!" wine. Can't wait!
Current regular hours: Monday-Saturday 10am-6pm, Sunday 12-4.
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Please visit our website: www.bangorwineandcheese.com |
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Don't forget to catch Eric each Tuesday at 4:40pm on Downtown with Rich Kimball on WZON AM 620. Downtown airs weekdays from 4-6pm. |
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Ruth Lewandowski Wines
"Feints" Rose
"I've said it a thousand different ways since the beginning of Ruth Lewandowski Wines, and I think its most comprehensible to explain “Ruth” as a concept more than a living, breathing individual. A concept born out of the affiliation of my own philosophies of farming and winemaking (which indeed spill over to inform so many of my life beliefs) and one small but very significant text in the Old Testament of the Bible, the book of Ruth. Without sounding 'preachy' and so as not to offend the sensitive, and in the interest of concisely summing things up, I don't believe there to be a deeper, more compelling depiction of the natural cycle of death and redemption (both in the physical realm we can see and the spiritual realm we often do not) than this one short book.
Death is, indeed, the engine of life.
Nothing that is alive today could be so without something having died first. This is the redemptive nature of our universe, of our planet, of our soils, plants, and ultimately you and I. The cessation of things is necessary to begin anew, even more fully. From the wreckage of death and tragedy at the beginning of the book of Ruth, a young woman finds life, finds beauty and is able to truly live....not simply in spite of the death, but because the death occurred at all. The regeneration of the life of our soils occurs only through organic matter...all completely dead, broken down carbon-based items. A natural fermentation is the building up and dying off of multiple strains of yeast and bacteria, each paving the way for the next strain to take over (and each leaving their altogether unique signatures of flavor, aroma, and textural compounds).
2021 is a pink puzzle, a wide array of pieces fitting together just so, until the larger very familiar picture comes into focus. Building upon our previous vintages' aromas, flavors and textural signatures of the deeper Portuguese varieties we have come to know and love, the majority of this wine remains Touriga Nacional, Souzao and Tinta Roriz. However, we've peppered in a smattering of other deliciously appropriate ingredients such as Trousseau (ahem, Bastardo in Portugal) a few skin fermented whites and even a skosh of lightly macerated Zinfandel (GASP!). This vintage is ever the more herbal and savory side of pink wine but still has gobs of bright, poppy, almost tropical fruit to it, keeping things juicy and thirst quenching as hell." - Evan Lewandowski, Winemaker
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Ruth Lewandowski Wines "Feints" Rose
W.O.W. Price: $26.09
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Bangor Wine And Cheese
86 Hammond Street,
Bangor, ME 04401
(207) 942 3338
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