Fast Wine, Slough Food
Jenise Stone

On the northern edge of Skagit County just across the line from Whatcom County is the 19th century town of Edison, population 150. Surrounded by fertile farmland, town center consists of five or six small businesses that line one kink in the road and consist of an art gallery, the wonderful Breadfarm bakery, a bad-ass biker bar, and an improbable little wine and cheese shop called Slough Foods. The name is a fun homage to the real slough behind the store and the Slow Food movement that seeks to identify and preserve natural, heirloom foods and promote the original, hands-on methods of food making.

Think artisan.
Almost two years ago when I first stumbled onto the premises with fellow wine friends, it was instantly apparent that this was no simple country market. In fact, the wines and cheeses made it abundantly clear that proprietor John DeGloria is a fan of wines as off-the-beaten track as his store is. Nigl gruner veltliner from Austria? Breton cabernet franc from France’s Loire Valley? These weren’t the corporate-winery best sellers of the usual country store; these were vinuous gems chosen by a knowledgeable, discriminating palate with an eye on both quality and value. I couldn’t believe my eyes--these were wines I used to have to have shipped from New York.

And lo and behold, the contents of his cheese case showed the same excellent taste, from local Skagit cheeses to my favorite blue cheese in the world—Cabrales, from Spain, that Whole Foods Market in Seattle told me they could not get. Since those early days John has expanded his offerings to include the fabulous cured meats made by chef Mario Batali’s slightly-less famous father Armandino at his Seattle restaurant Salumi, a dizzying array of fine chocolate and various dry goods of distinction such as the Salish Smoked Salt I gave foodie friends for Christmas.

Slough Food isn’t just a store, it’s a destination, and even though I live at the far northern tip of our County, I manage to show up—drooling--on Slough Foods’ doorstep about once a month. It’s a pilgrimage of sorts. I don’t just return, I reload. I LOVE THIS STORE!

And if this weren’t wonder enough, on many Saturday nights John closes the shop and holds wine tastings. Last Saturday’s theme was Cab Franc, a grape John and I share a particular affinity for. Eight wines from five Loire Valley appellations, Washington State and California were on the bar top. In addition to being made from the same grape, these wines had in common that they were all from small family wineries where the wines are virtually hand-grown and hand-made. Plus, most practice organic farming and biodynamic vinification techniques. Also placed around the store to welcome us were platters of the foods John sells plus baskets of plain and olive baguette from next door. I’m not proud of this, but I think I single-handedly wiped out the Salumi green peppercorn winter salami before the evening was even half over and I probably had more than my 1/12th share of a round of a hypnotically tangy goat cheese called Boucheron. I can no more be trusted around that kind of food than other people can around chocolate. Oh, and speaking of chocolate, bars of chocolate had been pried into chunks and were also lying about for noshing. A Denman Island Espresso Chunk from British Columbia was especially beguiling.

Though the plan was for eight, we ended up tasting nine wines because by the end of the evening I and another participant spied a bottle of another Loire wine, Chateau Gaillard, on the retail shelf that wasn’t in the tasting. An explanation was demanded. “Well,” John said, “it’s just that that’s the last bottle and I can’t order more.” Well, that wouldn’t do, so my new friend and I bought the bottle and shared it with all after the last of John’s wines. It was that kind of group, that kind of night, and it’s that kind of store. Brought together by food and wine, twelve strangers became twelve friends. That’s how it should be.

To read tasting notes on the wines at Slough Foods, click here.

(1-24-2006)

Jenise Stone is a wine enthusiast and avid foodie who lives in Birch Bay, Washington. She can be reached by emailing jenise@tasteofwhatcom.com.

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