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February 2010 Contra Costa Wine Group Newsletter
Wow, what an event on January 23rd! Even though our membership went from 91 down to 76, we broke our all-time record for the number of entries! We had 147 wines entered into the 32nd Annual Contra Costa Wine Group Professional Wine Judging and Potluck Dinner! The St. Paul’s Episcopal Church Parish Hall worked out extremely well for this function. To correct my faux pas at the dinner, I’d like to thank the members of the Site Selection Committee, Diane McNally, Agnes Ledeboer, Pat English and Sally Ingraham for their efforts in finding a facility that really worked for us. The hall had a lot more space and the kitchen worked well, especially with the industrial dishwasher that saved the glass washing crews a lot of dish-pan hands! Not having to tear down the tables and chairs, sweep and mop the floors after the event was a huge benefit of this place. (I did hear that the janitor cleaning up the next morning for the church groups said that “it smelled like wine!”) I believe that the northwesterly facing windows worked well for our judges, who did a fantastic job, showing up on time and sticking it out until the bitter end! Those excellent judges were:
1) Long-time CCWG member, Tom Coyne of the Thomas Coyne Winery in Livermore 2) Michael Zitzlaff, GM and Chief Winemaker, Crushpad in San Francisco 3) Maria Terry, Certified Sommelierre, of Le Sommelierre in Pleasant Hill 4) Sophie Williams, Estate Maitre d’ Chalk Hill Estate Vineyards & Winery, Healdsburg 5) Lance Bellamy, former Directeur General, Left Bank Restaurant, Pleasant Hill and now working for Prima Wine & Ristorante developing their new Catering Division. 6) Mike Wangbickler of Balzac Communications in Napa 7) Jennifer Scott, Luxury Brand Manager for CA with Ste. Michelle Wine Estates 8) Michael Jones, formerly of Domaine Chandon in Yountville and Hanzell Vineyards in Sonoma, and currently serves as the “point person in the field” for the Fermentation Division of Scott Laboratories, Petaluma 9) Shirley Molinari of Lallemand Yeasts in Healdsburg 10) Brent Amos, Head Winemaker at Fenestra Winery in Livermore.
We had approximately 120 people in attendance for the potluck dinner. That also was a record for the CCWG. I heard no complaints at all about the food quality and quantity and the dinner setup. There were plenty of volunteers from the start to the finish of the event. A special “thank you” goes out to all of the volunteers, way too many to enumerate, for all of their hard work. Special thanks are given to Tony Blackburn and Marv Schick for volunteering to collect wines before the judging. We’ll “tweak” it next year (pre-numbering, perhaps) but, for the most part, doing the collection of wines in advance saved us an awful lot of time the morning of the judging. Mark Brown did a lot of preparation for this event as well. It sure is nice when a “plan comes together!”
I now have 4½ cases of “leftover” wine from the judging. Please let me know of any charity that could use this wine for a fundraiser. Just give me a call at (925) 837-9384.
As for the wine judging competition, the results are as follows:
Congratulations to all of the winners listed above. Very importantly, all of the First Place winners must now bring, or somehow get, 2 bottles of their wine to our Awards Night meeting being held on Friday night, February 26, 2010. If your wine is a “No Show” for this meeting, I will “hound” you until it shows up at a meeting. More importantly, your Award will also be held until your wine gets tasted at a meeting! These First Place winners should also prepare a handout of sorts telling the attendees how the wine was made, along with a short presentation at the meeting. We’re interested in the Grape Source, Harvest Date, Sugar at Harvest, Sugar or Water additions, if any, pH, Acid, Temperature, Type of Yeast, Nutrients and/or Enzymes used, if any, ML Culture used, if any, Oak treatment, if any, Racking/Filtration, and especially the cost of the grapes. This will help the membership with making grape purchase decisions in future years. If you had to do anything that was sort of “strange” with the wine, we’re also really interested. Thank you all in advance for your cooperation.
The Awards Night meeting will be held Friday night, February 26, 2010, starting at around 7:00 p.m. We’ll start the “program” promptly at 7:30 p.m. Please try and be prompt as it takes quite awhile to get the awards handed out and all of the First Place wines tasted. The meeting will be held at the home of Marv and Caroline Schick in Walnut Creek. Caroline Schick has asked me to poll the group for a volunteer to help her set up for this meeting. She’d like someone there to help with this starting at around 6:00 p.m. the night of the meeting. Call her if you can assist. Thank you. Bring a folding chair, a bottle of wine for the hors d’oeuvres (half) hour, and a wine glass for the tasting. I’ll see you all there. Al Turner, Secretary, Contra Costa Wine Group (925) 837-9384 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||