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June 2007 Contra Costa Wine Group
Newsletter
Our last meeting was held at the Turner home
here in San Ramon. It was a beautiful evening and Michele’s hors
d’oeuvres were quite well received. I was a little disappointed at
the turnout of only around 36 people as our speaker was so
outstanding. Lisa Van de Water of Vinotec, Inc. in
Napa
made a PowerPoint presentation on a sheet hung on my outside wall on
how to solve many different “bad wine” problems. Lisa did an
outstanding job and had handouts for everyone in attendance. This
group was extremely fortunate to have a lady with such high
credentials within the wine industry. Lisa is noted as the
developer of Superfood yeast nutrient that, I’m sure, many of you
have used over the years. She now consults with wineries in
Napa and Sonoma,
South Africa,
Chile,
New Zealand and
Australia. She holds dual
citizenship with the U.S.
and New Zealand.
Those that didn’t make it really missed a high quality
presentation. The CCWG can thank both Bob Hussey and Dick Ingraham
for arranging for Lisa to talk to our group. Thanks guys.
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Members Sylvia & Al Limbertos have Merlot
grapes for sale. Their website is
twinoakswinegrapes.com Twin Oaks Vineyard,
Somerset,
CA, Telephone: (530) 620-3510.
Check it out if you’re interested.
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Dick Ingraham has sent me a website about a new
product. Very interesting. My “winery” is called “Catanio Creek
Cellars.” Coincidence? I think not! Check out the website.
Catania
Wine Enhancer's Unique Technology Improves Taste of Wine, Beer &
Coffee.
www.WineEnhancer.net It also causes fewer headaches when
drinking red wine.
The Wine
Enhancers range in price from $45 - $150. For more information or
to purchase the Wine Enhancer go to:
www.WineEnhancer.net or call (888) 428-1127.
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State Fair entries can be dropped off at either The Oak Barrel in
Berkeley
or The Valley Vintner in
Dublin. I happen to know that both Bernie
Rooney and Mike Orton are not charging anything for shipping your
entries. The cutoff date for delivering your wine to these
wonderful establishments is next Saturday, June 23, 2007.
For further information, go to
www.bigfun.org and print off all of the
instructions. I do know that they want 2 bottles per entry and
$12.00 to go along with that. There is a gradually decreasing scale
if you enter more than 2 different wines. I just found out this
information. Sorry for the short fuze.
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Our next meeting will be held at around
7:30 p.m. on Friday night, June 29, 2007. Our speaker will
be longtime CCWG member Thomas Coyne. Tom will be making a
presentation on a new technology now available, even for the small,
home winemakers. Some vineyards have experienced “weird” acid and
pH numbers in their grapes. By this, I mean that the acid is high
and so is the pH. If you have such a wine, be sure to bring it
to this meeting so that Tom can run it through his new Ion
Exchanger. This machine will lower the pH of wine without affecting
the acid levels. An example given to me was that a wine’s pH was
lowered from 4.0 down to 3.0. The resulting wine could then be
blended back into the “main body” of that wine, resulting in a much
more balanced wine. Tom is anxious to show this new technology off
to the members of the CCWG. He has a laboratory sized apparatus, a
moderately sized one and, soon, one for larger, commercial
applications. Come one, come all as I expect that it will be a very
enlightening presentation by Tom.
The next meeting will be held at the home of
Rex Johnston and Barbara Bentley in
Walnut Creek. She asked me to let you all know
that when I send out the newsletter to please request that people
bring a chair and a coat. The meeting will be held in their
backyard.
Again, the next meeting will be held on Friday
night, at around 7:30 p.m. on June 29, 2007.
Bring a bottle of your own homemade wine (or a
purchased one), a wine glass, a chair and be sure to bring a coat.
You just never know out here in the valleys.
Respectively submitted, Al Turner,
Secretary, CCWG (925) 837-9384
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