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JUNE 2008 CONTRA COSTA WINE GROUP
NEWSLETTER
The last meeting was held at the
home of Dick and Sally Ingraham. As usual, Sally prepared a
wonderful layout of hors d’oeuvres for those attending. We had a
pretty good turnout for the meeting. I counted 44 noses, so this
was the largest meeting of the year so far. Dick and winemaking
partner, Bob Hussey, gave us a tour of their winemaking facility.
Barrel samples of their 2007 Sally’s Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon in
a French barrel and the 2007 Sally’s Vineyard Zinfandel in a
Hungarian barrel were poured for the attendees.
Dick gave us a demonstration of a
new toy that he and Bob recently purchased. It analyzes SO2 in
wines and is, apparently, quite simple to operate. They purchased
it from Beer, Beer and More Beer and the cost was somewhere around
$695.
A demonstration was also given
showing off their “poor man’s forklift.” It allows them to move
around carboys (primarily) and barrels with a lot less effort than
humping them around the winery area. It showed us that a little
innovation can go an awful long way.
Dick also had a “Barrel Care”
handout from Barrel Builders Inc. in St. Helena available for those
attending. All in all, it was a great meeting. It was also helped
out by about two cases of wine that were “left over” from the CCWG’s
pouring at the WineMaker Magazine conference in Rohnert Park a while
ago.
Mike Parker handed me a Terracotta
Wine Cooler that was left at his home after the meeting there in
April. There were only around 20 in attendance so it should be easy
to determine whose it is. Please “Reply” to this email if you want
to claim it.
Ron and Maria Pilkington have a
once-used 300 Liter Stainless Steel Tank with a Variable Capacity
lid available at $100 below their cost. If you’re interested, give
them a call at (925) 639-3591.
The Contra Costa
Wine Group had quite a few winners at the WineMaker International
Amateur Wine Competition, held April 18-20, 2008 at the Equinox
Resort in Manchester, Vermont.
Click
HERE for the winners from our group.
Congratulations to all
of the winners from this competition. Please forgive me if I missed
your name. Please let me know and I will get it published in our
next newsletter. I went over the list 3 times!
Bonneau Dickson just
sent me an interesting purchase opportunity:
Reply to:
sale-723285991@craigslist.org
Date: 2008-06-17, 1:22PM
We have roughly 945 cases of new wine bottles. There was a leak in
the Winery and water got onto the glass and now can't be used for
our wine. Perfect for home winemaking or simply for the glass. $1
per case O.B.O. It's NOT OK to contact this poster with
services or other commercial interests.
Tom Powers send me
his Contra Costa wine grape availability list, if you’re
interested. I’m attaching it to this email.
Even at this very late date,
John Kirtley has graciously volunteered to conduct an international
tasting of Sauvignon Blanc for us at the Friday, June 27th
meeting. Likely countries include New
Zealand,
Australia,
France
and the U.S.
Possible examples include Italy
and South Africa.
It just depends on availability. John plans on purchasing 3 bottles
of these wines so go ahead and invite your friends! The meeting
will start at around 7:00 p.m.
For the CCWG meeting
on June 27th, parking is limited, so please try to
carpool to the meeting that is scheduled to start at 7:00 p.m.
Several club members live nearby and some may have signs to allow
members to park on their driveway.
Bring a jacket, folding chair, and
a wine glass. If you have any white wine that you’ve made, please
consider bringing it for the “pre-meeting.” I’ll be bringing 1˝
cases of CCWG member made red wine that is “left over” from the
WineMaker Magazine conference that was held in Rohnert Park. Thus,
there is no need to bring any of your red wines to this meeting.
See you at the meeting.
Respectfully submitted, Al
Turner, Secretary, Contra Costa Wine Group (925) 837-9384 |
