|
February 2007 Contra Costa Wine Group
Newsletter
Saturday,
January 20, 2007 was the date of the 29th Annual Contra
Costa Wine Group Professional Wine Judging and Potluck Dinner. This
year, there were 101 entries, down from our all-time high of 113
entries in 2006, but still a very respectable number.
Many different members
volunteered their time to make this even a success. For building
setup, Lee Wines, Kristen Salinas, Al Maas and Bob Bogardus all
performed well. The glass washing crew included Bob Hussey, Bill
Ryan, Thierry Thys, Annette Thuesen, Dennis and Pam Miner. Mark
Brown and John Kirtley again performed admirably with their computer
support. John was also the key coordinator for the Mt. Diablo
Woman’s Club and is the one that went to the facility twice
the night before to insure that the heater was doing what it was
supposed to do. Thanks John. Bob and Mary Lu Burchard were “roped
into” (no volunteers) again getting the lunches for those at the Mt.
Diablo Woman’s Club and uncomplainingly came through with flying
colors, albeit a few minutes late due to traffic, etc., etc. Steve
and Susan Abbanat prepared the table decorations for the dinner,
roping some of their friends in to help out. Barbara Bentley and
Rex Johnston prepared wonderful gifts for our judges again this
year. Barbara, Rex and Lee also helped me out with delivering the
wines to the judges, etc. throughout the day. Bonneau Dickson
helped out immensely by bringing his personal pencil sharpener and a
bag of paper clips, without which the event would have surely been a
disaster! Peter and Martha Dragovich will show us what they’re all
about when, at the next meeting, they present the awards to all of
the winners of the wine judging competition. I hope that I haven’t
missed anyone and, if I have, please let me know and I’ll give you a
mention in the next newsletter. Thanks to all.
Our able judges
included: long-time CCWG member Joel Butler, in from Seattle
and Chateau Ste. Michelle; long-time member Tom Coyne of the
Thomas Coyne Winery; Pamela Thatcher who works for Young’s
Markets and has ably helped us out in the past; Heather Pyle,
wine educator and winemaker, in again all the way from Lodi;
Lance Bellamy, Directeur General of the Left Bank Restaurant in
Pleasant Hill; Jim Waltz, an Engineer by profession but has
assisted in many past judgings at Concannon Winery in Livermore;
Mike Wangbickler of Balzac Communications, a winery public
relations-type of firm and Miguel deMartin, wine specialist
working for Beverages and More in Pleasant Hill. Without these
highly skilled individuals, our annual event wouldn’t have nearly
the “oompf” and meaning that it does. Thank you so very much to all
of these people.
The Potluck Dinner
that evening was a complete success with, by my count, around 86
people in attendance. Thanks especially to our President, Josie
Fike, for again volunteering to steer the attendees into bringing
the dish that they “really wanted to!”
Lest I forget, also,
thanks to all of those that stayed after the dinner to mop the
floor, get the trash taken out and clean up the place after our
use. We left it in just as good of a condition as it was upon our
arrival.
Here now are all of the winners of
this years’ judging, thanks to the printout and email from Mark
Brown, assisted ably by John Kirtley. While I really enjoy tooting
my own horn, I feel that the membership should know that the Best of
Show-Red judging was extremely close with Joel
Butler’s 2004 Zinfandel only one point behind and Rex Johnston’s
2004 Petit Verdot only a single point behind that! Some great
wines!
The
2007 - 29TH ANNUAL
CONTRA COSTA WINE GROUP JUDGING Results are
in!! Click
HERE to see how our members did in the home made wine
competition.
My boss, Mike Orton,
of The Valley Vintner in Dublin (and
valleyvintner.com) has informed me that, again this year,
he will make available for FREE all of the shelf life expired
yeasts from his shop. This is high quality stuff, almost guaranteed
to work, and work well, but, alas, its’ shelf life has been
reached. Get to the meeting early for the best selection.
The next meeting of
the Contra Costa Wine Group is a big one and will be held Friday
night, February 23, 2007 at around 7:30 p.m. at the home of Tom
& Donna Powers in Martinez. This is the night for the First Place
Winners in the 15 Wine Categories to pour their wines and let us in
on a few of their winemaking secrets. All of the First Place
winners have been notified that they need to get 2 bottles of their
winning wine to this meeting, by hook or by crook! These winners
have also been encouraged to prepare a single page handout for this
meeting. (John & Sophia Kirtley will be in Puerto Vallarta, poor
things, but I already have their wine and handout. Joel Butler, of
Seattle no less, has already sent me his handout and is making
arrangements to deliver his wine to one of the membership. Now,
that is dedication!) Each winner is to be limited to around 3 to 5
minutes to tell us all about their winning wine. That should take
us somewhere around an hour and a half to hear these presentations.
All of the ribbons, for all of the winners on the previous page,
will be handed out at this meeting.
Bring a folding chair or two, plus your wine glass, and
a bottle of your best wine to serve with the hors d’oeuvres with you
to this event! I would highly encourage any of the membership
that live in a condo, for instance, or out of Contra Costa County
and plan to attend this event, to call Donna Powers at the number
below to see if you can’t help her out with the hors d’oeuvres this
evening. The turnout is typically right around 50-60 people and
Donna shouldn’t have to bear the entire brunt of that large of a
group and that’s a very nice way to show the group that you really
do want to help out.
See you all at the
meeting. Al Turner, Secretary, Contra Costa Wine Group
925-837-9384 |
