May 2008

May 2008 Contra Costa Wine Group Newsletter

             The last meeting was held at the home of Mike Parker and Bev Nilson on their patio overlooking the golf course in Brentwood.  It was a lovely evening to be outside enjoying the weather.  Bev did a great job on the hors d’oeuvres.  Mike had asked Becky Bloomfield of the Bloomfield Winery to “sponsor” the meeting.  She agreed and donated 5 bottles of wine for us to enjoy at the meeting.  I personally only tasted the Viognier and was very pleased with it.  Their wines are available throughout the Bay Area and are priced in the $12 - $20 range.  Tom Bloomfield is a fifth generation farmer/grape grower and all of the Bloomfield grapes come from eastern Contra Costa County.  The wine is made at the Fenestra Winery in Livermore.  The meeting was fairly light in attendance with around 20 people total attending.  I guess that’s not too surprising considering that it has been well over 5 years since we’ve had a meeting out that way.  That, plus high gas prices and the worry of dealing with Friday evening traffic conditions all worked against us having a higher turnout. 

            Our speaker for the evening was relatively new Honorary Member, David Everett.  Dave is a professor of Viticulture and Winery Technology at Las Positas College in Livermore and was one of our judges at our January 2008 “day of 144 wines!”  Ron & Maria Pilkington are to be thanked for bringing their In Focus machine that allowed Dave to give us his Power Point presentation on the Parker/Nilson wall of the goings on at Las Positas College.    Dave’s presentation revolved around his very successful fund raising efforts, usually in the form of equipment, for Las Positas.  He was also instrumental in getting Shea Homes to donate some excess land they owned to the college for a vineyard.  My local paper just showed a picture of a group of dignitaries planting grapevines under Dave’s guidance.  The new vineyard is being planted with around 10 different varietals, each with enough fruit, upon maturity, for a full barrel of wine.  Several of our members have taken classes from Dave in the past couple of years and all have recommended them highly.  Overall, Dave’s presentation was very enjoyable and informative, plus he took a break in the middle that allowed everyone to refill their wine glasses!  Thanks Dave for a great presentation to the membership. 

            The Orange County Fair, the San Joaquin County Fair and the California State Fairs are all right around the corner.  Jump on it if you want to place an entry.  

            Thierry Thys, Mark Beecher, Lee Wines and I are leaving in about 2 hours for Rohnert Park and the first annual WineMaker Magazine Conference.  We’ll be pouring wines donated by many different club members.  Donations came from: Mike Orton, Steve Mirabito, Bob Hussey, John Kirtley, Mike Parker, Steve Abbanat, Gary & Paul Cattrone, Alan Moyal, Bonneau Dickson, Virginia Schaefer, Lee Wines, Ron Louis, Dick Ingraham, Dennis Miner, Tony Blackburn, Rupert Perera, Tom Anders, Kurt Vorheis, John Lansberry, Mark Beecher (the Triumvirate), John Fike Rex Johnston and myself.  I was worried, but the CCWG members above came up with a total of 6 cases of wine to pour for the attendees at the conference.   Thank you all for your support in this worthwhile event and I’m pretty sure that we’ll sign up at least a few new members while we’re there.  I just hope that I didn’t miss anyone and I’ll have more on the pouring later.  Be sure to ask Thierry, Mark, Lee or me of how the event went for us. 

In the January newsletter, I printed out the meeting dates for the entire year.  I made an error on the May meeting date!  As printed, it said May 23^rd.  Well, as most of you know, that is part of the 3-day Memorial Day weekend!  Therefore, this months’ meeting will be held on Friday night, May 30^th.  It will be held at the home of Dick and Sally Ingraham in Walnut Creek.  As the meeting will be held outside, Sally has asked that we start the meeting a little earlier, at 7:00 p.m. 

The meeting has been given the title of “Barrel Survival.”  Dick will be making a presentation on low cost oak alternatives for neutral barrels, i.e. Infusion Tubes with cubes and/or oak spirals.  He will also show us his (and Bob Hussey’s) “poor man’s lift truck.”  It’s a great way to avoid the aching back problems associated with moving carboys and barrels around in your winemaking area.  I think that Dick will have more for us but I’ll leave it up to him to further our winemaking education.

                      Several “to do’s”” 1) Bring a bottle of your wine to share with those in attendance.  If you haven’t made any wine yet, bring a bottle of a wine that you consider especially enjoyable; 2) Bring a light jacket in case it turns cool; 3) Bring a folding chair to sit on and 4) Bring a wine glass to enjoy those wines with.

            I hope to see many of you at the meeting. 

Addendum to May 2008 CCWG Newsletter

             Thierry Thys, Mark Beecher, Lee Wines and I attended the first annual WineMaker Magazine Conference last night.  Tony Blackburn, unfortunately, had to drive up to Copperopolis for work and couldn’t attend.  It was held in the outdoor courtyard at the Doubletree Inn in Rohnert Park.  Our table was in the bright sunshine, initially, and the outside temperature was around 87 degrees, so we moved it to the best shady spot at the venue. 

            The other wine groups attending were the Castro Valley Winemakers, a very new group with only 8 members currently, the Valley of the Moon Dilettantes …, and the Garageists of Northern Sonoma County.  Also pouring were wine kit makers Vineco and R.J. Spagnols to show off the quality of their kits.

            The Contra Costa Wine Group’s table was, by far, the busiest one for the evening!  There was not a single negative comment, and a great many positive ones, about our wines!  The attendees were from Alberta, Saskatchewan, B.C., Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, Minnesota, Maryland, Rhode Island and many other locations.  Many of them used kits for making their wines but many of them also had fresh grapes shipped to them from both California and Chile.  There were about 350 people attending the conference. 

            I just knew that I’d miss someone that donated wine for this event, and sure enough, I did!  Bud Busick and George Rammell were kind enough to donate a full case of wine.  I’m “blaming” Mark Beecher for not letting me know, but I did see the Busick/Rammell wines at the event and fully intended to let the CCWG know that they had helped out.  Unfortunately, this is at least the second time that I’d overlooked these fine gentlemen for their efforts.  I’d like to say that it won’t happen again, but, of course, I can’t.  I’ll just try and be more diligent.  (I just received an email that reinforced George and Bud’s donation from Lori Beecher, Mark’s “secretary.”)

            The primary purpose for this email is to modify the instructions that I gave in the May 2008 newsletter, sent yesterday.  As we took over 7 cases of wine to the event and poured roughly 1-1½ ounces per pour, there is quite a bit of wine left over.  Many of them have been opened and re-corked.  I really don’t want to dig through the boxes, find those that haven’t been opened yet and get them returned to the winemaker(s).  That would really be a pain.  Instead, I’m recommending that we use the wine at future meetings.  If you’re coming to the next meeting at the Ingraham’s on Friday, May 30^th, you do not have to bring any of your wine to share with others.

            I hope that this meets with everyone’s approval.  See lots of you at the meeting.