All posts by Daniel Howsepian

Hello fellow LWGA grape growers:

By now, everyone should have their harvest in for 2023.

Earlier this month, I had sent out a request for your harvest information. Thank you for those that have already responded, but there are many who have not yet responded.

Without getting all our vineyard information, I will not be able to get an accurate tally to compare with previous years as is our goal. I only have this week to complete my report, so if you have not yet sent in your harvest information, by varietal and pounds yielded, please do so by Wednesday, November 30, 2023.

Please send your information directly to me at: 5powderhounds@gmail.com

Thanks!

Daniel

Officially, the end of the growing season for 2023 vintners is over. And what a year! It was the best of vintages, it was the worst of vintages… For some growers and winemakers, this was a remarkable year for quality, and for others not as good. 2023 started late with exceptional moisture and delayed bud break. However, the growing season went along without any major heat waves or disruptions for an excellent extended growing season. I hope you had a good season.

Every year, the LWGA collects member information about your harvests. We would like to know what your gross weight yield in pounds (stems and all) was per varietal. I will accumulate this information anonymously by varietal and have a comparison spreadsheet from prior years to see how we’re doing.

Please send me your information soon so that I might be able to share this information with everyone very soon for an anticipated vigorous discussion.

Thank you!

Daniel Howsepian 5powderhounds@gmail.com

925-858-7000

Did you know that there will be a Local winemaker’s wine tasting opportunity for you to attend on Thursday evening from 5:30 – 7:30. This will be at Hollies Homegrown in downtown Lafayette. 998 Moraga Road

So if you or your friends don’t any other plans, come by and taste some our local wines.

You can get more information at the link below:

https://www.hollieshomegrown.com/events/2022/11/10/an-evening-with-local-lamorinda-winemakers

Hello everyone:

By now, you should be mostly done with harvesting this year. And what a year! The drought, the heat and everything else.

I hope that you had a successful harvest and by all accounts, wine in the tank/barrels fermenting away for another future release of enjoyment!

As you know, every year we like to accumulate the data on our LWGA harvests.

Can you please email me the gross weight of your harvest by varietal. We will not distribute your personal information to anyone.

Thanks again and happy winemaking!

Daniel Howsepian

5powderhounds@gmail.com

Hello everyone.

What a nice meeting we had on Sunday! Great tastings of the award winning wines and seeing everyone again!

Someone forgot their wicker basket at our house. If it’s yours, please call me at 925-858-7000 to arrange a return.

daniel howsepian

As with everything, all things must come to an end. I have been the President of the LWGA for the past two years, and I have reached the end of my term.

I am happy to announce that David Hicks will be the new President of the LWGA. As a grape grower, a fine winemaker, and a great socialite, he will have the the experience and knowledge to take the helm and move us ever forward in our quest to serve our membership and put Lamorinda Wine Growers Association on the map!

Welcome David Hicks to your new position!

I have been very proud to have served as President and I hope that I have helped, together with the board, to improve the vision and services provided in the past and for the future years. I will continue on the board to help make LWGA a positive force in our community. Thank you for the privilege.

Sincerely:

Daniel Howsepian

former President, LWGA

Hello Fellow LWGA Members:

 On January 29, 2022 @ 3 PM,  LWGA held its regular member meeting via Zoom.  I know, we’re all very tired of the Zoom meetings!  Especially when there were some technical problems as we have experienced that day.  We’re very sorry about that!  With the easing of the Covid mandates, there’s a really good chance of our next meeting in March to be in person!  

However, once everything got worked out,  about 15 people logged on.  We were very mindful of the AFC game and we tried to make it brief so that the members could watch the game.  Too bad that our efforts were in vain and not rewarded with a good outcome for our team. 

A brief discussion about the elections for the board by Bill Scanlin was presented.  I am happy to report that all the candidates were elected to the board and we now we also have a new board member, Brian Cherry. Welcome Brian to the Board.

Gerard began his presentation about “What to do in the vineyard in the spring”  and was disrupted by computer problems!  Uhhhh! Gerard followed up with an email to the membership to replace his planned presentation. 

We would like to offer an in person pruning session very soon.  Anyone interested in joining this session please respond to David Hicks message which will be emailed to you very soon. He will set up a time and date that’s convenient for all.  

Larry Thal then spoke briefly about the progress on his Local Vines project. He is currently waiting for his Contractor to start with the work, hopefully March 1! We are all anxiously waiting for the grand opening! 

Sunday, May 1, 2022, from Noon to 6 PM, will be our long awaited public LWGA-AVA Celebration at the rear parking lot of the Wine Thieves! We have been working on this for quite some time and we a lot to be proud for this event. Amy will be sending out an informational message about the event, and also will be reaching out to the membership for volunteers to help out. Should be a lot of fun with food trucks, local wines presented, soft music and some fun things for kids of parents attending the event. We look for seeing everyone there!

 
We look forward to a good springtime season for everyone!  

Best Regards!

Daniel Howsepian

LWGA President

Hello fellow wine growers and lovers!

I can’t believe that January is almost gone! The hills are beautifully green, Oak trees are about to blossom and it’s almost time to prune back those marvelous vines. What a great place we live in!

So you may remember that we will be having our regular LWGA General meeting on January 30, 2022 @ 3 PM. The COVID epidemic continues to hinder personal meetings, so the Zoom meeting is our only alternative, for now. I have already sent out the the agenda for this year’s General meetings, but in case you have not read it yet, topics this time will be mostly focused on social meeting & mixing, with some discussion about the board elections nominees, then a short presentation by Gerard about “What to do in the Spring in the vineyards“. There will be a break out session about pruning and the time and place to be decided at the meeting for those who are interested.

Please join us at 1/30/22 @ 3 PM:

https://warriortrading.zoom.us/j/9252007676

I look forward to seeing all of you again there!

Thank you!

Sincerely;

Daniel Howsepian

Pres LWGA

Hello again! In my last message to the membership on 1/16/22, I had included a calendar of events for 2022. In the Calendar, I had indicated that the LWGA AVA Celebration would be held on June 5, but that is incorrect.

The date for the LWGA AVA celebration will be on May 1, 2022

I apologize for the error, and I hope that this date suits you better.

Please stand by for further information on this event.

Thank you for your understanding!

Sincerely;

Daniel Howsepian

Pres. LWGA

Happy New Year!!!

As we move into the dawn of 2022, we have a lot to be thankful for already! December’s rainfall totals have given us a great start in the ground moisture, which will give us a great start for the upcoming growing season. Let’s hope that we’ll see more rain in the coming months.

In my last message to you, I had given you the crop harvest information within our group. I have since looked back to see how we did in the last couple of years. So, in 2021 the gross total was 66,363 #; in 2020 the gross total was 58,763 #; in 2019 the gross total was 51,774# and in 2018 the gross total was 48,242 # Quite an impressive improvement over the years! All thanks to your hard work and good practices.

For those of you who also make wine; we will be encouraging you to submit your wines for wine tasting competitions. We think the tasting events will resume once more and we feel that our wines should be represented. We’re making great wines these days and we should be out there showing how good they are. There’s also a bit of pride when you get those ribbons to show off in your cellar! We will be issuing information on the dates and places to do so. Don’t be shy!

This year’s calendar of general meeting and events will be as follows:

*** January 30, 2022: Viticulture/Farming Educational Meeting; Zoom

Board Elections

What to do in the Spring in the Vineyard

Prebud spraying, covercrop mowing or not, nutrition, soil enhancements, etc

*** POTENTIAL FIELD DAY – DATE TBD – EARLY FEBRUARY ***

FIELD DAY: Pruning, members and/or an outside expert share techniques

and best practices for pruning

*** March 27, 2022 Overview of Best Practices for Canopy Management, Heat Mitigation, Quality Fruit

*** POTENTIAL FIELD DAY – DATE TBD – LATE APRIL OR EARLY MAY ***

Overview of Best Practices for Canopy Management, Heat Mitigation, Quality Fruit

*** June 5, 2022; 5th Annual Lamorinda American Viticultural Area Celebration. Plans are being made right now for our LWGA AVA Celebration in June! We will be serving local wines for our members and the public, and will have a lot of information about our past, present and future plans. This will be an enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon together! Stand by for more information as they become available.

*** July 31, 2022 Food & Wine Pairing. A food and wine expert will guide us on food and wine pairing and wine sensory evaluation

*** POTENTIAL FIELD DAY – DATE TBD – AUGUST ***

A food and wine expert will guide us on food and wine pairing and wine sensory evaluation

*** September 25, 2022; White, Rose and Red Wine Winners

Commercial and Non-Commercial Gold medal winners from major competitions (Sacramento State Fair, Orange County and SF Chronicle) pour their wines and discuss how they were made.

*** December 1, 2022: LWGA Holiday Party: Members and guests will gather to enjoy good food, good wines, holiday sharing. This celebration is for members (and guests) to celebrate a successful harvest and the holiday season together. A short presentation on the harvest and accomplishments of the year will be provided.

In Closing, you will be receiving a notice to vote for the candidates for the LWGA Board. It is important that every member participate in these election. Please try to return them by the end of January.

As noted above, our next General meeting will be on January 30, @ 3 PM. We had hoped to have an in person meeting then, but because of the Omicron Covid surge, we felt it wise to hold this meeting on Zoom.

Please join us at;

https://warriortrading.zoom.us/j/9252007676

Our emphasis this year will be to have primarily social meetings, with a light touch of relevant discussion points as outlined above. If you have an interest in the topics raised, or wish to contribute to the presentation of the topic, we will have a field break-out session available to attend where you can get a deeper dive into the subject matter. We hope this format will be useful to you. Please contact me if you would like to help us in these presentations.

I wish you all a great 2022 and a happy and healthy year ahead! See you on January 30 for our first General Meeting of the year. We hope to be able to have in person meetings as soon as possible again.

Sincerely;

Daniel Howsepian

LWGA President