All posts by Daniel Howsepian - 2. page

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

Hello everyone and Happy Holidays and New Year!

And what a year it was. So many challenges and so much positive energy into overcoming all these challenges. Overall, I had received many compliments from our members for our efforts to stay relevant in these trying times. Behind the scenes, and mostly behind the computer monitors, (Zoom) the board has been actively working hard to plan events and activities for our group. I hope you have taken advantage of everything put forward.

It was great to see our first issue of the newsletter as a source of information and activities of interest. I hope you will enjoy what has been put together for you.

Next year, we are going to create a different format for our General Meetings. We plan to emphasize the social aspect of the meetings, with brief administrative topics as necessity requires and will be creating break out sessions for those who are interested in a deep dive into a topic of choice, at a later designated date. Things like vineyard management, winemaking, etc. will be announced in advance for those that are interested.

I would like to thank all of you who have responded to my call for the harvest information of 2021. It’s great to see how we’re all doing.

2021 has had an overall LWGA yield of 66,363 pounds of grapes! This translates to about 22,000 bottles of wine! The breakdown as follows:

Cabernet S. 18,147 # ; Sauvignon Blanc 1,000 #

Merlot 2,752 # ; Cab Franc 573 #

Pinot Noir 8,835 # ; Tempranillo 953 #

Petite Sirah 8,024 # ; Sangiovese 2,700 #

Chardonnay 5,498 # ; Petit Verdot 1,499 #

Syrah 7,944 # ; Zinfandel 2,200 #

Malbec 1,100 # ; Grenache 1,908 #

Mourvedre 330 # ; Cinsault 290 #

Carignana 310 # ; Cab Franc 100 #

Wow! What a spread of varietals! Should lead to some great wine tastings! And, I would like to remind you that we should submit our wines in for a tasting competition! We are listing them on our website. We’re making great wines and we should have it judged and I’m sure you would be surprised at how well we can do! If you have not yet submitted your harvest information to me, please do so to: 5powderhounds@gmail.com

A quick note about the Board elections. Please be sure to cast a ballot. We depend on your input for what we do and really appreciate your involvement! Please vote.

So let’s start 2022 with real enthusiasm! We have a lot to be thankful for and let’s make the most of it!

Respectfully submitted

Daniel Howsepian

LWGA President

Hi again everyone:

The one thing I forgot to mention in my October Recap message was that the board would like to ask all of you to please let me know how many gross pounds of grapes you harvested this year. We do this every year and it’s good information for our AVA. Please indicate the varietal of your grapes as well.

Please send your result information to:

5powderhounds@gmail.com

Thank you!

Sinceerely;

Daniel

President, LWGA

925-858-7000

Hello LWGA Members:

On Sunday LWGA held a scheduled general meeting at the Wine Thieves in the back area with the picnic tables. The meeting was well attended with 28 people. Everyone brought wine and appetizers enough for all attending.

This was to be a mostly social meeting, and it was great to see everyone there. It was hard to break up all the conversations to begin the meeting.

We began by introducing our new members, Kim Straub of Cinco Ninos Vineyards and Leanne Pilot & Dennis Carlston of Crane Terrace Vineyards.

I also announced to the group our plans for the LWGA AVA celebration on Sunday, April 24, 2022 right there in the parking lot and easements between the Wine Thieves and the new wine tasting room which Larry Thal is undertaking, hopefully completed in time for the event. There will be wine booths selling tastings and wine, food trucks, music and other events & services. Please be sure to put that date on your calendar and spread the word!

We encouraged everyone there to tell us about their harvest. Many folks indicated that their harvest was under par for the year. This is consistent with the information published in various papers from Sonoma and Napa. Factors such as excessive heat and the drought were identified as the causes for the lower yields. A vigorous and entertaining discussion about water consumption ensued. However, the bright spot is that it is anticipated that while the vines have suffered, they tend to produce rich and flavorful vintages!

There was a concern that the rains would interrupt the meeting, but as it turned out, the rain held off for us until the adjournment at 6 PM.

We look forward to seeing you again at the next meeting. The board will publish after it’s next meeting the annual membership meeting schedule for the members.

Hello fellow LWGA members:

As we’re all winding down from our harvesting, it’s good to know that we will be having a LWGA General meeting this Sunday, October 17, at 3 PM. We will meet at the Wine Thieves, in the back area with the tables.

This meeting will be mostly a social meeting, relying on your interesting stories about your harvesting efforts this year. We’re so happy not have dealt with smoke this year! Some of us were badly affected and some not. Still a mystery as to why.

So please join us on Sunday, bring a bottle of wine, your wine glass, and an appetizer to share and let’s hear about your adventures this year.

See ya then.

Daniel

President LWGA