All posts by Daniel Howsepian - 3. page

Hello Fellow LWGA Members:

On Sunday, July 25, 2021 LWGA held it’s first General Meeting in person since the arrival of the Covid 19 restrictions. It’s been a very long time and seeing everyone was a real treat! There were 29 people present that day over at Mel & Diane Haas’ home in Lafayette. There was ample wine and food donated by the membership.

We began the meeting with a longer than usual social time, but well received.

I introduced our host, Mel Haas. Mel gave us a warm and interesting introduction to the history of the property and vineyard

David Hicks set up a demonstration of a netting system and gave us a talk about it’s use and set up. I have made a video of the presentation for those who could not make the meeting but the recording was too long for me to present here. Sorry. I am sure David would be happy to review this with you personally.

I spoke after Dave to announce the 2022 AVA celebration planed for Sunday, April 24, 2022. This will be an open event to the membership and the public as a fundraiser for our little LWGA. It will be located on the parking grounds between the Wine Thieves and Larry Thal’s new tasting/production facility next door. I suggested the name of “Lamorinda Wine Hub” but it’s Larry’s call on the name. There will be food trucks, wine tasting and sales from our bonded wine makers, music and loads of fun for all spread out between the two venus! I mentioned that there will be a need for volunteers and that we will be reaching out to our membership for help for this event. We’re all excited to be there

I then invited Larry Thal to give us an update of his much anticipated tasting room and production facility in Lafayette. Larry said that he anticipated that the facility could be ready by March of 2022, just in time to be used for the 2022 AVA celebration being planned right now.

Once all the formalities were completed, we were invited to tour the Haas Vineyard in veraison. Mel mentioned, that halfway through the tour, there was a gazebo where wine could be found to top off your glass as needed. It didn’t take much to get people moving through the vineyard. It also turned out to be a great spot to sit and talk to your fellow members on a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Some of us stayed well until 7 PM. Hopefully Mel didn’t mind.

Respectfully submitted:

Daniel Howsepian

LWGA President

Hello fellow LWGA Socially Deprived Members:

We’ll, this is it. We’re finally going to meet on Sunday in person for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic! It will certainly be great to see you all again!

When:        Our next LWGA meeting will be held on Sunday,

July 25, 2021 from 3-6 PM

Where:     Mel & Diane Haas have generously offered to host our meeting at their beautiful home. 

                        960 Stow Lane;  Lafayette, CA 94549;    Outdoor setting.

Parking:    Parking is very limited and so we please ask you to car pool as much as possible to avoid any  problems with the neighbors.  Stow lane is narrow. 

Please remember to bring something to share and your wine glasses.

See you then.

Daniel Howsepian

President, LWGA

Hello Fellow LWGA Members:

I hope you are enjoying this summer, although it might be a bit hotter than usual. 

Well, the moment we have all been waiting for is arriving!  We will be having our first in person general meeting in a very long time, for those that have been vaccinated! 

When:        Our next LWGA meeting will be held on Sunday,

July 25, 2021 from 3-6 PM

Where:     Mel & Diane Haas have generously offered to host our meeting at their beautiful home. 

                        960 Stow Lane;  Lafayette, CA 94549;    Outdoor setting.

Parking:    Parking is very limited and so we please ask you to car pool as much as possible to avoid any  problems with the neighbors.  Stow lane is narrow. 

Because we have not seen each other in person for such a long time, we would like to emphasize  the social aspect of this meeting.  We encourage everyone to join us in this event and do some catching up! 

We will have a brief presentation by Dave Hicks demonstrating a netting application you might find useful.  We also have a lot of interesting news for you regarding the LWGA!  Don’t miss this one!

We have many new members who have joined us recently, and wish to welcome them at this meeting. 

For our new members, and because it has been so long since our last meeting,  I would like to review the following:

–    Please bring a bottle or two of your favorite wine to share with everyone;

–    Please bring an appetizer, entree  or desert, buffet style,  that you would be proud to share;

–    Please bring your wine glass so you can enjoy the wines your fellow members have brought for you;

–    Please bring your stories, adventures or other experiences you had in the last year to share.

I know everyone is anxious to see each other again, and share all those stories we have all experienced recently. 

See you on the 25th!

Sincerely:

Daniel Howsepian

President LWGA

Hello LWGA Members:

Last Sunday @ 4 PM we had what we all hope to be our last LWGA general meeting by Zoom! We will have our next meeting for members who have been vaccinated on Sunday, July 25, 2021 at a location TBD. Most likely at an exterior location. I know we are all anxious to see each other again!

We had a good turn out for our meeting. After a short social conversation, I mentioned that I was having a problem with ground squirrels and that I had found an effective trap for that problem. The trap is called “The Squirrelinator”. You can find it at www.ruggedranch.net; look for traps and get the one with the basin. Use birdseed for the bait. It really works!

We also had a short conversation about the heavy rainfall some of us experienced three weeks ago which occurred right at flowering. Not the best timing for that to happen! I experienced some damage as a result in shattered flower set. The life of a farmer….

The next topic was about watering and nutrition of the vines in these drought times. Gerard made a wonderful power point presentation which he narrated masterfully! There was a very lively interaction with the participants and a lot of useful information was exchanged. The power point will be posted on our website for reference. A note of appreciation went out to Bill Scanlin for managing our website and for making it possible to access useful information on the platform.

I want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have joined us in all of the recent Zoom meetings throughout the trying times we have all lived through recently with the Covid pandemic. I hope that we have kept you engaged with useful information and connection with other members. We will do our best to resume a more normal activity within our group beginning in July!

Looking forward to seeing everyone again soon!

Sincerely;

Daniel Howsepian

LWGA President

Hello LWGA Members:

This is a reminder of our scheduled meeting on Sunday, June 6 @ 4 PM. This will be our last meeting by Zoom! Hurray!!! Our next meeting will be in person on July 25, location TBD. So stand by for that one. You can join this Sunday’s meeting through the link below:

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

The timely topic of this meeting will be about testing your vines to be sure they have the proper nutrients and water they need to produce the best grapes possible.  Gerard VS will be our knowledgeable moderator and will have a very informative presentation and question and answer session.  Also, with the drought this year, it will be very important to know if your vines have enough water  to propagate properly.  They’re tough, but they do need some help.  Without sufficient water, vines would have a tougher time migrating those essential minerals up from the ground.  So be sure to tune in! Also, see interesting post on watering by Ted Rieger in the Viticulture Forum on our website.

Looking forward to seeing you on Sunday!

Sincerely;

Daniel Howsepian LWGA President

Hello LWGA members

We need your help. The board is considering having our first in person gathering on July 26 for vaccinated members only and we are looking to hear from our members whether you feel you would be willing to join us.  We know everyone is anxious to get together again, but we want everyone to be comfortable with our plans.

We sent out a very short survey of three questions recently and have had very few responses. We really need to hear from you on this.  

Won’t you please response to our survey link below so that we can all feel confident we are doing the right thing in July. Please respond by June 1, 2021

https://lamorindawinegrowers.us7.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b8dd87c54491d6eb5bb74082a&id=a729e719a1&e=178a8b5efc

Thank you for your assistance!

Daniel Howsepian

LWGA President

Hello Fellow LWGA Members:

I hope everyone is doing well and that everyone is getting vaccinated.

We had a scheduled general meeting for May 30, 2021, @ 4 PM, but we realized that this fell on Memorial Day weekend and may not be very convenient.  As a result, the Board decided to reschedule this meeting for Sunday June 6, 2021, at 4 PM.  In an abundance of caution,  this meeting will be again by Zoom. You can join the meeting at the following link:   

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

The timely topic of this meeting will be about testing your vines to be sure they have the proper nutrients and water they need to produce the best grapes possible.  Gerard VS will be our knowledgeable moderator and will have a very informative presentation and question and answer session.  With the drought this year, it will be very important to know if your vines have enough water  to propagate properly.  They’re tough, but they do need some help.  Without sufficient water, vines would have a tougher time migrating those essential minerals up from the ground.  So be sure to tune in! Also, see interesting post on watering by Ted Rieger in the Viticulture Forum.

So, with the new updated CDC guidelines having been recently published, we are all feeling a little bit better about getting together if vaccinated.  It’s what we have all been waiting for.  However,  for larger group gatherings, there still are some questions that some members might have.  With that in mind, we have put together a very short, three question survey which we ask you to please complete so that we can decide whether enough of you would like to have our July 26 meeting in person,  something I know we are all anxious to resume as soon as it is safe to do so.  See link below for survey:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScY8CC0vygDMj7EyVixkDHISR1K7mRyPY-lWCfpewxujPcIRw/viewform?usp=sf_link

We look forward to your responses and to seeing everyone as soon as possible! 

Sincerely;

Daniel Howsepian

President LWGA

On Sunday, March 28, the LWGA celebrated it’s 5th anniversary of the Lamorinda AVA! 

This was a well published event highlighting wine tastings of non commercial wine on line.  There were an estimated 50-60 people who viewed this event online.

The meeting began with a short description of the 3 year effort led by David Rey and other board members in completing the rigorous applications required with the various governmental agencies.  The committee had to demonstrate why the proposed Lamorinda AVA was worthy as follows;

–  Geological-  Characteristics of the uplifted sedimentary rocks and clay stones between the Hayward and the Calaveras fault lines;

– Topography–  Uplifting created variable steep hills, shallow soils and good drainage;

– Aspect–  these hills created many slope aspects which created micro climates throughout the Lamorinda AVA allowing for growing different varietals for winemaking;

–  Micro Vineyards–  These vineyards within the AVA are small vineyards, measured in # of vines, not acres, within suburban setting, where sustainable and organic methods are used;

–  Hand pruned and harvested due to the steep slopes resulting in a much higher quality fruit. 

These, and much more, were used in the successful application we know of today.  Anyone interested in learning more about the AVA application can find it on our website under documents.

Then a brief history of the Lamorinda grape growing and wine making was presented as follows:

– Over 150 years of vineyard history can be found in our Appellation and surrounding areas;

-1880;  Trelut Brothers;  1st, 150 acres in Bollinger Canyon Road, Moraga; “Eagle Hill”

– 1890;  John Muir planted a vineyard in Alhambra;

– 1897;  Theodore Wagner vineyard in Orinda;

–  1907; Rossi Family Vineyard in Lafayette

No doubt that vineyards are in our history and contributes to the successful winemaking today!

With all this knowledge, we all sampled the wonderful wines of:

Brian Cherry;  Cherry Family Winery;  Pinot Noir

Joao Magalhaes;  Magalhaes Vineyards; Pinot Noir

Bill Davidson; Davidson Vineyards; 2016 Merlot

David Rey;  Reliez Valley Vineyard;  Cabernet Sauvignon

Mel Haas; Haas Vineyards;  Cabernet Sauvignon

Gerard van Steyn;  vS Vineyards;  2018 Cabernet Sauvignon

There was a very nice amount of discussion between each tasting with interesting information about the vineyards, wine making and history of the vineyards.  Joao gave us a very interesting view of the origins of the LWGA and his vision of what could be for the Lamorinda AVA together with the LWGA.  Creating our region into exclusive and high quality grape growing and wine making appellation as found in the prominent regions in France.  A worthy goal indeed!

Larry Thal gave us an update of the much anticipated Wine Tasting / Production and catering facility in the works.  Permitting is moving along at a glacier’s pace, but is expected to be completed very soon.

Larry also expressed his desire to find a way to showcase commercial AVA and non commercial AVA wines at the tasting room. 

Everyone expressed their appreciation to Amy Scofield and Leslie Ward, and to the contributing winemakers who made this very pleasant event  possible.

The meeting was conclude at about 5:45 PM

I am reaching out on behalf of Rhys and his sister.  They applied for a grant of $1,000 from Sustainable Lafayette where they have proposed placing a bee hive in a public place in Lafayette and holding meetings four times a year to teach the community about bee keeping and show how easy it is to try and get more people to consider getting a hive.

They have received a lot of great feedback from the group and need to present in early April. 

One issue is they have not secured a location that would host the hive and allow the meetings. 

I thought maybe there is a vineyard in Lafayette that might be willing to host a hive (with all maintenance done by Rhys and his sister Sloan) that would also allow them to hold meetings four times a year?  

We have reached out to the Lafayette Garden and have not heard back from them- they already have two hives.  

I thought I would see if you had any contacts in the wine industry in Lafayette that you think might be a fit or interested? 

Thank you for any help you can offer. 

Rosalind 925-818-2990

Hello fellow LWGA Members:

I would like to start off with a big Thank You to the members who submitted a video of an informative item to share with the rest of us!

We had 5 videos that Gerard organized for our viewing, all of which were very interesting as follows:

Mel Hass showed us his beautiful vineyard with a fabulous view of Mt. Diablo, his wine cellar, and how he successfully dealt with the racoon problem with his electric fencing set-up;

Leslie Ward also showed us her lovely vineyard and view, and her wine storage facility and shared how important it was to consider how to cool your wine storage facility;

Dave Hicks had some very beautiful pictures of his vineyard overlooking his little piece of paradise on Clear Lake, his very practical work station positioned to avoid bending over, saving his back and showed his wine storage areas as well;

Gerard Van Steyn showed us how a smart winemaker will be able to move about their 30 gallon barrels with ease using his innovative sturdy carts built with purpose in mind. Gerard also showed us his Pomegranate wine which we all we dying to taste!

Daniel Howsepian had a video showing you how you can spend a lot of time to install a cork ceiling which took 39,276 corks, 126 total hours in a span of 30 weeks! Crazy, right! but so nice in the end.

There were lots of questions and was really fun to see! I hope we can do this again and see what else we can come up with to share. I already have my idea in planning.

I hope by now you would have received your survey with the elections e-ballots for you to vote for the LWGA Board candidates presented. Please submit your votes this week.

Thank you all again for being a part of the LWGA and we will continue to provide opportunities for you to participate. We are all looking forward to the 5th year anniversary of the Lamorinda AVA in March! Stay tuned for details.

See you all soon, and stay safe!!

Sincerely;

Daniel Howsepian

LWGA President