All posts by David Hicks

This year LWGA will be having its Holiday and Christmas celebration party at the Lafayette Play House on School Street in downtown Lafayette on Wednesday December 11, doors open at 6:30 PM sharp. Two years ago we held this event at the Play House and a great time was had by all. This year we are asking all our non bonded member winemakers and guests to not bring store bought wines as a main purpose of our club is to enjoy the the large variety of wine made by our members as well as the fine wines made by our bonded members. So be sure to bring a bottle or three of your wine? Please put the date on your calendars and watch this space for a couple more upcoming announcements about our Holiday party.

Have an Happy Thanksgiving and I look forward to seeing you all at the party.

David Hicks, President LWGA

Hi LWGA winemakers and grape growers;

LWGA will be holding its annual Holiday and Christmas party once again this year at the Town Center Theater located on School street in Lafayette. The date is Wed Dec 11 at 7PM. In a few weeks we will be sending out a formal invite requiring a response in order for us to order the appropriate amount of food. As a growing and winemaking org we urge you to bring your own wines for all to taste and enjoy. We also request that you not bring any non AVA commercial wines, we can buy that stuff anywhere? Kindly log the date and watch this space for future information.

Best regards,

David Hicks, President

LWGA MEMBERS: March 31st is Easter Sunday and therefore not a viable day to have our membership meeting. It is moved forward one week to the following Sunday April 7th. We will be notifying you of the topical content and location of the meeting no later than March 20th. Please pass this info along?

Thanks, David Hicks President

RESULTS OF ELECTION FOR LWGA BOARD OF DIRECTORS:

We have 3 re-elected board members and 2 newly elected members.

New members: Marcy Ryan Nichol, Bill Saupe.

Re-elected members: Amy Schofield, Bill Scanlan, Dave Rey.

Congratulations to both our old and new board members and to all of you members who voted, thank you. Our next board meeting will be March 4th after which we will post the agenda for the March membership meeting. The last Sunday in March is Easter Sunday. We just changed a membership meeting because of 49er football and now again possibly because of Easter. We will advise you ASAP if there will be a reschedule of the March general membership meeting scheduled for March 31st shortly. Stay tuned.

David Hicks, President

This notice is a follow up to remind all members and guests that the 3 PM 49er game Sunday preempted Sundays meeting and we have rescheduled the same program for Feb 4 at 3 PM at Bill Scanlan’s wine room. Kindly pass on this info if required? See you all on the 4th. David Hicks President

TO: LWGA membership,

Dear members, sorry for short notice but due to the 49ers championship game this Sunday conflicting with the exact hours of our meeting at Bill Scanlan’s we have rescheduled the meeting for 3 PM the following Sunday February 4th. Please make note of this short notice change and tell your friends about the new date? After attending CCWG’s annual dinner last weekend their attendance was down 30% and half the attendees had the game on their phones.

We will re-send this notice several more times and hope all of your read it and can make the February 4 change.

David Hicks President

Members,

The board has heard from a number of members that they are having performance issues with hired vineyard managers. The issues include not timely spraying for PM and/or bird netting installed or either not being done at all. Additionally the handling of trapping for coons and skunks and not having crews available for harvest.

Your board wants to understand any and all of these types of potential problems. There is little folks can do this year but we need to discover the number and types problems and find solutions. One potential solution is to pool and collectively retain a provider for a group of our membership

Please let us know if your vineyard management provider HAS NOT performed to your satisfaction, and on the other hand if your particular provider HAS performed please let us know that as well?

Please email you response to Dave Ray at: Dave@reliezvalleyvineyards.com

Thanks, David Hicks, President

Members:

LWGA’s next membership meeting will be July 30 3:00 PM at Daniel Howsepians home in Lafayette, located at 3345 Hermosa Dr. off Reliez Valley Rd in Lafayette.  Ph # 925.828.7000.  

Our presentation at this meeting will be three of our Members,  Bill Scanlin, Eero Teerikorpi, and me, David Hicks will be pouring one of our award wining wines for your tasting and enological pleasure.  Each maker will describe the grape source details and outline the winemaking process and answer all your questions.  

Please feel free to bring your own wines and nibbles to share as is our custom.   

As growers and winemakers we all love that this year Mother Nature has been kind with ample rain, lots of sunshine and moderate temperatures which indication of a great crop throughout the State.  If you haven’t already begun getting suckers off your vines and leaves away from you grapes bunches get on it today.  Also pay attention the the angles of your tendrils if they are slumping down along your cane you are down a bit in water.  

Looking forward to seeing lots of you on Sunday July 30 at Daniels.

Regards,
David Hicks

Sorry for the typo regarding the date. The correct date is the 29th of January, not the 19th which is a Thursday. Sorry for that.

DH

Our first meeting of 2023 will be in 2 weeks on Sunday January 29 from 3 to 6 PM at Bill Scanlin’s lovely winery and home in Lafayette. Address 6 Lois Lane just off Happy Valley Rd and just up from Bart Station. Bill asks that if there are more than one in a car that you drop off folks and any wine at his home and then park your car in the free Sunday parking lot at Bart and walk up back to his home. Parking at his place is limited. Bring phone with light or a flash light

As is our custom the first 40 min is for wine tasting and socializing after which there will be two programs starting with Bill Pence who will discuss “Why you need to regularly walk and check out your vineyard even if you have a manager.” Bill’s second item is his successful netting system and procedure. Then Bill Scanlan will review “How to use the club’s web site successfully” using his large video presentation screen and system. Suggest being prepared to take notes? There will be a Q and A after each presentation.

As usual feel free to bring a bottle of your best wine to share and if so inclined it would be great if several of you would bring nibbles and other delectable eats for all to share? I know that you will be very well appreciated. Meetings we’ve had at Bill S place are quite well attended so come early. The association is returning to face to face meetings this year if covid etc. will leave us be.

If you have any questions please contact me at the address below and I look forward to seeing most of you on the 29th.

David Hicks, President. dh1780@yahoo.com