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Entering wine competitions is a great way to gain valuable feedback, from professional wine judges, on our wines. Winning ribbons and medals also provides important validation and recognition of the top quality wines that are being made in the Lamorinda AVA – plus they look great on a wall or in your wine cellar. Wine competitions are easy to enter and for most competitions, your wines can be dropped off at local winemaking stores, such as MoreWine in Concord. Please save the following information and the Board encourages all members to enter your wines.

WINE JUDGING INFORMATION FOR LAMORINDA AVA MEMBERS

By:  David Hicks Winemaker and Grower

Introduction:

Wine competitions can provide valuable recognition for the quality of your wines, and valuable feedback to assist with future winemaking. The ribbons or medals you can win are a great way to showcase your achievements, and for commercial wines, to also help with marketing and sales.

Wine Competitions and Methodology:

For home winemakers, Lamorinda Winegrowers Association recommends the following two major wine comps: 

1. The California State Fair in Sacramento: entries due May 6: https://www.castatefair.org/california-home-wine/

• The Orange County Fair in So. Cal.   Entries due May 28:  https://ocws.org/home-wine-competition/

For commercial winemakers, LWGA recommends entering the following three competitions:

1. The California State Fair in Sacramento:  entries due May 22: https://www.castatefair.org/california-commercial-wine/

• The Orange County Fair in So. Cal:  entries due May 10:  https://ocws.org/commercial-wine-competition/

• The SF Chronicle Wine Competition:  entries due November 15: https://winejudging.com/

These competitions have both a professional and amateur competitions.  Wines are submitted by home winemakers or wineries individually.  Clubs cannot submit. They are taken in by one group who places them in unmarked numbered brown paper bags and categorized by grape type and are numbered without regard to year.  They are then presented to judging panels of 3 to 4 judges who are made up of a wide variety of people from all aspects of the wine industry.  After judging the results are submitted to a final group who compiles the results and published the scores.   These comps have thousands of entries each year and they are truly impartial.

Scoring:

The most common scoring used is a variation on the UC Davis 20 point System; 17 to 20 being Double Gold and Gold, and on down.  You can find this scoring online.  Awards are ribbons starting with DG on down to Honorable Mention.  Most comps have a Best of Show in Red, White, Desert, and Sparkling and the awards are plaques. Followed by Best of Class, Gold, etc. for each varietal of wine.    

How and Where to Enter:

For non pro winemakers the local home wine shops in our area will receive and hold your wines for pick up by the competition for bulk shipping.   Local shops include: More Wine, Oak Barrel and Napa Fermentation.  For some competitions there may be other drop off locations, so use the competition website to determine where and how to drop off your wines. Using these shops you avoid the major cost of shipping yourself which if you use UPS or Fed Ex can be expensive.  If you decide to enter other comps and have to ship direct you can often ship wines by claiming they are shipping homemade vinegar or honey.  That is your call. We suggest you contact a local shop well before the deadline for submission to the competition, so you can learn their cutoff date and other requirements.

Wining ribbons is comps is the best way for our AVA to make a name for itself and I strongly urge our members to start entering. 

My name is Dave Rey and I am a candidate for the LWGA Board.  I have been a Lafayette resident for nearly 30 years and I have an acre of vines and a winery at my home in the Reliez Valley area.  I bottle my wines under the Reliez Valley Vineyards label.
My goal as a winegrower is to grow the best possible grapes from my vineyard location and make the best possible wine from the grapes I grow.  I am the first generation in my family to have pursued a non-agricultural career, so having grown up in that world I am very comfortable with the farming aspects of winegrowing.  I have an engineering education and I enjoy applying all the technology available to both viticulture and winemaking.

I was an early member of the group but my business travels left me little time to get involved until I retired.  I previously served on the Board from 2011 to 2016.  During that time I focused mainly on leading the committee that pursued and secured our AVA designation.

I am excited by the plans being made to further promote the Lamorinda AVA and I would like to serve another term on the Board so that I can help with those plans.

My name is Bill Scanlin and I have been on the LWGA board and run the website since 2008 and have been President in 2016, 2017 and 2019. I have been growing grapes and making wine since 1998 and started my commercial winery Deer Hill Vineyards in 2010.

I have been in technology my entire career and am currently Chief Technology Officer at a fintech startup.

I believe the organization needs to be an important resource for its members to help them grow better grapes and make better wine. We can also educate the Lamorinda community on what we are doing and help them setup their own vineyards and try some of the great wine made here. I think we have made great improvements in meeting these goals and would like to continue to move the organization forward.

Amy Schofield is a Communications, Brand, and Marketing Strategist who partners one-on-one with solopreneurs and associations to help grow their brands. With 20+ years working in diverse industries across the globe, her key to success is connecting with the people she serves to affect positive change.

Amy is the Founder of Mixify Beauty, an experiential lifestyle brand that has found its way to the Oscars and Emmys. She is also a sponsor and supporter of Girls Crushing It, a local not-for-profit empowering girls to flex their leadership muscles through entrepreneurship.

Amy holds an MBA specializing in Branding and Communications. She prefers red over white, full bodied over light, and milk over dark.

I’m Gerard van Steyn and I live in Lafayette with my wife Kathryn and our 3 children.  We have 600 vines (70% Cabernet and remainder Malbec, Petite Verdot, Merlot and Cab Franc).  We also have 60 fruit trees, 45 berry bushes, a large vegetable garden, honeybees, 6 chickens 1 dog and 2 cats.  We are farming everything ourselves and have progressed from being organic to now beyond organic which means that in addition to using no chemicals we are focused on maximum soil health and the soil microbiome, including composting. 

I have been on the Board for the last two years and have taken a lead role in changing from 4 meetings per year to 6 per year and in setting up educational content for our meetings. There are interesting and exciting plans being developed for further improving your Lamorinda Winegrowers Association, and our local wines and vineyards. I hope to continue to be a positive contributor to our members and to the Association.

For those of you interested in reviewing the deck presented by Dylan Rahn at the meeting last Sunday, here is a link to it:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/12gtaYkoMu4kzCPdKL6y_OhbXruHv3M–h0ciVrzGiQI/edit?usp=sharing

Hello Fellow LWGA Members: 
On January 26, 2020 we had our regular meeting at the Bill & Alison Scanlin’s beautiful Deer Hill Vineyard in Lafayette. There were approx. 41 attendees, and everyone brought ample excellent  wine and appetizers for everyone to enjoy. 
Business items were discussed initially as follows: 
–  Board elections will be held very soon. Please be sure to vote!-  Two long standing board members are retiring; Susan Captain and Carol Haag.  We will miss them both and hope to tap into their collective memories for future advice; 

–  Larry Thal’s wine tasting and production facility was mentioned.  Exciting opportunity for grape growers to have a micro facility available to produce a collective Lamorinda blend and  wine tastings for the public in Lafayette!-  David Hicks announced the availability of himself, Daniel Howsepian, Bill English and Gerard Van Steyn for any grape growing or wine making advice or questions from our membership. There will also be workshops planned for the future wherein our members can participate in advanced learning sessions.  

Once the official business was completed, we were all treated to a wonderful discussion by Dylan Rahn and his dad, Brian Rahn of CVC and followed up with a real time demonstration of pruning on actual grape vines brought in.   Dylan conducted a very lively discussion and demonstration of cane and spur pruning, among other things which everyone thoroughly enjoyed.  
We are very fortunate to have these very educational, timely and interesting subject matters brought to us by knowledgeable speakers.  We plan to have many more to come.
We thank everyone who brought wonderful wine and appetizers  to share with the group!  
See you at the next meeting on March 29 where mildew control will be the topic of the day.  
Submitted by: Daniel Howsepian 

Dear Members,

We currently only have a small number of the members signed up for the Holiday Party on December 5th.  There are more non-members that have signed up but we are no where near the numbers we were expecting based on attendance last year.

This event is the only fundraiser we have each year.  If you came last year, you’ll hopefully remember what a great time we all had celebrating the holidays with our group and the community, tasting many great Lamorinda wines, eating delicious food and dancing to the wonderful music of Diamond Dave.

If you haven’t purchased tickets to the event, we would really appreciate you signing up. 

Also, if you would like your wine poured at the event please email info@lamorindawinegrowers.com and we’ll arrange to pick it up.

The link to purchase tickets is: 

https://lamorindawinegrowers.com/event-calendar/#!event/2019/12/5/lwga-holiday-party

You can use discount code: lwga to get $5 off per ticket for a net cost of $55.
Thank you for your support and we very much hope to see you at the holiday party.

Best Regards,

Bill Scanlin, President

Carol, Haag, Vice President

Leslie Ward, Past President

See below for an outline of the meetings and educational topics planned for 2020. The Board has decided that members would benefit from more short educational components in meetings – on viticulture. Please review the meeting outlines listed below and we hope to see you at the Holiday Party on December 8th.

December 5, 2019 – Holiday Party, Featuring Local Wines, Food and Music

A fun-filled evening featuring local wines, food, music, dancing to Diamond Dave, a commerative wine glass and raffle prizes.

Date/Time: Thursday December 5th from 6:30pm-10:00pm
Location: The Serbian Cultural Center
Address: 1700 School Street, Moraga

LINK TO PURCHASE TICKETS:
https://lamorindawinegrowers.com/event-calendar/#!event/2019/12/5/lwga-holiday-party

Use coupon code “ccwg” and save $5/ticket

YEAR 2020 MEMBER MEETINGS:

January 26, 2020 – Viticulture/Farming Educational Meeting: Pruning Best Practices, Soils Testing and Board Elections

Meeting topics: pruning: best practices and what to do and avoid doing when pruning yourself or managing your vineyard manager’s pruning. In addition, this meeting will provide information on the benefits of soils testing to correct nutritional imbalances and how to easily complete a soils test for your vineyard or garden

March 29, 2020 – Mildew Control

Meeting topic: mildew control Mildew control is the biggest challenge for viticulture in LWGA due to or damp generally cool weather. This meeting will present best practices, timing, critical mildew period from flowering to fruit set, mildew control products recommended for our area, conventional vs. organic, and brief information on canopy management and other viticulture techniques for mildew control and improved harvest quality

May 31, 2020 – 4^th Annual Lamorinda American Viticultural Area Celebration and Members Choice Wine Rating

At this meeting, we will gather to celebrate the creation of our important local AVA. We will meet and share good food and great wine. We will also discuss what we have accomplished and our future goals.

Members choice wine rating: members are invited to bring wine that they have made in two categories: 1) Wines made with LWGA grapes and 2) wines made from grapes outside of the LWGA. The rating is easy: members only pick their top choice Red and White wines in each category, they do not need to score each wine

July 26, 2020 – Composting for Better Grapes and Plants and White Wine Winners – Tasting, Winemaking Explanation and Discussion

Compost is teaming with beneficial microbial life, minerals and fertilizers that are super beneficial for grape vines, and all other plants and vegetables. The results on plants from good compost are often amazing. This meeting will provide instruction on how to easily make compost from your yard trimmings and kitchen scraps.

White wine winners from major competitions (State, Winemakers Magazine, SF Chron, etc) will pour their wines and explain how the wine was made and answer questions. This discussion should help members learn new techniques and ways to improve their winemaking.

September 27, 2020  – Soil Moisture Meters for Improved Quality and Water Conservation and Red Wine Winners – Tasting, Winemaking Explanation and Discussion

Soil moisture meters are a valuable tool for ensuring our vines are not getting too much or too little water. We will be providing an overview of moisture meters and how to use them.

Red wine winners from major competitions (State, Winemakers Magazine, SF Chron, etc) will pour their wines and explain how the wine was made and answer questions. This discussion should help members learn new techniques and ways to improve their winemaking.

December 3, 2020 – LWGA Holiday Party

Members, friends and guests will gather to enjoy good food, good wines, music and dancing. This celebration is also a great opportunity for those in the public who are interested to passionate about wine to taste many of the finest wines being produced in the AVA –local wines that rival the best from other areas.

Additional Winemaking Educational Meetings

Additional educational sessions to assist members with winemaking or improved winemaking techniques may be scheduled in 2020 as well. If any such winemaking meetings are scheduled, this schedule will be updated and members will be notified.

Additional Viticulture/Winegrowing Educational Meetings or Property Visits

Other optional educational sessions on viticulture and winegrowing may also be scheduled.  If any additional viticulture meetings are offered, the schedule will be updated and members will be notified.

Members Topics or Site Visits

Any member who would like to lead an educational session on winemaking, viticulture or related topics, or if you would like to invite members over to visit your vineyard or winemaking facilities or if you have suggestions for future meeting, please contact the Board meeting coordinators Gerard van Steyn at gerardvs1@gmail.com or Daniel Howsepian at 5powderhounds@gmail.com, as the Board welcomes member participation.

Connecting vineyard practices to wine quality

The Napa Valley Grapegrowers invites members of the Lamorinda Wine growers association to this annual event. ROOTSTOCK 2019, Hosted at the Napa Valley Expo!

On Thursday, November 14th

575 Third Street — Napa, CA 9:00 A.M.-3:30 P.M.

They have sent LWGA 8 complimentary trade-show-only tickets, $50 value, and are pleased to extend the NVG member price on the All-Access Pass to our members. Click on the industry association partner registration link at:

www.ROOTSTOCKNapa.org

Please Contact Susan Captain for tickets, pick up at Captain Vineyards in Moraga, 1969 Joseph Dr.

susan@captainvineyards.com

First come first served!!

There are two great events coming up that you may be interested in attending. The Lafayette Art and Wine Festival is on September 21st and 22nd and the Moraga Pear and Wine Festival is on September 28th. Please come and support our local towns and winemakers that will be pouring at both events. Flyers for both events are below.

Dear Members,

One of our members suggested that we post where Lamorinda wines are sold or served on the website so that we can support getting our wines more widely known in the community. If you sell your wine commercially or your winemaker does, please reply to this email with:

• Winery Name
• Varietal (s)
• Stores or restaurants where sold/served

Once we have this from those interested, we will put this information out on the website.

Thanks,

LWGA Board