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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

Join LWGA members at the Moraga Pear and Wine Festival, this Saturday 9/28, at Moraga Commons 11-4. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the incorporation of the Town of Moraga. Free event with food and wine for purchase, live entertainment, kids activities, and community stands. There will be a street parade kicking off celebrations at 10.

More details available here: https://www.moraga.ca.us/50thanniversary

We had a lively session at the General Meeting on September 15. Thank you to our panelists – Bill Scanlin, Ewa  Wojnar and moderator: Marek Fibrich This is Ewa’s Harvest check list – while many have already harvested,  this might come in handy for those who have not harvested yet, and useful for following years. There were questions about what to use to sanitize buckets, shears etc.  Star San is a popular sanitizer which can be purchased through Amazon or many other providers on line. There was a question about membership and whether a winemaker whose vineyards are in Napa, however wine made locally would be eligible to join.  The answer yes, they would be eligible for an associate membership.  

Pre-harvest Checklist

Harvest Checklist: Pre-planning for success – WineMakerMag.com

Restock all testing lab chemicals
Restockl cleaning and sanitation supplies
Buy yeast, food for yeast, if not using native, and malolactic stuff 
Sharpen if needed, clean, oil, and sanitize cutters
Check crusher/de-stemmer

Check the lab scale (batteries, accuracy)
Calibrate testing equipment

Clean the floor in the winery (garage -)

Clean and sanitize crusher, fermenters, harvest bins/pails, 

Prep boards with paper and pens for notes and weights log, etc.

Prep cleaning solutions and brushes
Drop the nets the night before or the morning of
Prep water bottles for the pickers
Set up sanitizer buckets
Set up plain water buckets for rinsing and rags
Prep KSO2 for each fermenter

Pick
Crush
Clean Clean Clean

Posting on behalf of the seller. If you have questions, please contact Bret directly.

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Hello East Bay Winemakers, 

I hope you are doing well. In case you haven’t heard, Côte West will be closing its tasting room and winery in Oakland later this summer. We’ll continue to make wine, but in a different facility. 

This means we have a lot of equipment, tanks, barrels, and furniture to sell. In case you are looking for anything, from a very nice 20HL bladder press to extra TC fittings, we’ve got it all. 

The list of most equipment for sale, including pricing, can be found here.

Photos of most of the equipment can be found here.

Feel free to share this more broadly. The posting on Wine Business Monthly is here.

If you have any questions, please let me know.

Cheers, 

Bret Hogan
Winemaker and Owner
Côte West
2102 Dennison St., Ste. A
Oakland, CA 94606
cotewestwine.com
415-608-5111

Our winemaker could not take the grapes, they are ready for harvest now – please contact Celeste @ c_a_warner@comcast.net if interested.

The education committee has requested a change of date for the LWGA September general meeting to Sunday, September 15 to be held behind Wine Thieves in Lafayette at 3 PM.  

There will be a presentation on insights from a wine-makers perspective on the harvest as well as challenges and insights from a vineyard management perspective.

Please bring a bottle of wine and an appetizer to share.

We hope most of you will be able to attend.

David Hicks, President

Petit Sirah and Grenache Grapes available 2024

Hello fellow LWGA members, we are looking for a winemaker to make wine out of our 2024 PS and G grape harvest! We anticipate a fruit yield of about 500 pounds of Grenache and 1000 pounds of PS.  

The heat has really worked in our favor this year, as here in south Moraga we are usually on the later side of maturity. According to our vineyard manager, we are on course for harvesting in late September/Early October. Unfortunately, professional and personal commitments prevent us from making our own wine this year. Instead, we will be responsible for the harvest, and you can make the wine!

Please contact me for any further info and to discuss details.

Doug Tucker 
cell (510) 913-0930
dtuckermd@gmail.com

Hello fellow LWGA members:

On Sunday, July 14, (also known as Bastille Day), LWGA hosted our bi-monthly general meeting at Daniel & Annemieke Howsepian’s Home and Raisin d’Etre Vineyard in Lafayette. We were all very pleasantly relieved that the weather was perfect for this meeting, especially given what we were dealing with recently.

31 members were present for the meeting which made for a great opportunity to interact with fellow members.
There was a very nice presentation of appetizers and wine offered by our attending members for everyone enjoyment.

Marcy Ryan-Nicol and Bill Saupe, our educational committee members, planned a detailed presentation of about 30 minutes regarding vineyard canopy management. Bill Saupe made the presentation and there was a lively Q&A throughout the presentation. Members walked about the vineyard and into the RDV Wine Production Cellar as well.

We are always happy to see each other at these meeting and look forward to seeing those that could not make this meeting at the next one in September.

Until then,

Respectfully Submitted

Daniel Howsepian

We are approaching the time that we will hopefully announce both a soft opening and a
grand opening for Local Vines, our tasting room featuring commercially available
Lamorinda AVA wines. We anticipate that construction of the Tasting Room, Winery and
apartments will be completed the end of July. We hope that Germinate Kitchen, a
separate, yet connected, commercial kitchen will be complete by the end of 2024. The
one obstacle yet to be overcome is PG&E. We still do not have a completion date for
their work – the subsurface transformer needed to power the entire building. Until the
transformer, or a suitable interim solution, is in place, we cannot get the final approvals
to open.

For those who plan on offering their wine for tasting and sale, you will need the
following: 1) an O-2 or duplicate O-2 license at 3393 Mt. Diablo Blvd.; 2) a signed Joint
Tasting Room Agreement; and 3) evidence of both your TTB Basic Permit and ABC
license. Several local wineries already have submitted all or parts of these
requirements. You should plan that the O-2 licensing process takes up to six months
and duplicate O-2 licenses up to four months to complete! Please contact Larry Thal or
Bill English if you wish assistance or more information.

The schedule below is tentative; however, may provide some useful timelines:

First meeting of the Local Vines Wine Board –July/August 2024
If you intend on selling wine at Local Vines, please submit two bottles of each varietal
and vintage you wish to sell for approval by an independent wine Board consisting of
wine experts, and Sommeliers, whose expertise we are relying on to ensure that the
wines presented at Local Vines serve to enhance the image and reputation of our AVA.
Each wine offered at Local Vines must reflect well on our AVA. Please provide these to
Larry Thal by the end of June.

Marketing – August/September 2024
We will start a promotional campaign during these months to introduce the public to
Local Vines, our AVA, and our local vineyards and winemakers.

Soft Opening – September 2024
This will be our first event for LWGA members, family and friends.

Grand Opening – October 2024
While the first of these events is anticipated for the month of October, this will be the
first of several openings, each aimed at a different demographic, to introduce Local
Vines.