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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

My name is Dave Rey and I am a candidate for the LWGA Board.  I have been a Lafayette resident for over 32 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 in 2011.  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 was elected to the Board again in 2020 and I am currently leading the effort to develop a five year plan for the organization.  I would like to serve another term on the Board so that I can complete that project and help see the plan implemented.

My name is Bill Scanlin and I have been on the LWGA board and run the website since 2008, have been President in 2016, 2017 and 2019 and have been Treasurer Since 2020. 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

I’m Amy Schofield and have served on the LWGA Board for the past four years. In that time I have focused on the LWGA’s communications and interactions with the wider community including the AVA celebrations and social media, and with the membership through the newsletter and surveys. I look forward to the opportunity to continue serving the LWGA.

Outside of my involvement in LWGA, I am opening Germinate Kitchen alongside Local Vines. I still prefer red over white, full bodied over light, and milk over dark.

My name is Bill Saupe, and I’d like your vote to be on the Board of the Association.  I qualify myself like a bottle of wine—the more I get older, the more it tastes sweet (internet quote).  

I’ve been a wine lover all my life, but I’m new to wine growing.  I planted 132 Cabernet Sauvignon wines in 2021 during the pandemic, and have faithfully nurtured, communed with, and battled gophers and birds for the grapes ever since.  I’m not sure its savour-ready yet, but it sure has been fun and a great learning experience.   

I recently joined the LWGA Education Committee, and will be helping plan speakers for all levels of learning and interests.  On the Board, I want to promote the quality, presence, reputation, and camaraderie of the group.  

When I am not working on being an enthusiastic vigneron, I am working in Berkeley in my Prosthodontic practice.  I went to dental school at Northwestern University in Chicago, Prosthodontic training at UCSF, and got my MBA at UOP.  

Thank you for your consideration with a toast to all for 2024—may we always have old wine, old friends, and young cares. 

Hi!  I am Marcy Ryan Nichol and am a long-time Orinda resident. My interest in wine started when I was a student at CAL working at the Vintage House, a restaurant in Orinda with a wine theme (some of you long time Lamorinda residents may recall the restaurant). 

I have 200 Zinfandel vines which were planted in 2013. I thank my grandmother who provided the seed money and who enjoyed a glass of wine every day until she died at 100.  Bill Scanlin is my winemaker ( I consider myself fortunate!). 

I manage the vineyard myself, and find the many hours in the vineyard to be therapeutic, incredibly rewarding, and much like life – unpredictable.  I recognize how much I don’t know and have found LWGA invaluable in my learning trajectory.  I am eager to learn and equally important – want to contribute and give back, hence my interest in serving on the board.   I recently joined the Education committee, and I am excited about the direction LWGA is headed. 

In my other life, I have extensive experience in Human Resources/Employee Relations in the airline, retail and banking industries.  I am currently with SVB/FCB, a financial institution. 

I appreciate your consideration for this position!

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

Happy 2024 Dear Wine Folk

Please mark your calendars! The next member meeting will be on Sunday, January 28th, 3pm to 6pm, at Bill and Alissa Scanlin’s beautiful vineyard and wine cellar property, 6 Lois Lane, Lafayette, CA.

Five members of the new LWGA Educational Committee will be hosting a panel discussion on what to do in the vineyard in the Winter and Spring. The panelists, who each manage their own vineyards, are Karen Joy Maggio, Chris Maxwell, Frank Orson, Marci Ryan-Nichol and Bill Saupe. Their passion and capabilities for viticulture and winemaking will ensure that this is an engaging and very informative meeting.

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

The

Hello fellow LWGA grape growers:

By now, everyone should have their harvest in for 2023.

Earlier this month, I had sent out a request for your harvest information. Thank you for those that have already responded, but there are many who have not yet responded.

Without getting all our vineyard information, I will not be able to get an accurate tally to compare with previous years as is our goal. I only have this week to complete my report, so if you have not yet sent in your harvest information, by varietal and pounds yielded, please do so by Wednesday, November 30, 2023.

Please send your information directly to me at: 5powderhounds@gmail.com

Thanks!

Daniel

BRING OUT THE UGLY SWEATERS!

Some still have grapes on the vine though it’s almost holiday time! Come in your ugliest holiday sweater – store bought or home styled. Prizes are on offer!

LWGA will cater the event and please bring a bottle of wine, or a few, to share. 

NOTE: This is in the hills of Orinda. Flat, comfortable shoes are strongly advised. Additional parking is on Barbara Road. Please observe all posted parking signs

The LWGA party is for members and their significant other

See you there!

RSVP HERE

In case you missed this, please click through the link below to take a short survey that will help Kamyar Aram, UC Cooperative Extension Specialty Crops Advisor for Alameda and Contra Costa Counties in deciding on future programs and services.

Please follow this link to take the survey.

There is a new newsletter for sharing news, resources, and events for crop producers in these counties. 

You can follow this link to subscribe to the Diablo Region Crops Newsletter.

Officially, the end of the growing season for 2023 vintners is over. And what a year! It was the best of vintages, it was the worst of vintages… For some growers and winemakers, this was a remarkable year for quality, and for others not as good. 2023 started late with exceptional moisture and delayed bud break. However, the growing season went along without any major heat waves or disruptions for an excellent extended growing season. I hope you had a good season.

Every year, the LWGA collects member information about your harvests. We would like to know what your gross weight yield in pounds (stems and all) was per varietal. I will accumulate this information anonymously by varietal and have a comparison spreadsheet from prior years to see how we’re doing.

Please send me your information soon so that I might be able to share this information with everyone very soon for an anticipated vigorous discussion.

Thank you!

Daniel Howsepian 5powderhounds@gmail.com

925-858-7000