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Dut to an unanticipated family situation Daniel Howsepian needs to change the date of our July general meeting to be held at his home in Lafayette on July 31st to Sunday July 24th still at 3PM. Be sure to make note of this change of date. The plant for the event stays the same which is to taste wine competition medal winners. As stated in my email of 2 days ago please contact me directly if you would care to share your winning wines with our membership. Thanks for your cooperation on this change of plan.

Regards,

David Hicks.

Hi grape growers/winemakers/members. On May 1st we had a very successful wine tasting event featuring 6 of our bonded wineries. A special thanks again to Amy and Daniel for their leadership in putting on that event and to all our pro members that participated. Next year we hope to do something in conjunction with the new Local Vines facility whose planned opening is planned to be end of this year.

Our next general membership meeting will be on July 31 at 3PM at Daniel Howsepians home in Lafayette at 3345 Hermosa Way, off Reliez Valley Rd. The event will be social but will also feature a tasting of comp winners. As is usual at our events we ask members to bring tasty nibbles to share? We are asking our wine comp winers to give a presentation on their winning wine. The comps we would like to include are the Chronicle, Orange County Fair, and Winemaker Magazine. These three premier events will give us a good cross section of both pro and home wines. If your wine won an award, pro or home, at any of these events we would like to taste them so please let me know if you would like to have your fellow members taste your wine on July 31st? [please contact me dh1780@yahoo.com]

For our September general meeting we would like to have a member or some other knowledgable person do a presentation on food and wine pairing. If any of our illustrious members are foodies and into wine and would like to do such a presentation or if you know of someone who would like do so please contact me at the email address above? Looks like we are off to a good growing season. All for now.

David

Celebrating our AVA anniversary takes a village! Please sign up to help set up, throughout the day, or break down at the end of the day.

Sign up here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc3WJOS5PBGKRc04StD2O-JUh-VoWc2lfP8GTj__nbgx0c12g/viewform?usp=sf_link

Any questions? Email Amy at lamorindawines@gmail.com

Thank you all!

GROWERS, WINEMAKERS, MEMBERS and FRIENDS

Our associations May 1 wine tasting event is just two weeks away and our bonded winemakers are looking forward to our first public tasting event showcasing over 20 of our Lamorinda award winning wines to the world. Our event is being held behind the Wine Thieves store on Mt. Diablo from Noon to Six that Sunday. As we have taken over WT’s rear parking lot we ask that you park on Mt. Diablo or side streets. We will also have two different food trucks for your lunch and snacking pleasure.

As the associations newly installed President I look forward welcoming you to the event and meeting the many of you I haven’t yet had the pleasure of meeting. Amy has sent you email announcements with access to purchasing tickets. Sales have been brisk so I urge you to go on line right away and buy your tickets, bring your family, your friends and neighbors for a truly grand wine tasting event. See you all there?

David Hicks, President LWGA

Unfortunately, we are going to grow grapes this year, again, in drought conditions. Current soil moisture levels, again, are well below historical averages, which means that ground water available for your vines is probably already very low, unless you already have started to irrigate your vines. Unless you know that your soils still have adequate water, most LWGA vineyards should consider commencing irrigation.

The youtube link below contains quite a bit of interesting information on soil moisture and makes the argument that insufficient soil moisture at bud break can negatively affect production and vine health for the entire growing season. The most interesting parts about soil moisture are near the end of this presentation.

Every vineyard has different soil depths and profiles and soil water retention abilities, so the following recommendations should be tailored to your experience to your soil water and irrigation needs. That said, for our vineyard, we have been using in ground soil moisture meters to determine when to irrigate and how much to irrigate. Following are my recommendations on irrigation for a drought year such as this year:

• If your vineyard had low production last year, it quite possibly was due to insufficient irrigation.
• First and foremost, look closely at your vines for signs of insufficient irrigation, such as tendrils that are flopping down or dried out. Also monitor for signs of excess irrigation. The LWGA website has previous presentations with visual guides for this.
• In a hot/drought year, your vines and landscaping will need more water. This may be 20 to 40 percent more water than a typical year.
• Start irrigation before bud break and as early as you see your cover crops beginning to turn yellow from lack of water
• Vines need more water as the growing season progresses. Increase the duration of your irrigation each month through harvest.
• Run extra irrigation before major heat waves, ideally 24 hours before high temperatures.

Very general heat wave suggestions:

• If temps will reach 95 degrees, give .2 to .35 gallons of extra water per foot of canopy length per day
• If temps will exceed 100 degrees, give .5 to .65 gallons of extra water per foot of canopy length per day
• Example: for 6 foot canopy length per vine, give 1 to 2 gallons/vine/day before 95 degree day, 2-4 gallons/vine/day before 100 degree day

In order to build Lamorinda’s reputation for top, and even world class wines, we need to be winning top awards at the highest regarded wine competitions. And even if one doesn’t yet win a top award this year, getting feedback about our wines from professional judges is invaluable to learning how to improve our wines in the future.

The Lamorinda Winegrowers Association Board recommends that all non-commercial and commercial members enter their wines into the upcoming Orange County Wine Competition. There are separate competitions for both categories of winemakers.

For non-commercial or home winemakers, the competition entry period opens April 1st and wines most likely can be dropped off at Oakbarrel Winemaking in Berkeley and possibly MoreWine as well. More details on entries and other details will follow. But at this time, please mark your calendars and figure out what to enter. https://www.homewinecompetition.com/

And LWGA also encourages every commercial winemaker to enter the Orange County Commercial Wine Competition. https://info.winecompetition.com/ Commercial wines must be entered and received by the Orange County competition by July 1st.

Let’s take LWGA to the next level! Over one thousand wines will be entered into the Orange County Wine Competition, and we should compare quite favorably.

Please correct your calendars? Thank you.

Just a reminder that we will be having general meeting as a wine tasting this Sunday behind the Wine Thieves building for all members. Come one and all, bring a bottle and something nice for snacks enjoy each others wines and we will be telling you all about our Lamroinda Wine Fare in May 1st. David Hicks

Hello Lamroinda Wine Growers,

I am David Hicks and as the newly elected President of the Lamorinda Board I want to introduce myself to our membership. But first I want to remind all of our members about the associations Wine Fare on May 1st from noon to 6 PM. Six of our local bonded wineries will set up tents and be pouring at least 19 different wines made from Lamorinda AVA grapes. The event will be held behind Wine Thieves on Mt. Diablo next to Jack in the Box. We will also have two different food trucks for lunch and snack selection. A special thanks to David Rey, a founding member of our association, for making the space behind Wine Thieves available to us for the event. Amy Schofeld of our board has put together a first rate program for our members, their friends and guests, and very importantly the wine appreciating public.

Tickets will go on sale first week of April. We urge you to buy your tickets early. $30 for members, $35 for guests, $40 at the door. Amy will be emailing asking members to loan us tables and chairs for the event so that we won’t have to rent. Please contact Amy at 510.227.9312 to make arrangements?

It has been a challenge these past two years with our enthralling “zoom” meetings and the endless delays Larry Thal has experienced getting his permits to build his Local Vines project just down the street from Wine Thieves which is now underway. A special thanks to thank Daniel Howsepian for his two years as president during this crazy and occasionally stressful period for his leadership patience and creativity. We are looking forward to resuming our social and educational events in the months ahead.

My background in grape growing and winemaking is a bit different in that even though I’ve lived in Lafayette since 1978 my vineyard and winery are in the Red Hills AVA on the shore of Clear Lake. From 2002 to 2005 I took the entire Vet and Eno extension program at UC Davis, planting my vineyard in 2003 and making my first wine in 2007. Over the last 15 years I’ve made most of the common varieties of wine with grapes from my own and other CL vineyards. [left the Pinot Noir to Bill English]. Even tried Botritus Sauve Blanc [Sauturne] and once made brandy. Having a residence in Lake County and being a member of the local grape growers association has been a educational grape growing bonanza for me. It is my hope to bring some of those benefits to Lamorinda growers during my tenure.

Our immediate focus in on our May 1 event which is quickly approaching. We urge you to bring your family, friends, neighbors and extended social circles to this fun and delicious Wine event. You will be getting several email blasts about the event so round up your group and come to the party. On behalf of the board I want to thank all our members for their patience and attention and we look forward to seeing all of you Saturday May 1, behind Wine Thieves.

Regards,

David Hicks, President

This Sunday we will hold our Spring meeting at Wine Thieves parking lot. The meeting will be mainly social and wine tasting, so bring a bottle, or more, of your best wine for all to taste. There will be no formal presentations. We urge you to bring an appetizer to share with all? We will be providing wine glasses. May 1st is our Premier Public Wine Tasting event to be held from noon to 6 right here behind Wine Thieves. We will fill you in on our event progress. Amy will be sending out several notices to membership about the event with directions on pricing and ticketing etc, so watch for her blasts. She will also be asking for volunteers to assist us in putting on the event. We will definitely need your help to pull this off. I look forward to seeing many of you there and have asked the rain gods to hold off till 8PM.

Regards, David Hicks, President