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Hello LWGA Wine Folk

During our next meeting this Sunday, we will be discussing in general, what to do in the vineyard this time of year. This will include how to prepare for the season and perhaps how to improve vine health or address deficiencies, such as soil nutrients. Also, it could be fun and interesting to have a short picture show of member vineyards, or any other pictures you wish to share with the group, such as flowers in bloom, birds or animals on your property, worms in your soils, how your vineyard ground/cover crop is looking, other plants or trees on your property, or whatever else you wish to share)

So, please take a picture or two of your vineyard, or whatever you wish to share with the group. And if you have an issue of concern or question, such as how to prune a certain vine or unhealthy looking weeds or cover crops, send a picture of that as well.

Please send your pictures to gerardvs1@gmail.com

Hello fellow wine growers and lovers!

I can’t believe that January is almost gone! The hills are beautifully green, Oak trees are about to blossom and it’s almost time to prune back those marvelous vines. What a great place we live in!

So you may remember that we will be having our regular LWGA General meeting on January 30, 2022 @ 3 PM. The COVID epidemic continues to hinder personal meetings, so the Zoom meeting is our only alternative, for now. I have already sent out the the agenda for this year’s General meetings, but in case you have not read it yet, topics this time will be mostly focused on social meeting & mixing, with some discussion about the board elections nominees, then a short presentation by Gerard about “What to do in the Spring in the vineyards“. There will be a break out session about pruning and the time and place to be decided at the meeting for those who are interested.

Please join us at 1/30/22 @ 3 PM:

https://warriortrading.zoom.us/j/9252007676

I look forward to seeing all of you again there!

Thank you!

Sincerely;

Daniel Howsepian

Pres LWGA

Hello again! In my last message to the membership on 1/16/22, I had included a calendar of events for 2022. In the Calendar, I had indicated that the LWGA AVA Celebration would be held on June 5, but that is incorrect.

The date for the LWGA AVA celebration will be on May 1, 2022

I apologize for the error, and I hope that this date suits you better.

Please stand by for further information on this event.

Thank you for your understanding!

Sincerely;

Daniel Howsepian

Pres. LWGA

Happy New Year!!!

As we move into the dawn of 2022, we have a lot to be thankful for already! December’s rainfall totals have given us a great start in the ground moisture, which will give us a great start for the upcoming growing season. Let’s hope that we’ll see more rain in the coming months.

In my last message to you, I had given you the crop harvest information within our group. I have since looked back to see how we did in the last couple of years. So, in 2021 the gross total was 66,363 #; in 2020 the gross total was 58,763 #; in 2019 the gross total was 51,774# and in 2018 the gross total was 48,242 # Quite an impressive improvement over the years! All thanks to your hard work and good practices.

For those of you who also make wine; we will be encouraging you to submit your wines for wine tasting competitions. We think the tasting events will resume once more and we feel that our wines should be represented. We’re making great wines these days and we should be out there showing how good they are. There’s also a bit of pride when you get those ribbons to show off in your cellar! We will be issuing information on the dates and places to do so. Don’t be shy!

This year’s calendar of general meeting and events will be as follows:

*** January 30, 2022: Viticulture/Farming Educational Meeting; Zoom

Board Elections

What to do in the Spring in the Vineyard

Prebud spraying, covercrop mowing or not, nutrition, soil enhancements, etc

*** POTENTIAL FIELD DAY – DATE TBD – EARLY FEBRUARY ***

FIELD DAY: Pruning, members and/or an outside expert share techniques

and best practices for pruning

*** March 27, 2022 Overview of Best Practices for Canopy Management, Heat Mitigation, Quality Fruit

*** POTENTIAL FIELD DAY – DATE TBD – LATE APRIL OR EARLY MAY ***

Overview of Best Practices for Canopy Management, Heat Mitigation, Quality Fruit

*** June 5, 2022; 5th Annual Lamorinda American Viticultural Area Celebration. Plans are being made right now for our LWGA AVA Celebration in June! We will be serving local wines for our members and the public, and will have a lot of information about our past, present and future plans. This will be an enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon together! Stand by for more information as they become available.

*** July 31, 2022 Food & Wine Pairing. A food and wine expert will guide us on food and wine pairing and wine sensory evaluation

*** POTENTIAL FIELD DAY – DATE TBD – AUGUST ***

A food and wine expert will guide us on food and wine pairing and wine sensory evaluation

*** September 25, 2022; White, Rose and Red Wine Winners

Commercial and Non-Commercial Gold medal winners from major competitions (Sacramento State Fair, Orange County and SF Chronicle) pour their wines and discuss how they were made.

*** December 1, 2022: LWGA Holiday Party: Members and guests will gather to enjoy good food, good wines, holiday sharing. This celebration is for members (and guests) to celebrate a successful harvest and the holiday season together. A short presentation on the harvest and accomplishments of the year will be provided.

In Closing, you will be receiving a notice to vote for the candidates for the LWGA Board. It is important that every member participate in these election. Please try to return them by the end of January.

As noted above, our next General meeting will be on January 30, @ 3 PM. We had hoped to have an in person meeting then, but because of the Omicron Covid surge, we felt it wise to hold this meeting on Zoom.

Please join us at;

https://warriortrading.zoom.us/j/9252007676

Our emphasis this year will be to have primarily social meetings, with a light touch of relevant discussion points as outlined above. If you have an interest in the topics raised, or wish to contribute to the presentation of the topic, we will have a field break-out session available to attend where you can get a deeper dive into the subject matter. We hope this format will be useful to you. Please contact me if you would like to help us in these presentations.

I wish you all a great 2022 and a happy and healthy year ahead! See you on January 30 for our first General Meeting of the year. We hope to be able to have in person meetings as soon as possible again.

Sincerely;

Daniel Howsepian

LWGA President

Hello everyone and Happy Holidays and New Year!

And what a year it was. So many challenges and so much positive energy into overcoming all these challenges. Overall, I had received many compliments from our members for our efforts to stay relevant in these trying times. Behind the scenes, and mostly behind the computer monitors, (Zoom) the board has been actively working hard to plan events and activities for our group. I hope you have taken advantage of everything put forward.

It was great to see our first issue of the newsletter as a source of information and activities of interest. I hope you will enjoy what has been put together for you.

Next year, we are going to create a different format for our General Meetings. We plan to emphasize the social aspect of the meetings, with brief administrative topics as necessity requires and will be creating break out sessions for those who are interested in a deep dive into a topic of choice, at a later designated date. Things like vineyard management, winemaking, etc. will be announced in advance for those that are interested.

I would like to thank all of you who have responded to my call for the harvest information of 2021. It’s great to see how we’re all doing.

2021 has had an overall LWGA yield of 66,363 pounds of grapes! This translates to about 22,000 bottles of wine! The breakdown as follows:

Cabernet S. 18,147 # ; Sauvignon Blanc 1,000 #

Merlot 2,752 # ; Cab Franc 573 #

Pinot Noir 8,835 # ; Tempranillo 953 #

Petite Sirah 8,024 # ; Sangiovese 2,700 #

Chardonnay 5,498 # ; Petit Verdot 1,499 #

Syrah 7,944 # ; Zinfandel 2,200 #

Malbec 1,100 # ; Grenache 1,908 #

Mourvedre 330 # ; Cinsault 290 #

Carignana 310 # ; Cab Franc 100 #

Wow! What a spread of varietals! Should lead to some great wine tastings! And, I would like to remind you that we should submit our wines in for a tasting competition! We are listing them on our website. We’re making great wines and we should have it judged and I’m sure you would be surprised at how well we can do! If you have not yet submitted your harvest information to me, please do so to: 5powderhounds@gmail.com

A quick note about the Board elections. Please be sure to cast a ballot. We depend on your input for what we do and really appreciate your involvement! Please vote.

So let’s start 2022 with real enthusiasm! We have a lot to be thankful for and let’s make the most of it!

Respectfully submitted

Daniel Howsepian

LWGA President

My name is Dave Rey and I am a candidate for the LWGA Board.  I have been a Lafayette resident for over 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 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 2020 and 2021. 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 and have served on the LWGA Board for the past two years. In that time I have focused on the LWGA’s communications and interactions with the wider community including the Pandemic wines tastings and social media, and with the membership through the newsletter, surveys and the upcoming AVA celebration event. I look forward to the opportunity to continue this work.

Outside of my involvement in LWGA, I am opening Germinate Kitchen, a new shared commercial kitchen space in Lafayette. I still prefer 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 four 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.

My name is Brian Cherry and I live in Orinda with my wife Sara and son Alex.  I’ve been making Pinot Noir for the last ten years from my 300 vines in the Sleepy Hollow neighborhood. While my vineyard is not certified organic, I eschew the use of chemical fertilizers and weed killers and try for a sense of terrior in my wines.  Next month I will plant another 80 Cabernet Sauvignon vines (Clone 8, 140 rootstock) to continue my work on someday making a great Lamorinda wine. I still have a lot to learn.   
I’ve previously served on several non profit boards including the Oakland Museum, the San Francisco Big Brothers and Big Sisters organization and the Institute for Public Utilities at Michigan State University.  I look forward to serving on the Board of the LWGA and making our appellation known beyond the borders of Lamorinda itself. 

In case you didn’t add mycorrhizal fungi when your vines were planted, the good news is that its not too late, and is easy to do with this water soluble formula. Mycorrihizal fungi send filaments off of plant roots to extend the water and nutrient uptake of roots. Cool stuff. https://www.pacifichorticulture.org/articles/mycorrhizal-fungi-natures-key-to-plant-survival-and-success/

Here is a wettable version for sale that is very popular with high end farmers and growers: https://www.groworganic.com/products/mykos-mycorrhizae-wp-22-lb?_pos=4&_psq=my&_ss=e&_v=1.0

And if you want to further improve soil health, adding humus can dial things up. The liquid form Humax is easy to apply around vines and plants.

https://www.groworganic.com/blogs/articles/how-to-use-soil-amendments-humates-humic-acids-and-humus?_pos=1&_psq=humus&_ss=e&_v=1.0

Do you have ideas for future meetings or events for our Lamorinda Winegrowers Association? Would you like to get more involved and/or help out?

Any member who is interested in helping plan educational topics and meeting plans for 2022 is invited to join the Lamorinda Winegrowers Education Committee. The Education Committee will be meeting in December by Zoom to brainstorm and develop plans for meetings and events in 2022. If you are interested in participating, please email gerardvs1@gmail.com

Hi again everyone:

The one thing I forgot to mention in my October Recap message was that the board would like to ask all of you to please let me know how many gross pounds of grapes you harvested this year. We do this every year and it’s good information for our AVA. Please indicate the varietal of your grapes as well.

Please send your result information to:

5powderhounds@gmail.com

Thank you!

Sinceerely;

Daniel

President, LWGA

925-858-7000

Hello LWGA Members:

On Sunday LWGA held a scheduled general meeting at the Wine Thieves in the back area with the picnic tables. The meeting was well attended with 28 people. Everyone brought wine and appetizers enough for all attending.

This was to be a mostly social meeting, and it was great to see everyone there. It was hard to break up all the conversations to begin the meeting.

We began by introducing our new members, Kim Straub of Cinco Ninos Vineyards and Leanne Pilot & Dennis Carlston of Crane Terrace Vineyards.

I also announced to the group our plans for the LWGA AVA celebration on Sunday, April 24, 2022 right there in the parking lot and easements between the Wine Thieves and the new wine tasting room which Larry Thal is undertaking, hopefully completed in time for the event. There will be wine booths selling tastings and wine, food trucks, music and other events & services. Please be sure to put that date on your calendar and spread the word!

We encouraged everyone there to tell us about their harvest. Many folks indicated that their harvest was under par for the year. This is consistent with the information published in various papers from Sonoma and Napa. Factors such as excessive heat and the drought were identified as the causes for the lower yields. A vigorous and entertaining discussion about water consumption ensued. However, the bright spot is that it is anticipated that while the vines have suffered, they tend to produce rich and flavorful vintages!

There was a concern that the rains would interrupt the meeting, but as it turned out, the rain held off for us until the adjournment at 6 PM.

We look forward to seeing you again at the next meeting. The board will publish after it’s next meeting the annual membership meeting schedule for the members.