On Sunday, March 28, the LWGA celebrated it’s 5th anniversary of the Lamorinda AVA!
This was a well published event highlighting wine tastings of non commercial wine on line. There were an estimated 50-60 people who viewed this event online.
The meeting began with a short description of the 3 year effort led by David Rey and other board members in completing the rigorous applications required with the various governmental agencies. The committee had to demonstrate why the proposed Lamorinda AVA was worthy as follows;
– Geological- Characteristics of the uplifted sedimentary rocks and clay stones between the Hayward and the Calaveras fault lines;
– Topography– Uplifting created variable steep hills, shallow soils and good drainage;
– Aspect– these hills created many slope aspects which created micro climates throughout the Lamorinda AVA allowing for growing different varietals for winemaking;
– Micro Vineyards– These vineyards within the AVA are small vineyards, measured in # of vines, not acres, within suburban setting, where sustainable and organic methods are used;
– Hand pruned and harvested due to the steep slopes resulting in a much higher quality fruit.
These, and much more, were used in the successful application we know of today. Anyone interested in learning more about the AVA application can find it on our website under documents.
Then a brief history of the Lamorinda grape growing and wine making was presented as follows:
– Over 150 years of vineyard history can be found in our Appellation and surrounding areas;
-1880; Trelut Brothers; 1st, 150 acres in Bollinger Canyon Road, Moraga; “Eagle Hill”
– 1890; John Muir planted a vineyard in Alhambra;
– 1897; Theodore Wagner vineyard in Orinda;
– 1907; Rossi Family Vineyard in Lafayette
No doubt that vineyards are in our history and contributes to the successful winemaking today!
With all this knowledge, we all sampled the wonderful wines of:
Brian Cherry; Cherry Family Winery; Pinot Noir
Joao Magalhaes; Magalhaes Vineyards; Pinot Noir
Bill Davidson; Davidson Vineyards; 2016 Merlot
David Rey; Reliez Valley Vineyard; Cabernet Sauvignon
Mel Haas; Haas Vineyards; Cabernet Sauvignon
Gerard van Steyn; vS Vineyards; 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon
There was a very nice amount of discussion between each tasting with interesting information about the vineyards, wine making and history of the vineyards. Joao gave us a very interesting view of the origins of the LWGA and his vision of what could be for the Lamorinda AVA together with the LWGA. Creating our region into exclusive and high quality grape growing and wine making appellation as found in the prominent regions in France. A worthy goal indeed!
Larry Thal gave us an update of the much anticipated Wine Tasting / Production and catering facility in the works. Permitting is moving along at a glacier’s pace, but is expected to be completed very soon.
Larry also expressed his desire to find a way to showcase commercial AVA and non commercial AVA wines at the tasting room.
Everyone expressed their appreciation to Amy Scofield and Leslie Ward, and to the contributing winemakers who made this very pleasant event possible.
The meeting was conclude at about 5:45 PM
