There are two great events coming up that you may be interested in attending. The Lafayette Art and Wine Festival is on September 21st and 22nd and the Moraga Pear and Wine Festival is on September 28th. Please come and support our local towns and winemakers that will be pouring at both events. Flyers for both events are below.
Dear Members,
One of our members suggested that we post where Lamorinda wines are sold or served on the website so that we can support getting our wines more widely known in the community. If you sell your wine commercially or your winemaker does, please reply to this email with:
Once we have this from those interested, we will put this information out on the website.
Thanks,
LWGA Board
The Orinda Rotary is holding its annual event to support schools, arts and seniors programs. If you would like to donate your wine to this event, your label will be advertised and you will get a donation letter from the Orinda Rotary. https://www.orindacarshow.com/enjoy-dancing-with-the-cars/
Please contact me @ Losarabisvineyards@gmail.com. Thanks.
| Calling all grape growers! Join Napa RCD for a Hands-onIrrigation Management Workshop, August 27, 9am – 1pm *RSVP Required*RSVP Required Questions? Contact Miguel Garcia:Miguel@NapaRCD.org or 707-690-3122 Sponsored by the CA Dept of Water Resources |
| Napa County Resource Conservation District | 1303 Jefferson Street, Suite 500B, Napa, CA 94559 |
As a followup to the last meeting at the Howsepian’s on electric fencing, this post provides links to suggested products to setup a portable electric fence. Since I started using a portable electric fence last year, I have not had any issues with raccoons or other varmits stealing our grapes or tree fruit. Its easy to setup and move, and not very expensive. In summary you will need an electric fence charger (either plug in or solar), electric fence posts, fence wire, a tester, a rubber mallet to tap in the posts. A dawn to dusk sensing outlet also is helpful since it will automatically turn the wires on and off. Here is a summary of what I use.. there are hundreds of other options available, so use this as your starting point:
FYI: I just tap in the plastic fence poles with a rubber hammer and find that two strands of hot rope or wire at the levels that varmits walk, but not touching too much weeds works quite well. For the ground, you can just wrap the grounding wire onto a metal post from the vineyard, and it will ground across all posts on that row, or dive in metal grounding posts per instructions. Reach out if you have any questions.
fence charger: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000HHO9EE/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
tester:
wire:
posts:
light sensor:
rubber mallet:
Hello Fellow LWGA Members:
On Sunday, July 28, LWGA held a general meeting at the Howsepian’s in Lafayette. This meeting was well attended and there were in addition a number of prospective members present. Thanks to all that braved the heat to attend, but as it turned out, there was a nice breeze to keep everything comfortable.
After the cocktail and appetizers hour, our President, Bill Scanlin gave us a brief overview of the status of the association, a review of our new LWGA website Forum Posting system, and a friendly reminder of dues for the coming year.
This was followed by a lively discussion and demonstration by Daniel Howsepian as to how to install and operate an electric fencing system in various conditions. A sample ground electric fencing system was set up to illustrate how the wiring can be accomplished, equipment required and an inspection of a real life fencing electric fencing system employed at Raisin d’Etre Vineyard. Many questions were asked and follow through was encouraged.
Following the electric fencing discussion and demonstrations, the white wine winners from our previous member’s choice wine rating event, were there to pour those winning wines and to explain how they were grown and processed. Bill English and David Dicks really know their winemaking and it shows in their wines! A real example of the LWGA Brand potential.
After the demonstrations and wine tasting, a tour was made of Raisin d’Etre vineyard and production facilities which was also well attended.
The evening ended pleasantly with the very comfortable temperatures and a cooling breeze to make the last tastings of the many wines available even more enjoyable.
We thank everyone for the wine and food contributions which made for a great meeting again!
We look forward to seeing you all at our next LWGA Meeting in September.
LWGA Board
There is a new forum capability that is available on the website for our members that will allow you to communicate with other members and experts in the organization. This will work kind of like “NextDoor” if you are familiar with that community website.
There is a video available that explains how to use forums on our website. The link to the video is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGjaZsZwDP0
If you have any questions about how to use this feature or have any suggestions, please contact Bill Scanlin at bscanlin@gmail.com and he will get back to you as quickly as he can.
LWGA Board
Again this year, on August 24, Bobbie and Tom Preston will be hosting a tomato and wine tasting fundraising benefit for Habitat for Humanity East Bay/SiliconValley in their Moraga home and garden. When the Prestons did this event in 2017 there were 40 attendees and the event raised almost $4000 for Habitat. The tomatoes will be again contributed by Moraga Gardens Farm. This year Habitat will be handling the PR and it is anticipated there will be 100 guests in 2 shifts (1-3 and 3-5 PM).
The Prestons invite members of the Lamorinda Winegrowers Association to contribute wine to the event; since this year the event will be an official Habitat for Humanity event, the contributions will be tax-deductible.
The Prestons are happy to pick up your donation; you may contact them at 925-376-8474, or at barbarampreston@comcast.net
At the State Fair Commercial Wine Competition, out of 2,538 entries, the Meadow View Winery 2016 Cabernet Franc, Lamorinda AVA, made by Bill English with locally grown grapes from Isabelle’s vineyard located in Moraga was awarded 99 points and a DOUBLE GOLD! This is a very impressive wine score that demonstrates the high quality of local wines. Congratulations to Bill English the winemaker and Doug Spear and Isabelle Ord the winegrowers!
This 99 point double gold wine is available for purchase at Jackson’s, Diablo Foods, and BevMo Lafayette and Orinda for only $25 or so. The Lamorinda Winegrowers Association Board encourages members to purchase and share this local award winning wine. We are excited about the future of Lamorinda wines and anticipate many future announcements on award winning local wines!
LWGA Board
Wine Spectator News