Hello fellow LWGA members:

On Sunday, July 14, (also known as Bastille Day), LWGA hosted our bi-monthly general meeting at Daniel & Annemieke Howsepian’s Home and Raisin d’Etre Vineyard in Lafayette. We were all very pleasantly relieved that the weather was perfect for this meeting, especially given what we were dealing with recently.

31 members were present for the meeting which made for a great opportunity to interact with fellow members.
There was a very nice presentation of appetizers and wine offered by our attending members for everyone enjoyment.

Marcy Ryan-Nicol and Bill Saupe, our educational committee members, planned a detailed presentation of about 30 minutes regarding vineyard canopy management. Bill Saupe made the presentation and there was a lively Q&A throughout the presentation. Members walked about the vineyard and into the RDV Wine Production Cellar as well.

We are always happy to see each other at these meeting and look forward to seeing those that could not make this meeting at the next one in September.

Until then,

Respectfully Submitted

Daniel Howsepian

We are approaching the time that we will hopefully announce both a soft opening and a
grand opening for Local Vines, our tasting room featuring commercially available
Lamorinda AVA wines. We anticipate that construction of the Tasting Room, Winery and
apartments will be completed the end of July. We hope that Germinate Kitchen, a
separate, yet connected, commercial kitchen will be complete by the end of 2024. The
one obstacle yet to be overcome is PG&E. We still do not have a completion date for
their work – the subsurface transformer needed to power the entire building. Until the
transformer, or a suitable interim solution, is in place, we cannot get the final approvals
to open.

For those who plan on offering their wine for tasting and sale, you will need the
following: 1) an O-2 or duplicate O-2 license at 3393 Mt. Diablo Blvd.; 2) a signed Joint
Tasting Room Agreement; and 3) evidence of both your TTB Basic Permit and ABC
license. Several local wineries already have submitted all or parts of these
requirements. You should plan that the O-2 licensing process takes up to six months
and duplicate O-2 licenses up to four months to complete! Please contact Larry Thal or
Bill English if you wish assistance or more information.

The schedule below is tentative; however, may provide some useful timelines:

First meeting of the Local Vines Wine Board –July/August 2024
If you intend on selling wine at Local Vines, please submit two bottles of each varietal
and vintage you wish to sell for approval by an independent wine Board consisting of
wine experts, and Sommeliers, whose expertise we are relying on to ensure that the
wines presented at Local Vines serve to enhance the image and reputation of our AVA.
Each wine offered at Local Vines must reflect well on our AVA. Please provide these to
Larry Thal by the end of June.

Marketing – August/September 2024
We will start a promotional campaign during these months to introduce the public to
Local Vines, our AVA, and our local vineyards and winemakers.

Soft Opening – September 2024
This will be our first event for LWGA members, family and friends.

Grand Opening – October 2024
While the first of these events is anticipated for the month of October, this will be the
first of several openings, each aimed at a different demographic, to introduce Local
Vines.

https://www.tinyurl.com/LWGA-April28

Join us for an afternoon of wine tasting, food, and entertainment! Taste Lamorinda AVA wines and wines from AVA makers including:

• Thal Vineyards
• Meadow View Winery
• Raisin d’Etre Vineyards
• Los Arabis Vineyards
• Crossbrook Winery
• Crane Terrace Winery
• St Romedius Wine
• Castillo Vineyards
• Rancho Del Hambre Wine
• Deer Hill Vineyards
• Mount Diablo Cider

Food for purchase from Babo’s Kitchen. Let us introduce you to Rubab, affectionately known as Babo, the culinary virtuoso and a Private Chef rooted in El Cerrito, California. With cuisine as her ultimate canvas, she crafts masterpieces that excite taste buds and ignite creativity. Born in Kuwait, raised in Pakistan, and now proudly a resident of California, Babo’s journey is a fusion of cultures and flavors, blending her passion for design with a love for diverse culinary delights from around the world.

Entry price includes a Lamorinda wine tasting glass and 5 tickets that can be used for tasting or purchasing wine by the glass. Bottles of wine to take home available for sale. Additional tickets are 5 for $20

https://www.tinyurl.com/LWGA-April28

Hello All! 

The annual Lamorinda Wine Growers Association AVA Celebration is right around the corner – Sunday 4/28 from 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm. The event this year will be our best yet and we’re all looking forward to it! 

We are looking for volunteers to help with set up and take down (banners, tents, tables, and chairs). 

We still need 3 volunteers each for the morning (10:00 am) and evening (5:00 pm) crew. 

Also, if anyone has a lush flower garden and would be willing to share some blooms for table decorations, we’d really appreciate the contribution. 

If you can volunteer please notify Leanne Pilot at leannepilot@gmail.com or 720-999-3500.

Cheers!

Hello All!

The annual Lamorinda Wine Growers Association AVA Celebration is right around the corner – Sunday 4/28 from 12:00 pm to 5:00 pm. The event this year will be our best yet and we’re all looking forward to it!

We are looking for volunteers to help with set up and take down (banners, tents, tables, and chairs).

We need 4 volunteers for the morning (10:00 am) and 4 volunteers for evening (5:00 pm).

Also, if anyone has a lush flower garden and would be willing to share some blooms for table decorations, we’d really appreciate the contribution.

If you can volunteer please notify Leanne Pilot at leannepilot@gmail.com or 720-999-3500.

Cheers!

I am reconfiguring the “Stafford wine cellar” a bit and I have oodles of JK Adams Modular Wine Racks that I will not re-use (at least not all of them). Enough for 1000+ bottles of wine in various size configurations. They are posted for sale on Craigslist/FB Marketplace for $2/bottle – but wanted to mention it here in case anyone is interested in some or all.

Our annual celebration of the Lamorinda Appellation is just around the corner on April 28, so save the date! A link to purchase tickets for members and guests will be shared shortly.

LWGA MEMBERS: March 31st is Easter Sunday and therefore not a viable day to have our membership meeting. It is moved forward one week to the following Sunday April 7th. We will be notifying you of the topical content and location of the meeting no later than March 20th. Please pass this info along?

Thanks, David Hicks President

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!