The May 2006 membership meeting of the Wisconsin Vintners Association will begin at 7:30 PM on Wednesday, the 10th. Our speaker of the evening will be Phillipe Coquard, President and Winemaker for the Wollersheim Winery. He will be giving a tribute to Bob Wollersheim, founder of the winery. He will also comment on the milestone of the winery producing a million bottles of wine last year.

Phillipe will be joining us for the dinner that some of us have been attending at Clifford’s before the membership meeting. Look at it as an opportunity to get to know him better. It’s also an opportunity to get to know your fellow winemakers better. Maybe a chance to ask a question of the other attendees. The wine to be awarded to one of the diners is from Cedar Creek Winery (an offshoot of the Wollersheim Winery), a Pinot Grigio, a soft, gentle, semi-dry wine. Suggesting bright, juicy tropical flavors, with highlights of ripe grapefruit. Enjoy this wine with chilled appetizers, cheese, creek-side picnics and good friends. Best enjoyed young.

We will also have the election of officers and awards will be presented to the winners of this year's club wine judging competition.
 

The club judging held on March 26th was a big success, thanks to all those who
helped, judged and entered wines. A special thanks to Don Betlej and Howard Hasselkus for all their work with the judging committee. Congratulations to all the winners, especially Ken Skotzke for “Best-of-Show.” The awards will be presented after our program at the May 10 meeting.

Our featured Board member this month is Tim Larsen. We extend our sympathy to him in the loss of his beloved wife on April 1 after a courageous battle with cancer.

If you were one of the 84 people who attended the April 5 Wine and Food program with Lou Bruno and wanted one of the brown hexagonal bottles you can purchase the wine (Pierre Chainier 2004 Vouvray) at Discount Liquor at 51st and Oklahoma for about $10 a bottle or contact your favorite wine store to see if they carry it.

The Board is looking for one or two people to coordinate the various committees
for next year’s dinner-dance as well as people to help on or chair those committees. If you are interested contact either Tom Courtney or anyone else on the Board to learn more.

The deadline for entering the wines in the Wisconsin State Fair competition is
May 1. (That’s for the paper work and entry fee.) The judging committee has done a lot of work to expand the number of collection sites, enhance the judging forms, recruit judges and publicize the event. The judging is on Saturday, May 20, so come and help if you can.

Joanne