Due
to the inclement weather
we were forced to postpone the April meeting
The April meeting agenda is an important one - nominations
for next year's Board of Directors, awards for the club judging,
awards for the Inter-Club Challenge, and the critical wine tasting
of amateur wines.
Thus, we have re-scheduled the membership meeting to Wednesday, April 18th at 7:30 PM.
Hope we will see you there.
Congratulations to the WVA
Winemaking Competition Winners
Best
of Show
Don
Betlej with his Vidal Blanc
1st Place
Winners
Don Betlej, Alan Downs, Armin
Engelmann, Ray Glatch,
Howard Hasselkus, Ginny Herrmann, Al Krueger,
Larry Legare, Bob Lemanczyk, Jerry Wanty
Click
here
for the complete award list
April
News
April Membership Meeting
The April 2007 membership meeting of the Wisconsin Vintners Association will
begin at 7:30 PM on Wednesday the 18th at Clifford’s Restaurant, 10418 Forest
Home Ave. The program will be a "Critical" wine tasting, evaluation and judging
of a flight of similar wines. This will be done in small groups, informally,
with a table captain leading the tasting. No prior judging experience is
required. We will make this a tasting of homemade wines, so please bring one or
two bottles of your wine to be used blind in the tasting with all labels
removed. Please remember to bring several glasses.
Every month we award a bottle of wine to one of our members who had dinner at
Clifford’s prior to our meeting. The award wine this month is a 2003 Robert
Mondavi, Private Selection, Pinot Grigio. Congratulations to Joanne Ziarek who
was last month’s winner.
Notes from the President
There are always people to thank for something every month and
that's one of the great things about our organization: we have so many capable
volunteers who share their time and talents with us. Thanks again this month to
Don Betlej and Tom Courtney for putting out the newsletter. Thank you to Don
Betlej and Howard Hasselkus for their hard work in coordinating the club wine
judging and selection of entries to the central Wisconsin wine club challenge.
Thanks to everyone who helped at the judging and who entered wines to be judged.
If you won an award for your wine, plan to come to the program meeting April 11
to get your ribbons and judging sheets and receive recognition for your efforts.
Our club also did quite well for our first year of participation in the wine
club challenge in Wausau on March 24.
April is the month for the nominating committee to present the slate of
candidates to the
membership for the May election. If you are interested in any of the positions
contact a
member of the nominating committee: Jerry Horzewski, Dave Brandt, Mary
Scovronski.
They will present the slate at the April meeting and nominations may be made
from the floor at that time. Nominations will then be closed for elections
at the May 16 meeting.
This year we are planning to take a bus trip to the Wollersheim winery on June 9
instead of having Philippe present a program here in June so plan to join us. We
need a volunteer (or two) to coordinate the bus trip for this special event.
Contact Joanne @ 262-821-2064 if you can help. Thank you.
Joanne
Annual Food
& Wine Pairing Event
Our May 16, 2007 meeting will be the annual Food & Wine
Paring event. Please note that this meeting will occur one week later than our
normal, second Wednesday of the month, meeting date.
Every year the Food & Wine Pairing program is attended by more members than any
other. And why not? It’s always a lot of fun, informative and a real bargain
compared to similar events produced elsewhere. This year will be no exception.
Tim Harty, who has been a WVA member for over a year now, and currently
in the process of writing a book on wine targeting the novice wine consumer,
will present the program this year. Tim and two friends who have chef
backgrounds have created food & wine paring programs for other groups in the
past.
Expect the usual variety of wines to taste along with a combination of
individual food and specially prepared food samples. Tim will give his unique
perspective and observations about the good and not as good wine and food sample
combinations. He asks that each member bring four wine glasses for the tasting.
Pre-registration is required for this special event no later
than May 9. The cost of the
program will be the same as last year, which is the same for members and their
guests. Please send a check for $10 per person made out to the WVA by May 9 to:
Joanne Ziarek, 15413 W. Mayflower Ct., New Berlin, WI 53151, and indicate the
names of all attendees. Use this form to register:
Food & Wine Pairing
Registration
WVA Winemaking Club Judging
Our club’s annual winemaking competition was held on Sunday,
March 11. Thank you to all who entered and all who helped to make this event a
success. There were 112 bottles submitted for judging with 19 first place, 22
second place and 35 third place awards given. Best of Show this year was
awarded to Don Betlej for his 2005 Vidal Blanc. See a complete listing of
the award winners, on the Awards Page.
2007
Inter-Club Wine Challenge
The 2007 Inter-Club Challenge was held in Wausau on March 24,
2007. The clubs
represented were the Wisconsin Vintners Association, Jenny Falls Corkmasters
from Wausau, the Central Wisconsin Amateur Winemakers from Marshfield and
the Prairie View Winemakers Club from Sun Prairie. Each club
entered 30 wines. The club with the most total points, based on first, second
and third place ribbons, plus best of show points, would take home the traveling
trophy.
This year the trophy was won by the Jenny Falls Corkmasters club. The WVA
came in second place. Best of show went to Jenny Falls Corkmasters for a peach
wine, and second best of show went to the Prairie View Winemakers Club for a
wild grape wine.
A special thank you to Howard Hasselkus and Bob Wilson who
represented our club at this event and helped judge the Challenge. The entries
from the WVA members scored very well. See a complete listing of the award
winners, on the Awards Page.
Meet a New Member
Welcome and meet Al Downs who has been a member of the WVA for
less than one year. Al and his wife Mary have two children and three
grandchildren, with another on the way.
Al and Mary live in Oak Creek where Al was a
firefighter for 29 years. Now retired from fighting fires you won’t find
Al just sitting in a rocking chair. If he is, it may be to check
out ideas for Al’s woodworking hobby which has him making things like
cribs for the grandchildren and wood accessories for still another hobby
turned business.
Al owns an auto specialty parts store named the
Mailtruck Model A Parts Company located on Howell Avenue in Oak Creek.
See the photo showing an example which shows a combina  tion
of both Al’s woodworking ability and his antique auto interests.
Al still has a little time for home winemaking. He has
made a few grape wines from kits and has made cranberry wine and just
recently won a first place in the WVA club judging with his
Apricot/Peach wine. Al says that the WVA has a nice group of
people, willing to share their winemaking knowledge. I’m sure that Al
will also be willing to share his woodworking knowledge and interesting
facts about Model A Fords.
Advanced Winemaking Project
Please go to the web site's
Wine Making Info page to learn about a
new club program developed to advance winemaking in our club. Propose a
project and if approved your costs will be picked up by the club (up to $30.00).
Calendar of Events
April 4, 2007 - Wednesday, WVA Board Meeting at the home of Helmut &
Irene Wittbecker, 7:00 PM
April 18, 2007 - Wednesday, WVA membership meeting at Clifford's Supper Club.
7:30 PM. The topic will be Critical Wine Evaluation.
May 12, 2007
- Saturday, WVA Board Meeting at the Lakefront Brewery, 10:00 AM
May 16, 2007
- Wednesday, WVA membership meeting at Clifford's Supper Club.
7:00 PM. Annual Food & Wine Pairing Event
May 18 & 19, 2007,
WI State Fair Amateur Winemakers Competition
June 9, 2007
- Saturday, WVA membership meeting at Wollersheim Winery
July 11, 2007
- Wednesday, WVA membership meeting at Lakefront Brewery, Annual Potluck Dinner
Special Thanks To Clifford's
For The Use Of Their Hall!
10418 W. FOREST
HOME AVE
HALES CORNERS, WI
(414) 425-6226
www.cliffordsfinefood.com
Map
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Sponsor!
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