December 2008 News
 

The December 2008 membership meeting of the Wisconsin Vintners Association will begin at 7:30 PM on Wednesday, December 10th at Clifford’s Restaurant, 10418 Forest Home Ave, Hales Corners, WI.  The program will be a Critical Wine Tasting, which will involve the evaluation and judging of a flight of four similar commercial wines. This will be done in small groups, informally, with a table captain leading the tasting. No prior judging experience is required

This program’s purpose is to provide our members with insight into the wine evaluation process. Learning how to assess wine characteristics such as clarity, aroma, taste etc. will assist members in evaluating and then improving their own wines. Those members who enjoy this evaluating process are encouraged to participate in the annual club judging as well as at the WI State Fair competition in May. The WVA will provide the wines for this program but members should bring two or more of your own glasses.

Every month we raffle off a bottle of wine to one of our members who has dinner at Clifford’s prior to our meeting. The award wine this month is a Yangarra Estate Vineyard, McLaren Vale Appellation, 2001 Merlot. A product of Australia. this wine “comes from the premier terroir producing region of Australia. This wine is a soft, luscious wine with ripe cherry and red plum flavors, ending in a solid finish.”
 

President's Blog

We had a good time at the Harvest Dinner. Thanks to Jerry & Doris Horzewski and Diane Brodzik for doing all the work. Plenty of food and entertainment.  Joanne Ziarek has volunteered to be the chairman of this years Dinner Dance, which will be held on February 7th, 2009 at a new location: Radisson Hotel Milwaukee West. Joanne will need lots of help to set up and run the games and auctions. The hotel is offering a special room rate of $89.00 plus tax for the night of February 7th.

To help promote the use of the rooms we are having a drawing to win a room on Feb 7th.  A donation of $5.00 will get you a chance to win the room or one of two gift baskets as consolation prizes. You can get a ticket at the December or January regular meetings or call Sally Hasselkus or Erv Herman if you cannot get to one of these meetings. The drawing will be held at the January meeting. Try to come at 6:00 PM to dine at Clifford’s before the December meeting. Eating at Clifford’s is a way to thank Jack for the free use of his hall.

Howard Hasselkus
 

This year the board is excited to announce a change in venue for our annual dinner dance/ fund raiser to be held on February 7, 2009. It will be held at the Radisson Hotel Milwaukee West at 2303 N. Mayfair Rd across from the Mayfair shopping mall. It's a very nice facility with ample parking, excellent food and facilities. They are offering us a special discount on the rooms of $89 per night plus tax. Save the date and plan to make it a special weekend by staying overnight after the party, especially if you will be coming from a distance.

The party will begin at 6:00 PM with games and auctions, dinner at 7:00PM, live music and dancing at 8:00PM. The games and auctions will continue throughout the evening. Invitations will be mailed at the end of December so watch for yours. Invite your friends and relatives and be sure to include their names on your RSVP card indicating who will be seated together. The board decided to keep the cost down and only charge $30 per person to encourage people to come to the new location. The cost to the club will be higher because they will be doing all the work for us so we hope you will come with your friends and have fun playing the games and bidding on the auction items while helping our club raise the funds needed for our programs throughout the year.

Items are needed for the dinner dance silent auction. Auction items could be purchased and donated, or may be handcrafted where you can show off your other talents! Please bring your items to either the December 10th and January 14th membership meetings. Attach the name of the donor and the approximate dollar value to each donated item. This will help with record keeping and will also give the set-up committee an idea for a starting bid. Please do NOT bring any items to the dinner on Saturday night because the set up will be completed by noon of that day. If you have any questions contact Joanne Ziarek.
 

Two years ago a committee of WVA members et multiple times to discuss and make decisions related to changes in the judging process used at our annual club wine judging and also at the WI State Fair Amateur Winemakers Competition that out club runs every year. We worked hard to modify the judging sheets, making to changes to the various wine categories, adding multiple entry drop-off locations and redoing the published rules and regulations.

It's time we made a few modifications again, based upon suggestions received and a continuing drive to make the judging process as meaningful and fair to the amateur winemakers participating. If you would like to be involved in this process, please let our club president, Howard Hasselkus, or me, Don Betlej, know of your interest. We'll talk more about this at the Critical Wine Tasting and Evaluation Program scheduled for the upcoming December 10th membership meeting.
 

There still may be a member or two who hasn’t paid their dues for the new year. If you
haven’t, please send a check for $15.00, payable to the Wisconsin Vintners Association, to our WVA Treasurer, Mike Bell, at 612 Fairview Ave, South Milwaukee, WI 53172. You can also look for Mike at the next meeting and give him cash or your check.  Use this Payment Form (PDF).  Remember that the $15.00 is for the family membership (two adult household).