December News

December 13 Membership Meeting

The December. 2006 membership meeting of the Wisconsin Vintners Association will begin at 7:30 PM on Wednesday, December 13th at Clifford's Restaurant, 10418 Forest Home Ave.  Howard Hasselkus will demonstrate how he makes his award-winning fortified fruit dessert wines. As part of the Advanced Winemaking Program we will be making comparison tastings of several fruit wines and the fortified fruit dessert wines made from the same fruit.  Please bring at least two wine glasses for this tasting. You'll want to compare these wines side-by side.
 

Wine of the Month

Please consider having supper at Clifford’s Restaurant before the membership meeting. Quite a few members gather about 6 to 6:30 PM to enjoy a meal and each other. It’s the club’s way of saying thanks to Jack for letting us use the hall for our meetings (just try to find a restaurant that will allow you to bring in your own wines without a corkage fee).   For the past year we have been having a drawing to select one of the diners to receive a bottle of pretty nice wine.  The award wine this month is a Wollersheim wine, Blushing Rose, an "American Semi-Sweet Rose".  It is a luscious wine with a beautiful soft pink color and juicy fruits reminiscent of Mango ad Kiwi.
 

Notes from the President

Thanks to everyone who brought fruit and juice for our potpourri wine maker Ken Skotzke to craft into the next wine for our Dinner-dance and to Ken for accepting the challenge. Tim Larsen’s October program on the effects of different types of oak barrels vs. no oak was very informative and offered a good example of the types of ideas we are looking for in the Advanced Wine Makers program. All members are encouraged to submit a proposal that will ultimately benefit/educate the rest of us. Another unexpected benefit (and a very pleasant one) for those who attended the October meeting was to sample Virginia Hermann’s strawberry-chocolate wine. We are trying to obtain her “secret recipe” and source of the chocolate essence she added to her strawberry wine before bottling, so watch for that information in a future newsletter.

This is the season to be thankful for many things and I am thankful to be a part of this organization and for all the friendships that have developed out of our common interest in wine making. Thank you to Jerry and Doris Horzewski and daughter Diane Brodzik for all their work in making our annual Harvest Dinner a success. Thanks for all who participated in this evening of fun and food.

The four week "Components of Wine" class has now been completed and Dave Brandt, Tom Courtney and Len Montalbano deserve a big thank you for all their work in creating the class content and teaching the 17 attendees. It has been well received and very educational.

Have a happy holiday season and a prosperous New Year.

Joanne
 

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).
 

Meet some New Members

Meet Frank Fritz:   He’s an interesting fellow; a Mechanical/Software engineer. Frank has been a member of our WVA since April 2005. He makes wine, of course, but says he gets a lot of help with the harvesting and winemaking from his Mom, his sister and a nephew. Frank is into aviation and is a private pilot and has his own small airplane.
He also does computer work, woodworking, fly fishing, archery, golf motorcycles,
gardening and cooking.

He’s made quite a variety of wines so far: Canadice, Chardonnay, Riesling, Zinfandel, St Pepin, Plum, Peach, Concord, Pear, Sake, Blueberry, Blackberry and Strawberry.  Frank has a Canadice grape vine in his back yard. It has produced a lot of very sweet light purple grapes. He decided to make wine with the grapes and went to the Purple Foot to get himself started. Mary Uthemann recommended that the WVA was a great way to meet other winemakers and learn more about winemaking and appreciating wine. The social events were also a definite plus. (Ed note: I tell people who ask that if they like the taste of something, they can make wine from it. Well, maybe not milk, meat and eggs but almost anything else.)

Please let me quote verbatim Frank’s comments on what he likes about the club:
“The people in the WVA have been very friendly and helpful with advice and mentoring on the wine making process.  A beginning vintner could not ask for a better organization to help in making wine and especially appreciating the art, science and essence of wine. I have learned so much from the other members, and am looking forward to sharing my efforts with the WVA as soon as my skills improve. I really enjoy the wine appreciation meetings and working for the wine judging events as well.”
 

Meet Rick and Jo Markham:   Rick and Jo joined at this last summer's picnic. They own Markham and Associates Advertising Inc., which they started 24 years ago. They worked
together for 14 years as we grew the business and then Jo went to work in the new construction division for a utility company. Their son, Brandon is a sophomore at UW Lacrosse.  They are outdoors people, enjoying fishing, camping, skiing, hunting, etc. They especially enjoy time at their Manitowish Waters home. They also enjoy traveling and, of course, our new wine making hobby.

They are still on their first batches of wine, having purchased juice from Tropic Banana. They have Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel in carboys. Their good friend, Tim Larsen had been recruiting them to join for the last two years and brought them to the WVA picnic as guests.  They joined that day because they appreciated "the great group of people".

Now, let me quote their "What you like best about the club" statement:  " All of the members that we've met thus far have made us feel very welcome. It's obvious you all
like to have fun.  As newcomers, we've only attended one meeting, which made me realize what a wealth of knowledge the Club has, and the Harvest Dinner.  We have also signed up for the four classes that were offered.  We attended the first class on Nov 14 and it was excellent.  The club members who conducted the class really did their homework. I'm sure the remaining classes will be just as informative."

Dinner Dance Potpourri Wine update

Our best-of-Show winner at the WVA judging, Ken Skotzke sent a short note on the progress of our potpourri wine for the 2008 Diner-Dance. The total fruit content was 34 lb. , 3.5 oz.  The fruits were: Strawberries, cubed rhubarb, Foch grapes, Elderberries, Green grapes, Purple grapes, Cranberry juice cocktail, Apples, Whole cranberries , Raspberries and Apple juice. He brought the S.G. up to 1.080 and added Lalvin
71B1122 yeast.  He's racked the wine from the primary on Oct 24th and again on Oct 31. He'll let it rest until the next racking.

Speaking of the annual Dinner Dance, please make plans to attend this annual event to be held on Saturday, February 3, 2007 at the Latvian Hall.  Keep watching for more information as time approaches.

 

Calendar of Events

December 13  - WVA membership meeting at Clifford's Supper Club. 7:30 PM.  The topic will be Fortified Wines presented by Howard Hasselkus.

January 10  - WVA membership meeting at Clifford's Supper Club. 7:30 PM.  Chip Droege will present.  Also a brief presentation of the "Duties of Wine Stewards at Wine Judgings" will be made by Mary & Chuck Howell.

February 2, 2007 - WVA Annual Dinner Dance.

March 25  - Sunday, WVA Club Judging at Clifford's Supper Club.

April 11  - WVA membership meeting at Clifford's Supper Club. 7:30 PM.  The topic will be Critical Wine Evaluation.

 

Special Thanks To Clifford's For The Use Of Their Hall!

CLIFFORDS

10418 W. FOREST HOME AVE

HALES CORNERS, WI

(414) 425-6226

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