February News

There is no February meeting but... Dust of your dancing shoes for the WVA Dinner Dance is taking its place.

Saturday ,FEBRUARY 4 2006 approaches. This is the date of the annual WVA Dinner-dance. This is a gala evening for members and their guests with plenty of hors d’oeuvres, a sit down dinner, live music and dancing. Call all your friends, relatives, acquaintances, etc and invite them to the WVA Dinner-dance. This is the WVA’s only fundraiser of the year and finances most of the club’s activities. Our dues of $15 per year essentially pay for the printing and mailing of the newsletter. Any other benefit (the picnic, a bus trip, Harvest Dinner, educational programs, etc) comes from the profits of the Dinner-dance. Members are encouraged to donate items to the silent auction. If you are skilled at making any type of art or craft, this is a chance to show off and get a bit of publicity for yourself. Contributors are urged to identify themselves on the donated article. If you wish to donate an item, or want to volunteer for one of the committees (set/ takedown or auction committee), please give Tim Larsen a call at 262-642-4494. Please volunteer. We need the help. Where else can you get a nice dinner, live music, dancing and all the beer and wine you should drink in an evening for $25 per person?

President's message:

Feb 4 is our annual dinner dance and the only fund raiser that our club has to cover the cost of our programs/education. Please consider attending this gala event and bring your friends to support the club and have a great time. This year's club wine was made and bottled by award-winning wine maker Armin Engelmann so come and sample that as well as bringing your own to share. The lucky winner of the 2002 vintage merlot at the Jan 11 pre-meeting dinner was Janice Binder and it was the first meeting she's attended with her husband! Come and join us at 6:00 before the March 8 meeting for food, socializing, and a chance to win a good bottle of wine. Thanks to Howard Hasselkus and his team of table captains for leading us in the critical wine evaluation of commercial wines at the Jan 11 meeting. It was another successful program with 52 members/guests attending. Welcome to our newest members, Ann and Peter Catlow from Fontana, WI, who joined that night.

Thanks to Jeff Beutler who designed our new web site and provided information sheets to help us navigate. He has done a lot of work and is still looking for comments and suggestions so please check out the web site and e-mail him at the site listed on the home page. This is your club site so make use of it.

We will be having another critical wine evaluation program (of homemade wines this time) at the March 8 meeting and that will be a nice training session for many of you to participate in the club wine judging March 26. It's kind of a "practice run" to submit your wines and learn more about judging prior to the state fair competition.

Wine and Food Pairing:

April 5 wine and food pairing: Plan to set aside the evening of April 5 for our annual wine and food pairing meeting with a different twist this year. We have arranged to have Lou Bruno present a condensed version of his two week UWM class entitled "Wine and Food, Combinations and Conflicts" at his cooking school location at the Preserve at Deer Creek golf course club house, 4285 S. Sunny Slope Rd in New Berlin on the first Wednesday of April starting at 7:00PM. Please note the change of date, time, and location for this event. Lou has been teaching classes for 25 years on both wine and food. He worked as a wine salesman after college and founded Bruno Wines and Spirits in 1977. In 1996 he opened two restaurants: Bruno's Vintage Inn and Lou Bruno's where he was chef and general manager for four years. He is currently the manager of the Pewaukee Yacht Club and was the first wine writer for the Milwaukee Journal. He also conducts a one week cooking school at a villa in Tuscany each summer. We are very fortunate to have such a qualified person at our disposal that evening. His program will help to remove the guesswork of matching food and wine by exemplifying two main themes: "Match the weight of the food with the weight of the wine" and "consider the intensity of the food and wine separately." Pre-registration is required for this special event no later than March 31. This will be a bargain at only $10 per person for this event when the class normally costs $59 through UWM or Alverno. We will be sampling four wines: two whites and two reds plus whatever food items Lou prepares. He asks that each member bring four wine glasses for the tasting. The club house is only two years old, has all the facilities on one level, and is wheel chair accessible. The driveway to the Preserve at Deer Creek is on the west side of Sunny Slope (south of National or north of Beloit Rd) and just north of Eisenhower high school . There is a sign for the Preserve at the turn-in. Turn west and follow a very winding road for about 1/4 mile through some wet land areas to the dead end where the parking lot/club house are.

Please send a check for $10 per person made out to WVA by March 31 to: Joanne Ziarek, 15413 W. Mayflower Ct., New Berlin, WI 53151, and indicate the names of all attendees . The price is the same for members and guests. There will be a brief business meeting @ 7:00 followed by the program. There will be a cash bar available plus we are able to bring our own wine as usual. It would be best to wait until after the main presentation/tasting to sample your own wines.

WVA Amateur Winemaking Club Judging:

The Wisconsin Vintners Association (WVA) Amateur Winemaking Club Judging is held annually and is open to all club members. The 2006 event will be held at Clifford’s Restaurant, 10418 Forest Home Ave on Sunday, March 26th. The purpose of this event is threefold:
• An opportunity for club members to have their wines evaluated in a formal manner, based
upon similar judging criteria used by major wine competitions around the country.
• Club members can get an early indication of their wine’s potential to receive an award at the
Wisconsin State Fair that is held later in the year.
• The Club Judging provides a training opportunity for prospective wine judges and stewards.
The WVA provides the judges and stewards used in the WI State Fair competition. Click Here for more information including Rules and Forms.

Advanced Winemaking Project:

The Wisconsin Vintners association is sponsoring a program to evaluate some of the practices we use to make homemade wine. This program will involve a member making two batches of identical wines except that the second batch will have one change of procedure or ingredient. Examples could be two different yeasts, oaks, toast of oaks,
malolactic fermentation, different acids, temperature differences or other ideas that members will propose. The winemaker will keep good cellar records and when the experiment is complete the wine is his except for three bottles from each batch that will be submitted to a membership meeting for comparative tastings and the results will be published in the Vintner’s Press. Upon completion of the experiment the member will be reimbursed up to $30 toward the purchase of ingredients for the second batch. Each experiment should be two 5 gallon carboys , but in some cases it could be two 3 gallon carboys. All WVA members are eligible to participate in this program by submitting a proposal, using the enclosed application form and having it approved by the committee. Please talk to any committee member with questions or ideas. The committee has three members:
Howard Hasselkus-HHASSELKUS@sbcglobal.net
Dave Brandt-DLBRANDT@sbcglobal.net
Lou Benedetto-BLBENEDETTO@charter.net

Meet A New Member:

Ken and Jill Skotzke
Ken and Jill have been members for two years. Ken is Plastic Processing Technician, Jill is a Restaurant manager. As you can see below, they consider Emma and Missy to be family. Hobbies include fresh water fishing (when it’s warm enough), woodworking, either small projects of his own or remodeling someone’s house. They also make wine to share with family, friends and neighbors. Wines made have included strawberry, raspberry, elderberry and blueberry, to name a few. Mostly, these are dessert wines. They joined the WVA to meet people who have the same wonder about the magic of making wine. They would also like to expand their knowledge of wine and how it is made. They are pleased that members of the group are more than happy to share their thoughts about their winemaking process or research they sought out and where to find it. The social opportunities and get-togethers ——PRICELESS!!!

Meet Your Board Member:

Tom and Linda Courtney

The Courtneys joined the WVA in 1995 and Tom became Treasurer in 2001. Tom is an
attorney serving business, construction and environmental clients. Tom and Linda have been married for 24 years. They enjoy sailing, winemaking and cross-country skiing. From the Courtney Winery come cranberry, cherry, raspberry and white and red grape wines. In the “I like it about this group” category, Tom is pleased to have received his first bronze award in the club judging in 2002 for his cranberry. Tom has been chair for the WVA Dinner-Dance since 2002. I don’t have a picture of the Courtneys so you’ll have to identify him at a meeting as the tall, dark-haired fellow who smiles a lot. (That’s because, as Treasurer, he gets to rake in money from lots of people.) Now, to be fair, he also gets to write checks to cover the expenses of the club.

Wine Winner:

The lucky winner of the 2002 vintage Merlot at the January 11 pre-meeting dinner was Janice Binder and it was the first meeting she’s attended with her husband! Please come and join us before the March 8 membership meeting for food, socializing and a chance to win a good bottle of wine.

Calendar of events:

Feb 1 board meeting-Dave & Lois Brandt.

Feb 4-Annual dinner dance 6:00 PM @ Latvian House,

March 1 board meeting-Paul & Bertie Brauch,

March 8 meeting7:30 @ Clifford's -critical wine evaluation of homemade wines.

March 26 club wine judging at Cliffords from 9:00-3:00.

April 5-wine and food combinations and conflicts presented by Lou Bruno -7:00 PM @ The Preserve at Deer Creek golf course club house, 4285 S.Sunny Slope Rd, New Berlin.

April 12 board meeting - Howard Hasselkus

Special Thanks To Cliffords For The Use Of Their Hall!

CLIFFORDS

10418 W. FOREST HOME AVE

HALES CORNERS, WI

(414) 425-6226

Please Support Our Sponsor!

ABOUT THE WISCONSIN VINTNERS

ASSOCIATION

The Wisconsin Vintners Association of Milwaukee was organized in 1970. Membership is open to anyone over 21 years old who has an interest in wine making. Our mission is educating our members in the many styles of wine and techniques while promoting the responsible use of alcohol. Regular monthly meetings are held the second Wednesday of each month at Cliffords Supper Club, 10418 West Forest Home Ave. West Allis, WI. at 7:30PM. Usually we feature a speaker and offer tasting and evaluation of different varieties of wines.

To join our organization you can stop by at any monthly meeting or send an email to:

support@wihomewinemakers.com