January 2009 News
 

The January 2009 membership meeting of the Wisconsin Vintners Association will begin at 7:30 PM on Wednesday, January 14th at Clifford’s Restaurant, 10418 Forest Home Ave, Hales Corners, WI.  We will start the new year right with our presenter for the evening, WVA member Chip Droege. He has the Set of Essences kit and will share some of them with us. This kit has individual aromatic substances which allow a person to smell the basic volatile compounds that occur in various wines. Bring four or five glasses so you can smell an essence more than once, and for those enterprising winemakers, bring a bottle of your best to determine whether any of the essences provided by Chip are present in your wine. I think this will be a very interesting, informative and educational evening.

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 Bouchon 2001 California Superior Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. This wine has “a distinctive hearty flavor and is rich and full-bodied with a smooth finish. It will work well with full flavored dishes.” Please join us for dinner at 6:00 PM. You could be this month’s winner.
 

President's Blog

We had 16 very good wines to taste during the critical wine tasting at the December meeting. These wines were purchased at Consumer Beverage in Hales Corners.  With the help of the table captains we also were also able to improve our judging and wine appreciation skills.  The dinner dance invitations should be in the mail.  The new location at the Radisson Hotel Milwaukee West will help make this one of the best dinner dances ever. Chairwoman Joanne Ziarek will be looking for volunteers to help with the games and auctions, so give her your support.

A drawing for a room at the Radisson on the night of the dance will be at our January meeting. You will still be able to purchase a $5.00 ticket at this meeting or you could call Sally Hasselkus or Erv Herman if you cannot come to the meeting.

Happy New Year to everyone.all.    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.

You should by now have received your formal invitation in the mail. Please send in your RSP form before February 2, 2009. Look for additional information in the invitation. Didn’t receive an invitation?  Please see this Dinner Dance flyer (PDF).

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.
 

American Wine Society Award Winners

This year’s Club Judging will be held on Saturday March 14, 2009. This annual competition is open to all club members. Please mark down this date. We will be looking for members to help out with set up, wine stewarding, judging (apprentice judges welcome) etc. No experience necessary for most of the jobs. Look for more details in next month’s newsletter.

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.
 

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).