UPDATE: JANUARY MEETING HIGHLIGHTS

The Critical Wine tasting evaluation went very well. During this evaluation we tasted various wines and learned how to properly evaluate them.

Some information on upcoming events:

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

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.

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.

January UpComing Events:

PLEASE SAVE THIS DATE: Saturday February 4th, 2006. 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.

The January 2006 membership meeting of the Wisconsin Vintners Association will begin at 7:30 PM on Wednesday, the 11th, at Clifford’s Restaurant, 10418 Forest Home Ave. The program will be a “critical” wine tasting, 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. The purpose is not to “judge” the wines but to provide members with the insight to the evaluation
process, which will assist members in evaluating and improving their own wines. The WVA will provide the wines but members should bring four wine glasses for the wine samples.

New Activity:

The Board has approved the starting of an activity that will try to evaluate the effect of a change in one of the parameters of a wine. F’rinstance, A winemaker could make a wine from a certain fruit and make a second batch (from the same picking expedition) and change the temperature of fermentation-or the addition of nutrient or energizer-or the yeast used-who knows what changes could lurk in the hearts of a winemaker.
(You’ve got to be at least 55 to recognize that twisting of a phrase).
As far as possible, the change should be limited to one change per batch. We need volunteers to serve on a committee that would: Generate an appeal, to be in the monthly meeting notice, to members who would like to make such a combination of batches of wine.

Create criteria to evaluate proposals.
Review and approve proposals.
Create a reimbursement policy for amount and timing for payment.
Monitoring winemaking progress and adherence to the proposal.
Coordinating tastings and discussions with the Program Committee.
Overseeing the write-up in the monthly meeting notice or Vintner’s Press.
If you are interested in participating in such a committee, please contact Tom Courtney at 414-332-5788 or TCANDLAC@execpc.com

Meet Your Board Member:

The subject of this month’s description is John Rauenbuehler. I’ve held the Corresponding Secretary position for longer than I thought I would. I’ve been a member of the WVA for, I’m guessing, 32 years. When I was a working stiff, I was an Engineering Manager for Eaton Cutler-Hammer. That was eons ago as I have been retired for some 16 years.
My wife, Marianne and I have five adult children, a son and 4 daughters. I think I would say that winemaking is my primary hobby but I also spend time with photography and working with wood. Everything from wooden
Christmas tree ornaments to a few pieces of furniture.
I make about fifty gallons of wine a year for myself and my family and another fifty gallons of Communion wine for my church. I’m vain enough to accept comments from parishioners that “The wine is better than the pastor used to buy.” In my opinion, that’s not a very high compliment as pastors usually buy the cheapest jug wine they can find. I thoroughly enjoy the camaraderie of the group. I’d socialize with the members even if I didn’t make wine.

WVA Dinner Dance:

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?

We’ll have the traditional appetizer table with smoked fish (personally caught by a WVA member), cheese and crackers and herring in both wine sauce and cream sauce.
The menu will include:
Chicken and hot beef in gravy
Green beans Almandine
Parsley potatoes
Bread and rolls
Pickles and olives
Two large veggie trays
Beautiful and delicious tortes for dessert

More info can be found on the News And Events Page or by clicking the link below News And Events Page

Club Judging:

The 2006 WVA club judging will be held at Clifford’s Restaurant, 10418 Forest Home Ave on Sunday, March 26th. This is a change from our past judgings which were held in February. Many members enter this contest to help them pick wines to enter in the Wisconsin (or Iowa or Nebraska or Indiana ) State Fairs. The cost last
year was 50 cents per entry and I’d guess it will be close to that in 2006.

A Friend Who Will Be Missed:

In December, 2005, we lost our friend, our mentor, our teacher, Bob Wollersheim. He was a long-time supporter of our club and we will miss him. There are some of us who would like to send a donation to the charity of Bob’s family’s choice. It has been traditional for the club to make such a donation equal to two times the current
annual dues. If you’d like to add to that, please send a check for whatever amount you’d like to:Tom Courtney
5504 N Diversey
Whitefish Bay, WI
53217

Monthly Meeting Award Wine:

The award wine for those having dinner at Clifford’s before the January Membership meeting (6 PM) is a Candoni wine from Italy. It is a Merlot , vintage 2002. To achieve its excellent quality and rich flavor Candoni uses only the finest grapes in the Friuli region. This Merlot is a perfect compliment to roast meats, pasta and cheese. Serve at room temperature to enjoy its peak flavor.

Christmas and Dinner-dance History:

Newer members probably don’t know that the food served at the get-togethers of long ago was prepared by the women of the WVA. The “rule” was, if the recipe did not include beer or wine, the beer or wine should be in the cook. The recipes were gathered, published and distributed to members who attended the Christmas parties and Dinner-dances. Some of the old recipe booklets will be on display at the 2006 Dinnerdance. If you have any memorabilia about the club that you would like to share, please contact Howard Hasselkus, 13665 W Old Oak Lane, New Berlin, WI 53151 (HHASSELKUS@sbcglobal.net) or Chuck Howell, 603B Hickory Hollow Rd, Waterford, WI 53185 (CHAS3251940@yahoo.com).

Note From The President:

The December 14 meeting was both festive and informative as we celebrated our 35th anniversary with a program on sparkling wines by Bob Wilson and Len Montalbano and ate cake for dessert. The weather kept some of our past presidents and members safe at home that night but we did recognize five past presidents who were
there:
Bob Wilson (our only Charter member)
Jerry Uthemann
Dave Brandt
Paul Brauch
and Virgil Penn

We also had the pleasure of awarding a life membership to Mary and Jerry Uthemann for their long service and outstanding commitment to the club. The winner of the fine Italian wine from among the 14 people who met for supper before the meeting was Karen Schneider. Please come and join us at 6 PM before the January meeting.

It is with great sadness that we acknowledge the passing on December 11th of our friend and mentor, Bob Wollersheim. He will be missed.

Seeking A Gift Idea?

The medallion is die cast from Pewter and comes with a nice burgundy ribbon. It is 2 inches in diameter and costs $15. Please contact Erv Herman at herm2@charter.net

The WVA wine glass is made from lead crystal and stands about 7 1/4 inches tall. The bowl capacity is about 7 oz. The cost is $6 per and also comes in an attractive carton of 6. Please contact John Rauenbuehler at JARMER@aol.com

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