At the recent general meeting it was decided that the next winemaking class will be on April 18. The location and time has not yet been determined. If you are interested and have not yet bought the book, "The Way to Make Wine" by Sheridan Warrick (available at Amazon.com), be sure to do so and read it before the next class. This will help the new winemakers considerably since we have limited time in class. Bring your questions!

Bill

Please see attached word document.

Lamorinda Winegrowers,

I believe you are the only winegrowers who have wines that could be sold or given away to raise money. I could be wrong. By donating some wine to the Viet Nam Veterans of Diablo Valley you get great exposure and It is a way for your labels to be recognized locally.

If interested in donating wine please call my brother Marty. The wine could be dropped off at my home as he stops by often.

Ciao,

Tony De Venuta

----- Original Message -----
From: Martin.M.Devenuta@wellsfargo.com
To: Tony@cyberteck.net
Sent: Friday, January 15, 2010 11:09 AM
Subject: Wine Donations from the Lamorinda Vintner Association Members

Tony,

The Vietnam Veterans of Diablo Valley are having their annual crab feed in 2 weeks (Sunday, Feb. 7th) at the Danville Veterans Memorial Building. I was wondering if you could forward this message to your Lamorinda Vintner Association members. VNVDV is looking for wine donations for our Silent Auction - 6 packs or 3 packs of their recent release (red or white doesn't matter) would be perfect.

I can be reached on my cell phone at 925-639-9730 925-639-9730 .

Thanks.

Marty De Venuta
Past Treasurer

Thanks to everyone who came. There was lots of class discussion and I think everyone got something from it. Our plan is to have the next class either April 11 or April 18. We will post it when we have the date set. I would be interested in hearing from attendees regarding what you would like to see for the next meeting. The plan is to continue from where we left off today. I attached a copy of the PowerPoint for today. We didnt finish and there will be more for next time that will be added.

This is a series of classes designed for home and small commercial winegrowers. Classes cover both basic principles of viticulture and practical aspects of small vineyard management. Instructions and handouts are designed for growers with little or no previous experience in grape growing. Part or all of the information is from UC Davis and other industry publications. There will be general information in each session, with specific focus on what is going on in the vineyard at the time of the class.
All classes are given by Susan Captain, Vineyard Manager/Operator of the largest vineyard in Lamorinda. Susan has attended a series of seminars and classes at UC Davis, Napa and Santa Rosa Community College for Viticulture. Susan and her family have been managing the vineyard since its inception in 2005. As the saying goes, “all good wines start with good grapes”. Wine tasting offered in the cellar after each class. Please call Moraga Parks and recreation at 925-888-7045 or register on line at:
http://moraga.ca.us/documents/Recreation/spring2010_Activity-Guide

WS10 Pruning & Training 3/23 /2010
WS10 Pruning & Training 3/30 /2010
WS10 Canopy Management 5/18 /2010

Tom Moorhouse and I are attending this class. The instructor is Dr. Krebs. This is an excellent class, consisting of 3 lecture meetings and 3 lab meetings (in the vineyard). We got a lot of hands-on experience in the NVC vineyard. We have gotten extensive information on pruning techniques, physiological information of grape vines, and affects of pruning on growth the following season. I will plant this coming spring. This class seems to me to be a great starting point to learn about viticulture. However many of the students are professionals in viticulture and have been very helpful.

At the last meeting I offered to give a wine making class, probably starting in January. I was encouraged that I received a number of expressions of interest after the meeting. Regarding schedule, my current idea is to have 3 or 4 sessions, one or so a quarter before the harvest and hopefully continuing after. In order to decide where to have the meeting (how big a room) and how to focus it, I ask that all who are interested to drop me an email at billeng@pacbell.net with the following information.

A) Your winemaking skill level (you can just give me the number)

1. Never made wine before
2. Have made wine, but don’t feel confident
3. Have made wine for multiple years and have a pretty good handle on it, but want to learn more
4. Pretty experienced and would like to contribute to class discussion and maybe pick up some new information
5. At the level of a commercial winemaker

B) If you have made wine before, what areas are you most interested in learning more about?

Update: Please bring your business cards to the meeting as Jim Concannon will be giving out some great prizes including:

• Two (2) books "Concannon the First One Hundred and Twenty Five Years" released in 2006 for our 125th Anniversary.
• One (1) bottle of our Petite Sirah "Captain Joe", named after my father
• One (1) 1.5L special bottling of our 2005 Petite Sirah

There will also be Concannon wines available to taste.
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The meeting will be held at Hacienda de las Flores, 2100 Donald Drive, Moraga

Our guest speaker will be Jim Concannon presenting "The History of Winemaking in the Livermore Valley and Concannon the First One-Hundred and Twenty-Five Years". See attached PDF file for background information. It should be very interesting.

We will also be announcing the election results.

Since this is an unhosted meeting so please bring an appetizer to share.