Wendy Taylor

Congratulations Are in Order

Congratulations to all who won door prizes at the Frances Ford Coppola Winery Program tasting that was held on Friday, February 22.

A special “congratulations” goes to Arnie Gamboa who won the top Coppola prize by naming the most winners of the Oscars, getting 16 out of 24 answers correct. Arnie received a special Coppola Care Package which included Coppola food items, wearables, and wine.

Unfortunately, we do not have a photo of Arnie with his Coppola prize; however, we would like to share with you several photos of prizes won by members present at the Coppola tasting, along with Bill Redding presenting winemaker, Francois Cordesse, with a plaque. Log in to the OCWS website to view many more photos taken at this event.

– Rich Skoczylas, Winery Program Coordinator

President’s Message

We are off to another busy year, and a lot of work is already being done by our member volunteers for the OCWS major events. The Wine Auction group is busy working on getting wines sorted, bagged and ready for our annual Wine Auction, one of only two revenue sources for our organization. The OC Fair Commercial Wine Competition, co-hosted by the OCWS, has begun its work of soliciting entries, arranging for judges, and planning the 2019 Wine Competition. If that isn’t enough, The Courtyard Committee is also hard at work planning to open and operate The Courtyard during this year’s OC Fair. This year’s theme is “Acres of Fun,” and the OC Fair runs from Friday, July 12 through Sunday, August 11.

There are hundreds of members who make the OCWS the successful organization that it is. I am constantly amazed at our members’ willingness to help out, even for events that they may not be able to attend. It is our members who make this organization great!   Many of these people do so in the background contributing hundreds of hours utilizing their skills and their passions to our benefit.

This month I would like to recognize Linda Mihalik who has taken on the responsibility of putting together our superb newsletter,  The Wine Press. Each month she receives numerous articles highlighting our activities. Linda then deftly weaves these together, receives input from our sharp-eyed editors and gets the final edition ready for publication on our website and to be sent to the printer for mailing. Linda, on behalf of the Board of Directors, Committee Chairs and members, thank you for a job appreciated by all. Cheers!

– Bill Redding, President

2019 Courtyard News: Required Training

As you may have heard, we will be using new cash registers at The Courtyard this year. The credit and debit card reader will be connected directly to the register so credit and debit card sales will not have to be entered twice. This change should really speed things up!

All managers, assistant managers, and cashiers will have to be trained on the new registers. We anticipate scheduling training sessions to begin in early February through the end of March.

We hope to have two sessions per week (depending on what is happening at the OC Fairgrounds), one on a weekday evening and one on a weekend afternoon.

We also anticipate that a training session will be no longer than 30 minutes. We are planning on having multiple sessions each day.

Please be on the lookout for an e-blast as to the training schedule.

If you are interested in being trained as a cashier, please reach out to either Fran at Fran@ocws.org or Brian at Brian@ocws.org.

Fran Gitsham & Brian McDonald, Courtyard Chairs

2019 Courtyard: TIPS Training Alert!

Members, it’s time to start thinking about recertifying your TIPS (Alcohol Server Training) certificate. TIPS certification is valid for three years.

If you are a new member, or have never taken a TIPS training class, you will need to attend and become certified if you plan to volunteer at The Courtyard during the 2019 Orange County Fair.

As a concessionaire of the OC Fair, the OCWS must adhere to contractual requirements established by the OC Fair Board of Directors and Staff. Before any volunteers work in The Courtyard during the OC Fair, everyone must be “professionally trained and certified in alcohol awareness techniques.”

Click here for Class schedules.

– Rochelle Randel – TIPS Trainer
– Marcy Ott – Badging Coordinator

President’s Message

2019 is now upon us and New Year’s resolutions have been made by many. My New Year’s resolution is to attempt “new” things. I am going to work towards discovering a new wine I haven’t tried, visiting new wineries that I haven’t yet been to, making a wine out of a varietal that is new to me. You get the idea. Fortunately, my membership in the OCWS is going to help make this resolution a reality. I invite you to share in this new journey. There are a host of activities and events to choose from with details of upcoming events in this edition of The Wine Press.

Your OCWS is also working on “new.” Wine Education Chair Irene Scott, along with Director Leslie Hodowanec, are busy working on wine education seminars and articles that will help members to learn, understand, and enjoy wine. With so many new members, some who are new to wine, these seminars will be a great opportunity for something new and even for existing members to expand their wine knowledge and fine-tune their wine palate. Additional details on the seminars can be found in this edition of The Wine Press.

In addition, Leslie Hodowanec along with member Greg Risling, will be working on wine field trips to Orange County wineries. Please stay tuned for more information as these trips develop this year. Any guesses as to how many wineries are located in the OC? 

The first Winery Program for this year was held last month at the Avenue of the Arts Hotel featuring Buttonwood Farm Winery & Vineyard. Winemaker Karen Steinwachs gave an incredible, fun, and informative presentation on the wines with interesting commentary on the Santa Barbara Region, the Santa Ynez Valley, and Los Olivos District AVAs. In keeping with the “new” theme, 19 of our new Members attended this event and were treated to Karen’s humor and love of wine as well as two wines that had their premier at the tasting. Don’t miss out on future Winery Programs this year. Cheers!

– Bill Redding, President

 

President’s Message

It has been great to see so many of our new members coming to OCWS events and getting involved in the many activities offered. Please take the opportunity to introduce yourself to our Board of Directors at upcoming events; we would love to meet you! As we embark on our 43rd year of existence, I would like to highlight and thank some of our founding and long-standing members, Judi Brady, Jim Graver, and Charley Owen for their continued support and participation in the Wine Society.

We are off to another year of activities and events beginning with the Buttonwood Winery tasting on January 11 at the Avenue of the Arts Hotel in Costa Mesa and our Dine with Wine event at Pescadou Bistro in Newport Beach on January 16.

The Commercial Wine Competition Committee, chaired by Leslie Brown, has already begun to plan this year’s Competition which is scheduled for Saturday, June 1 and Sunday, June 2. This year’s Home Wine Competition, chaired by Kevin Donnelly, is scheduled for Saturday, June 15. The Annual Wine Auction will be on Saturday, April 6. The Auction is one of two sources of revenue for the Wine Society, and we hope to see you there. George Cravens is busy working on the Mini-Tasting themes for this year, so stay tuned. There are ongoing events and activities every month, so don’t delay in signing up online for events which are of interest to you.

The primary point of contact with our members is through their profile information contained on our website at www.ocws.org. Please take the time to review your information and update your email, phone, and mailing address information by accessing MyAccount>MyProfile after logging in. The Chairs of OCWS events and the office staff rely on the accuracy of this information.

On behalf of the entire OCWS Board of Directors and staff, we wish everyone a Happy New Year!  Cheers!

– Bill Redding, President

2019 Commercial Wine Competition Volunteer Opportunities

Now that the holidays are over, it is time to begin planning for the Commercial Wine Competition. This event requires an enormous amount of volunteer time. There are volunteer opportunities in many areas; some involve more time than others. This article will outline some of those positions to help members decide on their involvement.

Are you interested in learning how we processed the 2,708 entries received last year for the 2018 Commercial Wine Competition? Do you have a desire to work with others on this organizational process? Sign up for the cataloging duties or the data entry duties beginning Tuesday, January 8 with the Building 15 cleanup work party.

Cataloging will be scheduled days and evenings (if volunteers are available) to more easily fit into your schedules. You will help unload wines, place them on tables, identify them in our database of entries, and assign them each a separate designation based on varietal and number of entry, i.e. Pinot Noir is PN23. This bottle is then labeled and placed in the Pinot Noir box. You will be working with other volunteers experienced in the cataloging procedures and data entry process.

If you have an interest in joining the cataloging team, please contact Liz Corbett with your questions and contact information for the 2019 Competition scheduling. Contact Liz at liz@ocws.org or at 714.342.6652.

Even though it is only January, please save the dates. The Competition will be held at the Hilton Hotel in Costa Mesa on Saturday, June 1 and Sunday, June 2. As always, it is the vast number of volunteers that make this event successful. Ken and Irene Scott will be filling positions such as computer score/verification, stewarding, kitchen help, glass dryers, and traffic control. In addition, bagging and sorting the wine will run from Tuesday, May 28 through Thursday, May 30. Volunteer signup information will follow in the next few months.

– Leslie Brown, Chair, Commercial Wine Competition

2019 Courtyard at the OC Fair

Our biggest fundraiser of the year will be upon us sooner than we can imagine, and the foundation for this year’s success has now been in the works for several months. As most of you already know, it takes several hundred OCWS volunteers to run The Courtyard each year. For your planning purposes, please keep in mind the following:

  • This year’s OC Fair runs from July 12 through August 11
  • Invitations to those of you being invited to manager, cashier or steward will be emailed by the end of January
  • Sign-ups for managers will begin on April 1
  • Sign-ups for cashiers and stewards will begin on April 15
  • Sign-ups for servers will begin on May 1

One very exciting and much needed addition this year will be new, integrated cash registers/credit card machines. Anyone invited to manage or cashier will be required to be trained on the new machines sometime in February or March in order to be assigned requested shifts. Dates for these sessions will be provided in your invitation. It is of the utmost importance that everyone is properly trained this year.

We will also be having, as in the past few years, training sessions for stewards and servers sometime in June and early July and will gladly train anyone else at that time interested in learning the new registers with the intention of possibly cashiering. These dates will be posted at a later time.

We look forward to your participation and all the fun and laughter that go along with working The Courtyard during Fair time. Thank you.

Fran Gitsham & Brian McDonald, Courtyard Chairs

Featured Member: Bruce Powers

Many of us know Bruce as a key member of the Winemakers’ Group. But there is much more to know about Bruce.

The story starts more than 40 years ago. Bruce and his friend were out for a joy ride on his friend’s motorcycle. They came upon a girl in a Camaro, and to impress her, they popped a wheelie. Bruce fell off the back and she nearly ran him over. After she picked him up off the road, they got to chatting and she drove him home. A year later they were dating . . . she nearly killed him when they first met, now Bruce and Jeanine have been happily married for 39 years!

As a boy in Seal Beach, Bruce dreamed about cars and car racing. When he was older, he began working on cars, particularly Porsches, with local car mechanics. In the 1970s, Bruce raced in Sports Car Club of America events as well as Off-Road events.

While earning his engineering degree, he became an ASE Certified Master Technician. After graduating into a very tight economy and newly married, Bruce decided to open his own auto service business in Huntington Beach, Autowerkes. Jeanine handled the books. Autowerkes specializes in Porsche, BMW, and Mercedes. Attention to detail in auto repair and providing outstanding customer service have helped him grow his business with customers coming from all over Orange County. Bruce also helps run Autocross events and sponsors a Porsche Boxter in competitions.

Always athletic, Bruce has run over 30 marathons. Many family vacations were scheduled around key marathons. Bruce recently ran a 10K with the older of their two daughters – she won, we hear. Bruce’s athletic talents extend into coaching volleyball, as his two daughters played. He developed and published a primer on how to coach students entitled “Blueprint of a Champion” which is still available online.

Those who visit Bruce and Jeanine in their lovely Spanish style home are welcomed by a menagerie. There are currently three horses, including Genevieve who is blind, two ducks named Donald and Melania, three dogs, a cat, and most famously, Marcel the Donkey, who has been featured on their wine labels.

As a winemaker, Bruce has made several varietals over the years, most notably, Sangiovese (which he has planted at his home in Orange Park Acres), Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, several Rosé wines, Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, and even champagne. He has received several Double Gold, Gold and Silver awards at the Home Wine Competition.

For the past 2 to 3 years, Bruce has also been the chief liaison for the Winemakers’ Group in sourcing grapes and juice from Chris van Alyea and has made several trips, along with Dave Wiegand, to Solterra Winery for pickup and delivery to Orange County.

Bruce also conducted a workshop for making Rosé wine to the Winemakers’ Group and during this year’s crush gave a handson demonstration of how to press off the juice before fermenting.

It is Bruce’s focus on service, assistance, and education that we are celebrating and featuring in this edition of The Wine Press. It is members like Bruce that make the OCWS a very special group of people!