Category: 50th Anniversary

A History of OCWS Membership

The history of the Orange County Wine Society membership began in July 1976 when, through the efforts of Brant Horton and 18 other founding members, the OCWS was formed. In May 1976 Brant decided that the OC Fair would be an ideal candidate for hosting a professional competition of California wines. He knew an organization of members was necessary to provide the time and talents necessary to accomplish this feat. Members were recruited to volunteer their time and efforts to successfully run the competition. The April 1986 Free Run publication stated, “The success of the first Commercial Wine Competition served as a catalyst for the growth of the OCWS.” 

Membership in the 1980s

From 1981 to 1985 OCWS membership grew to a few hundred members. John Goodnight, Treasurer and Membership Chairperson in 1987 and 1988, estimates that there were about 350 members at that time. Membership information was stored on an Excel spreadsheet and the OCWS would use mail merge to do a mass mailing to collect dues in November and December. When the Board of Directors felt that year-end collection of dues was not fair to members who joined late in the calendar year, they changed the process so that membership renewal would occur on the anniversary of when the member joined.

It has always been true that most new members signed up during the fair. In the 80’s, typically 40 to 50 new members signed up. In the early days people could sign up for membership and members could sign up to participate in an event by filling out a coupon-like application that was part of The Wine Press newsletter and mail it in with a check to the OCWS office.

Since the cost of postage kept going up, membership dues had to increase to cover the cost of the newsletter mailings. The 1987 December Wine Press reported that the Board of Directors elected to increase the membership renewal fee from $20 a year to $30 a year with the additional $10 to go immediately into the Scholarship Fund. The Board stated, “Our goal is to be able to increase the amounts given to deserving students and to further promote the education and appreciation of California wines.”

The 1st Annual “Membership” Barbecue was held in August of 1987 at a cost of $10 for members and $11 for non-members. It was held at KiwanisLand, a three-acre private park in Garden Grove. It became a popular site for the Annual Membership Barbeque. The Wine Press stated, “This will give everyone an opportunity to meet the members (old and new), sip some wine, enjoy the food, and listen and dance to the band ‘Sweet Magnolia’.”

Membership in the 1990s

In the 1990s, OCWS membership grew to over 1,100 members. Dues were raised to $25 per single member and $35 for dual membership in 1991. OCWS identification cards were printed for the membership.

In the January 1999 Wine Press, a “Membership Update” written by Board Member Tim Morgon stated, “The power of ‘friendships’ is evident with about 20 or so of you members that ‘drafted’ or ‘volunteered’ 35 of your friends into joining the OCWS. I tip my wine glass to each one of you!” The article went on to report 582 memberships equating to 940 members.

In the March 1999 Wine Press the “Membership Update” reported, “During December and January, we attracted 38 new people to join our little wine club…The most popular reason people join, is still word of mouth.”  In June 1999 OCWS membership grew to 990 members.

Membership in the 2000’s

From 2001 to 2005 OCWS celebrated its 25^th anniversary and membership stabilized at about 1,100 members.

In October 2006, after reviewing the rising costs of doing business, the single membership cost was increased to $35, and dual membership was increased to $50. In February 2011 the OCWS held a Spring Membership Drive with the goal being to sign up 100 new members between February 1 and June 30, and the member who signed up the most new members would win two tickets to the Membership Barbecue and two tickets to the 2012 Wine Extraordinaire.  Jim Graver won the contest and the two runners up, Kathy Krieger and Kris Julin, each won two bottles of wine.

On April 1, 2020, the Board of Directors was faced with the great challenge of operating in the COVID era. The Board of Directors chose to suspend membership renewal fees starting April 1, 2020, and as a result, the OCWS retained all its members. The Board continued to have social events virtually since we were under pandemic restrictions. After 12 months passed, membership renewals resumed and the herculean feat of our non-profit OCWS’s survival was realized! March, April and May 2021 membership remained steady at an average of 1,135 members.

Fast forward to our most recent OC Fair years 2022, 2023 and 2024, our new member recruitment results averaged out to 291 new members each OC Fair year. That’s a lot of “new member bell ringing” going on at the fair. Not too bad for a tax-exempt organization that has been around almost 50 years. Perhaps it’s because we’ve done a fantastic job of following our basic philosophy of not just promoting OCWS’s understanding and appreciation of wine, winemaking, and viticulture, but of having fun doing it! Cheers!

–Linda Flemins, 50th Anniversary Committee Member

By Hank Bruce – Member of the 50^th Anniversary Committee

The OCWS was founded in 1976. Early OCWS wine programs included wine and food pairings by founding member Judi (Collins) Brady and near founding member Jane (Mc Grath) Goodnight. Even up to the late 1980s, the near monthly OCWS wine tastings at local hotels were not accompanied by food service, and the Board of Directors disapproved of members bringing food to these events. Sam Puzzo was elected to the BOD in fall 1989. He and a small group of OCWS members had long discussed food pairing with wine. Sam has been officially credited with being the driving force responsible for mini-tastings.

His idea of having 30 or 40 people meet at one home to sample a group of wines was approved by the Board. The OCWS bought tables and chairs and they were transported to different homes for each mini-tasting. Board member Carol Stiglbauer suggested group size be trimmed to 16 people and to have groups meet at several sites simultaneously to sample identical wines at each location with potluck foods. This eliminated the need for the OCWS to move tables and chairs. Sam Puzzo ran the mini-tastings for the first three years. Bob Prill and Ron Gottesman hosted the first two mini-tastings at their homes.

The Wine Press first reported on mini-tastings beginning in November 1991. In the 2000s mini-tasting hosts would meet as a work party to open the cases of delivered wine, bag the wines, label the bags and gather supplies into bins, including plates, napkins and 1 oz. pour spouts. Bins were brought to host sites and reusable supplies were returned to the office after the tastings. Chris Cunningham arranged for purchases of a lot of the wines in the 2000s and supplies would be picked up at his home.

A detailed log of mini-tasting venues and host names from March 2011 to December 2024 has been compiled and maintained. Mini-tasting themes besides Gold Medal Wines have included specific grape varietals, Pinot Noir and Cab Sauvignon being most popular, Rhone-style wines and specific wine-growing regions. Over the years members responsible for the mini-tastings have included distinguished OCWS alumni. George Cravens has done an outstanding job organizing mini-tastings from 2018 to 2024.

In the three years since our activity limitations due to COVID-19 precautions ended, on average seven sites have been available for each of the four mini-tastings held per year. The most popular tasting has always been the tasting of OCWS Gold Medal Winners from our own Commercial Wine Competition.

Our current mini-tasting chair, Don Mayer, provides hosts with supplies and bagged wines. Hosts welcome up to 16 guests. Individuals and couples bring potluck food, that is coordinated by the host, sufficient to provide small portions for 16 people. In addition to rating the wines, typically in 5 flights, participants vote for Chef of the Evening, who is awarded a gift bottle of wine. Guests are each requested to bring two wine glasses for sampling the wine. Participants vary from those seriously focused on tasting and analyzing the wine, to those primarily interested in socialization with others while enjoying a variety of foods, both solid and liquid. 

The 50^th Anniversary Committee is busy preparing for the big event next year. Currently we have copies of 30 years of our monthly newsletter The Wine Press, and we are hoping to get copies of all 49 years. If you have any of the following dates, we would like to scan your copies to add to our archives:

If you have any of the above issues of The Wine Press, or any of the Free Run newsletter that OCWS used to produce for the OC Fair, please contact Carolyn Christian at carolyn@OCWS.org to arrange a time to scan your newsletters. Thank you!

—OCWS 50^th Anniversary Committee, Carolyn Christian, Jane Goodnight, Linda Flemins, Hank Bruce, Stephanie Richards