OCWS
Imagine walking into a room of over 100 people and not knowing a single person. It sounds a little daunting! That is currently what happens when a new member attends his or her first Wine Society event. What if that new member knew at least one or two other people in the room? Does that […]
What’s it like for someone who is fortunate enough to blend his love of wine with an occupation of building custom wine cellars?
Just ask Jason Scott who joined the Orange County Wine Society last summer.
The former medical sales representative and a DIY guy landed an opportunity to work in the wine industry when he was hired at Vintage Cellars, a company headquartered in San Diego, which builds luxury wine cellars in a variety of styles, spaces and applications.
Whether the design is traditional, contemporary or modern – or something more unique – the company, which just celebrated its 35th anniversary , works to bring a client’s vision to life.
“Basically we’re making a very large refrigerator and it has to work,” Scott said. “There are so many different options and it really comes down to aesthetics versus capacity.”
Scott, who grew up in Orange County, has been with the company for about five years and has seen a wide array of wine cellars across Southern California. The job is more of a hybrid of sales and design, while dealing with probably the most challenging part of the job – explaining the cost to customers.
“The biggest challenge is having them understand the cost,” he said. “It’s fitting the cellar to what they want and can afford. It’s that expectation and trying to match it to reality.”
Scott said the average cost of a cellar designed and built by his company is around $50,000, but added cellars can be built for less, depending on the space. And for those with no budget … the sky is the limit!
Scott recalls a cellar in Newport Coast that cost $500,000 and another in Rancho Santa Fe that had a 10-foot-high wine wall that was modern and had space for the owner’s magnum bottles. The company also works with wineries who need their own cellar space. Scott said Vintage Cellars is working with Paso-based Daou Family Estates, which has purchased land in southern Tuscany.
Frequently in the higher end homes, Scott says some of his customers don’t care as much about the wine but they know having a wine cellar will help boost a home’s eventual resell value. “It’s kind of expected for certain types of homes,” Scott said
By Fred Heinecke
The 50th annual Orange County Fair Commercial Wine Competition is fast approaching. This marquee event is put on by us, the Orange County Wine Society. The judging will be held May 30and 31 at the Costa Mesa Hilton. Many members volunteer for this huge event that will feature around 2,500 entries with about 100 wine professional judges in panels of five to taste the entries.
There are miles and miles of effort that goes into the logistics of this behemoth event. But the real magic is how all the entries show up in brown paper bags just in the right box and in the right order for the correct judging panel.
The footwork for this near impossible outcome is done by the cataloging crew, headed by Teri and John Lane with past crew chiefs Liz and Lloyd Corbett. The wineries enter their wines online and then ship the entries to the OCWS office. There is no fee to enter; the wineries only need to ship six bottles (yes, you counted right, that is 15,000 bottles of wine to deal with).
The cataloging crew labels each of the six bottles with the correct entry category and a letter A-F. This means, for example, they must know if the 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot and 5% Malbec goes in as a Cabernet Sauvignon varietal or as a Meritage (this may take a telephone call to the winemaker to confirm their desired category). After the wines are labeled, they are sent to a correctly numbered and lettered box for temporary storage. The A and B boxes are the boxes for the Commercial Wine Competition. The A boxes are for serving the tastes to the judges and the B boxes are transported to the hotel to be available if a bottle has a fault such as a bad cork. Each year we use a handful of the B bottles.
All the boxes are double checked to confirm all the bottles are in the correct box. With the help of the Commercial Competition computer program, the pouring orders are set up with varietals and residual sugar content and new box labels are printed.
During the week before the competition volunteer crews place the 2,500 or so bottles into the labeled paper bags and get them into their final box that is labeled with the panel number and the day it will be served. On Friday, the 5,000 A and B bottles are transported to the hotel and end up on the correct steward table.
If you want to have some fun, meet other members and interesting wine makers and be amazed how it all comes together, volunteer for the 50th annual Commercial Wine Competition.
The results from the Jan. 31 Mini Tasting are in, and it was a dominant night for South American reds. The competition was fierce among the 10 featured wines, but Domaine Bousquet Cabernet Sauvignon from Argentina emerged as the clear victor. Sweeping the board with the top vote in five of six host sites.
Our panel of expert judges were able to identify the crowd-pleasing profile that balanced Argentina’s signature ripeness with the structure of a classic Cabernet.
Taking the second-place silver was another Argentine standout, the El Enemigo Cabernet Franc, which finished five of six sites identifying this wine as their second favorite. This result highlights the rising popularity of Argentine Cabernet Franc, known for its herbal complexity and elegant tannins.
Rounding out the podium in third place was the Nautilus Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand which was the highest rated white wine of the evening, narrowly edged out the Australian Filius Cabernet Sauvignon by just one point. The Nautilus, is praised for its bright acidity and “textural component,” providing a refreshing counterpoint to the heavier reds that led the pack.
Warranting a mention is the South African Chardonnay from Glenelly, which was the only wine other than the Domaine Bousquet to receive top honors at a host site.
As is typically the case with our group, each of the 10 wines were enjoyed and recognized across the six host sites. Despite the variety of regions represented—from the Uco Valley to Marlborough—the evening ultimately belonged to Argentina, which claimed the top two spots and reaffirmed its status as a powerhouse for bold, high-scoring varietals.
I hope everyone enjoyed our little trip around the world. While these wines featured grapes we know well, their unique terroir, altitude, and cultural history should have made them feel simultaneously familiar and entirely new.
—Don Mayer, OCWS Mini-Tasting Chair
Cherryl Baker
2 garlic cloves, halved
2 Tbsp butter
4-5 medium to large russet potatoes, peeled & sliced into ¼ inch slices
12 oz cheddar cheese, shredded (including 6 oz aged cheddar)
12 oz whole milk
12 oz heavy whipping cream
1/8 tsp nutmeg
Salt & ground pepper
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F
Use one garlic clove to rub over the bottom and sides of a 8 X 13 or 9 X 14 glass casserole dish then use 1 Tbsp of butter to grease the dish.
In a medium saucepan, lightly whip the milk, cream and nutmeg. Add the remaining garlic clove. Bring to a full boil, then remove from the heat and set aside.
Arrange potato slices in a single, slightly over-lapping layer, lightly sprinkle with salt and pepper, then add some of the cheese. Repeat until there are a total of three potato & cheese layers.
Pour the sauce through a large fine mesh strainer into the casserole dish. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and dot with the remaining butter. Lightly cover with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes uncovered until the top is nicely browned. Serves 9-12
March is here and we are getting ready for the series of sign-ups for The Courtyard. Volunteering to help is an exciting opportunity to meet members, learn about different wines and enjoy the OC Fair.
Cashiers will be able to sit throughout their shift. Stewards work involves standing to carry ice and/or move several bottles of wine up to a heavy case during their shift.
Signing up for the fair will be opened in several phases. All members are required to sign up for a minimum of four shifts. Selecting more shifts is recommended if you a shift you selected was full and closed. Other things to know:
1. RBS Certification is required before signing up for The Courtyard.
2. Manager sign-ups open April 1 at 8 a.m.
3. Cashier and Steward sign-ups open April 15 at 8 a.m.
4. Server sign-ups open May 1 at 8 a.m.
5. All Courtyard sign-ups close on the OCWS website May 31.
6. Shifts will be confirmed in late June or early July. We will do our best to assign members to their selected shifts; however, some members may be asked to work different shifts if needed.
We will have five daily shifts during the 23 days of The Courtyard, Wednesdays through Sundays, July 17 through Aug. 16. The sooner you sign up for your shifts, the greater the opportunity to get the shifts you want. The times of these shifts will be:
10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
1 to 4 p.m.
4 to 8 p.m.
8 to 10:30 p.m. (Wed., Thurs., Sun.)
8 to 11:30 p.m. (Fri., Sat.)
Express Bar: 5 to 9 p.m.
Note: The Courtyard closes one hour before the fair closes.
In recent years, the OC Fair has limited daily attendance to a maximum number of guests. One of the benefits of volunteering at The Courtyard is guaranteed fair entry on your volunteer days—and even on days you just want to enjoy the fair—with parking included.
Courtyard Sign-Up Conditions:
—Rich Skoczylas, Courtyard Scheduler
Before we know it, the OC Fair will be upon us again. The largest OCWS fundraising effort of the year will be taking place for a total of 23 days, Wednesdays through Sundays, July 17 through Aug. 16.
Volunteering at The Courtyard is a unique and fun experience. All Courtyard volunteers handling wine in any capacity are required to be RBS (Responsible Beverage Server) certified through the ABC (Alcohol Beverage Commission) pursuant to fair requirements. RBS certification is required prior to signing up as a volunteer.
It is highly recommended that new members obtain RBS certification as soon as possible, so they are prepared when volunteer sign-ups open. This also applies to those renewing this year. All OCWS volunteers serving as managers, stewards, or servers must be RBS certified. Volunteers who serve exclusively as cashiers are not required to be certified; however, obtaining RBS certification allows access to a wider range of volunteer opportunities.
EMAIL US – To get started, just email Sue England at RBS@ocws.org and let her know you need RBS certification this year.
THREE-STEP PROCESS – More detailed instructions will be sent to you when you register.
1. Create an RBS account with Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC).
2. Take the online, self-paced course through the RBS provider that OCWS has selected.
3. Take a final quiz with ABC online and obtain the ABC certification, which is valid for three years. You are now ready to serve in the courtyard at the OC Fair.
PLEASE NOTE – Each OCWS member will need a valid individual email address that will be used to set up your account. Your own individual email address will be your username for the online system. Thank you so much for your volunteer efforts. You are what makes the OCWS the great success it is.
—Sue England, RBS Coordinator
The 50th annual OC Fair Home Wine Competition will be held on Saturday, June 6, 2026 at the OC Fair and Event Center. We need close to 100 volunteers to serve wine, handle scoring, interface with the judges, set up, clean up, mail awards, and do much more. Over the next few months, you’ll see signup opportunities to staff these positions on the website, in the newsletter and in email announcements.
What you won’t see is a volunteer form to judge. Judging is not a position that just anyone can sign up for. People are asked and selected to serve as judges for the Home Wine Competition. Being a wine judge takes wine knowledge and training.
Think about it. A judge needs to be impartial. Personal preferences, likes and dislikes, they don’t matter. Say a judge prefers to drink a big, jammy fruit-forward, high alcohol style of Zinfandel. But as a judge, that person can’t give a high score to a Zin made in that big style simply because of personal preference. Conversely, that person couldn’t give a low score to a lighter and more nuanced Zinfandel just because they don’t prefer that style.
A wine judge evaluates how well-crafted a wine is. A wine judge looks for wine faults, negative characteristics that make wine less pleasurable to drink. Wine judges are trained to recognize faults. They are trained to evaluate wine based on how well-crafted a wine is instead of personal likes and dislikes.
If you’ve ever wanted to judge wine, the good news for OCWS members is that the average member knows a lot about wine, very likely more than the average Joe on the street. I’d also say the average OCWS member knows more about wine than they give themselves credit for. What’s needed is the training to be able to evaluate wine impartially.
So how does someone get that training? Every year, the Winemakers Group conducts a judging seminar to train new judges prior to the Home Wine Competition. The seminar also serves as a refresher course for experienced judges.
The seminar teaches how to evaluate wine impartially. It trains judges how to score wines in a competition based on common characteristics such as color, smell, taste, balance, finish and a few others. It also teaches about common wine faults, what causes them, and how to recognize them in wines.
Many OCWS members are knowledgeable about wine and well-suited to be judges. You may already be judging and evaluating wines every time you drink them and just might not be aware of it. All that’s needed is the proper training and skills. If you’ve ever taken Don Mayer’s “Wine Defects Workshop”, offered right after the Commercial Competition, then you’re on your way to being a judge.
We are always looking for new competition judges. If the idea of being a wine judge appeals to you then we’d like to talk to you. Contact our Judging Chairman, John Lane john@ocws.org to see if you’re a candidate to judge.
You don’t have to be a winemaker to judge at the Home Wine Competition. In the training class, you will learn about the winemaking process and gain a greater appreciation of wine and the skills that go into making it.
New judges must take the training to judge at the Home Wine Competition. The training is free and refreshments will be served. It’s not difficult and it provides the necessary skills to be a competition wine judge. If you’re selected to judge, the seminar date, time and location will be provided.
Cheers!
Ed Reyes
ed@ocws.org
Maybe I am showing my age. No, I am definitely showing my age by using Jackie Gleason’s famous line as the title of a Wine Wisdom about mead. Mead, the product of yeast turning a honey and water mixture into alcohol. A natural fermentation that, as a result of archaeologic discoveries, may have first occurred among African bush tribes some 20,000-40,000 years ago. Exactly when mead was first created is obviously hard to determine, but humans’ desire for alcoholic beverages, even sweet alcoholic beverages, has perpetuated the making and consuming of mead a reality, from then till now. And OCWS’ Varietal Hour on Tuesday, March 3 will continue that reality as the focus that evening will be on mead.
Making mead is relatively easy. And many have done it and are still doing it. Today’s basic recipe is adding three pounds of honey to one gallon of water and add yeast. However, the origin of honey wine is thought to have been an accident, although a happy one. Wild honey accidentally blending with rainwater and then fermented by natural yeast, produced a honey wine. Evidence has been found that 7,000 years ago Northern Chinese pottery held such a fermented drink. The Greeks and Romans called it “Nectar of the Gods” believing it to be a divine drink with medicinal benefits. The Vikings called it “Mead of Poetry” that provided wisdom and poetic stimulation to whomever partook. Mead has been referenced in ancient writings of the Celts and Anglo-Saxons (epic poem Beowulf), in the Finish Epic: The Kalevala and in Welsh texts: The Book of Taliesin and The Gododdin, as well as the sacred books of India’s religions (the Rigveda). The ancient Greeks considered Bacchus the God of Mead before he was updated to the God of Wine. Mead is mentioned over the years in writings from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, to J. R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, to George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series (aka HBO’s Game of Thrones). This honey of a drink has even been credited with the coining of the word Honeymoon as a result of the ancient tradition of giving newlyweds enough mead to last them a moon’s cycle to boost fertility.
As I said above, many are making mead. The list of countries where mead can be found is too long for this article. And if it hadn’t been for beer and wine a lot more of it would be commercially made today. But it appears that rarely are two recipes the same. For example, in Finland it’s made with brown sugar and raisins; while in Ethiopia they flavor it with powdered gesho, a bittering agent; and in the Philippines galanga root, a local herb with ginger, citrus and pine flavors, is fermented with the honey. It also appears that there is almost anything that can be added to differentiate the local meads, i.e, maple syrup, blueberries, burned honey, elderberries, coffee, apples, herbs, nutmeg, cinnamon, and even grapes to confuse its heritage, each of these blends having their own unique name. In fact, the first time I judged the OCWS Home Winemakers Competition the panel I was on judged various meads including a chocolate mead. But is mead always sweet? Not in the least. And as important as sweetness levels are in determining diverse wine styles the same is true for mead, which can be made dry, semi-sweet and sweet relying of course on the honey must and particular yeast employed. Likewise, current meadmakers can make stylistic choices of either still or sparkling mead, with alcohol by volume (ABV) ranging from 3.5% to 20.5%. Mead can also be distilled to a brandy or liqueur alcohol strength. Finally, if you freeze fermented mead and remove the frozen water, a process known as “freeze distillation”, the resulting product is known as Honey Jack which will result in a potion with a higher ABV.
Now I have a favor to ask. As mentioned above, on March 3, there is a scheduled OCWS Varietal Hour with mead as the topic. You can get your free ticket on the OCWS website’s Events section, then pick up a bottle of mead at your favorite liquor store and join us to find out just how sweet it is!
—CL Keedy, Wine Education Committee Co-Chair
Described as the perfect prescription for Port lovers since 1979, Prager Ports Works in Napa has been family owned and operated for three generations. Of the third generation, John Prager, along with six siblings, comes from a legacy of not only fine port purveyors, but long-time supporters of the OC Fair Commercial Wine Competition. John’s father, James Prager, was one of the original judges of the competition for 25 years and John, now following in his father’s footsteps, has been one of our judges for, what will be this year, 15 years. Recently I had an opportunity to chat with John about Prager Port Works, the OC Fair Commercial Wine Competition and the current condition of the wine industry as a whole.
When asked about what he would tell wineries about entering the commercial competition, John was quick to say “Enter your wines, Californians. Enter it. It is inexpensive, as the cost to enter is just 6 bottles of wine. It’s one of the oldest competitions in the state judging your wines. Before Spectator and all the others, they were the original. Come on in. You won’t regret it.”
Reminding John that this year is our 50th Anniversary, he emphatically reassured me that he has all intentions of continuing to judge the most prestigious competition of California wines by saying, “I love that the competition keeps making changes as needed and looks to the judges for advice and input. There are nice changes in the tasting and things are always run professionally and kept current.”
When asked what the best aspects of the wine business are for him, he laughingly shared that “It’s not a bad lifestyle to make alcohol and pair food with it and make a living at it. That’s fun in itself. People just love the camaraderie, and I get to meet people from all over the world. I never get tired of it. After 46 years, it’s always interesting and everything comes easier today because I’ve been doing it for such a long time. As long as my dad was doing it. It’s what I know.”
And, lastly, when talking about the current state of the wine industry, John said, “It’s certainly changed over the years and it’s not particularly easy these days. Today’s industry environment is somewhat of a waiting game. We’re trying to get more noticed on mass media, which seems to be the direction we need to go. It’s really difficult to know what direction to go these days. There are definitely different challenges in the industry today like us needing to attract new white wine drinkers and, somehow, making wine more approachable.”
Having been to Prager Port Works any number of times over the past 25 years, I can tell you from personal experience, that there is no more approachable winery than Prager nor finer ports to be found anywhere. With walls covered in currency from around the world stapled on by visitors, along with ribbons and plaques attesting to the caliber of their award-winning wines, and only family tending the business, the Prager tasting room, tucked away along Hwy. 128 near St. Helena in Napa is a welcoming warm hug and one not to missed.
—Fran Gitsham
By Fred Heinecke
What a great start we had to the 50-year jubilee at the sold-out Orange County Mining Company Champagne brunch. Bubbly is the finest way to celebrate the many years of friendship, wine and fun the Orange County Wine Society represents.
Hats off to Rochelle Randel for making the event a true success.
The 50th Anniversary Committee Chair, Carolyn Christian, came across a budget from 1978 that harkens to the very beginnings of the OCWS. It makes me look at the 2025 expenditures and see the head-spinning difference in the current OCWS and the world today. In 1978 there were nine line-items in the budget, with total expenditures of $3,100.
It’s a little difficult to wrap your head around, but the largest 1978 expense was the OC Fair Commercial Wine Competition at $2,000. Fast forward to 2025 and multiply by 100, the Commercial Wine Competition expense was right at $192,000. I’m just going out on a limb, but I expect the 48-year-old version didn’t run three days at the Costa Mesa Hilton with almost 100 judges and 100’s of volunteers with 2,500 entries. The total income for the OCWS in 1978 was $5,750, in 2025 it was $680,103 with expenses of $663,476.
This was a long walk, but it brings me to the main point I want to make that I’m sure every member has noted. Over the years the cost of almost everything has skyrocketed. The OCWS Board of Directors and committee chairs and volunteers work to make our events fun and accessible and revenue neutral. Meaning that we try to keep the event costs reasonable without reaching into reserve funds.
It has been a standing board policy to require events to pay for themselves; that is, have the income equal to the expenses. As hotels, restaurants, vendors, and entertainers have increased their prices (the local CPI is up 24.7% since Nov, 2019), the costs that OCWS must pass on have gone up accordingly. We think the OCWS sponsored events are a great value when you consider that most come with wine or no corkage, tips included and are simply great fun!
Upcoming fun-filled wine tastings (noted here in the Wine Press) include free Varietal Hours; Winery Programs with Trentadue & Miro, Macchia, and Dry Creek; and the Spring Social along with fun opportunities to volunteer at the Commercial and Home Wine Competitions and The Courtyard. I hope to see everyone there with a glass of their favorite!
On another note-the OC Fair moving plans changed since the January edition of the Wine Press. We should, by now, be in the new location, but with our portable office trailer located next to the Ranch Building (Building 33). Rochelle Randel and Lynda Edwards will continue to work in the existing office and Teri Lane and the cataloging crew will be in the new building.
Cheers!
Fred Heinecke, President