As I sit to prepare this newsletter Celine Dion is singing “Another year has gone by” in the background. Surely not, I say, but it is so. Where has it gone?
We can start by reviewing our year. We began with our summer BBQ at the end of January. The usual excellent occasion and thanks to Derek for continuing to make his premises available. February saw us heading on a “Summer Romance – a love affair with Wine” where some of your committee members presented their favourite summer wines. In March Mark and Susan Haythornthwaite presented some of their “Haythornthwaite” wines and told us of the success they have had adding platters to the tasting experience at their premises.
In April Simon Bell from MacVine took us on a tour of Europe embracing France, Italy and Germany. May was the usual AGM then in June Unison Vineyards from the Gimblett Gravels in Hawkes Bay presented some lovely wines. July was something of a disappointment when we went to Saigon Van Grill Bar. The meal was lacking, particularly in quantity, and subsequent efforts to redress the problem have been futile. Never mind, we were back on track in August with a great tasting from Clearview.
September saw a continuation with European wines when Maison Vauron gave us a taste of French wine with some cheese matches. Then who could forget Negociants presentation from that iconic Barossa winery, Yalumba.
The tastings for the year finished with a return to Europe, this time Portugal with Confidant Wines, and some great wine with food matches. All this travel and we haven’t had to leave home.
As I finish this Celine has moved on to “Holy Night” and is singing about a night divine. I can’t quite work out if she means Christmas Eve or the December Dinner at Juniper. You be the judge.
Cheers
Robin Semmens, Editor
I raised the issue of letting the committee know of your intentions when it came to tastings involving the preparation of food to enhance your tasting experience. Clearly, you will already have noticed that we are seeking your assistance with this again for the November tasting. Grateful if you can let Richard know if you will be attending.
We have had a great reaction to our request for members to take home the glasses used at Club tastings for those attending who do not have their own. We have about 5 names already and would like to thank those that have offered. Would love to have more names however so please let us know if you can assist. We are arranging the purchase of a container which will fit about 16 glasses. This should make the task of carrying and cleaning very manageable.
Negotiations with Saigon Van Grill Bar over some level of compensation concerning the July dinner seem to have stalled and we are not hopeful of getting a result for members. If this situation changes we will let you know but we are not holding our collective breaths.
We would like to be able to create a roster around looking after the club’s glasses. We are working on reducing the number to a smaller tray than the current two but would like some offers of assistance from people who would be prepared to take the glasses home, clean them as required and bring them back to the next meeting. This would not be onerous if we had a number of members willing to help. Let us know if you can assist.
In researching information for the Negociants/Yalumba tasting this month it is apparent that space in this newsletter does not allow for the inclusion of all the information we might like to pass on. Wayne has been “surfing” and found some interesting stuff on the Government of South Australia site. I include two links here which you might be interested in looking at. The first is about 
