Happy New Year everyone. I hope 2010 will be prosperous and full of great wine discoveries.
Congratulations to Antonio Mauriello who was presented the Wine Person of the Year award for 2009 at the Holiday Gala. The award is well deserved as Antonio has done much to advance the knowledge of wines and all things Italian for a number of years. A full report on this award are elsewhere in this issue.
2009 has been a challenging year for the Guild as for many people. The years started with thousands of dollars in outstanding billings due largely to a great number of credit card transaction rejections due to increased bank security. It took several months to resolve these and get the Guild back onto a solid financial foundation. As a result of this situation your Board decided move event registrations to the Eventbrite on-line booking system. This system is working smoothly and there have been very few problems resulting from the change.
2009 Memberships were down due at least in part to the recession as well as to increased competition from other organizations that offer wine tastings in various forms. The Guild conducted sixteen tasting events this year with an additional eight tastings at the Ottawa Wine and Food Show. Among the most successful were the tasting with Pierre Dupont, the Riesling tasting at the Divino Wine Studio, the annual Mechoui, Summer Dining at Gay Cook’s and the Victoria Australia winemakers dinner. The change of venue for the Holiday Gala to the National Art Centre was appreciated by all who attended and Chef Michael Blackie provided us another superb dining experience. Several additional events had to be cancelled due to low registrations. Since a Special Occasion Permit must be applied for at least ten days before an event we must cancel or postpone it if we do not have enough registrants by that point to break even.
The Guild’s Board of Directors have established a marketing/communications group to develop an overall strategy for recruiting and retaining members. The goal of the strategy is to build Guild membership back up to a sustainable 200-250 range which enables us to fill at least 2-3 tasting events every month. The first task of the group has been to poll current and former members concerning how they would like to see the Guild evolve. This will help to determine the Guild’s particular niche in today’s wine savvy community and to develop events and programs that better serve their needs. You can expect to begin seeing results from this committee’s work in the near future as we make changes to make our events a more social wine experience and less a classroom. Expect to see more guest experts and wine-makers conduct these events and greater availability of hard to find, better quality wines. We expect that core Guild membership will continue to be sommelier program graduates seeking to maintain and grow their wine knowledge and our events will focus on both education and enjoyment.
The Guild’s Annual General Meeting is only four short months away on Monday, May 3. A number of current Directors are retiring this year and there will be a need for several new directors. Being a Director is fun, satisfying and has its perks. Not only do you get to organize events but you get to attend those that you run for free. You also become a bit of an ‘in the know’ insider to the wine industry and get invited to trade shows and events not generally open to the public. If you are nineteen or older and have been a Guild member for at least three months, now is the time for you to consider putting your name forward as a nominee for director. The success of Guild depends on people like you to volunteer. Complete and send in the nomination form that appears in the Guild Business section of this newsletter or give it to any current Director.
2010 membership renewals are due now. Renew early and avoid the increase due to the new HST that will take effect July 1.
To register for an event, click the Register for this Event button on the event's description page. This will take you to the EventBrite registration page.
The National Capital Sommelier Guild strongly supports moderate and responsible consumption of wine and spirits. Guild dinner events allow a designated driver to attend at a reduced price. The designated driver will not be served alcohol. Guild tasting events provide and encourage the use of spit buckets.
"We don't really write a wine column. We write a lifestyle column that happens to focus on wine." — The Wall Street Journal Guide to Wine
