IWSC 50th Anniversary Awards Banquet

To London, day after we flew home from Las Vegas, for the annual IWSC Awards Banquet at The Guildhall.

The Pinotage Trophy was not awarded this year, but they created a 50th Anniversary Award - Outstanding Wine Producer - presented to Kanonkop Estate. 

Outstanding Wine Producer recognises a wine producer which has performed consistently well since the creation of the Winemaker of the Year award in 1984.

Kanonkop – recognised as one of South Africa’s greatest wines, especially for its renowned dry-farmed Pinotage – has won 15 different individual trophies at the IWSC and has won Winemaker of the Year four times.

L>R Sir George Fistonich, Abrie Beeslaar, Beyers Truter

The award was presented to Kanonkop winemaker Abrie Beeslaar by Beyers Truter in the presence of IWSC President Sir George Fistonich, of New Zealand's Villa Maria.

Beyers  won some of those IWSC Trophies when he was winemaker at Kanonkop before Abrie.

Abrie and Jeanne Beeslaar

Beyers Truter and Dr Winifred Bowman

Las Vegas

With Pete and Sue in Las Vegas for a week from 19-26 November, staying in The Cosmopolitan, room 3298 overlooking Bellagio fountains. Floor 32, but since the floor numbers jump from 4 to 15 actually the 22nd floor.Very cold, too cold to enjoy our balcony.

Bellagio from our room balcony

Paris casino from our balcony

Cosmopolitan's swimming pool was changed to an ice-rink

The Christmas Tree was lit the Saturday we were there

The object on top of this burger at the MGM Grand is a battered and deep fried gherkin. Ghastly!

On our last full day we took a tour with Pink Jeeps to Boulder Dam

White stone shows normal water level. Photo courtesy Sue Chasney.

 Water level in dam was very low as result of drought.

Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep grazing in park above lake

Two 25-foot tigers made from yellow lentils, red and black cargo rice and caraway seed

Bellagio Conservatory had this India themed display combining animatronic animals with many thousands of flowers.

Visited The Mob Museum in downtown Las Vegas and had this picture taken by a selfie booth,

picture courtesy Sue Chasney

 and sat in the (decommissioned) electric chair, though throwing the switch seen to the right of the chair makes a frightening electrical noise.

Downtown almost unrecognisable. Fremont Street and side roads are pedestrianised, and Fremont is roofed with people zooming its length on zip wires, and earsplitting music from large stages

Wheel of Death from KA, photo courtesy Sue Chasney

We saw two Cirque du Soleil shows, The Beatles Love at The Mirage and KA at MGM Grand, and the free KA 360 'Theatre Experience' tour, which explained the amazing technology behind the touch sensitive revolving horizontal/vertical stage, that the artists perform two shows daily and that the music is played live at every performance. 

Behind the scenes tour allows photo's, and uses the main stage  vertically for a movie screen.

The flight home departed at 21:10 so we enjoyed an afternoon burger at Burger Brasserie in Paris Casino. We didn't have their signature 777 Burger (Kobe beef, pancetta, goat cheese, seared foie gras, arugula, Maine lobster, 100-year-aged balsamic paired with a blt salad and a bottle of Dom Pérignon rosé champagne) which cost $777 and holds 'world's most expensive burger' title.

They sell about one per month, the manager told me, and about 40 a month for $77 without the Champagne.

Refreshingly there was a choice of bread and no brioche bun! Good burger, good plentiful chips and the wine exceeded expectations, as the assistant manager came bearing Chateau Ste Michelle Cabernet Sauvignon, priced the same as plonk at other LV restaurants.

St Pete Beach

We had Sunday and Monday at Rumfish Resort on St Pete Beach following the AWS Conference and flew home from Tampa on Tuesday evening. 

We spent the time reading in the hotel gardens or by the pool and walking along the white sand beach, once all the way to Pass-a-Grille at the southern end of the island. 

The history museum was closed and we had lunch and a bottle of Clifford Bay Marlborough SB at on the first floor balcony over looking the ocean at The Brass Monkey. 

Pete at Pass-a-Grille at southern end of St Pete Beach Island

A short walk from Rumfish is this ice-cream shop.

The sunsets seen from St Pete Beach were gorgeous.

Joan ate at Rumfish Grill while I was at the Conference. The rear wall of the restuarant has a huge 33,500 gallon fish tank.

Building of the tank was the subject of US television show TANKED and Joan was keen that our last lunch before driving to the airport be in the Rumfish Grill. But that closed at 14:00 so we had to eat in the adjoining bar.

I thought I'd have one last burger and chose what I thought was a healthier option of sweet potato fries.

And they were sweet because they'd been liberally coated with sugar! Too sweet and too calorific for me to eat.

This misspelled sign was in reception. 

We got the car back to Hertz at the airport with the empty tank warning displayed.

AWS Conference 2019

The 52nd annual American Wine Society National Conference  was thankfully held in the warmth of Florida's gulf coasts at Tradewinds Resort, St Pete Beach from 30 October to 2 November 2019.

Because AWS room allocation at Tradewinds was full we stayed at neighbouring sister location Rumfish Resort.

Executive Director David Falcheck

The Conference, my eighth, was superb with many great sessions, especially Joel Peterson, founder of Ravenswood and now owner/winemaker of Once and Future, with Mixed Black Magic, an examination of how complementary varieties add to Zinfandel.

Joel Peterson

Joel's tasting

Joel showed 
Once and Future 'Forcini Vineyard' Zinfandel 2018
(100% Zinfandel planted 1904)
Once and Future 'Oakley Vineyard' Zinfandel 2016
(100% Zinfandel planted 1890)
Sandlands Carignan 2018
(100% Carignan planted 1890's on own roots)
Bedrock 'Papera Ranch'  2017
(70% Zinfandel, 30% Carignan planted 1901: "Carignan adds zip -acidity and spiciness) to Zin")
Once and Future 'Palisades Vineyard' Petite Sirah 2017
(100% PS planted in 1976, budwood from original 1894 vineyard: "PS is a pain to grow, lacks colour, structure, is extremely tannic.")
Ridge Lytton Springs 2017
(74% Zinfandel, 15% Petite Sirah, 9% Carignan. 2% Mataro)
St Amant 'Mohr-Fry Vineyard' Alicante Bouchet 2017
(100% Alicante Bouchet:"a little AB goes a long way, can quickly dominate a wine.")
Bedrock 'Pagani Ranch'  2018
(Field blend of Zin, some Carignan, PS and white Chasselas & Palomino)

and then we were invited to make our own blends with the first two 100% Zins.

L>R Diane Meyer, Kate Kearney, John Hames, Marge and Tom Wallman

Randall Grahm, Bonny Doon

Randal Grahm was honoured with the AWS Award of Merit and gave a fascinating and humorous talk on the history of Bonny Doon and his failures, and finally giving up his dream of making a Burgundian style of Pinot Noir in California.