Thank you to everyone who attended our last meeting on February 08, 2025, at Hatfield Creek Winery in Ramona. We had about twenty-five members in attendance last Saturday, and it was a beautiful day and space for our meeting.

We started the meeting thanking and saying goodbye to Dane Marolt for being our acting President these past two years. Dan Matheson has graciously agreed to step into the role as the new president of SDAWS. We are still hoping to have someone in the group step up to fill the VP role vacated by Dan. Please reach out if interested.

Dan gave us an interesting presentation on malolactic fermentation. The members were engaged in active discussions and questions during and afterward on this topic as well as general winemaking. Steve shared that you could pick up liquid malolactic at Ballast Point Brewing Miramar. Patty brought information on the upcoming Winemaker Magazine Conference and wine competition to be held in Sacramento mid-May. We would love to have a table of San Diego folks at the conference to represent SDAWS.

Our membership signups are growing, and we have about two-thirds of our eighty-three members paid for 2025 or beyond. After the meeting, the members were treated to a tasting of all ten of the Hatfield Creek’s wines on the menu, and it was very much enjoyed by all in attendance.

Reminder that our next meeting will take place in Ramona on April 05, 2025, at a private vineyard, Tre Sorelle with Rob as host. Here we can bring our own wine and food, and a save the date will come out in March for this next meeting.

Cheers, and happy pruning to those of us that “get” to grow the grapes!

See you in April!

Thank you everyone who came out to the SDAWS meeting November 09, 2024, at Rancho San Martin Winery in Ramona. We about 20 people in attendance which turned out to be a good group for our Wine taste/sensory presentation by Dane Marolt. We tasted Dan Matheson’s Sangiovese paired with lemons, apples, salt, and a variety of chocolates. Our hosts at the winery shared their wonderful wines in an intimate setting that led to a lot of friendly conversation. On the business side, we put out a call for interest in a new President for SDAWS for 2025. We also discussed the new fee structure with AWS, which will be effective when each membership expires (new structure below). Each membership will receive an email from AWS automatically and then you will have a link to re-enroll. We brought up the need to have guest speakers at each event and/or have a planned activity. There seemed to be a large interest in a grape pruning class in February/March 2025 and maybe we can have this at Monarch Hill Vineyard in Escondido with Dan. To help gauge interest we talked about having a December 07, 11am pre-Christmas social meeting at Rob’s private vineyard in Ramona. If this is a meeting that you think that you would like to attend, please send an email to pt.ranchita@icloud.com no later than November 18, so we can make some plans around this potential event.

New AWS Membership Rates:

1- Year Individual – $59
3-Year Individual – $159

1-Year Household – $89
3-Year Household – $239

Professional – $199
Student – $25
Lifetime – $1,200

The San Diego Amateur Winemaking Society (SDAWS) meeting was Saturday, August 03, 2024. in Oceanside, CA, The Chang family were our gracious hosts and shared their new home with 300 established grapevines with us. We had about 25 members in attendance, which was a sizable number considering it is summer, and folks are likely on vacation.

We had a brief meeting to ensure that everyone was receiving emails from American Wine Society and knew about the upcoming conference in November as well as the related wine competition, and 2025 Seine River cruise.

We experienced a wonderful presentation about fermentation and general winemaking best practices from award-winning winemaker Micole Moore of Ramona Ranch Winery. Micole also let us taste one of his brand-new wines, not even released in the market yet.

We did a vineyard tour, which sits high on a hill overlooking the backside of Oceanside with views toward the ocean.

The members had a fun time visiting, enjoyed snacks, pizza, and each other’s wines.

We ended with a wine raffle exchange, where members got an opportunity to share their own wine as well as take home a bottle of someone else’s wine.

It was a beautiful day today for our meeting at Chuperosa Vineyards! Andy and Carolyn were wonderful hosts and we learned about when to harvest. Andy showed us his wine cave, which was immaculate and what was more impressive was the wine he had inside of an 80 year old, 1000 gallon barrel. It was one of the best wines I personally ever had! It was multiple vintages of his Sangiovese. I definitely think everyone needs to buy a bottle come next March!! Wow!!!

San Diego Amateur Winemaking Society (SDAWS) gathered at member Steve Clark’s House in Rancho Bernardo with about 36 people in attendance. President Dane Marolt introduced and welcomed new officers, Dan Matheson and Patty Torres. SDAWS goals were discussed including a trip to Valle Guadalupe in Mexico. Outgoing Secretary Gi Claassen gave a presentation on wine kits, several members of the group shared their experiences and there was a general discussion of winemaking. The meeting was adjourned, and the members relocated to the upper patio, for wine tasting and sharing, snacks, fun conversation, and a wine raffle. Steve Clark took groups on tours of his property. Good times were had by all.

We started off the new year with a meeting at beautiful Ramona Ranch Winery (https://ramonaranchwines.com/ ) with just under 30 people in attendance.  Following a welcome by our wonderful hosts, Club President Dane Marolt gave a presentation on “Raising, Rearing or Breeding?  How do you elevate your wine?” including stability and clarification as well as different long term aging vessels and their attributes. 

Club member Gary Correia recently published an article in Winemaker Magazine about his experiment using mahogany to add flavor and depth to wine (https://winemakermag.com/article/making-wine-with-mahogany) and gave a short presentation about his findings.

SDAWS will be holding elections soon!  If you are interested in running for office next year, we are looking for nominations or self-nominations for:

• President
• Vice President
• Secretary/Treasurer (now a single office instead of 2 separate ones)

Please contact club Secretary Gi with any nominations – email for contact was sent to SDAWS mailing list. If you are on the mailing list and did not receive the minutes please check your junk/spam folders.

Following club business our amazing hosts Teri Kerns and Micole Moore gave tours of the vineyard and tastings in the winery with special pricing.  A huge thank you to Teri and Micole for hosting us and supporting SDAWS!

We had another terrific meeting on Saturday July 15th at member Dan Mathson’s Monarch Hill Vineyards – he and his wife were very generous to let us meet at their property, BIG THANKS to them! Just under 40 people attended the meeting, it was sunny and hot but there was plenty of shade and seating for everyone. The meeting opened with acknowledgment of the many members that recently won awards at various home winemaking competitions.

Dan gave a very comprehensive, knowledgeable presentation on “Growing Grapes.” Following the presentation there was a short tour of his winery, lab and vineyard, then a Wine Swap raffle and social time with members sharing their homemade wines, including many recent award winners. Good times were had by all.

The next meeting will be in August as we plan to skip September and October for harvest. The meeting will be SUNDAY August 20th at 10 am at Ramona Ranch Winery, the topic will be “Fermentation.” If you would like to be on our mailing list please go to the Contact page and send us your email, more details for the next meeting will be sent out to the mailing list soon!

Congratulations to all San Diego Amateur Winemaking Society (SDAWS) members and all entrants that won awards at the San Diego County Fair Home Wine Competition – including Michelle Walker, who won Best of Class AND the Russ St. Jean Most Unique Wine award for her Marselan wine (from a kit!)!

We are planning to have a future meeting focused on preparing and selecting wines to enter in competitions and have a mock judging – join us to learn more about wine appreciation, winemaking and grape growing!

Please share this post and let your wine-loving friends know about San Diego Amateur Winemaking Society (SDAWS), you don’t have to be a wine maker to join.

Due to past issues of getting overrun with spam accounts and posts, we’ve recently added a number of systems to combat this nuisance. One of these seems to have been overly aggressive and blocked many of you from logging in.

This should now be fixed, but if you are still having problems, please email us at notspam AT sdaws DOT org with details about what you are being told when log in fails.

We had a terrific meeting on Saturday May 13th at Bastian’s Vineyards in Escondido. About 40 people attended, it was sunny and warm, and the vines looked great. Attendees introduced themselves and their winemaking backgrounds as well as their favorite wine or wine experience, then there was a summary of how the club is moving forward as a chapter of the American Wine Society. Future meeting topics and group wine trips were discussed. Ron Bas, owner of Bastian’s Vineyards and alumnus SDAWS Treasurer, then introduced himself and gave the history of his vineyard and winery. At the conclusion there was a tour of the winery equipment and a social hour with tastings of Bastian’s Vineyard wines and snacks brought by members.

The next SDAWS meeting will be Saturday July 15th at 1 pm at a member’s home with a presentation on grape growing – if you would like to be on our mailing list please go to the Contact page and send us your email.