President’s Letter

Dear Members,

After many years of serving on our board, three members, Bill Dyer, Chris Howell and John Skupny retired at the end of the year. For ten years, Bill and Chris served on the Book Committee and John was a tireless coordinator of our Varietal Seminar. Four new members, Bret Blyth, Fred Caspersen, Gene Kirkham, and Morgan Morgan have since joined the board and we are looking forward to working with them in the years ahead.

Our first Annual Tasting was in 1962. This year is our 45th and features Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet varieties and blends, “A Selection of Cabernet Varieties from Napa Valley Appellations.”

As part of our commitment to wine education, we intend to group the wineries in the Tasting at Silverado according to their geography and appellations in Napa County. There are 14 appellations. Almost all of Napa County is within the Napa Valley appellation. The other 13 appellations are within the Napa Valley appellation. A map of the appellations follows this letter, and Bob Long, heading up this year’s Tasting, assures me additional copies of the map will be available at the Tasting in August.

This March we hosted a reception for the St. Helena High School Video Project at the George and Elsie Wood Public Library in St. Helena. The Video Production Class taught by John Harrington directed and produced a group of six interviews for their “Vintner Series.” Members of the Davies, Lail, Martini, Mondavi, Trinchero and Raymond families all took part. A montage of the interviews played throughout the evening, accompanied sushi prepared by CC Blue Contemporary Japanese Cuisine of St. Helena, and libations provided by the Wine Library. Board members Julie Dickson and Carolyn Martini were responsible for coordinating the event. We think Walter Raymond spoke for the whole group when he said, “It was a really fun project. The kids did a great job. There wasn’t any script to follow; it all just kind of flowed.” The Video Production Class has donated videotapes of each interview to our collections.

We have donated magnums of our Barney’s Backyard Library Cuvée made by Turley Wine Cellars to the following organizations for fund-raising events in support of education: Acorn Soupe Calistoga Educational Foundation Federated Women of Upper Napa Valley Montessori Family Center Napa Valley 4-H Napa Valley College Foundation Napa Valley Grapegrowers Napa Valley Museum Oxbow School River School of Napa St. Helena Catholic School St. Helena Cooperative Nursery School St. Helena Fire Department St. Helena Future Farmers of America St. Helena Historical Society St. Helena Kiwanis St. Helena Montessori School St. Helena Public Library St. Helena Public Schools St. Helena Rotary Soroptomist International of Calistoga Young School

We hope you enjoy this issue of the Report with its interviews of Cabernet vintners, and that you will come to the Annual Tasting, and one or both of our Seminars in 2007.

Kevin Alfaro, President