By William Meaux

Traditionally, September signals the beginning of the wine-making season.  For the Holy Rosary Church community, it signals the arrival of California wine grapes and wine juice, arranged by the church-based group, the Washington Winemakers, for purchase in making home-made wine.  Once again this year, the Washington Winemakers will conduct their fundraiser to benefit the Villa Rosa Nursing Home by offering wine grapes and juice for the 2007 vintage. Some 70 families participated in last year’s fundraiser; Washington Winemakers expects that group to grow further, based on this year’s successful shipments of California wine grapes and juice.
 Washington Winemakers will have a wine refrigeration unit, courtesy of the juice supplier, on site at the Villa Rosa Pavillion soon after the Villa Rosa Festival on September 16, 2007. (Villa Rosa is located at 3800 Lottsford Vista Road in Mitchellville, Maryland.) Once the refrigeration unit has been installed, juice will arrive and will be available for purchase through mid-October. 
Premium California grape juice made by Aniello will be ordered as purchased by the group and will be available for sale in six-gallon pails.  Supplies will be replenished according to demand throughout the season.

In addition, a full shipment of wine grapes (1,008 boxes) is scheduled to arrive at the Pavillion at Villa Rosa around Saturday, October 6, 2007.  Depending on demand, a second shipment may be scheduled as needed. This second shipment would arrive sometime on or after October 7.  Since shipments come directly from California, arrival times may vary depending on various factors such as weather, but generally the truck’s arrival is very close to the projected date. Washington Winemakers will use a phone-tree notification system and send out emails to notify those who join the group wine-grapes purchase about the precise arrival of the grapes. 

Those interested in joining the group purchase, can download order forms for the wine grape or wine juice from the internet at www.washingtonwinemakers.org. All orders are “first come, first served” in the order received for shipments on trucks from California. The cost of shipping to Villa Rosa is included in the price.  All orders must be paid for in advance of delivery.

As in the past, $1 in charitable donation is added to the cost of each box of grapes or pail of juice. The donation benefits residents of Villa Rosa, the nursing home maintained by the Scalabrinian Mission, who also run Holy Rosary Church.  That portion of the cost is tax deductible. 

In past years, the Washington Winemakers have donated more than $4,000 to Villa Rosa; any additional funds generated will benefit the group’s growth for the future. 
For wine-grape questions, call Vincent Ionata at 301-518-9686; email: vinceionata@aol.com.  Wine-juice questions can be addressed to: Nick Ferrante at (301) 384-0985; email: nicolaferrante@aol.com.  For other questions, contact Willy Meaux at 703-786-6830 or at the Holy Rosary Church office at 202- 638-0165.•

Learn the ABC’s of Wine-Making

Winemakers 101, a beginner’s course in the art of wine-making, is in progress every Tuesday from 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm in the lower hall of Casa Italiana.  The full course includes the text book by Daniel Pambianchi Techniques In Home Winemaking. Tuition is $150 for the full course, payable to the Washington Winemakers of Holy Rosary Church. You can also audit sessions on a drop-in basis for $25 per session. 
Seminar participants are encouraged to bring appetizers for the first 30 minutes of discussion; pasta, salad and wine are available in Casa Italiana before each session. The last session is on Tuesday, October 9, 2007.  Hydrometers and lab coats are provided to participants for the analysis sessions conducted by wine maestro Romeo Sabatini.  Romeo will also invite participants to his home vineyard for an in-the-field analysis and will cover other viticultural and enological issues while his home grapes mature.