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WARE WINE & BEER CIRCLE |
| MEETINGS IN 2022 | |
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Other years available -
2021 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2022 December: Christmas Meal 15 members attended a Christmas meal at Chadwell Springs. December: Ware Christmas Festival We set up our usual stall at the Ware Dickensian evening in record time and were up and running just before 6p.m. on Friday December 2nd. The price of our hot mulled wine was £2 per cup. We remained the cheapest in town, and were sold soon after 8pm. Peter R. took control of the boiler, Kevin encouraged the public by shouting in the style of a street corner newspaper salesman with the half time football results, and controlled the queue; Robert kept the mulled wine flowing from the boiler to Chris, with Eddie keeping him supplied with cups. Elaine took her usual place at the “till”, giving out change and accepting card payments!. The evening was again a success and the club managed to raise over £1000 providing a profit of circa £900. Fifty percent of the profit has been donated to the Herts Air Ambulance. November: Meeting cancelled due to illness. October: Halloween-themed food competition 11 members attended the meeting, with 4 savoury and 4 sweet entries from 7 members. The results were as follows: Savoury - 1st Spider eggs Emma; 2nd Peter R camembert spider; 3rd Emma sausage mummies; 4th Margaret spooky sausage mummies Sweet - 1st Sue K decorated sponge cake; 2nd Richard cup cakes; 3rd Carol rhubarb eye pies; 4th Elaine pumpkin bread Eddie thanked everyone for entering, and presented the Rolling Pin trophies to the winners. An enjoyable evening. Photo Gallery September: Wines made from unusual ingredients 9 members attended the meeting, which had been postponed by a week in respect of the Queen's funeral. 6 members had a go at making 7 wines from unusual ingredients, which provoked a lively discussion amongst the members present as to what had been used to make them. The wines were as follows: Peter R made a wine from hops. Elaine made a wine from hibiscus flower petals, which resulted in a pretty pink colour; and also a wine from pumpkin, (with a touch of ginger) which she said took a lot of effort to make and would never make again! Chris made an intriguing wine from closed cap mushrooms which he had boiled and then used the resulting juice to make the wine. Kevin made an onion wine, which was rather cloying and not very pleasant. Eddie made a wine from lemons. Robert made a wine using strawberry jam. An interesting evening, but I don't think members will be asking for many of the recipes. Eddie thanked Chris for presenting the wines and the members for making them. August: Annual Computerised Wine Drive, run by Elaine and Peter R August saw the return of the club's popular computerised Wine Drive. 15 members attended the meeting. Chris called upon club president Eddie to present annual show trophies and certificates. Elaine presented the wine drive with assistance from Peter R. 13 members formed 5 teams to judge the paired combinations of 8 home made wines and 2 commercial. The results of the drive were as follows together with Founders Trophy points awarded. 1st Commercial, 2nd Commercial (but no points awarded!), 3rd Robert (4 points), joint 4th Elaine and Peter R (2.5 points each), 6th Chris (1 point), 7th Peter B, 8th Richard, 9th David C, 10th Graham. Thanks to Carol for taking the photos for the Gallery. Eddie thanked Elaine and Peter for running the evening. As we left to go home, it was raining!! Photo Gallery July: 40th Annual Show The club held its 40th Annual Show at Ware Arts Centre. 10 competitors entered 114 bottles in eight wine classes and four beer classes. Entries and judges all arrived promptly allowing the show to commence on time. The Judges were Daphne Grant, Colin Hotham, Geoff Fryer, and Richard Baldwin. After the judging, the judges and assisting stewards and show organisers enjoyed a salad lunch. Thanks to all who entered and well done to all the winners who will be announced at the August meeting and presented with their trophies. Click here for results and trophy winners. July: Talk by MC Black - 'In the footsteps of Sherlock Holmes' Due to the exceedingly hot weather on the day of our Monday meeting, it was reluctantly decided to postpone this interesting talk and slide show of a walk around some of London by MC, with photos of Sherlock Holmes' haunts in London in late Victorian times, and images of what the buildings look like now, taken by Elaine. Hopefully, this can be re-scheduled for a meeting later this year. June - Annual BBQ The Annual BBQ unfortunately had to be cancelled due to low numbers of attendees and double-booking of the hosts. June Wales & West 56th Annual Festival The Wales & West 2022 Festival was held on 20th - 24th June at Weston-super-Mare with five members of Ware attending, namely Elaine, Peter, Kevin, Chris and Carol, as well as Lynn. Elaine, Peter, Chris and Kevin judged various classes and Carol and Lynn assisting as stewards. Elaine, Peter, Kevin, Chris & Carol entered the show. Ware Wine & Beer Circle retained the Leytonian Cup awarded to the non-affiliated circle with most points across all open classes and shared the South Gloucestershire Trophy with County Beermakers for the club with most points across all beer classes (we let County Beermakers take the trophy home). Carol gained a sixth place for her jam, a second place for her decorated bottle and a fifth place for her photograph. The festival included tastings of ciders, wines and beers. Late night discussions upon the merits of individual’s wine and beer entries. Once again, the Wales & West was enjoyed by all attendees. Next year's show will take place in the second week in June at Weston-super-Mare. May: Beds & Herts Federation Show 2022 Peter, Elaine, Chris, Robert and Kevin entered the show this year. Elaine took her usual role with the management of show results and awards. Kevin and Chris judged with Robert and Carol acting as stewards. Elaine got three 1st places; Peter got three 1st places; Kevin got eight 1st places; Robert got one 1st place; Chris got four 1st places; all gained other places. Chris won the National Trophy and the SJ Buckley trophy; Elaine and Peter tied for the Chris Stevens trophy; Kevin won the Herts Horticultural Trophy for highest points in the wine classes, with Peter 2nd. The Rolls Royce Trophy (circle most points wine) and the Daphne Grant Trophy (Lady winemaker) are no longer awarded due to lack of competition. May: Quiz Nite with Dave and Sue 12 members participated in the meeting, plus the quizmasters. There were 4 teams of 3 members, with husbands and wives not allowed to be in the same team. There was on on-going round of guessing the names of sweets, birds, and underground stations, and 8 actual rounds of multiple choice questions. The winners were Peter B, Peter R and Graham; second were Chris, David and Robert; third place were Elaine, Eddie and Richard; fourth place went to Carol, Emma and Sue. Eddie thanked Dave and Sue for putting the quiz together. Members were reminded that the next meeting will be the Annual BBQ on July 3rd, and of the Annual show on July 23rd. Annual Show page. April: AGM followed by the First Round of the Supermarket Wine Challenge 16 members attended the meeting. The minutes of the 2021 AGM were accepted. Peter R. presented the Treasurer’s report stating that there had been very little income and expenditure during the past year as the earlier meetings had been held on Zoom. The club had a healthy balance of circa £1278. Peter commented that the club’s annual subscriptions will now be set as £10 per person. The committee were re-elected en bloc, MC Black was accepted as Auditor, and Eddie was elected as the new President. Dave K, the outgoing President was thanked for his time as President. Kevin reminded members of the forthcoming meetings - May 16th - Quiz nite with Dave and Sue May 21st - Beds & Herts show June - BBQ, date and venue to be decided July 23 - club show September - tea party at Chris and Carol Kevin also said that the Masterclass sessions would be resumed soon. Peter R would be organising this. The supermarkets for the Wine Challenge were Marks & Spencer and Lidl. Chris E sourced the wines, matching like-for-like on grape, alcohol and price where possible. Each wine was described by Chris and at the end of the tasting the members voted on which wine they preferred. The wines were as follows: Wines from Chile Sauvignon Blanc Chile 12.5% £6 Marks & Spencer Sauvignon Blanc South Africa 12.5% £5.49 Lidl Malbec Argentina 13% £5.00 Marks & Spencer Malbec Argentina 13% £5.99 Lidl Shiraz Australia 14.5% £7.00 Marks & Spencer Shiraz South Africa 14.5% £5.49 Lidl The winner was Marks & Spencer. March: Call My Bluff by Peter and Elaine 13 members attended the meeting. The evening started with a toast to the club with a bottle of Prosecco won by Peter in the raffle at the weekend. The correct wines were as follows: Cepa Lebrel Rioja Blanco, Viura, Rioja region of Spain, 2022, 12.5% Lidl £4.49 Picpoul de Pinet, Languedoc, France, 2020, 13%, Tesco £8.00 Blossom Hill, Califormia, USA, 11% Dornfelder / Merlot, Rheinessen, Germany, 2016, 10.5% Yellow Tail, Merlot, SE Australia, 2021, 13.5%, Tesco £7.00 Rib Tickler shiraz, California, USA, 2016, 13.5% Members had to guess which was the correct wine from the two descriptions given by Peter and Elaine. Carol was the only member to guess all six wines correctly. David K thanked Peter and Elaine for the evening. March: National Show at Britannia Royal Court Hotel, Coventry Peter and Elaine R, Kevin, Robert and Susan, and Chris and Carol went to the 62nd National show at Coventry. See the NAWB website for the full results and photos. Ware Wine & Beer Circle and its members were among the 2 federations, 6 circles and 47 individual entrants at the National Association of Wine & Beer Makers (Amateur) Annual Show in Coventry on Saturday 19th March 2022. A total of 986 bottles and 7 photos were entered across the show’s 94 classes. Ware Circle and its members gained 37 first and 145 other places and as a result retained their position at the top of the National Club Points League Table and the Amateur Winemakers Shield, for the sixth year in succession. In addition, Ware Circle won the Sweet ‘N’ Dry Cup. Peter R won the NAWB Master Trophy , The Bournemouth Master Winemaker Cup, and 8 other trophies. Elaine won The Lady winemaker trophy and 3 other trophies, Kevin won the The Hill Cup, The Brian Keer Trophy and 8 other trophies, Chris won the Temple Tankard and 4 other trophies and Robert won 3 trophies. Ware Circle and its members won a total of 34 trophies. The Show was a weekend event and included a presentation of home brew beers and wines. The highlight of the weekend was Saturday evening’s formal dinner followed by the presentation of major trophies and musical entertainment. February: Beers from Micro Breweries by Kevin Kevin brought along some beers from, mostly, local micro breweries, as follows: UNLTD Alcohol Free Lager 0.5% Alcohol Free Brewing Co, Ware UNLTD Alcohol Free Lager 0.5% Day Tripper Pale Ale 2.8% Baron Brewery Buntingford Saison brett version 6.3% K Martin brewery Hitchin Simmons bitter 6.5% K Martin brewery Milk Stout 4.5% Bristol Brewery Black Friday Dark Mild 6% Paradigm Brewery Rickmansworth THe Pershores Yellow Golden ale 6.3% Crossover Blendery (an unusual beer, golden plums are added after the brewing process) Thanks to Kevin for sourcing the beers. January: 70th birthday party for Chris 12 members met for the first meeting of the year for an early 70th birthday party for Chris. Chris brought along four wines - Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay, Rioja, and Shiraz, all from Tesco. He also brought a Freixenet Cava to have with the birthday cake. Elaine and Peter R brought along some party food - crisps, mini sausages, salami and cheese mini pizzas, sausage rolls, mini croque monsieur, mature Red Leicester and sweet pickle bites, brie and cranberry bites. Dave C brought some parmesan and garlic twists. Kevin made a chocolate cake decorated with icing and '70' using malteesers. A convivial enjoyed by all. |
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Last updated:
19/05/26 |
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Copyright: 2001 WWBC |