1889 AWARDS what a show!
Monday, January 14th, 2008
Well, we did it. The 1889 awards are over. While it was hard on those of us who put it on, it was hardest I believe on my wife Amy who is raising our 3 month old daughter often by herself. I called her to the podium and thanked her publically as I could not have done it without her.
The 1889 Awards was an idea which I came up with when interviewing local winemakers regarding their frustration that many restaurants and wine retailers here sell so much wine from outside the Livermore Valley. I felt that starting an annual award which celebrated those who have ample selections of local wines would encourage others to support local winemakers because studies show a dollar spent locally will, on average, be spent five more times in that same community before leaving it.
Nick from The Wild Vine
The name 1889 Awards recalls Charles Wetmore, a local winemaker whose winery “Cresta Blanca” recieved a gold medal in 1889 at the Paris Expostion. This is the same event for which the Eiffel Tower was built. I felt such a prestigious win was lost to history, and needed annual celebrations to imprint this history the same way the Napa win of 1976 has been remembered.
Lemon Grass Thai Food
Terra Mia
PW Markets
The process for awards is as follows: Being the first year, there is to be no first or second place. Every recipiant is celebrated for his or her support (next year, the amount of local wine sold will play more of a role). For the sake of expedienancy, it was decided that this year, amount would not be a factor, rather variety of selection.
Because the old Cresta Blanca property and caves Wetmore once owned are now run by the Wentes, and their restaurant graciously carries wines from smaller wineries, they would recieve the first award.
Phil Wente was on hand and spoke at length about the need for the community to persevere despite hard economic times. He was also happy to see the often ignored wine history of the region celebrated so long after Wetmore’s passing.
The winners were split into two catagories: restaurants and wine retailers. In the Restaurant division, the winners are:
The Restaurant at Wente Vineyards, Campo Di Bocce, Zephyr Grill and Bar, CiCi’s Italian Ristorante in Fremont (which boasts nearly every wine in the valley), Simply Fondue, Cattlemens (which is beginning a program to wave corkage fees for local wines brought in by patrons), The Grill at Poppy Ridge, Uncle Yu’s at the Vineyard, Lemon Grass Thai Restaurant, The Wild Vine (A local pub) and Bruno’s. In the Wine Retailer catagory, First Street Wine Company, Raley’s, Safeway (which has a highly sucessful tasting bar in the store) PW Markets (which also offers wine tasting) and The Wine Steward in Pleasanton.
Jim Concannon was a speaker who told stories of yesteryear and kept the crowd laughing. The owners of Livermore Trophies and Tees, Bill and Dianna Geyer, who furnished the awards, also spoke. I felt it was important to follow the theme of local support throughout and buy awards from the Geyers.
The ceremony was held at the Martinelli Center, which is run by Garre Winery. It is also home of the Livermore Wine Growers Association. Executive Director of the LVWAm, Chris Chandler, was on hand to, as she said,” support those who support the valley.” The latest winemaker in the valley is Larry Dino of Cuda Ridge Wines, who spoke briefly about how excited he is of his first wine produced this year. Jim McGrail of Greenville Roads McGrail Vineyards was also present.
After the ceremony, a presentation was projected by local artist Andrew Johnstone. He is best known for taking grafitti offenders and at risk youth, who have been in gangs, and teaching them to paint on canvas instead of on walls. Johnstone and Glazier have teamed up to create wineries and other buildings in the valley in 3-dimensional models for the wildly popular “Google Earth.” Johnstone works as a “beta tester” for Google.
The Wente Wineries, Murieta’s Well and Concannon buildings were projected, as well as the Blacksmith Square buildings, as if the viewer was a bird flying above the valley. Google Earth is increasingly used as not just a navagation tool, but also as a new form of web browser, and Google technicians use the term “Geo Web” to describe this emerging technology. “By putting Livermore wineries on Google first, we once again will have the attitude of the mavericks who pioneered this valley,” says artist Johnstone; “no other winery has done this anywhere.”
http://www.rogerkardinal.com/ Great musician!
The golf course at Wente was shown in a birds eye view also. Phil seemed impressed and thanked Glazier and Johnstone for promoting the valley this way. The Martinelli Center is created in a 3-D model, and plans are to give it to the Winegrowers Association to help promote everyone here and increase the collective web presence of wineries, golf courses, and other attractions in the valley.
Here’s a short video we showed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ce2sWa7Evdk&feature=user
Plans are already underway for next years event. It will be a lot harder next year to recieve this award because it will be based on volume of sales among other things.
