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It is with great sadness that we acknowledge the passing of Brian Harris. He had been a member of the club for 24 years and served on our committee as both Treasurer and Secretary. In earlier times, Brian’s experience and contacts in the hospitality business engendered some memorable club dinners.
Notice: Harris, Brian
Of Johnsonville. Unexpectedly at Wellington Hospital on 29 June 2021. Mourned by his partner Cecilia; daughter Jackie and Margaret, Mark (dec), Helen, Jo and Allan; grandsons Brett, Shane, David, Bradley and Carl. Forever is never long enough to be with those we love.
Brian & Cecilia at Yangtze Restaurant – July Dinner 2008
In lieu of flowers, donations to Wellington Free Ambulance would be appreciated and may be left at the service. Messages for ‘The Family of Brian Harris’ may be sent c/- PO Box 50-347, Porirua 5240. A service for Brian will be held in St. John’s Anglican Church, 18 Bassett Road, Johnsonville, Wellington on Friday 2 July 2021 at 11.30 am.
Anne Megget & Wayne Kennedy with 27 bags of wine bottle screwcaps for Kidney Kids
The following appeared in the Independent Herald for the last week of April.
Members of a local wine club have been collecting screw caps off wine bottles for the last year and have amassed 27 bags full.
As each bag holds approximately 1300 caps – this is a lot of wine! (Remember 2020 was not a normal year), and that is a lot of metal not going into the landfill.
Vice President Anne Megget collects the caps from members, friends and neighbours, and when her cellar is overflowing with bags Treasurer Wayne Kennedy comes around with his trailer and takes them to Wellington Scrap Metal for recycling and this year they raised $215.40.
The Cellar Club is a Wellington-based social group that focuses on learning about and appreciating wine. It has been in existence for 40 years and provides wine education and experience through monthly presentations at the Community Centre Hall in Johnsonville.
Contact can be made through the website or to Anne.
Postscript
Wayne recently provided a plastic bread bag fill with wine tops and neck labels. The latter is also aluminium and equally collectable. Being retired he decided to check out just how many bottles had been consumed. The bag weighed 556 grams and contained 167 tops and 107 neck labels. The problem was Lynne was nearby and not being a wine drinker, she asked ‘what was the likely value of the wine consumed?’, to which he replied, ‘Using an $18 average bottle cost, about $3000! But it was more than a year’s worth!’ he pleaded. Lynne just smiled and, as she walked away, said there was a lot more wool coming.
But having done this weighing, and looking at the money raised above, he thinks the club collected close to 50,000 tops and even if we were to use a cost of $15 per bottle consumed, that’s $750,000 of wine drunk by the club, friends and neighbours.
One final point
Those neck labels on wine bottles will aluminium tops are 1.3 times heavier than the tops, so are well worth collecting. Just be very careful and work away from yourself as you attempt to remove one from the bottle.
Well, Robin and Pat are off on their cruise. I’m not sure their itinerary allows much chance to try local wines, but I’m sure that they will have fun working their way through the selection provided by their cruise liner.`
Apologies
I was sorry that I missed our last tasting, but as fortune would have it, I did get to taste some of the left-over wines at our committee meeting the following week and I particularly enjoyed the Montepulciano D’Abrusso, I have even made a mental note to call by Regional wines and grab a bottle or two.
Preparing the AGM
Your committee has been busy preparing for the AGM and finalising our calendar for the rest of the year. Have a look later in this newsletter to see the exciting events that are now all in flight.
AGM in 2001
Attached to this Newsletter you will find the minutes from the 2018 AGM. The President and Treasurer will present their reports on the night and details will subsequently be made available on the Club’s website for those who might be interested.
This is your club and the AGM does offer an opportunity to have your say and/or raise matters of interest. If you have ideas or thoughts to offer please don’t be shy to raise them.
Attached to this Newsletter you will find the minutes from the 2017 AGM. The President and Treasurer will present their reports on the night and details will subsequently be made available on the Club’s website for those who might be interested. This is your club and the AGM does offer an opportunity to have your say and/or raise matters of interest. If you have ideas or thoughts to offer please don’t be shy to raise them.
Quote
While travelling in Hawkes Bay and visiting wineries (purely for research purposes you understand) Anne and Jenny came across the following quote. “anything is possible with a little lipstick and a great glass of wine.” Personally I will skip the lipstick and cut straight to the chase
Tastings
They also came across a couple of Hawkes Bay producers keen to present to the Club and as a consequence we have Unison for June and Clearwater for August. This will give members an opportunity to compare wines from a producer from the Gimblett Gravels area and one of the equally excellent producers from the more coastal Te Awanga area. Much to look forward to over the next few months.
