What's New?
We're trying something new. When we add a new post or make a change we'll add a note here with a pointer to where you'll find it. For example:
- We are very happy to welcome Suzanne Lunham as a new member of the Advisory Committee. (914-213-3323 or sLunham@yahoo.com)
- The announcement for this month's Virtual Tasting on February 15 is posted under the THIS MONTH'S TASTING EVENT tab.
- The 2023 Membership form is available under the IWAGY HOME > MEMBERSHIP tab.
- The Officers' and Committee Members' contact information has been updated at the bottom of this page.
- Arnie Serotsky shared with the Club information about Eric Asimov's weekly NYT article "The American Wine Industry Has an Old People Problem. - To find an audience with younger consumers, American winemakers need to make changes, and fast, a new report finds." From Arnie: This week's Asimov wine article in the NY Times is interesting and has some important thoughts regarding wine interest (or lack of) on the part of Gen X and Gen Z.
You may need a NYT subscription to check it out.
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About It Was A Good Year, Inc. ("IWAGY")
It Was A Good Year, Inc. is a not-for-profit corporation formed and incorporated in 1980 for the purpose of learning about wine via educational wine tasting. It is run by its members through its elected officers, including an Executive Board (aka Board of Directors). Prior to the pandemic (1980-2019), the Club sponsored about 10 wine tasting events a year. Wine tastings are mostly held on weekday evenings, and usually start at 6:00-8:00 PM; they are led by wine professionals or Club members who discuss the wine theme, as well as the individual wines. Many of these presenters choose to embellish their talk with visual aids like PowerPoint projected slides, etc. A typical line-up includes 8 wines. At most regular wine tastings, participants are seated and face the presenter. Tasting pours are small and tasters are encouraged to spit or dump unwanted wine (“dump cups” provided), and to manage their wine consumption. During the pandemic, we began holding wine tastings virtually via Zoom. We resumed indoor face-to-face events (on a limited basis) in July 2021. In 2022 the Club held 8 face-t-face wine tasting events and one Zoom presentation.
The Club’s membership fee is paid annually. Members are entitled to reduced rates for most wine tastings and dinners, and receive an emailed invitation to each upcoming event. The Club also gives its members the opportunity to meet other people who are interested in learning about wine.
If you have any questions about membership, etc., please see the membership section of this website tab, or contact any member of the Board of Directors.
Although the main focus of the Club is on education, occasionally dinner-tastings are held at better local restaurants; several wines are selected to match the menu. Alternatively, other food-wine pairing events take place at rented venues (Locust Grove, Cunneen Hackett Art Center, etc.). These food-wine events afford members an opportunity to experience and appreciate pleasing wine and food combinations. Our regular wine tastings are held in various venues in the Mid-Hudson Valley area.
The Club's membership fee is paid annually. Membership runs on a calendar-year basis. Members are entitled to reduced rates for most tastings and dinners, and to a newsletter (approximately monthly). The newsletter is mainly an invitation to each upcoming event, and describes the theme. The Club gives members an opportunity to meet other people who are interested in learning about wine. It also maintains its own website, IWAGY.org.
If you have any questions about membership, etc, please see the membership section of this website tab, or contact any of the Executive Board:
Board of Directors
Tim Free (Founder), (845) 896-6361 or timothybfree@gmail.com
Stephanie Pyrek, (845) 454-3402 or shp0304@aol.com
Chris Umlauf, (845) 462-4287 or chrsumlauf@gmail.com
Officers
Treasurer: Chris Umlauf (for contact information, see above)
Scribe: Patrice Stabile, (914) 475-8677 or stabeast@gmail.com
Advisory Committee
Chair: Clay Morrissey, (845) 567-1978 or espz2@aol.com
Steve Effron, (845) 454-2884 or Sleefco@aol.com
Ed Hartmann, (845) 831-2294 or hartmann@prodigy.net
Suzanne Lunham, (914) 213-3323 or sLunham@hayoo.com
Arnie Serotsky (Chair), 702-7382 or arnieSer@aol.com
Other information
For membership questions, contact any Executive Board member (see above).
For website questions, contact Arnie Serotsky (see above)
or Joe DiDonato (845) 337-1702 or maxfire@hvc.rr.com
Last updated: 2/7/2023
