On Thursday evening, ZINO Society celebrated our 4th birthday at a fantastic magnum party at beautiful DeLille Cellars in Woodinville. The photo above is of ZINO Society members Larry Hitchon and Dana Reid flanking vintner, Ben Smith of Cadence Winery. Both walked in, one directly behind the other, carrying a magnum of Cadence wine. I couldn’t resist taking the photo to memorialize their entrance to what turned out to be a very fun party. There were many ZINO Society members, guests including Tom Skerrit and his wife Julie, Wine Professionals and Vintners in attendance. In addition to Ben Smith of Cadence Winery, there was legendary grape grower, Dick Boushey of Boushey Vineyards, Marty Clubb of L’Ecole #41 Winery, Chris Upchurch of DeLille Cellars, and many other winemakers attended the event. Sommeliers Jake Kosseff and Kurt Krause ably managed opening and pouring the magnums that each guest brought. In addition to celebrating ZINO Society’s 4th birthday, we also celebrated Greg Lill’s 50th birthday. Media personality and ZINO Society member, Patti Payne, led all in singing a rousing “Happy Birthday” to both Greg and ZINO Society.
The delicious wood-fired pizza and salad were catered by Veraci Pizza with their portable wood-burning oven. Once again, Marshall and his team did a stellar job and the pizzas were fantastic! For the fourth year in a row, our title sponsor was Berntson Porter and we were so happy to have Berntson Porter-ites, Greg Porter, Rick Fisher and Nancy Harnasch join us in the celebration.
On Friday evening, Ken and I attended an Auction of Washington Wines Winemaker Dinner once again at DeLille Cellars. It was a perfect night and the food was provided courtesy of Thierry Rautureau, chef in the hat, of Rover’s Restaurant. Every course was exquisite! Jay Soloff, partner in DeLille Cellars presented a courtesy bottle of DeLille Cellars wine to every server and chef involved in producing such a special evening, while DeLille Cellars winemaker, Chris Upchurch, described the process he uses in tasting and making wines. Other featured winemakers were Michael Corliss of Corliss Wines and Allen Shoup of Long Shadows Vintners. DeLille Cellars President, Greg Lill and his wife, Stacy Lill, hosted the party overseeing the very large table seating around 40 people. Considering the length of the wine glass filled table and the chandeliers overhead, several people commented that it looked like something out of a Harry Potter movie. The photo above from this amazing winemaker dinner is Lauren and Greg Porter and Kathleen and Allen Shoup. Greg is one of the principals of Berntson Porter, a loyal and revered ZINO Society sponsor. In addition to being a principal at Long Shadows Vintners, Allen was originally one of the founding Advisory Board members for ZINO Society.
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