YEAR IN REVIEW 2008

BOG March 12th. Perbacco Restaurant

18 Members and Spouses attended. The loss of membership in 2007 was reviewed as was the financial report. Money was saved by sending notices out to the membership electronically and lowering the executive secretary's salary. Everybody enjoyed the dinner but despite the semi-private room was still too noisy.

241ST. Dinner April 5th. Rubicon Restaurant

70 Members enjoyed a delicious dinner planned by Roger Ecker M.D. Tom Forde M.D. Mark Rosenberg M.D. and Jim Pfeifer M.D. helped by his committee and R. Aguirre M.D. owner, of Bodegas Winery in the Livermore Valley, and member who kindly donated his 2005 Garacha, which paired very well with the braised short ribs. Seating at Rubicon was limited to 70 and this event quickly sold out.

242nd. Dinner June 22nd. Olympic Club Lakeside

58 members attended this very well planned Alsatian Dinner including an Alsatian Wine Tasting and Seminar prior to dinner.

Larry Dennen M.D. with the help of Robert Blumberg M.D. and Bruce Lehman, conducted the Tasting and Seminar tasting 8 different Rieslings, Pinot Gris and Gewürztraminers. (see the Menu page)

Speaker: Lynn Gretkowski MD and new Member spoke on "Wine and Women's Health"

243rd. Dinner October 11th. Parc 55 Hotel, San Francisco

47 members attended, plus speaker and spouse and enjoyed a Rhône themed dinner. Mark Rosenberg M.D. with the help of M. Alvarado M.D. and Morton Rivo D.D.S. planned the dinner and Robert Blumberg M.D. planned the wines including member A. Truchard's donated 2003 Carneros Syrah.

Speaker: Emmet B. Keeffe MD. MACO, Professor of medicine Emeritus,Stanford University School of Medicine gave a very interesting talk on "Alcohol and the Liver"

His research interests have bridged general and transplant hepatology, and his current focus of research is antiviral therapy of chronic hepatitis C with nitazoxanide and future generation molecules and antiviral therapy of chronic hepatitis B. He has published more than 600 papers, book chapters and miscellaneous publications.

Vintage Tour to the Russian River Saturday 23rd.August

Member and owner of Russian Hill Estate, Ellen Mack MD, planned a memorable tour. She contacted Merry Edwards who in turn with her husband, hosted our group of 62 to her newly opened winery and also planned a visit across the driveway to "Gourmet Mushrooms". She and her husband were most gracious and hospitable and members really enjoyed the tour of the Mushrooms. This turned out to be quite a scientific presentation and therefore especially interesting to our group. The tour then proceeded to Arista, owned by a Texan Al McWilliams DDS and his family, and he and his son Mark welcomed us to their beautiful new facility. Finally we continued on to Ellen Mack's Russian Hill Estate where we tasted many of her Pinot Noirs and Syrahs in her winery before proceeding to her terrace for a delicious buffet overlooking the valley. It truly was a wonderful day. 30 members took the bus from San Francisco and Larkspur Terminal and the others drove and probably made a weekend out of it.

BOG November 5th. PALIO D'ASTI. Ten members attended and enjoyed Chef/Owner Daniel's specially chosen menu with some selected bottles that survived the fire in Susan's storage and in his quiet private room.

It was noted that the Dues income is close to 2007 even though 17 members fewer paid. This is due to 2008 increased dues. It was noted that the future of the Society will probably be that of a smaller but consistent membership.

70th. ANNUAL DINNER January 10th. 2009 Park Grill, Le Meridien Hotel SF.

80 Members attended this event. Ian Leverton M.D. and outgoing President very enthusiastically planned all year to create a special dinner commemorating the 70th. Anniversary of Leon Adam's SMFW inaugural dinner on 2/24/1939. He was helped by Richard Geist MD, and David Dozier MD.
Chef Tami Lin was very supportive in creating different courses reflecting the original dinner, including Tenderloin of Beef and Crêpes Suzette. It was easily decided not to serve the original wines, notably California Dry sherry, California Riesling, California Burgundy and California Sweet Sauterne. Instead, Robert Blumberg MD, Wine chair, planned a fun, blind tasting of 2005 Bordeaux and 2005 California Cabernets. For dinner he continued the theme and chose a 79 Bordeaux and an 86 Cabernet.

SPEAKER: John De Luca PhD.
Former President and CEO of the Wine Institute
Chairman of the Board, Ernest Gallo Clinic & Research Center, UCSF

Wine Enthusiast Lifetime Achievement Award winner
Senior Advisor of the President of the University of California for Agriculture and Business
Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley and Council of the Friends of the Bancroft Library at U.C. Berkeley.

SUBJECT: " Wine in America: Its Culture, Politics and Future"

After all of Ian Leverton's planning he sadly missed the event due to illness and incoming President Richard Geist did not need to wait for the gavel to be passed to him at the end of the evening since he presided over the whole event.

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