Chancellery

Chancellery Chancellery

OH WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR CAN MAKE!

The Chancellery Chapter celebrated its Tenth Annual Crab Feed on March 6th at Baker Family Wines, in West Sacramento. There was some noticeable difference from last year as we were able to host more folks and hold our event inside this year. Some important elements of our event that did not change were the wonderful group in attendance, the beautifully prepared crab, and yummy appetizers and sides to accompany the crab. We were lucky to have Chuck Kelly and Dave Clesi at the crab boil pot again. The shrimp, which they serve fresh out of the pot, is always a hot ticket item during our social hour. Some of our members contributed additional appetizers. We were happy to have a group from the Lake Tahoe chapter join us for the evening.

As a special treat, members of the group were treated to a pre-event tour of the University of California, Davis Teaching and Research Winery. Our Chapter, as well as the Monterey, Los Angeles, and Lake Tahoe Chapter steward a KOV scholarship for graduate students in the viticulture and enology program. We listened to Andrew Misialek present his findings on a study of Petite Sirah clones grown on the UC Davis campus. Andrew was the recipient of the 2021 scholarship. This project was originally started many years ago with a gift from Patty Bogle of Bogle Winery.

In May, we held a two-day Grand Assemblage. On Friday evening, we started the celebration at the home of Lee and John Ford. They hosted a wine and appetizer mixer around their lovely pool area in Auburn. Commander Chik was asked to speak to the group about the current state of the wine business in our area; most interesting to the participants was the impact of the fires of the last couple of years on the fruit and the product.

The Assemblage followed the next day, when our newest KOV member/partner, Kari Hazen, owner of Rancho Roble Vineyards, made available her beautiful winery and estate for us. Members installed that evening were: Kari Hazen, Francine Vorhees, and Jon Vorhees. We were fortunate to have with us our Grand Commander, Buddy Hagner and Executive Director Trish Hagner from KOV National in Houston and Commander Emeritus, Ken Levy and his wife Sandy from the Lodi Chapter. A highlight of the evening was when Kari’s grandson, who was watching the proceedings saw our swords and wine glasses and didn’t quite know what to make of it. Buddy quickly assessed the situation and made it special for the 3-year old boy. He asked for the Commander’s sword and installed the little one as a knave, only using the sword, but not the wine glass! Three additional new Chancellery members were not able to attend; we will catch up with them next spring when we will schedule our next Assemblage. After the ceremony, we had preferred seating at the first several flower-adorned tables, arrayed end to end down a path through the vines. Also present at the event were members of Rancho Roble’s wine club, who were thoroughly impressed with what they learned about KOV. The Rancho Roble setting was superb, and we stayed late to enjoy dessert and the live music performed lakeside. A beautiful evening, fairy lights and even a chandelier over the tables, made it magical.

We look forward to future Chancellery and other local chapter events planned for late summer and fall. It’s just another chance for our Northern California KOV members to meet and mingle.