Houston

Houston Houston

NOTHING’S GOING TO

By Trish Hagner SLOW US DOWN (MUCH!)

Yes, 2020 was tough on everyone which made it all the more important that we maintain contact, take care of each other and be as creative as possible in finding ways to get together.

Our Houston Chapter organized a virtual event with Supreme Knight Jack Galante and Master Lady Dawn Galante for Friday night BINGO on August 7! The invitation was shared with commanders who were encouraged to extend the invitation to their members. As a result, we welcomed 57 friends on Zoom to play, to laugh and to compete for prizes. Jack and Dawn were gracious with the gift of their time and prizes as well as the wine offers with special pricing for those who wanted to enjoy Galante and Dawn’s Dream wines.

Next up … we joined with the Austin Chapter for a virtual tasting and “live” music on August 12. Led by Mark Rashap (CWE), nineteen Houston members participated in the tasting of four great wines. Austin Commander Jerry Gatlin hosted the Austin and Houston Chapters and worked with Master Knight David Jabour to offer a package of wines for the event through his company, Twin Liquors. Arrangements were even made to have the wines available in Houston and we were grateful for the sharing of the event and the wines! The Austin music scene is well known and the event was opened and closed by the Liz Morphis Trio.

But wait .. there’s more! On August 15, we held our Annual Business Meeting in the Vintage Select Wines’ warehouse. Normally, this would be a potluck dinner. Given the health concerns this year, we decided to have it catered with a server so that everyone could feel more comfortable with fewer hands on the serving utensils. With 32 in attendance in person and others participating via Zoom, we went on with “business as usual”. Our chapter’s business was reviewed, officers and directors were elected and we were excited that night to receive new applications for membership from two future gentle ladies. We also, as usual, presented our check for $10,000 to Miguel Cabrera representing the University

of Houston’s Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management. It will be added to the Knights of the Vine Endowment that was set up there in 2011. With a bit of sadness and a load of gratitude, we presented Miguel with a special plaque and some gifts to thank him for his years of support, assistance and encouragement as he leaves his position with the Hilton College to take another position in the alumni office at the university. We wish him nothing but the best!

Our chapter also approved designating Southern Smoke as another organization worthy of our financial support and approved an initial gift of $4,000 to be sent immediately. Southern Smoke was founded by Chris Shepherd in 2015. Its humble beginnings came when Chef Chris learned his friend and former sommelier Antonio Gianola was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. In 2017, Southern Smoke shifted its focus to provide assistance to people in the food and beverage industry affected by Hurricane Harvey and distributed $501,000 to 139 people in need. Recognizing a need, the Southern Smoke Foundation created an Emergency Relief Fund for people in the food and beverage industry in crisis. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, the Southern Smoke Emergency Relief Fund has distributed $5,251,204 to 2,477 people nationwide.

To date, Southern Smoke has distributed more than $6.9 million—both directly to people in need via the Emergency Relief Fund and to organizations that represent the needs of people in the food and beverage industry. As Chris says, Southern Smoke was created to “take care of our own.” This 501 (c) 3 organization is, indeed, serving a vital need in our community and nationwide and we are very happy to be a small part of it. For more information, please check out www.southernsmoke.org.

We welcomed another virtual tasting opportunity on October 16 with Supreme Lady Gina Gallo. What a great evening it was for Houston members and members across the country to participate in this event coordinated by the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter Commander Pat Pingitore. Gina shared stories of her family and told us of her wine journey and tasted us through four of her

Signature Series wines. It was a delightful evening and a rare opportunity.

We remember all too well how contentious the election season was last fall. Regardless of personal positions, we know that what we have in common … our friendships … are far more important. To that end, we held a “Celebrate Friendship” dinner at Lynn’s Steakhouse on November 4. Gathering in the wine room, guests had a menu with the option to choose their dinner and wine pairing. For the first course, the choice was between a jumbo lump crab cake, grilled quail or Caesar salad with Monticello 2015 Estate Chardonnay (Napa). The entrée choices were filet mignon, snapper with shrimp étouffée, grilled pork chop or prime New York strip offered with Corley Family 2015 Proprietary Red (Napa). It was difficult to choose a dessert when the choices were key lime pie, white and dark cream chocolate cake or bananas foster pie served with a delicious dessert wine from Spain, Amatus 2009 Dulce, but choose we must. No one left hungry and everyone left feeling uplifted and relieved to be together in spite of all the discord in our country, but not in our chapter.

We planned our annual Holiday Dinner always held at the home of Knight Lee Slataper and his lady, Laura. Unfortunately, locally, we saw a bit of a spike and in an effort to be very careful to protect our friends, we decided it best to pass this year knowing that when we could get back together it would be all the more sweet. Our 2021 Assemblage was already on the calendar for January 2021 and we considered holding it, however, again … we felt it was just a bit early for most members and guests to feel comfortable. So, we will be holding it … yes we are! … the weekend of April 9-11 and you are all invited! We can’t wait to see you!