In This Issue:

Farewell to a Good Friend
It was with great sadness that we learned of the untimely death of Paul Dunseath in December. Paul was a a very strong supporter of both the AWO and the Wine Judges of Canada for many years.

Paul was a real gentleman and many AWO and WJC members have fond memories of time spent with Paul. Both the AWO and the WJC will be much poorer with his passing.

A New Look
You may have noticed that the AWOnews masthead sports a new look in this edition. Your AWO executive certainly hopes that you notice the new logo that we’ve had developed to project a new, more vibrant image for the organization. Stay tuned over the next few months and you’ll see more evidence of some of the things that we have been working on since the 2006 AWO festival.

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In This Issue:

Thanks, Paul
This is my first issue as the AWOnews editor and I’d like to start off by acknowledging the large debt of gratitude we all should have for the dedication of the previous editor, Paul Dunseath, over the last 10 years and 40 issues.

This issue is coming out a few weeks later than I had hoped as I learn what a challenge it is to get content in quickly from a volunteer organization. I’m sure that Paul learned that lesson very quickly and that it was reinforced many times over the ensuing ten years.

As I mentioned in my introduction in the last newsletter, I’d like to focus on being your newsletter editor, as opposed to your newsletter writer. I need your help providing ideas for articles, subjects you’d like to read about in the newsletter or comments on content, format or style. To that end, I’ve set up a separate e-mail account at awonews@sympatico.ca for any contributions or comments.

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In This Issue:

Hail and Farewell; an introduction to the next editor of AWOnews; an update on this year’s Eastern Ontario Amateur Wine Competition, final information on the upcoming Festival MMVI (our annual Festival and General meeting) in Ottawa in June, with your last chance to get your registration in, and comments from our President on current issues.

Please note as well that there are some changes, primarily those of scheduling, to the seminar program. This was necessitated by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission which made a series of last-minute demands on the times at which wine could be served.

Editorially speaking, this is a bit reminiscent of the early days of the hobby when it was illegal to even offer a glass of home-made wine to a guest in your own house, and absolutely verboten to take any out of the home. In addition a permit - although it was free, it was still administrivia - was required for every home winemaker, with a limit to the quantity one could make.

A number of us organized a province-wide petition to Queen’s Park to have these silly restrictions removed, and were successful. The time may have come to “go political” again: after all, Premier Dalton McGuinty is the MPP for Ottawa
South….

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