BWFS

Cellarmaster’s report 10/2/2010

Mr President, gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to present the Cellar-master’s report for 2009.
I trust that you will all have had a chance to look at the cellar list and associated information that should have come to you by e-mail (see link below).
You may note that the two areas of interest probably relate to wines purchased for the year and wines that we have consumed during our various functions. The number of wines consumed is somewhat greater than the wines purchased, and I think this is a trend we will need to maintain.
I have made every attempt to use my funds to purchase a smaller number of quality wines, which has basically been my philosophy during my five years as cellar-master.
During this period I have managed to re-format the cellar into what I think is a user-friendly arrangement, both on paper and also in the cellar.
With the help of Karin, I think we now have an Excell spreadsheet which allows the balance of wines to be adjusted on a monthly basis, both in and out, and obviously at the end of the year we have done an audit to make sure that everything balances.
I have also added, over the years, the cost of wines coming in, and nearly all the wines which have a dollar value are those that have come in under my stewardship of the cellar.
This year I think has been very successful, and Phil Dover has done an excellent job in showing us a wide variety of wine as outlined. He has risen to the extremely difficult challenge often of a menu provided a couple of days before our functions, and then to select and prepare the wines appropriately is certainly a labour of love.
At this stage we have only a very few single bottles and I think the cellar meets the current members’ requirements very well.
The only exception has been (as discussed previously) a surplus of some Australian red wines which, although bought in good faith, have been overlooked, and perhaps by the time they are drunk, will be past their ideal use-by date. This has been discussed in committee, and I have made some effort to go through the list and suggest some wines that may be considered for an auction later on this year. This will be further discussed at the first committee meeting. If in due course this is accepted, there may be a similar auction to that conducted several years ago, which I think was very successful.
Financially the Society is in a good situation, and I think with extra funding made from the sale of what would be excellent wine for current consumption, this will put us in a much better position to buy perhaps some of the otherwise unattainable wines, such as Burgundy and Bordeaux.
With that possible prospect I feel somewhat reluctant to hand over the control of the cellar to Jim Patterson, who will have the enviable role of spending the Society’s money on exotic wines!
I think however this is the appropriate direction for the cellar.
I must say it has been an honour and a privilege to have been in the role of cellar-master in the last five years, and I hope the Society continues to enjoy a wide range of wine and food, presented at an extremely high level, into the future.

John Nelson