Dear Members,

Since I last wrote to you, we have had four events in 8 weeks - The Bin Ends Night, The Ch. Leoville Poyferre Night, The Margaux vs Pauillac Night and, a few days ago, The Japanese Burgundy Dinner. Your Committee was encouraged by the fact that all these events were very well supported; indeed, the last three sold out very quickly, as did The President's Table I evening, due to be held on June 24th.

Some of these events were not as large as many have been in the past. As I mentioned in my April newsletter, this was a deliberate move on the part of the Committee, as we felt that more 'personal' events of this nature would be appreciated by members, and judging by your comments, this was indeed the case. However, dinners with larger numbers will return in July and August, as you can see under "forthcoming events" below.


And now some follow up news on items that appeared in our April newsletter:-

1. Overseas Wine Tours.
Your Committee has discussed likely dates for our first trip, and it was felt that Chinese New Year next year would probably be best as many of you will be able to take a holiday at that time. We then discussed where we could go and I have been in touch with friends in South Africa - some of you may remember Kim Maxwell who worked in Singapore with "Wine & Dine" a few years ago - and Jean-Louis Michelet, who worked here for some years but who is now back in France. He has put me in touch with a professional who can help us. Closer to home we have our long-time member, Manfred Schwencke, who is an expert on the Margaret river area - I was there with him & 6 other friends only a month ago - who has kindly offered to help us, and of course, SueAnn Smith, our hard-working Committee member, who is an expert on Californian wines, as she has her own company importing same. She also lived & studied there for several years.
So what we now need to know from you is whether you would be interested in joining one of our winery tours over CNY 2009, and, if so, which would be your preferred destination. Please e-mail me at livecds@starhub.net.sg and let me know.

2. Wine Purchases.
Initially, after the elections in March, your Committee agreed that Curtis Montgomery would take over from me as Cellarmaster, as I had become Vice-President. However, at our recent Committee meeting, Curtis indicated that he would like to relinquish this role and resign from the Committee, and thus the Committee has appointed Joyce Chang as the new Cellarmaster with immediate effect. We have given her a $20,000 budget and her initial purchases have been some Champagne, including magnums as well as some burgundies for the Society.

3. Special Offers for Members.
Need some RIEDEL glasses? Get it at 25% discount through our Society. Just email your order as well as the model of the glasses that is required to our Hon. Secretary, Jen Shek Wei at dr.jen@pacific.net.sg to place your order.

4. Forthcoming Events.
Please note that we have agreed to organise the following events until the end of the year. Make a note of the dates in your diary and details will be sent out as usual, approximately one month before the event.

3rd July - American Independance Day Dinner
8th August - National Day Dinner @ Zambuca
September - Ch. Lascombes Dinner
26th October - Halloween Dinner
October - possibly a second Bin Ends Night
November – (to be decided)
13th December - The President's Dinner @ Hyatt

5. Reservations & Payments For Events
The Committee has encountered a fair bit of administrative problems in the organization of its events due to last minute cancellations of reservations as well as the fact that some members are very slow to settle their accounts for the event, resulting in the Committee spending a lot of time on the collection of same. For members who have experience in the organization of dinners, you will appreciate that more often than not, the establishment where the event is to be held will insist on a commitment from the Society on a MINIMUM attendance, and that the exact number of attendees must be confirmed at least 48 hours prior to the event itself. Given that scenario, the effect of last minute cancellations is obvious to all and it is also not fair for the society to have to bear the additional burden due to last minute cancellations.

It has been decided by the Committee that we will reintroduce the former procedure of reservation and payment and for our events. With immediate effect, all broadcast of events will be accompanied by a BOOKING FORM, which must be filled in and sent back to the President together with the payment attached to it. A reservation for seats for the event via email/sms will still be taken by the President, but that reservation will only be CONFIRMED upon receipt of the booking form and the payment cheque. Reservations without payment WILL NOT be confirmed and may be given away to members who are on the waiting list if no payment is received after reasonable time.

No cancellations of events will be entertained (unless with exceptional circumstances) within 48 hours of the event. The onus will be on the member who is unable to attend to find a replacement attendee for the event, who can be a member or a guest and the appropriate rates shall apply accordingly. Naturally, the Committee will be pleased to offer its assistance to help with the replacement attendees if we have members/guests who are on our waiting list. However, if no replacement can be found, then the full cost of the event will still have to be borne by the member.

6. Introduction of new members to the Society
We have added 10 new members since the last AGM and it is with absolute pleasure that I introduce to you our new members:
· Mr. David T. Gibbons
· Ms. Flora Loh
· Mr. Andy Sim & Ms Ooi Huey Tyng
· Mr. Mehmet Alec Cavus
· Mr. Peter-Paul Nijsten & Ms. Andrea Mansfield – Nijsten
· Ms. Anita Sim
· Mr. Thomas Tan & Ms. Amanda Tan
A very warm welcome to all of them to this fine family of wine and food lovers.

I must thank our members for introducing these fine ladies and gentlemen to our Society. Perhaps it is now timely that we do remind our members on our time tested practice of introducing new members to our Society. As we all know, the new members that are introduced will have to satisfy 2 basic criteria; namely,
· Have attended at least 2 Events as a guest of the Society; and
· Be approved by the majority of the Committee.

As such, it has been the fine tradition of our Society that the member who intends to introduce a guest as a new member would invariable makes use of the 2 Events to introduce that guest to all, if not the majority of the Committee Members so that the Committee Members may get to know them and hopefully assess his/her suitability for membership into our Society. Needless to say, any guest who intends to join the Society will never be approved if none of the Committee Members knows of him/her and/or has never met and interacted with the person.

If you have any friends who may be interested in joining the Society, please send an e-mail to our President at ctchen@acieslaw.com and we will be glad to include their names in our potential list, so that they may be kept informed of our future events.

7. IWFSS Documents
It has been decided to keep the 12 or so boxes of old Society records (dating back to 1965) which we have, as they are of historical interest. Past President Dr David Jen has kindly agreed to look after them for us.

That's all for this newsletter. Don't forget to let us have your feedback on things that you feel would be of interest to the Committee - our aim is to provide you with great events and great wines. Please help us to do just that.......

Graham Hayward.
Vice-President.