Dear Fellow Members,

It has been sometime since we last undated you on ‘What’s Happening’ in the society … first was the usual year-end holidays and before we even knew it, the new year dawned upon us. Then comes the usual festivities and feastings that is usually associated with the Chinese New Year and before we knew it, all of us were getting the administrative affairs and accounts of the Society ready to be in time for our Annual General Meeting. That was one hectic time and phew, all of that is now behind us.

Of course, we missed our Vice-President Graham, who has been our resident writer of the Newsletter, was away from Singapore for many weeks to be in Washington D.C. during the early part of this year for the birth of another of his grand-daughter …. And a hearty “Congratulations” to him from all of us. He is currently recuperating at home after his hip-joint replacement surgery and we wish him the speediest of recovery and hope that he will be able to join us in our events very soon. So, for this edition, I have decided to write this Newsletter and to keep all of our members in the loop.

1. Events of the Society

Since the beginning of this year, we have had 4 events – The Chateau Quinault L’Enclos Nite in January where we tasted the verticals of the said wine, the Italian Nite @ Cova and the AGM Dinner in March as well as the Bins End in April 2009. The Bins End event this year was a raving success and this is the first time that we had the participation of 5 other wine merchants who were present to showcase their own wines during the event. Members and guests had the privilege of not only getting to taste and drink some of the bin end wines of the Society, but also the special wines that the wine merchants had brought along to showcase. Everyone left the event visibly happy and noticeably spirited.

Meanwhile, mark your calendars for the following forthcoming events:-

30th May 2009 – Domaine Huet @ KHA – This event is currently still available for booking although there are only a couple more seats left for the event. Therefore, if you are still undecided on whether to attend this event or not, do decide immediate before all of the seats are snapped up.

1st July 2009 – We will be organizing an event together with Crystal Wines where we will be featuring the wines from Almaviva. We were informed that someone from the vineyard could be in town for the event and so, keep your eyes peeled for the announcement of the event.

8th August 2009 – National Day Dinner 2009 – Our traditional Vice President Dinner. As before, it promises to be an excellent night of wine and dine.

We may possibly be organizing a small President’s Table dinner sometime in June and as we have just shipped all of our wines from London back to Singapore earlier this year. We are contemplating using this event to “break the shipment” and taste some of the wines that have just been brought in. So keep a lookout for it and once it is crystallized, it will be announced to everyone. Make sure you are ready to make your reservation then because the attendance numbers will be small.

2. Resignation of Committee Member & New Committee Member

The Committee will like to announce, with the deepest of regret that Mr. Michael Hadley has resigned from the Committee due to his commitments to new responsibilities that his job would now require of him, such that he would then be unable to contribute to the demands and responsibilities of the committee. All of us here wish to express our greatest of appreciation to Michael for his self-less and immense contribution that he has made to the Society by serving on the Committee for so many years, especially so in his 3 years as President of the Society. The Society wishes Michael the very best in his new endeavours and job responsibilities.

Similarly, the Committee takes great pleasure to announce that it has decided to co-opt Mr. Andy Sim as a Committee Member in replacement of Mr. Michael Hadley. On behalf of the Committee, we warmly welcome Andy on board the Committee and thank him for having kindly agreed and volunteered his time and services to the Society. We look forward to working closely together as a team for the betterment of the Society.

3. Honorary Membership

During the last AGM, the members have voted and agreed to the concept of adding a new tier of membership to our Society, namely the Honorary Membership. However, certain amendments to the terms of the new membership were raised and the Committee has since re-worded the new Honorary Membership Clause incorporation all of the amendments that was raised during the AGM for inclusion into our Society’s Rules, as follows:-

4.3 Subject to Clause 4.1 above, the Committee may nominate to the members in a Meeting any person(s) whom in its opinion will bring prestige, better wine networking and education to the members of the Society and the members may grant a yearly Honorary Membership on such nominated person(s), renewable annually during the AGM. There shall be a maximum of two (2) Honorary Members for the Society. Honorary Members are not liable to pay for any Entrance Fee or Annual Subscription. Honorary Members shall not be entitled to vote in any Meetings of the Society and shall not be entitled to the assets and funds of the Society upon dissolution. Save as it shall be expressly modified herein, all other Rules of the Society shall be applicable to the Honorary Member Provided Always that the Honorary Member may be exempted from having to pay for their own attendance costs at the dinner event in which they are organising and hosting for the benefit of the Members.

4. “The Tribe has spoken …” - Rejection to re-affiliation with IWFS (London)

This issue has finally been put to rest during the last AGM. By a majority vote of all of the members attending and voting at the last AGM, the meeting has resolved that this Society will not re-affiliate with the IWFS (London).

However, notwithstanding the rejection of any proposed re-affiliation with the IWFS (London) as mentioned, the meeting has voted to adjourn the resolution calling for the change of the Society’s name back to its old name of Wine and Food Society of Singapore. It was decided that we will revisit this issue subsequently if and when the need arises.

5. Wine Purchases

During the last committee meeting that has just been held, it was decided that Joyce, our Cellarmaster be granted a budget of $30,000 for the purchase of wines this year. Our Cellarmaster has reported that we really have more than sufficient wines in our cellar that are currently drinkable and therefore has recommended that this year, the strategy of buying wines ought to lean more towards increasing the value of our cellar with wines that are not immediately drinkable but will prove to be of great investment and/or drinking value a few years down the road.

Over and above the wines that our Cellarmaster has reported to the members during the AGM that were brought last year up till the AGM, our Cellarmaster has since acquired the Klein Constantia vin de constance 2002 and Domaine Ponsot Morey St Denis Alouettes 2004, as well as the following 2008 En-Primeur wines for our Society:-
· Chateau Pichon Lalande ~ 94 – 96RP
· Chateau Gazin ~ 94 – 96RP
· Chateau Troplong Mondot ~ 95 – 97RP
· Chateau Montrose ~ 95 – 97RP

6. Membership & Renewal

For all members who did not renew their membership with me by the 31st March 2009, their membership was deemed to have lapsed under our Rules. A membership that has been lapsed is not capable of being “renewed” and would have to be “reinstated” instead. Under our Rules, there is a reinstatement fee of $100.00 that is payable by the member so that his membership can then be reinstated.

As it stands currently, we have a total membership of 108 members. 18 of our members did not renew their membership as at 31st March 2009. Ideally, we should be targeting a membership base of at least 120 -130 members and in this aspect, we will need the collective efforts of all of our members to bring about more awareness of our Society to like-minded persons and friends out there and to introduce them to the Society with an objective of making them a member of our Society. While the Committee has put in great effort to increase the Society's membership base, we will be more successful with your collective efforts.

To bring about this objective, the Committee has decided that it will organize a couple of events through the year whereby it will not charge a premium to its guest rate. It is hoped that through this, we can then encourage all of you to persuade and introduce your friends to the event and show them our hospitality. It is also hoped that through such efforts, some new members can then be introduced to our Society.

7. Introduction of new members

Since the last introduction of new members in our June 2008 Edition of the Newsletter, we have had some new members to have joined our ranks. Some of you may have already known them and have interacted with them during past events that they have attended and it is with absolute pleasure that I now introduce these new members to all of you:-
· Ms Boo Gek Khim
· Mr Nelson Yeap
· Mr & Mrs William Ng
A very warm welcome to all of them to this fine family of wine and food lovers.


That’s all for now, folks. Look forward to seeing you soon at our forthcoming events.

Regards,
CT Chen
President, IWFS of Singapore