Print  email 

tool name

close

tool goes here

Cool jazz for clean water

FUNDRAISER: Wine tasting, student concerts star at event

MOLLY GILMORE; For The Olympian | • Published November 20, 2009

• Comments (0)

Turning water into wine is a well-known example of a miracle.

But how about turning wine into water?

That’s what the Rotary Clubs of Thurston County are doing with their Cool Jazz/Clean Water Festival and Wine Tasting. The eighth annual festival is helping to fund water and sanitation systems and an educational program for villages in Malawi.

The festival originally featured an evening jazz performance, but three years ago, the evening event became a wine tasting.

This year, the tasting features a greater variety of wines, both local and regional. “We’ve got some really top-notch wineries,” said Kim Dinsmore of the Olympia Rotary Club, committee chairwoman for the event.

“One of the frustrations that some people had was that we strictly had local wineries,” said Sally Beckwith of the West Olympia Rotary Club. “So we stepped it up a notch as far as variety goes.

“People will have an opportunity to taste some stuff that’s not necessarily available at retail,” said Beckwith, who learned about wine with the national group Wild Women on Wine. “Some of the wines are ones you can get only from the winery directly, so that made it more special.”

Beckwith and her partner, David Thompson, tasted all the wines, and a Rotary tasting panel sampled most of them, too.

“We wanted to find some unique tastes,” she said. “Wine is a very subjective thing.”

Participating wineries are Alexandria Nicole, Covington Cellars, Duck Pond, Dusted Valley, Hoodsport, Lake Chelan, Marchetti, McGavick, Ponzi, Rulo, Scatter Creek, Tempus, Tildio and Walter Dacon.

The event is a chance to learn more about wine in general. “We’ll have laminated wine notes,” Beckwith said. “And we’re going to train the servers to talk about pairing wine and food.”

The tasting also will feature beer from Fish Brewing Co. and music by 7 on 7.

So what’s left of the jazz festival?

The festival is an all-day event for high school bands. Playing this year are bands from Olympia, Capital, Black Hills, Tumwater, River Ridge, North Thurston, Timberline, Rochester, Centralia and Lakes in Lakewood.

The bands will play on the center’s big stage and will get feedback from a group of jazz professionals led by trumpet player Syd Potter, former director of the Jazz Ensemble at the University of Puget Sound.

The professionals – bassist Wayne Bliss, drummer Craig Cootsona, saxophonist Gary Scott and trombone player Richard Lopez – also will jam at lunchtime, giving students an opportunity to join them.

“The kids can come sit in with the professionals,” Dinsmore said. “It’s a lot of fun.”

Dinsmore, former president of the Olympia Rotary Club, came up with the idea of an event for high-school jazz bands.

His son, Sam, played with Olympia High School’s jazz band.

The event also benefits other young musicians.

Most of the money raised is split between the water project and Patrons of South Sound Cultural Arts’ instruments in schools program, which loans instruments to music students.

A smaller percentage is donated to the Thurston County Youth Development Training Summit.

“Last year was a really exceptional year,” Dinsmore said. “We raised about $30,000 after all expenses were paid.”