American Wine Society Triangle Chapter, American Wine Society
Serving Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill, NC, and Vicinity
www.awstriangle.org 		American Wine Society
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The following process, implemented in January 2009 by the Board, ensures that everyone gets an equal opportunity to register for our tastings, regardless if you are a guest, member, or even a board member.

  1. Reservations for each tasting are confirmed solely by "check in hand."  No verbal or email reservations will be accepted.

  2. No reservations can be made prior to the emailing of the event announcement.

  3. The event announcement email will be sent out approximately two weeks prior to the event date.  (We are cutting a week from the amount of time we have allowed in the past to "tighten up" the time period and allow people to make their attendance decision closer to the actual event.)

  4. The posting of the event on the website may be delayed up to three days to give people who have requested to be on the mailing list an advantage.

  5. When the event is full or nearing capacity, an announcement to this effect will be posted on the website.

  6. People are allowed to communicate with the Secretary by phone or email to see if the event is full, but only receipt of their check will confirm their reservation.

  7. Most events are open to members and guests, but a very few tastings may be reserved for members only or members get a day or two advance notice over guests.

  8. Directions to the tasting will be sent out to confirmed attendees typically on the Tuesday before the event.

  9. If the partner or guest of a MEMBER cannot drink alcohol at a given tasting, a nominal fee will be charged to help cover expenses and offset the income that would otherwise be used to purchase wine.  No non-drinking discount is available to guests.  (Added May 2012)

Most of our tastings used to be held at members' homes, with a typical maximum capacity of 24 people.  When the folks at Alta Oakridge Apartments in North Raleigh allowed us to use their facility for free, increasing our capacity, we did not have to turn anyone away; but this offer ended in March 2010, so on those occasions when we use private homes again, capacity may once again be limited.

When we hold our events anywhere that sells wine (as we do occasionally), we are unable to bring in our own wine to share after the tasting, and ovens to heat food are rare.  For insurance reasons, we are unable to hold tastings a non-members' homes.

We maintain two mailing lists:  Members and Guests.  Members are people who have paid the current year's membership in the national American Wine Society, live in the Triangle area, and have expressed interest in being on our chapter's membership list.  Guests are all non-members of AWS who have expressed interest in being notified of our monthly tastings.  Guests may attend up to three tastings before being required to join national AWS to continue to attend.  Previous members of AWS are not eligible to attend as guests, though they may choose to stay on the guest list to keep up with what we are doing.  On rare occasions, an event may be restricted to members or members will be given a day or two advance notice, but otherwise email invitations to events are mailed to members and guests simultaneously.

To join our guest list or be dropped from it, see the link on the main page.

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The Triangle Chapter, AWS, web pages are maintained by webmaster Fred Brack ( ).
This page was last updated March 14, 2013.  You are visitor since June 2005.