In 2022, I enter my twelfth year of blogging and post for the 659th time. Today we ponder yet another year of uncertainties. I remember sitting in a neighbor’s lawn drinking wine with our outdoor chairs, sanitary wipes, and social distancing in March of 2020 where we all tried to gauge the end of the pandemic. I was the pessimist by giving Memorial Day as my prediction. Little did we know we’d fast forward almost two years and still not have the answer.
A few key observations from the year:
- I held myself accountable to cover more black winemakers and women in wine. It’s something that I am still committed to doing and am so lucky to have found some great new winemakers and wineries.
- With the pandemic taking me out of my sample sharing routine, the number of samples increasing, the number of winemaking Zoom tastings escalating and the inability to share with a group of friends, I experienced inertia on writing about these wines. I finally kicked myself into gear a few weeks ago and started reviewing them again. I will continue my quest to catch up and hold myself accountable in doing so. As I’ve pledged to you, I only write about the wines I like and this blog is all about authenticity, so you’ll never see any wine in here I don’t personally enjoy.
- I finally made it back to wine country thanks to a Halloween party invitation from Jordan Winery. The party was amazing, and Jordan always sets the bar for hospitality. It was a short and sweet trip with very fast connections with people I adore. I found that while it wasn’t near enough time, every moment was joyous.
- Even though I’ve written about wine for more than a decade, there is so much I don’t know. The discovery of Armenian wine was a highlight this year. Also, Armenia is in the midst of a grape growing and wine production renaissance. The discovery of these sparkling, white and red wines was one of my highlight moments for 2021.
- Texas has big power issues. We are going on a year and still don’t have our floors repaired from February 2021 and the grid is still a mess. Yet one of our challengers challenges Big Bird about COVID on social media. I guess we all have priorities.
- I wrote more about Texas wines this year – 7 blogs in total and they sure are making some good wines. In spite of a pandemic and some crazy weather, Texans persevere (seems like all winemakers in all places have gotten used to the drill)
- I finally received my Eurocave. For those of you not following along, I purchased one I purchased one, it was delivered and then even though I paid for White Glove service warning them of our stairs (exact number), we just couldn’t make it happen with the delivery company. It was like Goldilocks in the wrong bed.
- And finally, we had to reinvent a new normal for the holidays after losing my mother-in-law and sister around the Christmas season over a two year period They were both missed, but we found joy being together in a new place.
A very happy New Year to you all! I’m wishing you a wonderful year, lots of champagne and encouragement to always drink the good stuff. After all, you can’t take it with you.
