2011: the year in pictures
A quick tour of my year in wine (mostly)

January: December's new addition to the Goode family was a big focus at the beginning of the year.

January: first great gastronomic experience of the year was at Yashin, matching food with Koshu wines from Japan. 

February. A quick trip to California, where I snapped these elephantine ancient bush vines in Sonoma. 

February: in Eger, Hungary, I did a presentation to wine growers about the prospects for Hungarian wines in export markets such as the UK.

March. A trip to Celorico de Beira, Portugal, for a wine conference where I was due to give a talk. Here I met some of the wine social media stars - Miss Vicky, Andre Riberinho, Ilkka Siren and Ricardo Bernardo.

March. The Celorico conference also included one of the most memorable fortified wine tastings I've attended. This became known as the famous watching wine tasting, for reasons I won't go into here.

March: off to South Africa for the Top 100 SA Wines event, at which I was judging. It was held in St James (pictured). We had a super time.

April. Unseasonally warm in the UK. Two weeks of my time were devoted to the International Wine Challenge, which is great fun. I was lucky with my panels: this year, they were all good. Here's one - pictured left to right with me are Anita Jackson, Julia Sevenich and Yegas Naidoo.

April. I was lucky enough to attend the FA Cup semi final at Wembley. Man City beat Man UTD 1-0 to reach the final. The atmosphere was incredible.

May. Typically busy. Had a great trip to the Northern Rhöne where I visited Chapoutier.

May. The Natural Wine Fair at Borough Market was one of the wine highlights of the year. Fabulous event.

May. Enjoyed the London International Wine and Spirit Fair this year. South Africa put on a particularly good display, and pictured is Wines of South Africa's Andre Morgenthal.

May. A memorable lunch at Hibiscus with Frank Cornelissen and his incredible wines.

June. My first experience of Vinexpo. The scale of the event blew me away.

July. Off to Portugal for a few days. We stayed at the fabulous Malhadinha Nova hotel in the Alentejo.

September. A busy month began with a fabulous trip to the Symington's properties in the Douro. 

September. I visited Russia for the first time, to see some wineries on the Black Sea Coast. This is Novorossiysk.

September. In the cellars at Abrau Durso, a Russian sparkling wine producer.

September. Then it was off to Norway to do some talks on Authentic Wine.

October. The month began with the Sparkling Wine Review.

October. Then it was off to New Zealand for the Rugby World Cup. 
Pictured above are Oz Clarke, Adrian Atkinson and me.

October. Montana's Brancott Estate in New Zealand's Marlborough region.

November: The Swartland Revolution was possibly the wine event of the year. Had some fun in South Africa.

November. The Swartland, South Africa.

November. An illustrious panel discussing English sparkling wine at the second International Sparkling Wine Symposium.

December. The launch of Authentic Wine, the book I authored with Sam Harrop, held at Artisan and Vine. 

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