{"id":8718,"date":"2013-12-29T16:57:44","date_gmt":"2013-12-29T16:57:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/?p=8718"},"modified":"2013-12-29T21:55:49","modified_gmt":"2013-12-29T21:55:49","slug":"a-year-in-the-life-of-a-winewriter-2013","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/uncategorized\/a-year-in-the-life-of-a-winewriter-2013","title":{"rendered":"A year in the life of a winewriter, 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"

It has been a good year. Not always straightforward, but rewarding. One measure of the success of a year is how much I have learned, and this year I have learned a great deal. Here are some of the highlights.
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\nFirst trip of the year, a brief visit to Bordeaux, to talk at a conference on wine communication. Bordeaux has begun to grow on me this year; I have ignored it for too long.
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\nThen it was off to New Zealand for Pinot Noir 2013, and a chance to visit five different regions, courtesy of the Family of XII. So a number of pictures. There’s Craggy’s Te Muna Road vineyard in Martinborough; the Wellington ukulele orchestra at Neudorf in Nelson; a vertical of Ata Rangi; James Millton who hosted me in Gisborne, with some tuna freshly caught by his mate Boyd; and a view from the flight down to Central Otago.
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\nFebruary saw a remarkable Sauvignon Blanc tasting<\/a>, to launch the new Brancott ‘Chosen Rows’ Sauvignon Blanc.<\/p>\n

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\nThere was also a dinner with two of the new stars of California, Kutch and Sandhi. Great Pinot Noir and Chardonnay with real finesse.<\/p>\n

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\nMarch also took me to South Africa. As well as judging in the Top 100 competition, I also visited Robertson, Stellenbosch and Hemel-en-Aarde<\/a>. Pictured below is Kevin Grant of Ataraxia, in his chapel-like tasting room.
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\nI gave a talk at VinCe in Budapest in March. This was a dinner with wine people at Zona, a great modern Hungarian restaurant in the city.<\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUS
\nApril took me to the Loire, to taste at the Concours Sauvignon in Blois, a charming town. I also got to visit Sancerre for the first time (above).<\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/p>\n

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\nMay: my first wine trip to Israel. Pictured are three of the country’s leading winemakers. It was a fun few days.<\/p>\n

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\nAnd a great lunch hosted by Keith Prothero at La Trompette. Superb wines.<\/p>\n

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\nMay: judging the wines of the Balkans competition in Sofia, with a great bunch of tasters. Some really interesting wines, too – 2013 was a year when the Balkan wines began to shine internationally. Pictured below is a remarkable Bulgarian wine from Borovitza – a Gamza (Kadarka in Hungary).
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\nOne of the two new cameras I bought this year. It’s lovely, especially with the f2.8 17mm prime lens pictured here. <\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUS
\nSummer took me to Canada for the first time. It was a really fun trip. I wasn’t expecting to find so many really good wines. Pictured here, three of the stars: Hinterland, Norm Hardie, Pearl Morissette.<\/p>\n

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A new restaurant which became a favourite. My first experience of the Grain Store in Kings Cross (which is being redeveloped, below) was at a dinner showcasing the wines of Hirsch, with Jasmine Hirsch (above). Californian Pinot with elegance. As a result of this, I’m going to take part in an In Pursuit of Balance seminar<\/a> next year. <\/p>\n

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\nI have to mention the dinner with an inspiring group of Portuguese winemakers – they’ve dubbed themselves the young winemakers of Portugal<\/a>, but what happens in 20 years? The middle-aged winemakers of Portugal?<\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUS
\nA new alliance of South African winegrowers, PIWOSA, held a memorable tasting and dinner in June. <\/p>\n

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\nUrban winery London Cru<\/a> was a welcome addition to the London wine scene this year. The winery is under the Roberson offices in west London.<\/p>\n

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\nThis was the year I began to run. I had a goal: the Medoc marathon, which I ran in September as part of team Pichon. I survived! Video is here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\"OLYMPUS<\/p>\n

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2013 also saw my first visit to Tokaj, with Disznoko. It was harvest time, which made it even more exciting. <\/p>\n

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And to finish off with, my first visit to Serbia, to judge wine. I had a great couple of days in Belgrade, and the wines were impressive. <\/p>\n

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And for comparison, this is my year for 2012<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It has been a good year. Not always straightforward, but rewarding. One measure of the success of a year is how much I have learned, and this year I have…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8718"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8778,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8718\/revisions\/8778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wineanorak.com:\/wineblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}