2011:
the year in pictures
A quick tour of my year in wine (mostly)
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January: December's new addition to
the Goode family was a big focus at the beginning of the year.
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January: first great gastronomic experience of the year was at
Yashin, matching food with Koshu wines from Japan.
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February. A quick trip to California, where I snapped these
elephantine ancient bush vines in Sonoma.
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February: in Eger, Hungary, I did a presentation to wine growers
about the prospects for Hungarian wines in export markets such as
the UK.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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May. Typically busy. Had a great trip to the Northern Rhöne where I
visited Chapoutier.
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May. The Natural Wine Fair at Borough Market was one of the wine
highlights of the year. Fabulous event.
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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.
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May. A memorable lunch at Hibiscus with Frank Cornelissen and his
incredible wines.
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June. My first experience of Vinexpo. The scale of the event blew me
away.
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July. Off to Portugal for a few days. We stayed at the fabulous
Malhadinha Nova hotel in the Alentejo.
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September. A busy month began with a fabulous trip to the
Symington's properties in the Douro.
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September. I visited Russia for the first time, to see some wineries
on the Black Sea Coast. This is Novorossiysk.
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September. In the cellars at Abrau Durso, a Russian sparkling wine
producer.
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September. Then it was off to Norway to do some talks on Authentic
Wine.
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October. The month began with the Sparkling Wine Review.
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October. Then it was off to New Zealand for the Rugby World
Cup.
Pictured above are Oz Clarke, Adrian Atkinson and me.
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October. Montana's Brancott Estate in New Zealand's Marlborough
region.
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November: The Swartland Revolution was possibly the wine event of
the year. Had some fun in South Africa.
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November. The Swartland, South Africa.
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November. An illustrious panel discussing English sparkling wine at
the second International Sparkling Wine Symposium.
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December. The launch of Authentic Wine, the book I authored with Sam
Harrop, held at Artisan and Vine.
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