2022: a year in pictures (2)

More of 2022 in pictures, beginning with August.

AUGUST

A trip to Sherry, where they were experiencing their earliest vintage in living memory. I visited Hidalgo La Gitana, who are making some lovely wines in Sanlucar.
Barrels are an important aspect of making sherries and manzanillas. They repair them every now and again. These sherry buts are never sold to the whisky industry!


I visited nursery owner Lilian Berillon in the Rhône – he’s doing some amazing work, farming rare clones and selections biodynamically, not using the omega graft, and doing work on rootstock selection
Off to the Costières de Nîmes appellation to visit some top growers. I also got to ride one of the Camargue ponies.

SEPTEMBER

Off to the south of Chile, to explore Maule, Itata and this – a new project in Patagonia from the De Martinos
Horse work in Maule: dry grown old vines, as in Itata.
Chilean Patagonia is beautiful
In Calgary, Canada, for the Terroir conference, bringing together hospitality professionals from far and wide

OCTOBER

Cape Wine 2022! Great to spend some quality time in South Africa
Pre-Cape Wine, a chance to do a deep dive into Cape Classique, a very exciting category
South African winemakers. Enough said.
A visit to Los Angeles and San Francisco to present a talk on wine faults – wines on the edge!

NOVEMBER

Back in South Africa for the Chenin Blanc conference, which was wonderful
Michael Fridjhon and Ken Forrester in the FMC vineyard
The amphora wine day at Herdade de Rocim is a real treat. I also visited XXVI Talhas, who just make wine in clay. This part of Portugal’s Alentejo is reviving a tradition
A traditional way of sealing talhas: with olive oil

DECEMBER

A trip to Gerard Bertrand in the Languedoc included a visit to the remarkable Clos du Temple winery
Last trip of the year: to Lech in Austria, with a focus on Blaufränkisch