sunset at Clos des Amis, Ventura County

A few weeks ago, WordPress notified me that 15 years ago I registered my Art Predator blog. A few months later, I signed up for Wine Predator, and I attended my first Wine Media Conference in Sonoma. Nearly 15 years later, in September of 2022, I won the Jancis Robinson Wine Writing Contest on the theme of regenerative viticulture; learn more here.

So much to be grateful for.

Mighty Magnums from Tablas Creek

My prizes include  2 magnums from Tablas Creek, a leader nationally when it comes to regenerative agriculture, plus 100 trees planted in my name, and a mentorship from the editors at JancisRobinson.com including Jancis herself which will begin in January and result in two paid articles on the site (and hopefully more!)  That’s a lot to be grateful for. 

I’m grateful for the last few months have been a whirlwind of writing and travel:

• completing California Slow Wine Guide entries for the 2023 book
• helping coordinate a Burning Man honorarium art project In Nevada
• attending Terra Madre in Torino Italy celebrating Slow Food
• participating in press trips in Italy to Lugana, Valtellina, and Trento, Italy
• moderating a panel at the Lombardy, Italy Wine Media Conference about Slow Food and Slow Wine;
• teaching two hybrid college writing courses 
• attending as a member of the press the 43 OIV Congress in Baja CA 
• completing 93 posts and written 123k words so far in 2022
• publishing 1,247 posts since I began Wine Predator 

There’s even more to be grateful for…

I hope your Thanksgiving Day was joyous and filled with gratitude! We spent the day on the slopes at Mammoth…and I’m grateful for the clean pine tree scented air…the mountain views… the white headed woodpecker and the nuthatch out the window tracing their routes up and down the trees searching for their Thanksgiving meals…

view from a ski lift at Mammoth

…and today too, taking turns on the slopes with my spouse, my son, and his college buddies, then dinner with them, and watching ski films, listening to their laughter, making me happy.

We enjoyed M’s smoked ham, green beans, cornbread dressing, Sue’s sausage stuffed butternut squash, truffle bread, and a green salad with cranberry stilton, candied pecans, apples, blueberries, and pomegranate paired with Clos des Amis 2020 Estate Pinot Noir from the Rattlesnake Vineyard followed by both pumpkin and pecan pie. Quite a feast! More to be grateful for.

our Thanksgiving feast: pork and Pinot from Clos des Amis

Lots to be grateful for in 2022!

With regards to Wine Predator, I’m especially thankful for the help from Sue Hill in the kitchen and with tasting notes. 

Looking forward to what 2023 brings! Where will I travel? What will I write?