Welcome 2026! King tide low tide along the Rincon between Ventura and Santa Barbara on New Year’s Day
How is your 2026 going? On our first day of 2026, we took our VW van to the beach just north of Ventura to cook breakfast…
Happy New Year, 2026!
…because our oven stopped heating so our stove was in front of our house waiting for its next life. Our kitchen counter — with its 1950’s sunny yellow formica was leaking behind the sink as was the faucet and PVC trap, plus the garbage disposal wasn’t working. Our espresso machine stopped working too. The floors in the kitchen and the living room needed replacing for years, and it was definitely time to repaint.
my 1950’s formica counter held up well for 70 years; the cupboards were installed in 1945
So it was clearly time to focus on my house and not on my wine writing!
On December 1, the first day we started on our remodel journey, I fell in love with this marble counter top at the “boneyard” at Pacific Stoneworks and Tile in Ventura. It really resonated deeply within me, and I didn’t really know why except that it was beautiful and seemed to be the right size for our space. While costing more than I had planned to spend, I decided to go for it, especially once I learned more about it.
Breccia Pontificia from Sicily— loom at those golds and greens!
I was not surprised that this stone spoke to me and felt known to me when I learned that the name Breccia Pontificia reflects its use in Roman and Vatican buildings, like the Palazzo del Quirinale and St. Peter’s Basilica. Breccia Pontificia comes from a single quarry in the Cusde Mountains in Sicily, and I found it in Palermo in important places that I visited in May 2024 on a press trip. Known as “Sicilian Jasper or the “salami of stones,” the multicolored marble has blotches of red going towards terra cotta and ruby plus green and gold blending with ivory to create an original and unpredictable landscape that can be book-matched. Breccia means it’s composed of broken rock fragments that are cemented by a finer-grained matrix; in this case, by a creamy beige matrix. What’s special about the Breccia Pontificia is its blend of colors and patterns. I am so excited about how this will come out!
Art from Pacific Stoneworks creating a template; new farmhouse sink and temporary faucet; permanent faucet will also be matte black, I am keeping my 1940s cupboards. Note the new cork floors!
So once I got my grades in from teaching full-time Fall 2025, and I posted about Cabernet Franc Day, and I relinquished my rescue dog Nova to another foster, I put in 12-14 hours a day redoing my kitchen and living room… with help from family (thanks especially to my son Reed!), and friends (hi Stacey!), moving everything out, painting, getting a faucet and water running again on Christmas Eve and then painting until midnight on Christmas Eve and until 8pm on New Year’s Eve as Burning Man artist and friend David Oliver worked on the cork floors and baseboards. David is a gifted carpenter and cabinetmaker who is also building me a butcher block kitchen table and rolling cart.
Once the 10’6 marble counter is installed, I will tile the back splash and paint the wall behind the sink and stove —likely in a green similar to the marble. Not sure about whether I will keep the far periwinkle wall or whether it will be green as well. I was gifted some amazing strips of petrified wood tile that I will work in with the other tile. (Yes, I do my own tile work — and do a great job of it if I may say so myself! It’s just going to take time to design and execute…time away from wine writing…)
Marshall and David Oliver installing the cork floors in the living room; the walls are freshly “wet sand” and a light yellow with the trim on the casement windows matte black.
And then, while searching for bamboo blinds, I scored a new to me bedroom set (with a bamboo pad!) and including a solid oak sleigh bed and a really nice mattress (SRP $4k!). Changing from a simple Mission frame and setting that up basically required turning the rest of the house upside down!
All this means that the articles I had planned on finishing up in December and posting didn’t get finished and up. And here it is almost y birthday and I am just now getting my New Year’s post published.
But soon I will have a fabulous kitchen and dining room for us to work in and where I can photograph!
Life is always an adventure and you never know what will come next. At least I don’t! I try to say yes as much as possible! (Have an adventure for me? I bet I’ll say YES!)
Tom’s Place Sierra sunset 1/10
I did escape for my birthday this weekend to Mammoth — where for the first time, I got on a lift only to find that the bar was down! If you ski you know what I mean— has that ever happened to you? In my over 40 years of skiing I have never seen this… I was able to scoot back over the bar but my spouse did not make it — he jumped 10-15′ to the ground! Fortunately the snow was deep and soft and he landed okay. Scary! I tried to figure out how to get my legs where they belonged but no luck— and I was afraid to let go of my poles to navigate the space — or to take pictures. The liftee had to take off my skis so I could get off the lift safely. WOW!
me stuck on a lift at Mammoth Mountain
I may look comfortable in this picture but no. Just no. That’s why I didn’t take any pictures myself.
Tonight, on my almost birthday, we enjoyed non-alcoholic beers from Athletic Brewing with the sunset.
NA Athletic Brewing Co beer is a winner in winter in the snow listening to the creek flow
Then we made duck breasts with a peach orange brandy sauce paired with The Ojai Vineyard Bien Nacido Pinot Noir — yum! Last night we did fried calamari, and tomorrow we plan to go out to dinner at Convict Lake.
duck breast n The Ojai Vineyard Pinot Noir n birthday flowers
Fingers crossed I will get more articles up for you soon! In the meantime, there’s plenty to read here on Wine Predator no matter what might interest you.
1453 posts total so far on Wine Predator
In 2025, 53k words in 40 posts — a lot less than usual and fewer than my goal of 54.
Most popular of all time
5 Wines from Spain Paired With Paella: Red, White, Cava, Rosado?
Today’s Top Two Most Viewed:
Most popular in 2025
Chianti: Beyond the Straw Bottle #ItalianFWT
2025’s next popular posts–
- From Beat the Wintry Blues: Meet Sciaccarellu, Niellucciu, Carcaghjolu Neru, and Minustellu from Corsica!
Ilaria Cocco and Gwendolyn Alley in Montefalco
Another popular post from 2025 following my visit to Montefalco and one of my 2025 favorites is “An Invite to Umbria, A Visit to Montefalco’s Cocco Ilaria, and a Pairing: Orange Spoletino “Ponderata” Paired with Peach Salad + Carbonara.”
In 2025, I also wrote freelance articles about wine, food, literature, and travel for a weekly newspaper and a monthly magazine.
Gwendolyn Alley with La Malissa’s Uni Procanico, one of my favorite wines of 2025– read about it here in one of my favorite 2025 articles — more to come in 2026!
In 2025, I traveled to California’s Santa Barbara and Paso Robles, and in the EU to Italy’s Tuscany, Romagna, Puglia, and Umbria plus to Austria’s Vienna. Lots more to say in 2026 about these areas of the world and their wines and cuisine! Looking forward to sharing more wine travel in 2026. Follow my instagram Art_Predator for recent events, wines, and activities.
At Colle Uncinano with Kristy Wenz and Consorzio Tutela Vini Montefalco celebrating Trebbiano Spoletino traditional method!
What would you like to read more about in 2026? Wine? Food? Travel? Adventure? Where in the world should I go? What should I write about?
Cheers! Happy New Year! Please subscribe before you head off on your adventure!
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 
Cheers to the New Year 2026!
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Thank you Diane! Happy New Year to you too!
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