Well, 2012 ended among a myriad of bubbles from a number of different Champagnes, the best of which was a bottle of 2004 Moutard 6 Cepages. That was followed by searching through a myriad of pain-relievers for my first self-inflicted headache of 2013. Which led to this: sitting down to drop you all a note about some my fondest memories of 2012.

2012 turned out to be the year of travel. In addition to the great adventure my 8 year old son and I took this past summer, which is at the top of my list, I also did some traveling to a number of wine regions and met some very interesting people along the way.
I took a trip through France in the spring, visiting wineries in the Rhone Valley and Burgundy.

This first trip to these wonderful places was every bit as thrilling as I had imagined. Seeing the Grand Cru vineyards of Burgundy was eye opening and certainly made me appreciate the terroir of these terrific wines even more than I already did…which is a lot. The opportunity to meet the young turks of Burgundy, Charles Ballot and Paul Pillot, then to meet Jean Durop of Chateau Maligny in Chablis was a great experience.

In October, I had the chance to travel through Northern Italy with the charming Nadia Galati. We visited a number of family-owned properties whose wines she represents; one of these wineries is in the Asti region of northwest Italy, Agostino Pavia & Figli. This multi-generational winery accepted us into their winery, as all the wineries we visited on this trip did, as if we were also part of the famiglia.

Sitting at a long table that was set up in the winery itself, we spent the better part of the afternoon enjoying a typical Italian lunch of meats, cheeses, breads and plenty of delicious wines. Helping were the two young daughters, future winery “rats”--very adorable winery rats, that is. Seeing how much effort, true caring and love goes into the making of these wines really comes across in every glass of Barbera d’Asti we tasted that day.
These were among the many good memories.

Looking toward 2013, I can't wait to see where the next great experiences will find me.

Ken Amendola
Wine Supervisor
  N. Florida

Follow me on Twitter @abcwinekena