Take a deep breath and exhale slowly. There, congratulations! You’ve made it through 2022. Now the new year beckons you with a litany of so many hopes, dreams and aspirations you could take a shovel to them.
There’s a reason so many festivals worldwide happen around the winter solstice. As the days lengthen we start to feel slight changes in our mood. Complex biological rhythms telling us that renewal and rebirth is only around the corner as Spring starts to motion us from a distance.
As someone who loves a good list (and let’s face it, who doesn’t?), New Year’s resolutions are the annual ritual I can’t avoid. But to know where we are going, you must take stock of where we’ve been. So if you’ll grant me this indulgence, I’d like to cast a brief eye over my past year in wine, and more specifically what I’ve learnt.
If I could sum up my 2022, it would be that passions are not found or unlocked but instead created. A winemaker’s passion is to give a fitting expression to the terroir year in, year out. It takes a lot of hard work, blood, sweat and tears and all on repeat. It’s also a lot of fun.
- Shane Golden