My 2013 in pictures...

….and a bit of prose.  I will be glad to see 2014 arrive as '13 was a tough one, from a tough growing season to a change in personal relationships, difficulties finding someone to distribute our wine despite a client base to not visiting friends and family in the states for the first time since my arrival here in 2006.  The good news is that Bacco and I are healthy and have finished climbing all the mountains in the Marche over 2,000 meters, our 2010 wines were awarded at the Merano wine festival, we had a nice year in the B&B with lots of lovely guests from the low countries, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Italy and the states, our wines seem to well appreciated locally and here in Europe and we hope to have some new markets opening soon in Germany and Finland and hopefully more places.  The pool didn't leak this year after a major renovation and the wines of 2013 show great promise.  Enough verbiage, on to photos:

Pruning in January

My friend Fabio on a visit from London in the new year.

Inside Boccascena, a beautiful bar in Ascoli where you can find our wines.

Carnavale in Offida with the running of the fake bull

Offida's English language students visiting the winery for a tasting with explanations 

in English

Our new 350 liter barrels from Burgundy, France and Cavin

Copying my friend Sabrina's pancetta lollipops with dark chocolate and chili pepper powder

Bottling of the mythical new Pecorino which arrived at 16.9% alcohol or as my German friends aptly put it, "It's an Amarone Bianco"

Release party for the Pecorino with friends

In Kuopio, Finland for a tasting event with PS Wines

At Roscioli for a tasting in Rome where I was please to serve our wines to Daniel Boulud

Bacco and I finished climbing all the 2,000 meter peaks in Le Marche this year and this phot is from atop Mt. Vettore

Bacco sniffing the grapes to see if they are ripe enough to peak

What I look like after a day of harvesting

PS wine tasting with our friend Sigismondo at his restaurant Degusteria del Gigante

3 of our red wines were accepted into the Merano wine festival from our 2010 or 1st harvest.  The Confusion, Pieno Monte and Baccofino

With Judy and Raymond at Siena's xmas market

Thanksgiving with my Spello friends and Maryse

Christmas tree in the Piazza del Popolo in Offida

Much as I hate the move to the SEC, I had to wear Tiger colors to the Christmas market in Ascoli Piceno, no one seemed to notice :)

Happy New Year to everyone!

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Bacco's 2013 in pictures

My year in pictures starting in January hiking in the mountains near Lake Como.

Celebrating Carnevale in Offida with my friends Alessandra and Pippo

Hiking up to the abandoned hermits' church above Ascoli Piceno in March

April, still snow in the Sibillini mountains at Forca di Presta

Another April picture, at a plant festival at Roccafluvione

Getting green again in April/May

Hanging out with my new biking friends from Switzerland at Nascondiglio di Bacco in June

July hiking with my dad and Belgian friend

In July, Dad said this peak was the final one for us to have climbed to complete all the mountains over 2,000 meters in the Marche.  Now, he is saying something about a place called Abruzzo

In August I started sampling the grapes to see if they were ripe

I love my Gola hikes in Sept/Oct

I got to go to Merano with Dad for the wine festival

November-they finally released my wine: Baccofino

Xmas market in Ascoli

Finishing up the year, a gray day in December

Il Tiglio deserves a Michelin star!! Great dining experience on the flanks of the Sibillini mountains.

15 , agosto, 2013
Just passed into my 57th year in grand style at a fantastic restaurant near Montemonaco in the Sibillini mountains.  It is called Il Tiglio and has a masterful chef, Enrico Mazzaroni, who has trained with the best Parisian chefs and has brought the best of French cooking and married it with the wonderful fresh ingredients from our Appenine mountains, like white and black truffles, new potatoes, and other fresh produce and meats cured in house.  I always have said, for everyday eating, italian food can't be beat for freshness, simple goodness etc., but if you tell me I am going to die tomorrow, I am off to the best french restaurant I can find.  Now I have found Enrico who does this marvelous mix of the two and tops off the great kitchen work with a marvelous wait staff and a room captain/sommelier who has put together the most impressive wine list I have seen in our region, full of nice choices from our province, our region, most other regions of Italy and international entries.  Because it was my birthday and I talked with Enrico before coming, he was nice enough to let me bring in one of our Cabernet Sauvignon wines from 2010 and I shared a glass with him and the sommelier, who is a big fan of C.S. and hopefully now will search us out and be enthused enough to add PS Winery to their list.  Here is their link for more information - http://www.iltiglioagriturismo.it/ristorante-il-tiglio.html
I started out with a  white truffle appetizer covered with a candy shell, which just exploded with flavor when I bit into it and had a wonderful persistence afterwards and I told the waiter I just wanted 20 of those and I would be in paradise, no need for the full menu (they wouldn't let me).  It was nested in a plate with big stones and blended in, so be sure and pick the right one to put in your mouth.  Sorry, no photo, I was too avaricious.
And now....the photos of the other plates:

Our C.S. showing itself off on an elegant table

Carrots with curry sauce with a foam of anchovy 

Carpaccio with strawberries and roasted red pepper and a poached cherry tomato

Il tiglio salad with house made cured lonzino, fresh greens from the garden and a parsley sauce

Smoked potato pure , under the sponge is a wonderful  elk"meatball" and upper left, truffled caviar

egg, rice cracker and stuff I have forgotten, sorry haha

fois gras with blackberry sorbet

new potato with a "rock" shell, goat cheese base and olive sauce

I call this one fois gras Pac man accompanied by a locally produced soda, INCREDIBLE!

Home made pasta with rabbit and a jelly made of red wine

Perfectly cooked pigeon and fois gras and reduction sauce

Reeses peanut butter cup:  peanut butter, then milk chocolate, then dark chocolate spread out on oven safe paper placed on the table, topped with whipped cream and frozen with liquid nitrogen.  Great way to top off a great meal!

Forgot, one more think a wonderful home made crispy doughnut on a tree branch and the "nut" on the "ground" is a beautifully made chocolate truffle.

The most amazing thing about the menu is the price, just 45 euros for this masterpiece, with a smaller menu for 33 or a vegetarian menu for about that price as well.  Did I say they had a great wine list?!  This meal at a starred restaurant in Florence would run you 360 euros for the food alone.  After the 2nd plate, I was already thinking about when I could come back!

7 peaks over 2,000 meters in 5 hours, 2 cars, 2 hikers and a dog

3 Agosto
The first part of this hike, from forca di Presta to Pizzo di Diavolo has alway been one of my favorites.  The views are incredible and the people are sparse.  I have written before about choosing your hikes in the Sibillinis, and for those of you who want to check off the tallest peak in Le Marche, you can start from either this trail's beginning or its end.  Obviously if you do the latter, you will do this hike in reverse and end up doing 8 summits over 2,000 meters and you are tougher than me, probably.
We started this hike at 0835 from forca di Presta above Arquata del Tronto to the southeast and Castelluccio to the northwest.  At 1600 meters rounded off, you have only 800 meters of altitude gain to reach these summits (not counting the saddle descents and re-ascents of the subsequent  peaks which are not difficult).   Head on up to the little rifugio Zilioli and take a left.

Heading up, sometimes seems like straight up, from forca di Presta to Prato Pulito, that point on just to the right of center photo.

A puppy left at the refuge or escaped from one of the local shepherds was thirsty and hungry, so he got a bit of Bacco's ration of water and dog biscuits.

The top of Prato Pulito on the left and Cima del Lago distant right

This picture from my hiking buddy, Sven and his panoramic capable iphone shows Prato Pulito to the right, Cima del Lago to the left and then continuing right from Cima, Redentore and Pizzo di Diavolo which are your next stops.  For us, it was 1 hour and 15 minutes to the refuge from forca di Presta, and to include pizzo di Diavolo and a return to Redentore (it's a dead end) figure another hour and a half.

One of the best things about this hike are the views of lago di Pilato below, which you can't see from Vettore unless you add a leg to that hike.

You can also see the marvelous Piano Grande of Castelluccio from all along the crest

Looking back from Mt. Redentore, you see my friend Sven walking on the edge

The 20 or so roundtrip hike from Redentore to Pizzo di Diavolo is one of the few "hairy" hikes I have done in the Sibillini mountains. It gets pretty narrow along here with a steep drop on both sides, but is well worth it for the views from this mountain "peninsula"

Looking towards Mt. Sibilla from Pizzo

The view of the Sella (saddle) delle Ciaule where you see the trail leading down from the flank of Vettore to either the scenic overlook of Lago di Pilato or the descent to the lake.  In the distance you see all the way to Gran Sasso, tallest mountain in southern Italy

This photo shows the last 2 named peaks Bacco and I had not done over 2,000 meters.... but, we are on our way!

Love this panorama with Bacco and I atop Pizzo di Diavolo, Vettore just slightly to its right then far right you see Cima del Lago

Mt. Osservatorio, you just walk along this crest down from Redentore to forca Viola and you finish up all those hidden, unknown 2,000 meter peaks

Bacco  along the crest looking towards Mt. Sibilla

Bacco atop Quarto San Lorenzo

Finishing the last supra-2,000 meter peak in Le Marche. Bacco and I, as far as we know, have now done them all.

This is the last un named mountain (Mt. Bacco?) over 2,000 meters looking down into the valley where you find the town of Foce and lots of scouts camping right now.

No trail down from Mt. Bacco (haha), just a steep descent.

Looking back at where we have been with Mt Bacco, Quarto San Lorenzo, Osservatorio, Redentore all visible from the last part of this trail which involves a 3 km walk along a road to return to Castelluccio where we left the 2nd car.

You can still see some blooming in the valley even on 2 agosto.

The total hike with Pizzo thrown in took 5 hours and 5 minutes for the 3 of us, who move along pretty steadily (quickly) and it clocks in at probably around 14 km or just about 8.5 miles.  If you have just one car, I would do the hike out to Pizzo and return, it is one of my favorites!

I will leave you with a photo of Castelluccio from our descent, always a very photogenic spot from any angle.