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!

.

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