2021 - The Year In Review

BY ANTONIO GALLONI | DECEMBER 22, 2021

As 2021 draws to a close, it's time to reflect on the year behind and take a look at what lies ahead. There were certainly plenty of ups and downs, but as I write this I am incredibly energized about the future. 

State of the Union

While many people have described 2021 as a horrible year or some version of that, I just can’t share that view. That’s not to say the year was easy. It certainly was not. Our personal and professional lives were a rollercoaster that alternated times of great uncertainty with brighter moments where things seemed to be getting back to something resembling normal, only to feel once again quite up in the air as the year comes to a close. A number of us lost family members and dealt with other significant personal life events. 

It was a year full of challenges, but those challenges were also tremendous learning opportunities from a Vinous perspective. In my opinion, the world is getting more, not less, complex. Our lives – both personal and professional – are likely to experience disruptions at a faster pace than ever before. We might as well get used to it. It’s no different than making wine. Every producer can make a good or great wine in a strong vintage, but in more difficult years, that’s when the cream rises to the top. Similarly, the challenges presented by a pandemic that is still very much at the center of our lives presents opportunities to learn, innovate and be well-positioned for the future, a future that is likely to be far less certain than the past.

The year started with La Festa del Piemonte, with an expanded program of tastings featuring the wines of Barolo, Barbaresco and Alto Piemonte that was entirely virtual. Obviously the camaraderie of live events was missing, but in exchange, the virtual format allowed us to reach a global audience. The same was very much true of the 2018 Bordeaux seminars Neal and I hosted later in the spring. I did each of the four sessions in a different place, which pretty much sums of what that part of the year was like.

This year's Festa del Piemonte offered an expanded program of tastings that included the wines of Alto Piemonte and Barbaresco to complement an unreal masterclass featuring the 2016 Barolos. It was a smashing success.

Our editorial team tasted and wrote at an impressive pace. Late spring brought the first window for travel. It was a hectic time. My feeling was that everyone wanted to cram in everything we weren’t able to do for the last 15 or so months into the last six months of 2021! 

We were heavily engaged on the charitable front as well, something that has always been important to me personally as well as to our company. In February I hosted a number of educational tasting and sessions around the Napa Valley Library Wine Auction, a charitable auction that supports a variety of local initiatives designed to promote and protect Napa Valley. In April, I co-hosted the Conscious Collection Auction, which raised funds to help those in the hospitality industry affected by Covid-19. October brought the first ever Barolo En Primeur Charity Auction, which I hosted in New York with a live stream from Piedmont. All three events were terrific.

Over the course of summer and into the fall we continued work on the new Vinous website, which is viewable here in Beta format. The new site will launch in early 2022. We added Owen Bargreen to our editorial team to cover the wines of Washington State. Our Vinous Maps program grew significantly, as we finished numerous projects and began several new maps. More on that below. 

None of this would have been possible without your support. For that, we remain extremely grateful. I would also like to thank our team behind the scenes, the people who run Vinous day to day but don’t get the recognition our writers do. So, for Marzia, James, Alex, Shea, Brenna, Gabriella and Merrie Louise –  a big thank you!

A fabulous tasting at Sine Qua Non - the first winery I visited after the lockdown. It was such a great feeling to be on the road again.

Winemaker of the Year – Françoise Peschon, Napa Valley, United States

Each and every year I have the immense privilege – and it is a privilege – to visit leading wineries all over the world and to taste with many talented winemakers. It’s a long list. The Winemaker of the Year award is meant to recognize someone whose achievements transcend craft, someone who stands apart from the crowd. This year’s winner is Françoise Peschon. 

Trained at UC Davis and the University of Bordeaux, Peschon first gained prominence at Araujo Estate, which is where I first met her more than a decade ago. Following the sale of Araujo Estate in 2013, Peschon began working on smaller projects with a very simple philosophy of focusing only on estate wineries. First up was VHR – Vine Hill Ranch, today widely recognized as one of the elite Cabernets in Napa Valley. Peschon then led a massive turnaround at Cornell, taking those wines from not at all interesting to world class in just a handful of years.

Today, Peschon is the winemaker at VHR, Heimark and Matt Morris Wines. She also makes the whites for Bart and Daphne Araujo’s Accendo winery. Visit at harvest and you will meet someone whose purplish, stained hands are those of someone who is physically making wine and showing up for 4am picks rather than delegating to assistants. In addition, Peschon is the consultant at Cornell and Almacerro, where she works alongside day-to-day winemakers Elizabeth Tangney and Matilda Scott, respectively, serving as mentor, consigliere and a mother of sorts, all in one.

Unassuming and always generous in giving credit to her colleagues, Peschon has mentored a number of other winemakers, including Graham Wehmeier who was first at Cornell, then at Futo and is now at Diamond Creek, and Rebecca George, who was previously at Kelly Fleming, where the VHR wines were made up until recently. When she is not working on one of those projects, Peschon finds time to make wine under the Drinkward-Peschon label she shares with Lisa Drinkward.

The world of consulting in Napa Valley is big, big business. Consulting winemakers regularly pull in large checks from their clients. Peschon could easily have a larger roster if she desired, but instead she chooses to focus only on clients who meet her strict criteria, not afraid to let those go who don’t. It’s an admirable approach that has very quietly made her one of the most influential and highly respected winemakers in Napa Valley, and my Winemaker of the Year.