I don’t know about you, but I can’t believe it is already 2014. (Well, it will be 2014 by the time most of you read this New Year’s Eve posting.) The year flew by and was chock full of STUFF.

Wine Barrels at David Girard Vineyards. Photo (c)David Locicero 2012

Much of 2013’s STUFF was good stuff: a great time at Passport 2013 in El Dorado County, a couple of nice trips up to Gold Country for tasting and meeting up with friends and wine makers, publishing my Tasting Journal, starting my own architecture practice, completing some nice projects. The Kindle edition of Wine 101 was in and out of the top 100 books in it’s category at amazon, getting as high as the low 20’s at one point. The paperback edition of Wine 101 also appeared a few times in the top 100 books in it’s category as well.

Some of 2013’s STUFF wasn’t so good and kept me from working on my wine writing, both here and my planned books. One of the worst things was a ridiculously extended bout of gout that lasted for weeks, had me walking with a cane and abstaining from alcohol for several months. But I chose to focus on the future.

2014 is going to be a good year. I already have my tickets for El Dorado County’s Passport 2014. I have re-imagined my planned books and changed their structures so that they will be less labor intensive to design and publish and will be more focused. So I will say it here and now: I plan on writing at least one wine guide this year, if not three. I am also going to write here much more often.

You will have noticed that the look of the site has changed significantly. The reason is two fold. First, the old site design was not “mobile device friendly”. Did you know that 40% of web users are using their phones or tablets EXCLUSIVELY for their web browsing? I learned that and that spurred me on to find what they call a “fully responsive” (that means mobile friendly) theme for my site. I don’t want to lose 40% of potential readers because the site doesn’t navigate on their phones. Second, it’s the New Year and time for a change, spruce things up a little.

So other than writing books and blog posts, I also plan on drinking some wine this year. Hopefully I won’t have as nasty a bout of gout this year as I did last and I’ll be able to taste my way through a couple regions and tell you all about it.

Join me on the journey!