Do you set New Year goals? I pulled up my 2016 goals to take a peek at what I set out to achieve, and realized how many items related to wine, including finishing the WSET Diploma.

For 2017, I thought it would be fun to set a completely new set of goals totally specific to wine, and hope you can join in with me.

Last Year's Goals

Here are a few things I worked on last year:

Train as a wine judge: One of the most incredible things I set out to do was attend the International Wine & Spirit Competition, to train as a wine judge. The WSET has a program where Diploma students can apply to attend as an Associate Judge and learn firsthand how to judge wine. The application details are available in the WSET Global portal. I flew into London for several days of judging US and Canadian wines, and it was one of the coolest wine experiences I've had. I got the news a few weeks ago that I'd been promoted to Full Judge status, and will be back to London to judge this spring. Very exciting! If you're completing your Diploma right now, I highly recommend applying for this opportunity.

Become a VIA Italian Wine Ambassador: Vinitaly Academy runs a fantastic program in Verona, Italy each year. You get five days of classroom instruction from Ian d'Agata (author of Native Wine Grapes of Italy), and a full pass to Vinitaly wine festival, along with the chance to attend exclusive tastings around the city (our class saw Sting at a private performance in a palace at OperaWine!). It was wonderful meeting wine students from around the world. I also spent some extra time touring Valpolicella, Lake Garda, and Venice, and loved my time in what's called the Second Rome (aka Verona - it has lots of ruins and ancient wine cellars under the restaurants). If you're into Italian wine, you can apply to the program here. Caveat: the exam is very tough :O

Work on a vineyard: Last summer, my husband and I bought a five acre organic vineyard in BC's Similkameen Valley. It's a beautiful place filled with organic farms and orchards, just west of the Okanagan Valley, and a 3.5 hour drive from Vancouver. The Similkameen has all kinds of wildlife (hawks, quails, bears, coyotes), and skies that are always changing due to the winds blowing in from four directions. The vineyard is a fixer-upper project, and hasn't been pruned in a few years, so I'm looking forward to learning first hand how to restore the vines to productivity, and even graft new varietals. Phylloxera isn't so bad there, so many vines in the area are own-rooted.

{Do you have a suggestion for a red grape that will do well in a windy, short season area, where it can get to 40 degrees celsius in summer? Gamay, Zinfandel & Cabernet Franc are in the running}

Write a book: For several years, I've been dreaming of writing a guide to the wineries of the Okanagan & Similkameen. My book Winetripping was published last summer and it was a thrill to see this project come to life after visiting and researching hundreds of local wineries. Most important was how much I learned about BC wine and wineries, and supporting those wineries by promoting visitors and wine lovers to buy directly from them!

Setting 2017 Goals

Here are some ideas for planning your own wine-related goals for the upcoming year:

Travel to _____: Where's somewhere you've always wanted to visit, to try the local wines? For me, it's Portugal, to stay in Oporto and tour the Douro Valley. 

Try _______ wine: What wine have you always read about and wanted to try, and how can you make this happen? Or, what's a wine area that you want to get to know better? I want to try older vintages of wine from classic regions (such as Bordeaux, Vintage Port, and Champagne), something that doesn't happen too often as they can be expensive - I'm planning a group tasting so that everyone can share and enjoy the wine together. In terms of regions, I want to taste more wines from the lesser seen appellations of California.

Take the ______ wine course: Is there a wine designation or course you want to complete this year? Maybe it's the final unit of the WSET Diploma, the French Wine Scholar program, or becoming a Court of Master Sommeliers Certified Somm. Maybe you're thinking of applying to enter the Master of Wine program? That's my big education goal for the year - finger's crossed!

________ wine skill: What's the #1 wine skill you want to master in 2017? It could be sabering bottles, blind tasting, learning to make wine, or working a harvest. This year, the wine skill I'm working on is learning to care for a vineyard, specifically how to prune vines.

________ wine project: Do you want to set up a blind tasting group, a wine blog, write a guidebook, or read through a wine library - what's a wine project you want to create this year? I've got an idea that has me pretty excited, and isn't that the point?

I hope this list has inspired you to write out a few wine specific goals for the year! Let me know in the comments what your 2017 goals are :) I look forward to reading them!

Cheers,

Rachel