Happy New Year! Welcome 2010!

Hello Readers, and Happy New Year! After a 2009 that didn't give me nearly enough time to blog about food and wine, I am hoping that it will all change in 2010! 2009 was definitely a life changing year, for F. Scott at least, and I look forward to a new, fresh 2010! So, a quick little synopsis about our world of wine in 2009, as well as some 2010 wine goals:

Purchases: 2009: 360 bottles 2008: 430 bottles

In 2009, I cut back by over $7k on purchases. Bottle averages went down by $8 per bottle which I find interesting, and attribute to cutting out so many of my higher end mailing lists. For 2010, I plan on buying about 50% less, but hoping to see bottles averages hovering in the $60 range. My plan is to limit purchasing to about 150 bottles. I plan on buying more high end wines to cellar as our cellar is still young. I also plan on buying less daily drinkers as well, and hope to get our cellar down under 500 bottles. Offsite storage should go down as well as I make room at home. Consumption: 2009: 194 bottles 2008: 278 bottles 2009 saw my consumption average go up by almost $7 a bottle, which shows that we got rid of many daily drinkers in 2008, and drank a little better for 2009. We did however drink almost 84 less bottles this year, which I attribute to going back to school, and not having time to drink during the week. 2010 should be very interesting for me on the wine front with so much uncertainty these days. I am definitely going to cut back on purchasing, and only can think of a few mailing lists that I plan on buying from. A few must buys in my book will be Stefania (all in for whatever they offer in the way of cabs, syrah, Haut Tubee, pinot noir, and chardonnay), Quilceda Creek, Sea Smoke, Kosta Browne, Maybach, Rivers-Marie(pinot, chard, and cab), Auteur(if I can swing it), Congruence, Lillian, Antica Terra, and that is about it. Of course I will try to hop in with friends allocations as well for Carlisle, Scarecrow, and Sine Qua Non. A few that I will be on the fence for will be Peay, Rhys Alesia, Aubert, and Kistler. Bordeaux futures are out for me this year. There will also be some wines that I will pick up from Tercero, Core, Match, Fiddlehead, Sanford, Fess Parker, Alma Rosa, Melville, Foley, Curran, Hirsch, Badge, etc. I am sure I am leaving a bunch out, but the more I think about it, the harder it is going to be to cut back. I think my focus this year will be more higher end cabs that will cellar well, but not necessarily brand new releases. Who knows. Also hope to buy less pinot in 2010, and have a bit more cellar diversity, but that is hard when you have certain wines that you like. I would also really like t add to our Champagne inventory, and be better versed on Champagne this year. I would also love to see our sparklers grow a bit and expand, and we don’t drink them nearly enough. Maybe that will be a consumption goal! Finally, I would like to write more tasting notes, and publish them on here. I also plan on starting a wine column with The People Papers, located in the Burlington/Mercer County areas of New Jersey, so stay tuned for that!

On the food front, my goal is to put the new stove to work, and do a little upgrade work in the kitchen. We absolutely love the new Kenmore, and I can't wait to experiment more with bread an pastries, as well as French Cuisine.

I would also like to do more writing this year, and review about twice as many restaurants in 2010, which is going to be tough to do, and time consuming. Hopefully we can dedicate the time to do it. Finally, I would like to revisit Gordon Ramsay's restaurant, London in NYC this year, and get a group together to sit at the chef's table. Any takers? If so, let me know!

Anyway, that is all for now, but stay tuned for the latest and greatest. I would really like to submit a minimum of 5 entries per week in 2010, but I know it is going to be hard.

Regardless, I hope that you are looking forward to 2010 as much as I am, and I wish you the best wines, greatest foods, and never ending happiness in 2010! Cheers! -F. Scott