Giving thanks …

… on Thanksgiving Day, with an apposite (rotated) image supplied by food photographer Alison Marras via Unsplash.

It’s a little more challenging than usual to work out what I’m grateful for at the moment. But let me try.

I’m very grateful that:

• Neither Nick nor I have – yet – been infected by COVID-19 and in our family only our younger daughter, who thinks she may have had a very mild form of it at the start of the pandemic in Europe, has been affected. The JR.com team has also, mercifully, been spared – with the notable exception of poor Ali Cooper MW who got it badly in late March and temporarily lost his sense of smell. But his nearly 900 tasting notes on Rhône 2019s suggest that it has come back in force
• Effective vaccines seem a real possibility
• For once, age may be in my favour (see immediately above)
• We happened to enjoy a great trip to Argentina and California last February
• We managed to get to Burgundy in a window between quarantine and lockdown in time to taste the 2019s
• We have successfully celebrated the 20th anniversary of JancisRobinson.com even though the pandemic precluded a great big party. We are proud to have published videos by all 15 members of the editorial and membership team and by all 18 of our sustainability heroes, a sign of our commitment to raising awareness of the complex issue of sustainability in all areas of wine
• Diversity and inclusion have become hot topics in the world of wine and there are real signs of change and improvement. See BAME Wine Professionals, Black Wine Professionals and Diversity in Wine and Spirits for starters.
• Below is an image just in from friends in California.