“May you live in interesting times” is a famous quote (curse) and 2020 has certainly lived up to this statement. “Interesting” may be a bit of an understatement actually, “chaotic” is probably more accurate.

Late last year I had high hopes that I would knock out lots of wine reviews and videos in 2020 for my 50 Wines From 50 States project, but that all was derailed when the COVID-19 pandemic spread globally. As someone who follows Chinese media closely, I could see the situation growing more urgent by mid January and then kicking into mass hysteria by February on into March. I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect here in the US, but it was growing obvious that things were about to take a dramatic turn.

Our daycare center closed in April not too long after California (and locally Los Angeles) started shutting down businesses. My wife works in an essential industry which still needed to go in, so my own work day began to double as a “daddy daycare”, and it became nearly impossible to focus on extra curricular activities (like tasting wine and specifically this wine blog). I’ve often considered trying to squeeze in a review here or there, but the timing or energy needed to write it just wasn’t available.

Between COVID-19 the coronavirus itself, lockdowns, businesses closing down, the mental side effects that have affected people, toilet paper shortages, the mask/no-mask debates, racial tension, riots, a comet, conspiracy theories, and more… 2020 will be a year that people will want to quickly forget about. I personally hope not though as there have been several lessons to be learned from all of this.

Anyway, until a time comes when the world goes back to “normal”, I will attempt to squeeze in articles when time permits. In fact, I am working on one now. Stay safe everyone and cheers!

FYI! I’ve added a few new T-shirts to my store here. The new “Son of Vin” logo shirts are listed at the bottom. Enjoy!