10 Wine Resolutions for 2010

Wine Resolutions for Novices.

1. UNDERSTAND that is it too early in your wine journey to start making decisions about grapes, brands, or regions. This is life quest; you don’t want to start making preferences until you have a couple hundred bottles consumed.

2. DO attend a wine tasting on a regular basis. This is by far the most cost-effective way to get experience lots of wines.

3. BUY an expensive leather journal and write down every wine you taste and what you think about it. This forces you to be focused and it will be fun to read in future years.

Wine Resolutions for Intermediates.

4. UNDERSTAND wine and food pairings. Most wine (and all great wine) is meant for the dinner table. A little experimentation and one good wine book can help you in this mission.

5. DO try as many different grapes as possible. Consider something like the ‘Wine Century Club.’ Don’t restrict yourself to the most common 10 or 20 grapes. Thousands of grape types are made into wine worldwide.

6. BUY cases of interesting wine. It is time to learn how wine ages and what that really means. You are only going to do that if the wine is aging at your house.

Wine Resolutions for Advanced Wine Drinkers.

7. UNDERSTAND that analysis is lowest form of wine appreciation. Embrace the metaphysical connections of terroir (the fusion of place and taste) and learn about the people making your wine.

8. DO visit wine country and go where the tourists don’t go. Santa Barbara, Greece, Southwest France, etc…

9. BUY strangely interesting wines that nobodies else knows about to defend their existence from homogenization.

Wine Resolution for Everyone.

10. BE GRATEFUL. We have access to more wine, better wine, and in more diversity that most people on earth.