The new year is here, and that means two things: Groundhog Day is not far away, and it’s time to make another resolution. This year, in addition to your regular, all-encompassing life resolution, think about shuffling in a dedicated wine resolution too. Up your knowledge to up your enjoyment. It’s your resolution — not mine — so feel free to cherry-pick one from the list below if you find yourself having trouble coming up with one of your own.
There’s no rule that says you can’t have more than one wine resolution, either. Vow to hit the gym more, or be on time, or watch less TV, or learn the trombone. But don’t let this year go by without devoting some of your focused attention to wine. Unless of course you can think of another self-enriching educational endeavor that features as part of its core curriculum a steady regimen of wine drinking.
1. Focus on a dozen. Every month, for the next 12 months, choose a different grape variety, wine style or region to study. Learn everything you can about those wines (and those places), via tastings, experimenting with food pairings, reading about the particular subject of the month, and conversing about it with friends and wine professionals. You cannot choose wrong. Cast the widest net possible, or narrow your focus all the way. Just pick something, and explore it for 30 days before moving on to something else. Of course, 30 days is only the start of any subject that you want to know well, but imagine if you had 12 really solid starts by the end of the year.
2. Treat bubbles and rosé as no-limit items. Go ahead and devote a month to sparkling wine (or a more specific type of bubbly, such as Franciacorta), and go ahead and devote a month to rosé (or something pink but much more specific), but also remember to drink sparkling wine and rosé all year long. Don't stick sparkling wine in the holiday and celebration closet, and don't close the door on rosé when weather is less than perfect. Let them both into your life every day of the year.
3. Ditch the flute. When you're enjoying that sparkling wine, do so in a regular old wine glass — one with sides that are generally straight but also taper inward at the top. You'll enjoy fuller aromas, you'll be able to swirl easier and you'll have one less glass style to keep track of — and replace when one of them breaks.
4. Host more tastings. Pick a theme, and invite your friends to bring a bottle matching said theme. Drink the wines without knowing what they are or how much they cost, only to reveal that information after everyone has assessed them. Provide plenty of water. Provide a spittoon. Provide neutral-tasting crackers if you want. But make sure to provide that spittoon and that water. Provide note-taking opportunities and supplies. Discuss the wines. Take notes. Save your notes. Encourage your guests to save theirs. Have fun with it. Repeat.
5. Choose your words. Familiarize yourself with the Aroma Wheel devised by Ann C. Noble, but don't be afraid to express yourself by injecting words and ideas of your own. If a wine smells like your cousin's horse barn, say so. If it tastes like the mango soda you had at a snack bar down the street from the Alamo, let us know. That's fun for us too.
6. Toast with fire. Make a habit, when you are gathered with your people, wine glasses in every hand, of saying something more than "cheers" before you sip. You don't have to deliver a soliloquy, but a few choice words might stick with someone forever. Everybody's not a toaster, but even the non-toasters appreciate a quick dose of wisdom, sincerity and gratitude. And when you and your loved ones have wine in your glasses, you're probably ensconced in a moment of your life worthy of gratitude. Somebody, say something.
7. Take a cue from Jackson Pollock. Even if you are faithfully and methodically working your way through 12 grapes, styles or regions over the course of 2018, always remember that your wine journey rarely travels in straight lines and probably more closely resembles a Pollock drip painting. That's OK. Follow it wherever it leads you. Circle back. Take a detour. Take another one. Return to an earlier line. Those chaotic swirls and squiggles will eventually reveal your own, unique, pleasantly symmetrical composition.
8. Augment your drinking with reading. You know that drinking wine is the best way to learn about it, but you love to read, too, because, well, here you are. As you might imagine, or already know, some wine education tomes can be as dry as a Phoenix sidewalk. Others are as entertaining as they are informative, and if that sounds good to you, allow me to suggest Bianca Bosker's "Cork Dork: A Wine-Fueled Adventure Among the Obsessive Sommeliers, Big Bottle Hunters, and Rogue Scientists Who Taught Me to Live for Taste" (Penguin Paperback Original, $17). This memoir about her year-and-a-half immersion in the wine world will probably make you less self-conscious about your own wine avocation. It might even convince you that such a quest, or a quest of your own design, can literally change your brain for the better — and maybe your life too.
9. Drink the prized bottle. Friends, don't waste those expensive bottles you got as gifts or invested in long ago, anticipating some ethereal special occasion. Invent the special occasion, and open that bottle tonight. If that approach doesn't work for you, try this logic. It's a special bottle, right? And that's why you haven't opened it? Well, if it's so special, wouldn't opening it instantly make the current occasion special? What are you waiting for? Drink it.
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