New Year's Wine Resolutions
New Year's Wine Resolutions
The new year gives us an opportunity to reflect on years prior, what we did wrong, what we did right, what we drank, and what we’d like to have drunk more of. Here are just a few wine-focused things I hope to be resolute about:
For $19.99, you just can’t beat it!
Drink More Natural Wine
These wines are everywhere now and they’re some of the most exciting and dynamic wines on the market. While they can be jarringly different, don’t let that discourage you from exploring them. There’s no better way to wake up your palate, excite your senses, and have your world shook than to drink these wines. Every glass of natural wine has been a learning experience and, in my experience, they’ve all been more than worth it. Check out this bottle of Beaujolais-Villages from Jean-Paul Dubost. It’s 100% Biodynamic, old-vine Gamay hand harvested and vinified with no funny business. Perfect for literally any occasion and certain to move you.
The crazy vineyards of Santorini, Greece
Drink Wine From Obscure Places
The world of wine is vast and ever changing (the World Atlas of Wine is in it’s 8th edition as of last month). There’s no reason to not try and get to know as much of it as you can. When was the last time you tried a Greek wine? Georgian? Croatian? Or even some of the wine regions in California not named ‘Napa’ and ‘Sonoma’? Which gets me to this next one...
Skin Fermented Picpoul! 52 cases were made of this Orange beauty and we got some!
Drink More American Alternatives
California is enormous, and combined with Oregon and Washington, you get quite the viticultural area. The Pacific Northwest is geologically diverse and loaded up with weird and unusual varietals. That is to say, California isn’t all Cabernet and Chardonnay. How about Chenin Blanc, Picpoul, Syrah, Mourvedre, Grenache, or Gamay? Variety is the spice of life, and a sign of a healthy wine region. My favorite example of this are the wines of Matthew Rorick from his Heritage Vineyard site in Calaveras County. He’s got dozens of oddball varieties planted on his property and each one of them goes into an amazingly good, and amazingly novel, bottle of wine.
Mimi Casteel with her grazing animals at Hope Well
Be Smarter About Sustainability
When it comes to food, we love all things sustainable, organic, ‘natural’, and regenerative. We love the idea that what we’re putting into our bodies comes from good people that practice an environmentally friendly manner of farming, who don’t put any chemicals or additives into the fields or the end product. No so much it seems with our alcohol. Let this be the year that we all take sustainability more seriously and commit to supporting the farmers and winemakers who’ve been championing this philosophy for years. Have a listen to this amazing interview on this topic with winemaker, farmer, brilliant scientist, and champion of sustainability, Mimi Casteel of both Bethel Heights and Hope Well Wine in Oregon.
Read More, Learn More, Ask More Questions
Let this also be a year full of as much brain food as drink. When learning about wine it’s easy to start to think that you may know something; a dangerous position to be in indeed! This year I’m humbling myself at the feet of great wine writers, researchers, educators, and winemakers in the hopes that I can suck up a little more wisdom and grace along with some knowledge that’ll make my love of wine grow even greater. Where to start? Maybe with that sick interview with Mimi I just suggested, reading Jonathan Nossiter’s new wine manifesto, or checking in with the goings on over at Wine Folly.
Drink More!
As always! Dry January is a conspiracy to get you to buy expensive gym memberships. Don’t let these people shame you. Drink as you feel fit (within reason of course) but make sure to drink as broad an array of wines in 2020 as possible. The best way to stay excited and engaged is to keep giving yourself new experiences. Take risks with wine in 2020!
The Rorick Heritage Vineyard in the snow