The new year is here and with it the social pressure to make a list of things you want to do or accomplish this year. Instead of resolving to get ripped or travel the world, may we at Skolnik recommend a resolution that is achievable and that you’ll actually want to keep: Wine more.
Here are a few simple but exciting wine resolutions for you to achieve in 2016:
- Try something new
There are so many different styles and varietals of wine out there, don’t limit yourself. So you’ve always been a pinot person, why not try a zinfandel or dare to dabble with a malbec? Explore your options. Who knows, you might even find a new favorite.
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Travel via taste
If you don’t have the time or funds to travel the world, taste the world. Try to find a wine from every continent and note the differences. See what the soil in spain can bring to the tasting table versus a bottle from California. Keep a journal, do some research and before you know it you’re a worldly wine leader.
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Experiment with flavor
White and red aren’t flavors; apricot, blackcurrant, jasmine and ginger are flavors. Try a wine from every flavor profile: fruit, earthy, floral, herbal, spice, woody, the options are nearly endless. Tantalize your tastebuds with an entirely unique wine experience every time you uncork a bottle and discover flavors you never even knew existed, let alone thought you’d love.
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Find adventure close to home
Seek out local wineries, take a tour of their facility, bring home a bottle to share with friends. Find a local bar that serves wine on tap, try them all, discover that wine on tap is delicious, economical and environmentally fantastic, resolve to find more places that offer wine on tap, teach your friends what you have learned and make tap tuesdays or wine wednesdays a regular thing.
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Step out of your comfort cask
One last wine resolution that ties into all of the above. Seek out un-oaked wines and wines not fermented in the traditional oak barrels. There are winemakers on every continent making wine without the cost, waste and flavors of an oak barrel. For some it is experimental, for many it is a business model. Many winemakers ferment their wine in stainless steel in order to achieve cleaner, more pure flavors. Using stainless steel wine barrels isn’t a new trend, it’s a tried and true technique for winemakers around the world — heck, unoaked wines even have their own category for major winemaking awards. While you’re trying new varieties of wine with new flavors from new countries or from your own hometown, look for unoaked options and look for options not fermented in traditional barrels.
Be bold (or light and fruity), whatever suits your fancy, but make 2016 the year you fall in love with wine over and over again.