While everyone is busy making and breaking New Year resolutions, lets just be honest with ourselves and admit we aren’t going to give up the booze for long! So here are my five ways to help you enjoy wine more (or more wine??) in 2013:

Find a local wine merchant

I have written plenty about my local wine merchant and the benefits of getting to know yours. Go and find one close to you, tell him/her what you like, give them feedback on their recommendations and build the relationship.

Buy a good book

Wine is a very complex but very interesting subject where a grasp of the basics can really help your enjoyment. There are a number of excellent books that can help your drinking enjoyment by explaining how to taste and what to look for. Here’s a couple of recommendations:

Essential Wine Tasting (Michael Schuster)
Get Started – Wine Appreciation (David Williams)

Read a wine magazine

Pick up a copy if Decanter magazine next time you’re at the supermarket. Have a read through and use the web to look up anything you don’t understand. Read one of the tasting articles and buy a bottle or two from the recommendations. Do you agree with what they’ve written? Does it now make more sense?

Drink less, spend more

Rather than three bottles on a Friday night, spend a bit more on one. If you usually pay £5 for a bottle, spend £10. Buy the same variety as you usually would and see if there is a difference. Savour don’t gulp… You might to pleasantly surprised.

Keep reading my blog!

This should be number one really! Please let me know if there is anything specific you would like me to rite about. I will try and write two articles a week but please leave comments and feedback as I really do value your opinions. I promise to spend more time in 2013 writing about easily accessible and affordable bottles.