Column: Arbor Vinous

As a benighted former president was wont to say, “Let me make one thing perfectly clear.”

My track record for New Year’s resolutions plumbs the depths of RichRod’s Michigan win percentage. Were things otherwise, the first days of 2010 would find me significantly lighter, fitter and wealthier.

But – in another context – Dr. Johnson sagely observed the triumph of hope over experience. So herewith follow 10 resolutions for current and wannabe wine lovers to consider in the New Year. One size doesn’t fit all, so pick and choose accordingly.

1. Drink local beverages with local foods

I grew up with the Hebraic variation of Peter Pan: every time a person goes into a deli and orders pastrami on white bread, somewhere a Jew dies.

Here’s today’s version: whenever someone orders locavore food and flown-in beverages, a local winemaker dies. If you’re eating Michigan-raised food, you should be drinking high quality Michigan wine – or locally crafted beers, ciders and juices, as appropriate.

Don’t see a good selection of local beverages where you go out to eat? Visit the Michigan Wine Council site – they’ve got an app for that.

2. Buy some wines outside your comfort zone

Wine lovers inevitably play favorites.

But nothing mandates that our preferences turn into ruts. The shelves are full of bottles from grapes and places you’ve probably never sampled; make 2010 the year to taste some.

The easiest way to branch out: look for kissing-cousins to those you already enjoy. Is your favorite white wine New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc? Then try the same grape from Sancerre or Pouilly-Fumé, in France’s Loire Valley.

Do you prefer big, fruity California Zinfandel or Ozzie Shiraz? You might enjoy uncorking (or unscrewing) a Primitivo from Italy or Pinotage from South Africa. Or if you’ve taken to Argentine Malbec, it’s also the dominant red grape in France’s Cahors region.

Happy hunting!

3. Take a wine class

Learning alongside a local wine guru is a great way to pick up pointers – especially since you can sip as they talk.

Former Ann Arbor News wine columnist David Creighton teaches several one- or two-session classes throughout the year at Washtenaw Community College, typically accompanied by about eight tasting-size pours.

In April, Creighton will lead classes on “Michigan Wines” and “Really Good Wines You’ve Never Tried.” Check back in the fall for his “Introduction to Wine” and “Classic Wine Districts.”

Village Corner proprietor Dick Scheer offers occasional classes through the Ann Arbor Art Center. Scheduled for March: a one-evening session on South American wines.

Wine judge and AnnArbor.com blogger Ron Sober teams with Everyday Wines owner Mary Campbell for several one-session classes, also under the auspices of the Art Center. Although they haven’t yet set the dates, their soon-to-come classes will include “Wine 101” and “Fortified Wine.” Check the Art Center or Everyday Wines websites for updates.

4. Pull some good stuff from the cellar – for no reason at all

Nearly everyone with a well-established wine cellar recalls with embarrassment the stash of older bottles that inhabit some less-accessible corner, silently moldering into decay years after they should have been consumed.

Why? Because we never had just the “right occasion” to open them.

Resolved: next Saturday night is the “right occasion.” Prepare a good dinner and go for it!

Or follow the example of the Ann Arbor couple who stage an annual “Cellar Reduction Party” for their wine-tasting friends. We show up with food; they haul amazing older gems out of the basement.

No one complains when a few bottles inevitably turn out to be slightly past their peak; a sizable proportion of those in attendance fall into a similar category.

5. Develop a relationship with a local wine retailer – or three

Even if you believe that Gary Vaynerchuk is Bacchus incarnate – as opposed to the wine trade’s pre-eminent marketing huckster – you’ll still buy most of your juice locally.

So latch onto a go-to guy or gal. That’s not necessarily the person who knows the most about wine, but the one who’s best at recommending bottles you enjoy and challenging your palate with new ones to try. And it may not be the store owner or manager, but a sales clerk with a wine passion and the determination to taste everything on the shelf.

Ann Arbor is fortunate to have a number of retailers who qualify. Get to know some of them. Equally important, have them get to know your tastes and budget.

6. Curl up with a good wine book

If you’re a vinous newbie or want a structured approach toward wetting your wine appreciation whistle, try the 25th anniversary edition of Kevin Zraly’s Windows on the World Wine Course. Zraly, former sommelier at the World Trade Center’s crowning eatery, doles out carefully measured pours of wine savvy along with how-to tasting sessions to accompany the reading.

The seriously committed – or obsessive – learner may prefer Karen MacNeil’s aptly-named 900-page tome, The Wine Bible, which offers a fact-crammed but highly readable in-depth primer to the wine world. It should come as no surprise that MacNeil runs the wine program at the Culinary Institute of America, located in Napa Valley.

Local wine teacher/writer David Creighton maintains that Tom Stevenson’s Sotheby’s Wine Encyclopedia is the first and only wine reference you absolutely need to own, though others point similarly to The Oxford Companion to Wine by Jancis Robinson. Both are better designed for in-and-out dips than a start-to-finish read.

Before hitting the road to visit Michigan’s wineries, From the Vine by Sharon Kegerreis and Lorri Hathaway is worth a perusal. The authors provide space for nearly 60 of our state’s winery owners and wine makers to regale us with their own stories in this well-illustrated, locally published volume that provides a good perspective on the state of Michigan winemaking.

For a different sort of wine yarn, pick up The Billionaire’s Vinegar by Benjamin Wallace to discover that Wall Street’s mortgage-bundling scallywags exercise no monopoly on economic chicanery. This non-fiction potboiler’s dramatis personae include the wine world’s answer to Bernie Madoff and a $150,000 bottle of Bordeaux putatively owned by Thomas Jefferson. The saga drags on today outside the book’s covers, in the form of a seemingly inexhaustible series of charges, counter-charges and lawsuits.

7. Visit the Ann Arbor area’s wineries

Five wineries ferment their juice within an hour’s drive of Ann Arbor. All their tasting rooms are open year-round on weekends (some also during the week), and provide a perfect day-trip antidote to mid-winter cabin fever.

Last July’s column has the names, locations and other details. The only update: Chateau Aeronautique, on an airpark just outside Jackson, opened for business in September; its tasting room hours are noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

8. Spend a wine weekend in Northern Michigan or Ontario

Traverse City is 3½ hours away; Niagara on the Lake about 4½ (plus border-crossing time). Both areas have more wineries than you can possibly visit in a long weekend.

Start to plan your Michigan wine trip at the wine trail websites for the Leelanau Peninsula and Old Mission Peninsula. You’ll find details of the Niagara wine region at the Ontario wine site.

9. Enjoy some local wine tastings or dinners

Wine tasting shares a critical trait with other fleshly pleasures: greater enjoyment and improved skill come from indulging as frequently as possible.

But all tastings aren’t created equal, so make sure you know what you’re signing up for. Is it a walkaround, where you’re free to wander the room and sample from an assortment of wines? Or is it a sit-down tasting, where you’ll sample a fixed group of wines on a theme, normally with food? Will an expert attend to discuss the wines, or will you be on your own?

Locally, Village Corner offers the area’s most ambitious tasting schedule, through its Ann Arbor Wine Club and the local Tasters Guild Chapter.

The AAWC six-times-per-year walkarounds provide the city’s best bang for the buck, with dozens of wines available to taste; non-members can attend for a small surcharge, although only members can order. Remember to spit!

Several other stores sponsor tastings less frequently; sign up for the email newsletters at Morgan & York or Everyday Wines for alerts.

Uniquely in the city, Whole Foods Market on Eisenhower offers a wine bar where, for a small charge, you can choose several tasting-size pours with any prepared food purchase.

Several city restaurants sponsor sit-down wine dinners or tastings, sometimes with winery owners or winemakers in attendance. Those with more frequent events include eve, Logan, Paesano’s, Mediterrano and Vinology.

Santé!

10. Put on a tasting yourself, or with some friends

The perfect resolution to end with, because next month, Arbor Vinous will visit a number of Ann Arbor wine pros and collectors for tips on how to organize successful wine tastings – whether you’re sipping $5 Shiraz or $500 Bordeaux.

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For some other 2010 wine resolutions, check those from Dorothey Gaiter and John Brecher, the husband and wife team who lamentably just penned their final wine column for the Wall Street Journal.

And feel free to add your own, below. We’ll check back in December to see how you did!

About the author: Joel Goldberg, an Ann Arbor area resident, edits the MichWine website and tweets @MichWine. His Arbor Vinous column for The Chronicle is published on the first Saturday of the month.