New Year's

Stopping bad habits and losing a few pounds are top of mind at the top of the year. But it’s a lot more fun to focus on expanding your wine repertoire. Here, industry professionals share their resolutions. Tell us about yours with the hashtags #wineresolution and #WETaste. “Magnums or bust!”—Matt Tunstall, co-owner/beverage director, Stems & Skins, Charleston, SC “Drink more natural wines and to learn more about veganic farming. I’ve been feeling drawn to returning back to basics, before mass-produced, commercial winemaking took over, and [to] being more in tune with—and connecting closer with—nature.”—Sunny Gandara, wine and PR director/chef sommelier, Vegan Wines, New York City “The obvious resolution for me is to drink more breakfast wine. Light sparklers with low [alcohol levels] like Bugey Cerdon or Brittany cider out of bolée start the day off right. I’m also diving head first into the co-ferments happening here in the Pacific Northwest, red and white grapes fermenting together, white grapes fermenting with pear, apple, quince… What a time to be alive!”—Kathryn Olson, wine director, L’Oursin, Seattle “My winesolution is to shift from consumer to collector. Instead of drinking all the delicious wines that come my way, I resolve—reluctantly—to seek out and hold a few rare wines. At the top of my list is a bottle of 1989 Domaine Leflaive Bâtard-Montrachet. This wine is featured in my book, Searching for Cloves and Lilies: The Wine Edition, where I pair it with the most powerful poem in the collection: ‘After The Quake.’ … Waiting to drink it may be my greatest challenge yet!”—Regine Rousseau, author; owner, Shall We Wine tasting company “I’m really going to dive into drinking and cooking regionally. Enjoy Nebbiolo with fresh tajarin and mushrooms, Bandol rosé and grilled sardines with lemon. The kind of wine and food that gets at the soul of a place. What could be better than that?”—Jason Zuliani, owner/wine director, Dedalus Wine, Burlington, VT “Participate in harvest. [It’s] a beautiful experience that allows us to connect with winemakers, the land. But, more importantly, it allows us to bring our experiences back to our communities. Across the globe, people of color, specifically black people, and women are lacking access to equitable experiences and narratives in the wine world. I’m looking to disrupt that in every way possible.” —Ashtin Berry, founder of Radical Xchange, owner of The Cooks Club Dinner Series (coming 2019) “To build trust with guests in order to lead them to a region they’ve never explored or a grape that’s unfamiliar. The more varied we can become in our wine drinking, the better understanding we have of place, people and our world that supports it all.”—Elizabeth Johnson, general manager, The Finch, Brooklyn, NY “For 2019, I vow to uncover unseen intersectionality in wine and narratives from around the world. If disparate wine communities are finding common ground and economic growth opportunities, then I’ll feel a degree of satisfaction.”—Peter Weltman, journalist and founder of Borderless Wine “Blind taste more wine. We all have unconscious bias when it comes to wine, whether it be that we only like noble varieties, or that Old World wines are better than New World. I often surprise myself when I taste blind, and it reminds me to keep an open mind and try to avoid setting expectations before I even pop the bottle. Oh, and, part two: drink more bubbles. Always more bubbles.” —Martha Stoumen, winemaker, Martha Stoumen Wines, northern California