With the first caucuses of an election year taking place this week, this Leap-Election year would be a great opportunity to resolve any of the following. Here are my top ten wine resolutions for 2008:

10. I will learn more about Italian geography. It was just too embarrassing last month to have someone point out that I had mis-identified where a wine came from by over 500 miles.

 

9. I will open my eyes to Chardonnay again. I used to like them. Really. Liked them a lot. Then I found they had gotten too oaky and I never went back. But there are dozens of classy Chardonnays that aren't over-staved, and I will make an attempt to try one regularly.

 

8. I will stop using the word varietals. It's "varieties." I'll try to remember to use a noun where a noun belongs and an adjective where an adjective belongs.

 

7. I will try chocolate with Cabernet until I drop. While I've never thought these two worked together, I profess an addiction to chocolate and since so many people I trust say that Cabernet marries with even the darkest bars, I've got to see what it's all about.

 

6. I promise to dine out more regularly. I confess. I live a cloistered life. Between the hours I'm here and a great family life, I don't get to try many new restaurants. Some of the most creative wine and food happenings are taking place in Chicago's restaurant scene and I know I'm missing out.

 

5. I will not be ashamed to admit that I really like beer. Not a six-pack-a-night kind of thing. But there are times when it's just a lot easier to grab a cold Fat Tire out of the fridge than it is to run downstairs and grab a bottle of wine.

 

4. I promise to try, and this one's really hard, to use fewer hand gestures when describing a wine's flavor.

 

3. I promise to tell the host at the next Really-Big-Reds wine tasting I go to that his teeth have turned really purple.

 

2. I will do a better job of telling winemakers and sales reps about the harm high-alcohol reds and whites are doing to the whole wine industry. The trend toward 15% wines is going to wreck wine enjoyment for everyone. I talk to lots of you and I hear the same thing over and over. None of us is willing to give up drinking wine, but if the over-done statement wines keep rolling out of winery doors I'm reaching for a beer.

 

1. I will try to cut my wine answers in half. You think I can't see that glazed-over look you give when I'm going on and on about, well, whatever. You get the point. Like a half bottle of Yquem, short and sweet.

Predictions For 2008

1. Wines sold in grocery and big box stores will continue to dominate the trends in retail wine sales, but the tide will turn back to specialty wine stores as more people realize that product knowledge, selection and service are worth the effort.

 

2. A major Napa winery will take the initiative to launch a label that touts rational alcohol levels of 12.5% to regain a market lost to the French.

 

3. Emerging wine countries and states will become much more important as prices for Napa-Sonoma and mainstream European wines continue to spiral to new heights. Watch for Mexico to become a factor along with Illinois and New York's Long Island.

 

4. Box wines will join screw-capped wines (2007's phenomenon) as a legitimate package for serious wine consumers. The selection will continue to grow giving us enough choice to consider these as the green alternative to all that glass. .

 

5. Everyone at Schaefer's will continue to enjoy the company of some of the nicest people in northern Illinois!