What should be wine drinkers’ resolutions for 2008? To buy no more New World dross like Blossom Hill, Gallo, Kumala and Jacob’s Creek, or Europe’s equivalents, including Le Piat d’Or, J.P. Chenet, and anything with lambrusco, liebfraumilch or hock on the label. I would also be happy to fast-forward to the end of ’08 and discover that none of you had bought or drunk the dismal but discombobulatingly popular Oyster Bay wines from New Zealand, Yellow Tail from Australia, or those faulty bag-in-box wines and sickly sweet pinks. Drinkers should also attempt to be less seduced by cut-price offers in supermarkets; just because a bottle is half-price, it does not mean it’s good value.

In today’s new puritan era, don’t let government guidelines get to you. The so-called “safe” weekly alcohol limits of 21 units for women and 28 for men do not suit everybody. Every drinker, if they are honest with themselves, knows exactly how much they can consume without trouble, so set your own limits and stick to them.

Above all, resolve to make 2008 the year you start a wine collection, even if you don’t have a cellar; a small space cleared under the stairs for a wine rack, or in a cool back bedroom cupboard will do the job. Being armed with several months’ consumption gives you the flexibility and freedom to match wine to dish and guest in a way that living from hand to mouth never does. In addition, lots of £10-plus wines, including champagne, taste infinitely richer and more complex with as little as six months to a year of dark, cool, tranquil, horizontal storage.

The coming year should also see you resolve not to be taken in by wine clubs who promise free bottles and huge savings that turn out to be nothing of the kind. Also, find the strength to ignore pushy sommeliers who foist all sorts of nonsense on customers.

At home, resolve to make the best of your bottle with good wine glasses, stored bowl up so that they do not trap stale air, and a decent corkscrew. The former are plain, thin, tulip-shaped glasses, and John Lewis and Habitat sell the cheap Michaelangelo set that I use every day at home. Corkscrews come in all shapes and sizes, but the Oxo Good Grips is the only one with which to remove stubborn plastic corks (good department stores and wine merchants).

Wine drinkers’ most important 2008 resolution is to get matey with a wine merchant and make use of their free advice, tastings and the finest and rarest wines on their shelves. The top wines of the world are only available in very limited quantities, and if you want to buy them, a fine wine merchant is where you should shop, not a supermarket. Anyone too far from one should buy a share in the non-profit making Wine Society (01438 740222) for £40 and start to plunder its treasure trove of a wine list. Happy new year.

jane.macquitty@thetimes.co.uk

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