New Year's Resolutions: A To Do List

We need to show resolve. We need to proclaim for change, so it goes each January. Never is our determination firmer than it is today. We will change...we will exercise more, we will eat less, we will be kind to others, and solve the worlds problems. Just kidding on the last one.

In all likelihood all we can do is make a couple of lists and suffer in resoluteness for the next week or two before everything returns to normal. Here it is now, the year for us to make the modest demands of ourselves. Okay, so here's my plan..set forth a few modest proposals, nothing drastic, all attainable and see what happens. Of course this should include a visit to see Bob the wine guy and continue our adventure down the trail to the wine knowledge college..

How about we start with...

Clean up your cellar

Taking an inventory of our personal wine stock on hand. Many of our friends and customers have a substantial if not collectible stash of wine in their personal wine cellars (sometimes called closets, or pantries). What to look for, in this inventory.

1. How about checking for wine that you have had for some time, with an eye toward making sure that you don't purchase more of the same.

2. Physically handling your wine can reveal issues with them. There's nothing quite as disturbing in the cellar as that sticky little drop of wine hanging off the neck of one of your prized bottles.

3. Knowing what you have can make it much easier to plan to drink what you want instead of rummaging around in the seller. Knowing what you have and where it is makes it easier to drink your wine.

Dispose of your wine. Once you know what you have you also need to know what to do with it. Wine is generally not immortal, and bottles that are leakers need to be consumed sooner rather than later. We all have a few bottles lurking somewhere that we should drink. Either they are prized bottles that we never end up drinking or they are everyday bottles that we too easily pass over. This year make it a point to reduce the number of wines in your cellar. Drink them, share them, heck even give them away if you have to.

Take a Different Path

Most of us might find that we are right at home staying within our comfort zone, drinking the same things we like all the time. This presents a wonderful opportunity to try things we're not used to – like aq Malbec, a Shiraz or even a buttery Chardonnay. It's an easy way to take a chance, sort of a new path of discovery with many nights of pleasure...

Okay I might be pushing it a bit.

Stop being a snob

This of course does not include Bob the Wine Guy since he is incapable of snobbery. This is tricky,so let's for a moment consider what the word snob actually means. Allow me to use a definition, that I found in the dictionary online. Snob: a person who believes himself or herself to have superior taste and is condescending towards those with different values. Does that sound like anybody we know? Nowhere is it stated that one must prefer expensive over the inexpensive to be a snob. Fundamentally a snob is driven by a heightened sense of self-importance and condescension towards others. Thus we do have snobs who favor the expensive or exclusive over the ordinary but we also have snobs who favor the geeky, organic, or even inexpensive over the wines other people like and enjoy. To all those snobs out there Happy New Year..oh and by the way get over yourself if you don't like a type of wine that is fantastic. Now shut up and drink what you like and leave me and everybody else in peace to enjoy what we like.

Share more wine

Let's do this, make 2014 the year we share all of our wine, leakers or duds, mystery bottles and wines that just should be drunk.

Listen More

My personal and final New Year's resolution is to listen more. As some of you may know here at the Souza Family Winery most of our menu has been customer driven, that is to say we test wines constantly and only keep on the menu the ones you tell us you like, so we do listen. Geez. Frankly Scarlet... I'm exhausted.

Before I close, we will be having our annual Valentine's Day Sweetheart dinner Friday Night, Feb. 14.

It's sure to be a sell out. Please call 661-822-9233 for reservations.

Now what you all wait for... okay, okay...maybe not all. My Aunt Mildred, married to my Uncle Aldo, is in the hospital having surgery for what we thought was a mild heart attack, and while there she has a visit from God. While at her bedside she asks, "Will I die?" God says, "No you have 30 more good years to live." With 30 years to look forward to Aunt Millie decides to make the best of it. Since she's in the hospital she gets breast implants, liposuction, a tummy tuck, hair transplants and collagen injections in her lips. She looks great! The day she's discharged, she exits the hospital with a swagger, crosses the street and is immediately hit by an ambulance and killed. She wakes up in heaven and sees God. "You said I had 30 more years to live" she complains."That's true". says God. "So what happened?" she asks.

God shrugs, "I didn't recognize you."

Bada Bing!

– BTWG