If you've already broken a few New Year's resolutions, welcome to the club: You belong to the majority. But don't worry; just put a positive new twist on the onerous matter of New Year resolutions. Resolve to make wine an even greater pleasure. Herewith, a few ideas:

Resolve, for example, to organize a wine enjoyment circle with your friends and colleagues to conduct structured wine tastings or, as wine professionals often call them, degustations. I suggest that you hold at least once-a-month wine nights or, on weekends, even midday wine functions, to sample wines systematically. Please don't think that being systematic might in any way diminish the spontaneous pleasure of enjoying wine. Quite the contrary. I've attended countless wine tastings and seminars and have conducted many myself, and can assure you that a rational, well-planned approach is absolutely necessary.

Until you get used to this sort of thing, in fact, I suggest that you leave food out of it unless you're planning a food and wine party that doesn't demand devoted attention to the wines alone. Note, too, that hungry people have difficulty concentrating on anything other than food.