A recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC said that half of all Americans this year, mainly young adults, will resolve to change their lifestyle in one way or another.
Making resolutions for the new year is not a particularly momentous decision, especially since so many people talk a good game but several weeks later abandon the best of intentions and revert to normal activities.
However, if 2024 was your year of reducing alcoholic beverage consumption, then resolving to do so for an entire year or permanently might be a little easier because you already had a head start.
Lowering alcohol ingestion is a commendable plan, which may seem hypocritical coming from a wine columnist. But I began doing the same thing 25 years ago or so, and I hereby suggest one key word that is at the heart of my lifestyle choice.
Moderation. In fact, I tend to be moderate in almost all activities. (Well, when it comes to a couple of things, such as dark chocolate and great comedy, I occasionally overdo it.)
In terms of wine and food, moderation is not particularly difficult to achieve. The primary thing to remember about wine is that some of them are automatically moderate and others are the opposite.
One way to control this is to simply look at the label. The alcohol content of all wine must be on the label, so whether you’re in a retail store or a cafe, a good idea is to see what the alcoholic content of a particular wine is and stick with lower-alcohol products.
With many red wines today, the alcohol level is typically 14.5 percent or higher, but some wines are almost always higher. Zinfandel, for example, is typically about 16 percent. So, if you are a zin lover, there are two strategies you may employ.
One, obviously, is to drink less. The other, which I do regularly, is to add water to the glass.
Adding a bit of water to a wine like a higher alcohol zinfandel may seem as if it will ruin the flavor, but often the aroma is improved, because higher-alcohol wines have less fruity aromas than do lower-alcohol reds.
Also, a bit of water can assist in the expression of fruit that you can taste because it improves the balance.
If white wine is your preference, a great example of automatic moderation is in German rieslings. Many of these wines weigh in at about 8 percent alcohol; a few are even less.
Although there is a bit of residual sugar in some of these wines, the flavors are delightful with apple and pear aromas. Even if served relatively cold, the flavors of the wines go brilliantly with many different kinds of foods.
Those who resolve to go moderate have many different choices when it comes to beer, and one of the best is from Best Day Brewing, which has an entire lineup of nonalcoholic brews that are nationally distributed.
In standard lager-style brews, there are non-alcs from Heineken and Stella, but neither is particularly flavorful.
Firestone Walker Brewing recently began selling a product called 8ZERO5, a nonalcoholic. I have not tasted it yet, but reports say it’s quite good. Another that I have always liked is Clausthaler Dry Hopped.
