Alasdair Nicol pledges to drink himself into a better person. No, really...

One thing I hate about New Year’s is the pressure people put on themselves to think of (and subscribe to) an inane resolution that peters out as the second week of January dawns. However, it’s a ritualistic part of our culture to take the first of January as our own evolutionary clean slate and change the things we didn’t like about ourselves the year before. So, for 2012, I am going to give up the following and I hope you can join me for the ride:

•Firstly, I am going to substitute beer for sparkling wine. Really, I love beer, but as Christmas and New Year is a time for overindulging on the bubbly, why not make a habit of it for the rest of the coming year? In effect, you’ll drink less and get to a better stage of drunkenness – not to mention reducing the size of the beer gut you ‘resolved’ to get rid of.

•Secondly, I am never going to refer to the 2008 tax cut on wine again. Ever. Come on folks, it was four years ago and although we haven’t seen any real change in the price of our wines, there’s no point harping on about it. It’s as useful as reminiscing about China topping the Olympic medal table above the USA for the first time. 2012 may not see any financial recovery in the markets so let’s just be thankful we have zero tax and get on with the important issue of buying and drinking more wine. And while we’re on the topic of things I’m never going to mention again, add ‘the cork versus the screwcap’ debate into the bag. I am bored beyond belief with this topic, and to be honest I couldn’t care less as long as the wine tastes good.

•Finally, I resolve to drink more wine from China. You heard right. The fact is I’m sick of hearing wine snobs from Europe criticising wines made on our own doorstep. They don’t go to China, they only taste what they have available to them, and they make far too many comparisons to wines they do like. I want to champion Chinese wines and see what it is that makes hundreds of millions of people drink them every year on the Mainland. And seeing as 2012 is heralding the year of the dragon, I think I’ll start with Dragon Seal from Heibei province.

Now I do realise that substituting beer for bubbly is probably one of those pipe dream resolutions that never stray into reality, so I am issuing the challenge to you, devoted readers of Time Out. If ever you read my column and see a reference to the tax cut, or to the cork/screwcap debate, I’ll personally buy you a case of Chinese wine. Deal?