Because they always involve giving something up, generally I hate New Year’s resolutions. But then I fell in love with wine. With so many unsampled varieties out there, it made sense to my novitiate mind to promise at the outset of every year to delve into a wine I might otherwise neglect. This spirit expanded into foods, coveted gadgets, and all sorts of other pleasuremongering. Even my friends and family got into it: this year my sister-in-law announced that her resolution for 2007 is “to wear bigger earrings.” Watch out, Liz Taylor!

Here are some model resolutions, including some from my recent past — and one involving a soon-to-be-illegal substance.

1. Drink More Barbera
On January 1, 2000, I walked into the tasting room at Preston of Dry Creek and was told that they’d just released their 1997 bottling of the semi-obscure Italian variety known as barbera. I clapped my hands and said, “It’s my New Year’s resolution to drink more barbera!” Everyone laughed, and that day a tradition was born. No more swearing to lose weight, quit a bad habit, or reduce credit card debt.

And yes, starting with that Preston, I had a great time in 2000 admiring the many faces of barbera. The winery is located in the northwestern end of Sonoma county, where in the nineteenth century many Italian families settled and made wines based on the native varieties they loved. Preston keeps the tradition alive by bottling “Mediterranean” varieties that are relatively unknown to a cabernet-merlot-or-chardonnay guzzling public.

Their barbera is a ripe, red fruit driven version of this grape, which has its origins (and remains the most-planted vine) in the Piedmont region of Italy. But it still boasts the Italian version’s trademark earthy, peppery edge.

Last night I got to revisit my old resolution –in the grape’s native guise! — at the first of five meetings of “An Introduction to Italian Wine” at my local wine bar Vino Rosso. The effort is a Barbera D’Alba called “Bricco Cichetta, and it was made by one Pietro Rinaldi, and it cost only $15. Here are my notes:

“Dark brown-red color. This wine is a little more reserved on the nose than the Chianti we just tasted, but still I get black cherry liqueur, some earth, cedar. What’s great about and distinctive about this wine is the way it feels on your tongue: the acidity is bracing, mouth watering, medium weight, and like an invitation to a mouthful of good, hot red Italian food. Our instructor Luca Vannini says this wine is set off from Chianti by its “structure, with big shoulders.” And he’s right. Then all kinds of delicious flavors step out on the good, long finish: dried bing cherry, toast, white pepper, and more earth.”

My table mates weren’t as impressed as I was, I think because they were expecting more stuffing. But barbera is not a wine designed to impress in a more-or-less blind tasting like the one Luca was conducting. It’s a food wine, and to me this Rinaldi fit that bill. Plus, if you really must resolve to reduce your credit card debt, at this price, barbera can help you.

Coming up: Resolution recommendations, one involving a very sacred shellfish.