5 wine-related resolutions for 2011

With this part of January comes the usual barrage of resolutions and predictions. Last year I tackled some predictions for the next decade (see sfg.ly/dPUtJe), so this week I'm starting 2011 with some pledges for the year in wine. Here are five I'm putting on my chalkboard:

Buy direct. Not to dis great wine shops (last January I proclaimed retailers resurgent), but as the reality of systemically lower wine prices sets in, more wineries realize the only way to make numbers work on a small scale is to sell more wine themselves, capturing up to 40 percent of the sticker price they otherwise have to spread through the other two tiers of the system. Direct-to-consumer isn't a catchall solution, but it's a way to support wineries you believe in - and ultimately to create pressure on the current system. Most elsewhere in the world, this is a way of life. Why not embrace a California system that encourages it?

Drink more Grenache. Also Mourvedre and Carignane. Cinsault if I can find it. Much as I've carried a torch for Syrah in recent years, it's time to pause from that quest. For one, there's just not much more to say in convincing an unswayed public. Though fine examples of American Syrah continue to proliferate, perhaps there's something more convincing in the Rhone's other native bounty. I've already hailed the fortunes of both Mourvedre (sfg.ly/iaQwbU) and Carignane (sfg.ly/bxYgia), and I've been absorbing even more of the latter - specimens from Alexander Valley to Sardinia. Like Cabernet Franc, it's a grape that begs to be on the table. As for Grenache, even if you don't buy the comparison to Pinot Noir, it's the great Pinot equalizer.

Revisit less-fashionable regions. Chianti. Sancerre. Rioja. Sometimes it's a matter of quality falling off, but more often we just forget the staid when the new and shiny (Ribeira Sacra, Liguria) come along. So it's time to rearrange my mental map again. For that matter, there are spots closer to home that have fallen off the radar. (Road trip!)

Think small. The major theme from 2010's Top 100 Wines was that most of the innovation and daring winemaking on the West Coast is coming from small labels right now. No surprise: larger wineries have a vested interest in consistency. Thinking small creates a more complicated (some might say cluttered) wine world, but it's also a big score for a diversity of flavor.

Drink more magnums. Started on New Year's Eve with an all-magnum celebration. The party ethos of a double-size bottle is crucial, but that's not all. Wine ages differently in a larger format (the physics of the larger container slow the aging process) and the proliferation of ageable, less-expensive wines in magnum is a welcome trend. Case in point: I stock away magnums of Marc Ollivier's Clos des Briords Muscadet each vintage; for around $35 I have an oversized treat I can revisit five or 10 years down the line. So break the tyranny of the 750 ml and make 2011 a party sort of year.

Jon Bonné is The Chronicle's wine editor. Find him at jbonne@sfchronicle.com or @jbonne on Twitter.

This article appeared on page J - 8 of the San Francisco Chronicle