YOU know you're getting in deep when regular bottles, carefully chosen and delectable though they may be, no longer seem enough. A craving for wine knowledge - the identifying smells and tastes of various grapes, the names of the top makers, the source of the best bargains - announces itself around now, when the spring term of wine classes captures new recruits. Whether you're one of them or not, there is another step that can be taken to slake the thirst for information - this time from the comfort of an armchair, glass of wine in hand. Buy a magazine.
I can think of half a dozen reasons why wine magazines like Decanter, Wine and Wine Spectator are worthwhile - and that's not counting the pleasure of fantasising, in dreary January, about visiting the sunny vineyards in the photographs. Articles often encapsulate a region or grape in a few painless pages, encouraging adventurous sampling. Interviews with producers are a lure into a curiously compelling world, driven by energy and passion.
Regular special supplements are as good as many a book on a particular topic, and bang up to date. There are mouthwatering restaurant recommendations, suggestions about matching wine with food and - probably most important of all - tips about which wines to buy. An enthusiastic drinker should expect to recoup a magazine subscription at least twice over in the course of a year, I reckon, by being directed towards quality wines at tempting prices.
I've always had a soft spot for Decanter, the longest established British wine magazine - internationally respected for its expert tastings and distinguished contributors such as Michael Broadbent, Hugh Johnson and David Peppercorn. Niggling reservations - about too heavy a bias in favour of classic wines, and too stuffy an approach - have had to be abandoned in the past year or so. Publisher Sarah Kemp has given Decanter a vigorous makeover, extending the coverage of New World and inexpensive wines, increasing the food element (Fat Lady Clarissa Dickson Wright is now a regular) and generally brightening things up without diluting the authoritative air. Settling into each issue is rather like opening a really good bottle of wine from a region you've always liked. There are intriguing new aspects to unravel, but you know your way around in a pleasurable, comforting way.
Where Decanter is inclined to be patrician, Wine is emphatically plebeian, with a strong focus on everyday drinking. Its most clever publicity coup is the International Wine Challenge - the mammoth annual blind tasting of thousands of wines from tens of countries, which spawns an ultra fat October issue listing all the medal winners. Clive Coates is Wine's best known columnist. Although there are plenty of features by other contributors, the results of each month's tastings - listed in order of their score out of 100 - remain a strong focal point. (These can be infuriating, by the way, e.g. "Robert D. thought this Cabernet was well balanced with a rich, warm, full bodied palate. Bruce declared the opposite was true. `It's hard, metallic and unenjoyable,' he grumbled." Is the poor, befuddled reader to buy or not to buy?) Still, everybody loves scores and ratings - especially if there is a chance they may reveal unsuspected bargains.
One of the best presents I was given at Christmas was a subscription to the American magazine, Wine Spectator - something I used to buy only occasionally in a fit of self indulgence. A terrific issue on Burgundy last February demonstrated how comprehensive this magazine's approach to a region can be, interweaving wine lore with food and travel to create a mini guide that makes you feel like packing a suitcase right away. Besides which, it's big and stylish and upbeat. The natural bias towards North American wines, many of which never seem to cross the Atlantic, is offset by the thrill of spotting occasional gems that are available here.
Even with the British magazines, availability in Ireland of recommended wines can be a problem - but a diminishing one, as our eagle eyed importers swoop to pick up hot tips as eagerly as the rest of us. Not, by the way, that anybody should treat any ratings as gospel. There's no such thing as infallibility in wine, thank goodness - just a rough set of guidelines strongly infused with personal taste. Happy reading and good hunting.