We're spoiled here, is what we are. Wine-spoiled. Yes, even with the government's ongoing punishments for our drinking sins, with those head-spinning markups, with some still-antiquated liquor laws””even with all that taken into account, we're spoiled.

Go into any restaurant in the French countryside and look at the list. Plenty of wonderful wines, all of them French. Check a good trattoria in Tuscany. See any California Cabernet? Any Australian Shiraz? Chilean Pinot, Argentine Malbec, New Zealand Sauvignon?

And now more and more B.C. restaurants? are making more and more B.C. wines available. That's a trend we should all applaud””and support. There's Aurora Bistro, offering a thoughtful and well-priced list, which it's been doing for a year or more. (See the January 26–February 2 issue of this column.)

There are others. Today, we look at two: one as you head up to UBC and one as you sail through the Gulf Islands. (Curiously, a quick search failed to find a Whistler restaurant offering an all–B.C. list. I'm sure that'll change as 2010 approaches. Couldn't find one in the capital, either.)

Pair Bistro (3763 West 10th Avenue), whose motto is “slow food with terroire” (their term, their spelling) is a jammed and cozy little place with a creative kitchen and an often-overworked server. There's only so much of their “regional and seasonal...organic products” available at any time, so it's always a good idea to have a second choice in mind when you order dinner.

Prices are good: most starters under $10, most mains under $20. Wild Boar, wild salmon, Quadra Island scallops, Dungeness crab, Fraser Valley game hens, elk, lamb, and beef are all offered, along with locally foraged mushrooms, Pemberton spuds, and great greens. Good treats, prepared in an innovative way.

Winewise, there are 10 whites, 10 reds, three stickies, and a couple of sparklers. Familiar names and some not quite so: Lang, Lake Breeze, Golden Mile, Summerhill, Quails' Gate, Dirty Laundry, Burrowing Owl, Herder.

Drink prices are a bit on the brutal side. I know the wonderful Joie Noble Blend is all but sold out, but $53 is over the top; it sold at the winery for $20.40. In fact, the one drawback at Pair is the fact that there isn't a wine under $37 (and that's for Lang's Farm Reserve Riesling, which sells for $15.90 in Naramata) on the last list I looked at.

So although the food is imaginative and very tasty, and the ambiance is casual and fun, the wine prices pose a bit of a challenge.

Now, if you want to hie yourself over to the Gulf islands some weekend soon, plan to spend a couple of hours at Wild Fennel Food & Wine (574 Fernhill Road), the relatively new restaurant on Mayne Island. Theirs is also a small wine list””17 or so at any given time, which is almost as many seats as there are in the house””and they're all British Columbian.

Here, $26 is the starting point for a bottle, and that's better. The list provides plenty of Pentíƒ ¢ge, some Kettle Valley, Nichol Vineyards, and Wild Goose, plus the Pinot Noir from neighbouring Saturna Island Vineyards.

But where they've done it absolutely right is with their own house brand. The Wild Fennel bunch got in touch with one of the few B.C. wineries that does small-volume custom- labelling, Kelowna-based Bounty Cellars. (Their debut white blend, Equinox, a tasty and unusual mix of Míƒ ¼ller-Thurgau, Kerner, Pinot Blanc, and Pinot Gris, was a big hit in this column back in December 15–22, 2005.)

At Wild Fennel, it's the house white, now named Bad Dog Blonde. The bad dog in question is pictured on the label, and you can ask Leslie Jensen about it. Each of the three partners in the Wild Fennel project””Jensen, Peter Weis, and chef Kevin Lancaster””named one wine.

Weis, an accomplished painter and caricaturist, put an Edvard Munch The Scream spoof on his and calls it Nowhere Near the Bay Chardonnay (the restaurant is, in fact, sans view); the chef calls his Vin Rouge, the first word pronounced to rhyme with “bin” . These are all top-taste quaffing wines, and they're perfect with the menus.

And they sell. Weis says the volume is tremendous; it doesn't hurt that he's designed all the labels to be whimsical, bright, and attention-grabbing. People want to take the empties home.

At Wild Fennel, you'll sit down to some of the most creative coastal cuisine in B.C. The menu changes at the chef's whim and at least weekly. A duo of shellfish soups””one was oyster and sweet onion; the other, crab bisque with paprika oil and ebony mussels””made a dramatic appetizer not long ago. Plum-glazed Pacific salmon with house-made udon noodles and dashi broth and water chestnuts continued a strong seafood focus. The recent Crab Three Ways was nothing short of brilliant: Dungeness bisque, a “lollipop” nod to Vikram Vij's way with lamb, and a salad with asparagus and parsley vinaigrette.

There's often chipotle-chíƒ ¨vre mac 'n' cheese as a starch, and pearl onions with bacon and blueberry-oregano sauce hits the spot, too. Save room for the southern apple–sour cream pie if it's on; otherwise, the pineapple-apple-chíƒ ¨vre empanada with dulce de leche sauce might set you free. Recently there was state-of-the-art Toad in the Hole (!) for breakfast.

No entrées cost over $20; most are around $15. Starters are $6 to $8. There's music Sunday evenings, no reservations needed, and a side deck so you can sip in the sun. Cool art on the walls, too, all of it by Weis, all of it for sale.

Oh, and he'll share his tiny allocation of Joie Noble Blend with you. It's $40 a bottle here, and that's a little more like it.