What more fitting way to celebrate B.C. Day than with a thimbleful of one of our province’s proudest wine exports, icewine—specifically Peller Estates Private Reserve Trinity Icewine 2005 ($52.99 for the 375-millilitre bottle). Based on the hybrid variety Vidal Blanc (54 percent), along with Riesling and Ehrenfelser, it’s already pleased so many palates—critical and just for sheer enjoyment—that the 711-case supply seems to have sold out, at least from the winery.

Here's one more recipe. This Elephant Island Rosemary Swizzle brings together Elephant Island’s unique crab-apple wine with a splash of gin and flavours of lime and fresh rosemary.

Ed and Nick aren’t typical Argentine names, yet that’s who signs the back labels of two same-varietal, different-designated-vineyard Malbecs from Argentina’s prime grape region, Mendoza. Read on and you learn that they are the importers of two delicious big reds: La Posta Angel Paulucci Vineyard Malbec and La Posta Pizzella Family Vineyard, both 2006 vintage, both $19.99.

This is fun, and besides, you need something with bubbles after all those barbecue reds in last week’s column: an Australian sparkling Sémillon from the Bimbadgen Ridge line. This is bright and easy bubbles in a nicely weighted wine, thanks to the substance Sémillon delivers; unobtrusive natural sweetness; and a lengthy finish. The cry for more goes up as soon as the glass is drained.

Someone must be drinking this besides me—the price of Dalton Canaan Red 2006 has gone up by a dollar since it arrived here at the beginning of the year. But even at $17.99, it continues to be good value and a good introduction to the new style of Israeli wines beginning to come our way. The blend is Cab-Merlot-Shiraz; cherries are the first sniff and taste you get, with some easy sweetness and a fresh, bright, light finish. Good prime-rib wine, but it will dress up a basic barbecue just as well.

All right, let’s blow the budget in a single bound: one more from the legendary Black Hills Estate Winery, the Carménère 2006 ($31.90 and a dime for the blue box). Everybody say “Ow!” Then sip it slowly and add one W to the exclamation. This is some wine—but what is it? A once-flourishing Bordeaux variety that’s making something of a comeback, not only in Bordeaux but in California, Italy, and Argentina—why not British Columbia?

Get your green brew without having to wait till the next St. Patrick’s Day. It’s St. Peter’s Organic English Ale, 4.5 percent alcohol ($4.89 for a half-litre bottle)—good and bright, crisp and lemon-hoppy. Plus, the bubbles aren’t the industrial kind that induce indelicate eructation; there’s just a light carbonation.

First, the kvetch. I don’t think 24 percent alcohol really constitutes a liqueur, but they’re calling it that—SOHO Lychee Flavoured Liqueur ($25.45). This is tasty, though, and better iced than off the bar shelf: there’s an intriguing aroma and definitely a litchi taste. It could be a little less sweet for my palate, but I say that about practically everything. Pernod makes it, in France, and it’s very good in a long drink with orange and lemon juice and a splash of soda.

Here’s a mouthful to be reckoned with: Hacker-Pschorr Edelhell Münchner Exportbier ($2.62 for 500 millilitres). One of Munich’s proud old names does it according to the old Bavarian purity law. Edelhell means “noble light” but that refers strictly to the colour, not the alcohol level, which is a sensible 5.5 percent. Fresh, bracing, and decidedly Bavarian-style flavours hit the palate.

Real apple cider, done the French way, and biologique, too: set up a bottle of Val de Rance Cidre Bouché and enjoy an exquisite drink. This is fresh, apple-y, naturally sweet (none of that fake, sugary quality so many of our domestic models display) good bubbles.

Put me down in the “yea” column on Tetra Paks. They’re handy, unsmashable, easy to cool and to pour, and on the boat about the best way to carry wine. Here’s a spring-through-early-autumn table wine that brings together Chardonnay and Verdelho in a litre of gulpable pleasure. Australia’s Heath Wines Lizard Flat 2005 is 89 percent Chard and 11 percent Verdelho, but from the taste you’d think it was the other way round, with plenty of biteful, almost spritzy acidity.

This one’s so good you could pour it for your Valentine: “Edition Two” of the KB Signature Series, KB Double Chocolate Ale (650 millilitres, in a handsome box, $7.88). It was developed in collaboration with Purdy’s, a local name synonymous with superb chocolate. Purdy’s extra-dark goes into the recipe’s preparation and another shot just prior to final fermentation. Fabulous flavours run rampant: there’s bittersweetness, but it’s light and elegant too, and it doesn’t hit you over the head.

Let’s taste one of those lavish elixirs (see the icewine-harvest reference above): Tinhorn Creek Kerner Icewine 2006, made from a successful German hybrid first produced in the ’60s, its two grapes being a red (trollinger) and a white (riesling). Good acidity and surprising longevity are its hallmarks. Take a sip: there’s gorgeous freshness and lovely harmony, then roasted apple/caramel and maple-syrup nuances. It’s a well-balanced wine with backbone and perfect acidity.

Glenora is the Nova Scotia distillery that produced Canada’s first malt whisky, Glen Breton. Now here comes Glen Breton Ice, a little bottle of originality proudly labelled “the world’s first single malt whisky aged in icewine barrels”. Ten years in the barrel, out it comes at cask-strength (57.2 percent alcohol). The 250-millilitre bottle costs $50, which about puts it in the collectors’ or connoisseurs’ league.

This one should really have been in the el cheapos column last week—in fact, it probably should have headlined it!—but the tasting notes disappeared round about the time the second bottle did. Stock up now: Castillo de Liria Bobal & Shiraz 2006 ($8.99) is a terrific blend of Bobal (an exclusively Spanish variety, much grown and blended there) and Shiraz. When it comes barbecue-and-picnic time, make sure you’ve got a supply of this hale and hearty, rich and robust garlic buster of a red on hand.