Well, well, well, what do we have here? A nice little pile of articles designed to lift our spirits. It's time to stock the bar (there are two items on this), learn about global bubbly options, and plan to have some of the strong stuff on hand for your guests who say "pish tosh" to a simple glass of red.

Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher have it: Best. Job. Ever. This week, the WSJ Tastings column is all about global bubbly. They tell us "we have spent the past couple of months trying sparkling wines from all over the world," and we just shake our heads in sympathy that they must endure this unpleasant and time-consuming task.

Anyhow, the WSJ column this week is a spin on D&J's gift idea of a World-Wide Sampler. This means you go to a wine shop and choose a mixed case of nice, reasonably priced wines from an assortment of countries. So their idea this year is to do a World-Wide Sparkler Sampler. What a happy gift! It's true -- "most people still think of sparkling wine only as a beverage to celebrate big events, like weddings or national holidays. With good sparkling wines flooding the market, there's no reason to wait until the last six weeks of the year to enjoy a bottle of bubbly." Israel, South Africa and Germany are just a few of the countries they include.

Side note: Hot Plates gave relatives a mixed case of wine for the past two Christmases, and we can tell you they were received very well. However, if someone you know has been more naughty than nice, then it is OK to give them a box of wine, not a box of 12 wines. (If you must go the rectangular route, consider the brand Black Box, which our friend Cliff C. recently tasted and approved.)

OK. We'll get a couple of wine recommendations out of the way and then we'll move on to liquor. The Dallas Morning News likes this French Sauvignon Blanc -- a "crisp, floral, lemony, mouthwatering wine with the herbal charm of sauvignon blanc sporting a steely backbone."

The L.A. Times reviews this Ridge from Sonoma that the writer says is "textbook Zinfandel." Winter is a great time to drink one of these. However, it is probably something to save for people who appreciate it, so don't bust it out for anyone who thinks Zinfandel is supposed to be pink.

Dallas steps into the boozy fray with these two party recipes: super-white sangria and rosemary-whiskey cocktail. They nabbed these from the Kansas City Star, for the record.

Eric Asimov skips the grape-y stuff this week and does a bourbon column. It's an explainer-type piece, and it includes comments from the Times' tasting panel of a variety of different brands. You probably know a bourbon drinker, and if you do, it's possible he has a brand he's happy with and there is no desire to stray. However, as Asimov points out, "the producers’ efforts to improve quality, coinciding with the rebirth of the cocktail culture, have been a big success." There are some interesting stats in here.

Before we leave you to your weekend, here are two must-reads on stocking your liquor cabinet. First, the DMN offers its stock-the-bar-on-a-budget piece. It's a staff-written guide that includes links to sites you might want to bookmark if tending bar is your thing.

The better of the two winter-bar-stocking guides appears in the Washington Post. It is written in a chatty, long-form way, and it is definitely more highbrow (and a lot of fun). You'll never order a G&T in January again after reading this.

We find that the ideal party includes a mix of people: some who like what they like, and don't want to change a thing. These people are usually characters, and worth knowing. But you also have to invite the people who want to try whatever's new, or in the prettiest bottle. It's you, the host, who should think classic, like the Post writer, who admonishes us: "If you don't have a winter drink, it's time to grow up and acquire one."