Happy Saturday, Hot Plates readers. Some of us around here are in less-than-stellar condition; it’s been a long week and a long winter. But happy vibes are stirring — the kind that come with the first spring day.

We could feel it as we read what wine writers poured out this week in their columns. Two of our favorite weekly reads focused on breaking rules when it comes to wine. This made us confident that people’s spunk is returning, and maybe we’re collectively getting ready to ditch our winter blues and rediscover our inner fire. (Some of us, for the record, have never lost it. We won’t name names.)

Dottie and John write about tasting-menu wine pairings in the Tastings column in this week’s Wall Street Journal, but they are definitely not in their usual sunny mood. It is strangely refreshing to hear them being not so upbeat. They’re down on Le Bernardin — you’ll cringe for the restaurant as you read it, but you might actually feel worse for the paying customers. They’re not super-psyched about Jean Georges or the other fabulous restaurants they visit, either. Their message is smart and calm, as it always sounds coming from them, but it is firm: Rigidity in wine service can be a drag.

You know, come to think of it, they weren’t shooting sunbeams out their ears last week, either. Their bad news in last week’s column is that you have to spend more than $20 to get a decent Zinfandel. Bummer, but they drink a lot of wine (they tested more than 50 bottles for this column) so they probably know.

Eric Asimov’s way of rebelling is by writing about drinking red wine with a certain bivalve. He says in The New York Times that he knows “oysters and red wine sounds bizarre, but 20 years ago white wine with cheese sounded strange.” True enough, and all of his other points for wanting to give this shocking match a whirl are good ones. You’ll read it and cheer his indie spirit!

Delicious: sweet and spicy spaghetti with a nice glass of red wine. For Hot Plates, that is a winter meal worth having every single week. But what to pair with spaghetti and meatballs, or meat sauce, or just spicy marinara? Check out this well-done Dallas Morning News article on how to pair them, what to look for in the wines and then some specific recommendations.

In that article we learned that you don’t have to pair Italian wine with Italian food. But if you do want to drink Italian, read this week’s Washington Post wine column about the Vietti winery (and winemaker Luca Currado in particular). Currado’s father was known as an Arneis expert, if that excites anyone but us.

Two more items before we head off to a neighborhood cocktail party where we will be drinking the very delicious Bex Riesling, chilled to perfection (and oh, yes, an assortment of meats and cheeses).

We’ll finish out with Washington’s Greg Kitsock on beer and the L.A. Times on spirits. The beer article is about how the “beer-drinking public is becoming increasingly polarized” — but it’s not what we expected. Dark versus light is what we would have guessed until we read on and learned that the war (financially, anyway) is actually between the diet-beer drinkers and those who’d probably rather drink, um, something else than drink light beer. Thank you, Mr. Kitsock; we always learn from your fact-packed columns.

And just in case you have plans this weekend for a night of cocktail debauchery, you will want to read the L.A. Times piece first to get pumped up. It is about how the mixed-drinks scene in L.A. is changing, and it made our mouths water. That city is first when it comes to knowing how to party in the most creative way. At this one new spot, “ladies are clamoring for [the mixologist’s] version of a Rossini — muddled strawberries and Prosecco to which he adds a little Campari.” Some of these drinks sound like they’ll kick your butt while you stay healthy; after working hard, that’s what every up-and-coming Angeleno is looking for.