Monmousseau – Touraine Cuvee J.M. Brut

Now that New Year’s Eve is safely behind us and our New Year’s resolutions have been pushed out of our overly optimistic, booze-addled minds, we can focus on the year ahead. While I do hope that you eat better and exercise more frequently this year, I also hope that drinking better wine was one of your goals for 2013. If so, let’s celebrate!

By now the liquor store shelves should be mostly restocked so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding any of my suggestions. When in doubt, the BC Liquor stores have a very comprehensive website and mobile app that will tell you the exact inventory of all the stores in the Lower Mainland, starting with those closest to your current location. Why waste time searching the aisles aimlessly? This is the future, people.

If you think sparkling wine (or what your friends loosely refer to as “champagne”) is only for that drunken moment on December 31st when you arbitrarily decide to start counting down from 10 because no one bothered to check the actual time, think again. You probably shouldn’t even bother with the good stuff at that point—I know I’ve given up on bringing anything nice to a New Year’s party only to watch it passed around at the same time as a bottle of Henkell Trocken.

Why not break out a bottle of bubbles on your next birthday? Or when you get that promotion? Better yet, when you don’t get that promotion—nothing says classy like drowning your sorrows in French hooch. Heck, there doesn’t really need to be an occasion to drink, hanging out with some good friends is occasion enough.

Monmousseau ($18.99) is a great sparkling wine for several reasons: It has a pretty label, which makes it look more expensive than it is. It’s French and can therefore be used to fool those who don’t really understand the strict designation of proper champagne. And it taste good—the ultimate goal behind all of my wine suggestions.

Why not bring sparkling wine to your next dinner party, give it as a birthday gift, or crack open a bottle before you head to the bar—it’s got the refreshing, palate-cleansing bubbles of beer, but with the added bonus of a much higher alcohol content while being a lot less filling. It’s cheaper than hard liquor, but the effervescence will give you a satisfying little buzz.