Bring out the wine! It's National Foundation Day! (Well, tomorrow.) Are any of Japan's official nation-builders building reputations as wine connoisseurs? If so, I've yet to hear of it, but I did notice that on a state visit to Mexico a few years ago the then-Prime Minister Toshiki Kaifu had no idea how to hold his wine glass.

Coming as it does between the New Year celebrations of January and the vernal anticipation of March, the month of February in Japan packs about as much anticipatory excitement as unsalted oatmeal. Thus I suggest that henceforth this unfortunately obscure month be designated Wine Celebration Month, and that in vinous terms the second week of the month be somehow particularly special. After all, it concludes with Valentine's Day. Instead of the usual chocolate, why not give that someone special a rich, full-flavored red wine? Think any good cabernet sauvignon, perhaps a Washington state Merlot, almost any red from northwest Italy or Tuscany, a good Spanish Rioja, malbec from Argentina, or Dingac from Croatia. Any of those will express your feelings -- and maybe encourage him to express his.

February. Hmm. What else? Ah yes, the Chinese New Year, going strong since Feb. 5 and now nearing midpoint. One significant little leap forward in wine terms is the production by a Beijing-based winery (since two years ago, actually) of some fairly well-regarded white table wines, under the tutelage of the outstanding Austrian winemaker Fred Lorimer. More on them, and him, in weeks to come.