Billy’s Best Bottles

For the second year in a row, I’ve picked up Billy Munnelly’s excellent annual wine handbook, Billy’s Best Bottles. Billy is a local writer who writes about wine in the most sensible, unpretentious way. Although his handbook is geared toward Ontario residents, since we have access to the wonderful government monopoly that is the LCBO (no, I’m not being sarcastic; the combined buying power of thousands of individual stores means the LCBO can stock an incredible range of wines), the book is still recommended since many of the wines can be bought worldwide. And besides, his quirky and down-to-earth style make the book a lot of fun to read. The vast majority of his 100 recommendations are less than $15 (that’s about $9 for you Americans).