Mardi Gras wine choices

Let us suppose that your take on Lenten abstinence is a secular one, and the height of your ambitions for the weeks ahead is to deprive yourself of this or that perceived treat with the consolation that you may, as a by-product, get closer to the correct shade of lissom for your swimsuit, or put by enough for a new golf club, or whatever. Further, let us suppose that you've decided, missing the point rather, once more, to give up wine for the duration, and that you've adjusted the notion of using up your remaining eggs and lard on Shrove Tuesday to include all the rest of the marvellous good things to eat that most of us have in our homes. So you're going to push out the boat, the envelope and what-not, and make yourself (for instance) a big, sensational, multi-kulti gumbo with chicken and ham and seafood and a pinch of just about every influence you've ever heard of. You're not going to scorn pancakes, but you're not going to force your family to sit ashen-faced in front of the usual tripe-hued sea slugs pursued from the pan with a blunt instrument - you're making a big stack of something irresistible that does not know the meaning of the word penitence, &c. &c. And don't get me started on dessert. You will enjoy all the more, because of the dry spell to come, drinking:

Red A big, soft, harmonious Rioja Reserva with an arty Miró label

White A spot-on Pouilly-Fuissé that is just a pure delight to drink, wine nonsense notwithstanding

Rosé Just go straight for the really good stuff. A terrific pink champagne for dining or otherwise

And while you're choosing, you can decide what you think about telling people how to have fun. Is it missing the point? Or do some of us need advice? Wouldn't it be great if we all spent Lent working, each in his own way. towards an admirable goal like becoming mellow as a 'cello?