There’s some amazing wine in the Languedoc – robust spicy reds and funky whites, Paul Mas produces sexy kit worth sampling, also worth looking for Laurent Miquel’s wines, Picpoul de Pinet is a crisp zinging white that’s beautiful with bouillibaisse fish soup or a chilled summer sipper and if you’re hungry for wines when you return, have a crack at these two: Château de Caraguilhes Corbières 2007 £7.99 Waitrose for a hefty red or Château de Pennautier Chardonnay ‘Terroirs d’Altitude’ 2008 £8.99 Majestic for a funky white

~*~*~*~

2. You have the best job in the world! How on earth did you get into it?

I went to a free tasting at Oddbins in Edinburgh when I was a student, got involved with a bargain white for £3.29 with zing and ping and instantly wanted to share it with all my mates! I worked in Orange & Co Vintners for a while and later entered a reality TV show called Wine Idol which I managed to win. These days the opportunities for blogging, social media, filming and uploading your own comments to the web are fantastic. In theory everybody can broadcast from their front room!

~*~*~*~

3. I love wine and really want to drink as much good stuff as I can, but I can’t afford to spend loads. Do you have any tips for hunting down bargain bottles that are still worth drinking?

If you hunt wines that are out of fashion you can get good value such as Muscadet Sur Lie which is crisp and fresh wine from Northern France with superb freshness and magnificent with seafood or as a summer aperitif served chilled. In general Chile still offers good value, especially for reds, Sicily has some interesting local grape varieties and offers good value too – have a crack at Tesco Finest Fiano 2009 (peachy white) for £5.99 and Tesco Finest Nero D’Avola 2008 (summery red) for £6.49.

~*~*~*~

4. What are your thoughts on screwtop wines? Is the quality of the wine as good as traditional cork?

I love screwcaps – we’ve no problem with using them on high end spirits such as whisky, vodka and gin – and even olive oil – and they can be used for quality wines as well as good value wines. Cork still has its place and there’s some superbly inventive work going on with new synthetic closures, glass stoppers and all sorts. I think if the wine reaches you in the best nick possible, then that’s the right result, whichever closure works best!

~*~*~*~

5. Do real men drink rose? What’s the most masculine rose you could recommend?

Ha ha! Yes, they do, there are rosés of all shapes and sizes and real men have never had a problem in the past sipping, for example, top end rosé Champagne. Rosé is a great place for expanding your wine horizons as it’s an informal style that’s simple to get your head round but comes in very dark fruity styles right through to fizz and very pale rosé from, for example, Provence. For a butch hoofing rosé try a New World fruity one such as Casillero del Diabolo Shiraz Rosé 2009 which is widely available for around £6.99 (try Waitrose and Tesco). I wrote a column about butch rosé for the Mail on Sunday which you can find here

Olly writes a monthly drinks column in Sainsbury’s Magazine.

Read the full story here.

In April this year, Olly launched his first wine bar and eatery, ‘The Glass House’, on board the luxury cruise liner Azura with P&O Cruises.

The Glass House is a sophisticated and informal haven of good food and excellent wine.  The stonking range of 32 wines from around the world have been handpicked by Olly, each one a complete treat.  Thanks to the Enomatic preservation system each wine is available by the glass which means you can taste the world while you cruise around it and indulge in food that is expertly matched.

He has even blended the house wine with a little help from his wine-loving chums in Sicily.

What Olly says about the Glass House:

“There are 32 wines from around the world: I think we’ve covered pretty much every wine-producing nation. Everyone will be able to find a wine to suit them, from riesling-style whites to rich, bold reds. My team will all be trained experts in the individual wines to make sure every passenger has the best possible time.

I want people to have the opportunity to taste wines from some of the destinations Azura will be visiting, (which range from the Mediterranean and the Adriatic to the passionate shores of the Caribbean and the Canaries) as well as charting how international wine has become.

The house wines for Azura, red, rosé and white, I blended from Sicily, while our sparkling wine comes from just outside Venice, a lovely food-friendly prosecco. We sail right past many wine-producing countries, so you can wave to the vineyards as you cruise past!”

Come aboard and sail with him! Olly will be on board Azura for the following cruises:

A002: 10th-15th April 2010

A005: 26th-29th May 2010

A014: 21st-24th September 2010

A019: 26th-29th October 2010

Click here for more info.

Olly in The Glass House with Bar Manager Alan Clinton.

Olly entertaining the cruisers with a bespoke wine tasting.

Olly meets Mr Bump (?!)

He also appears regularly on BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen and internationally on Taste and Great Food Live.

Olly hosts a multitude of live events including MasterChef Live for the BBC, Taste of London for Channel 4 and the F-Word Live with Channel 4.

Regularly asked to appear as a commentator on television, he has appeared on BBC Breakfast, Sky News, The Wright Stuff and across the nation on channels such as BBC Radio 2 and Radio 4.

Olly writes a weekly wine column for The Mail on Sunday’s Live Magazine reaching 5.3 million readers each week.  He is also a columnist for Sainsbury’s Magazine reaching 3.9 million readers every month.

Olly’s new book ‘Eat &Drink’ is published by Headline in May 2010.  Illustrated by his own fair hand, it is a treasure trove of recipes, wine tips and tales of adventure from his travels across the high seas of flavour.

Olly launched his first wine bar and eatery ‘The Glass House’ on board the luxury cruise liner Azura with P&O Cruises in April 2010.

In 2009, for his work in food and wine Olly won the prestigious International Wine & Spirits Communicator of the Year award, an honour he described as being like “surfing all the way to the shores of Happyland”.   He has also been awarded Drinks Business Young Achiever of the Year Award 2009 – Rock on!

Before romping into the world of fine food and wine, Olly previously wrote for TV and film, including shows such as Pingu and Charlie & Lola, and even spent a joyful day gag-writing for Wallace & Gromit’s Curse of the Were-Rabbit.

However, Olly’s favourite writing assignment was The Fly Who Loved Me which united him with his hero and chum Sir Roger Moore. Check out His Rogesty’s work for UNICEF – Roger rules!

Watch Olly’s TV and Live Events showreels here.

He also is wine expert for BBC1’s Saturday Kitchen, appearing all over Britain to find the best wines to match with the foods cooked on the show.

He appeared on BBC1’s Celebrity Weakest Link during which he canoodled with Anne Robinson (an “honour”, he claims), and he has previously hosted the Richard & Judy Wine Club for Channel 4.

Olly also appears on UKTV Food’s Market Kitchen and is the presenter of ‘Uncorking the South’, a 13 part series about Chilean wine directed by South America’s ‘Maestro of the Eyeballs’, Silvio Caiozzi.

Olly was a guest presenter of Food Uncut (UKTV Food) and appears regularly on Taste (Sky One), Great Food Live (UKTV Food).

He has featured as a commentator on This Morning, BBC Breakfast, Sky News, Channel 5 News and The Wright Stuff.

Olly is also a voice-over artist and has recorded voices for Chic Eats and Deadliest Catch promo for Discovery Channel, as well as work for MTV.  He also provided voices for ITV’s BAFTA award-winning show The Amazing Adrenalini Brothers.

For more TV action check out the videos on The Glass House page.

The real story here is that for the next four years, the Spanish are going to be celebrating in a style that makes me want to emigrate – because their wines have never tasted better.

Spain is a marvellous hotbed of contradictions wine-wise, producing everything from sherry in the far south to Rioja in the north. But you probably don’t realise just how big a player Spain is in the world of wine. With 1.2 million hectares of vines – around 15 per cent of the world’s total – it boasts the largest area of cultivation on the planet.

It’s hardly surprising there’s a Spanish wine style for all seasons. And thanks to its quirky blends, emerging regions and a run of successful recent vintages, there’s never been a better time to tuck into some tapas and raise a glass of something to make your spirit shout ‘Ole!’

Let’s start with cava – usually thought of as a bargain bubbly. Cava is made via the same traditional method as Champagne, with each bottle going through secondary fermentation, resulting in finesse and quality pinhead bubbles. With fizz, the smaller and more delicate the bubbles the better. Cava can deliver this, and in my view you’re missing a trick to think of it as a straight swap for Champagne.

Cava tastes unique thanks to the use of local grape varieties, Macabeo, Parellada and Xarel-lo. The crisp appley-lemony flavour and softer, more scented rosados (rose) make for a world of exploration.

If you’re after young, fresh wines, Albarino from Galicia is one of my favourite summer tipples, a white that works a treat with shellfish – Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference Albarino 2009 is £6.99 and one to pour for fans of bone-dry vino such as Chablis. Wines from Rueda will also quench your thirst for dry whites; Marques de la Concordia Vega de la Reina Verdejo 2008 is £7.99 at Majestic.

Spain is rightly famous for its reds. Jose Pizarro, the godfather of Spanish cuisine in Britain, is passionate about the connection between Spanish food and red wine. ‘I love Marques de Valdueza in Extremadura, near where I grew up. Its signature red goes beautifully with rich meats and cheeses – the heart of every Spanish meal – and with lamb it’s simply sensational.’

Naturally, there are accolades aplenty for red Riojas, which range from fruity styles (look for ‘Joven’ on the label) through Crianza (aged for at least one year in the barrel and one in the bottle) and rich Reserva (one year in the barrel and two in the bottle) to more savoury Gran Reserva (two years in the barrel and three in the bottle). There are also zingy or creamy, rich white Riojas and rose Riojas. If you’re a fan, you should check out the wines of Ribera del Duero, which are based on the same Tempranillo grape and can attain serious richness and savoury complexity in the hands of iconic producers such as Vega Sicilia, Dominio de Pingus and Bodegas Alion.

And the fun doesn’t stop there. Priorat is a region producing outstanding red blends that can attain a silky mineral richness thanks to the llicorella soil, which forces the vines to stretch out deep in search of water. Think of them as like athletes – the more they stretch and train, the more charged their performance.

For a lighter, more summery red, check out wines made from the tangy and lighter-bodied Mencia grape, from places such as Bierzo. The 2008 Mencia from Bodegas Docampo is £11.95 at leaandsandeman.co.uk and a must for any fans of Beaujolais and Pinot Noir.

In many respects, though, the glory of Spain is in its simple combinations of food and local wine. A glass of well-chilled fino or manzanilla with jamon, green olives and Manchego cheese remains one of my favourite ways to spend a warm evening. But perhaps the most glorious Spanish combination of all is the most irreverent – pouring thick, treacly Pedro Ximenez sherry over vanilla ice cream for pudding. Trust me, it’s almost as delectable as winning the World Cup.

Olly Recommends:

Mas de Subirà 2006 Priorat

£12.99, majestic.co.uk

I love the bright cherry flavour that this wine pumps out. It also has a deeper dimension (think a subtle tang of liquorice), but its world-class style shows after you’ve sipped it, when the flavours just last and last on your palate. A real gem from modern Spain.

Dominio de Pingus Psi 2008

£22.99, corneyandbarrow.com

Peter Sisseck, the great Dane who makes this, is a massively talented producer who’s responsible for some of Spain’s most iconic wines. This red is 100 per cent Tempranillo and manages to be savoury yet refreshing at the same time. Featuring a firm body and fleshy fruit, it’s seriously classy. Match it with lamb for a treat.

Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference 12-Year-Old Pedro Ximénez NV

£6, sainsburys.co.uk

This is possibly the most amazing bargain on the shelves at Sainsbury’s. OK, so it’s not a full-size bottle, but you’re still getting 12 years of rich, aged sweet sticky wine for a snip. If you like dates and figs, buy this. And even if you don’t it’s an amazing tipple.

Torres Viña Esmeralda 2009

£7.49, waitrose.com

A wine that seems to taste more of summer with every vintage. It’s a floral, bright white that works fantastically as a chilled aperitif or with light bites such as prawns on the barbecue. Delicious and crisp, with plenty of fun aromatic twinges to keep you smiling.

This week’s top tipple:

Birgit Eichinger Roter Veltliner 2009

£14.99, armit.co.uk

A crisp white wine from Austria that you’ll absolutely adore. I fell in love with its tangerine and pink grapefruit turbo-zing, along with more lemony and floral fun. Take a sip and its refreshment powers your taste buds like a dynamo. Uplifting wine with a magical touch to surf your soul to the shores of Good Mood City.

So how do you maximise value but still enjoy the champagne lifestyle? Well, you could always drink less of it, but life without bubbles can be like life without sunshine: it’s OK for a bit, but we all thrive on an invigorating dose now and again. So rather than curtail your love of bubbles, you’re better off having your cake and eating it… by being in the know.

If it’s champagne you must have, then be aware of the different levels and cost implications. The ‘prestige cuvées’ are some of the priciest, with famous names like Cristal, Dom Pérignon, Comtes de Champagne and Grand Siècle sometimes setting you back upwards of £100.

These are generally only made in exceptional years and from the very first pressings of the very best grapes from Champagne’s most tip-top sites. Bollinger offers some good value with Grande Année 2000, which you can pick up for £60 in Majestic and is well worth pouncing on if you ever see it for less.

Next up is vintage champagne, which is made from a single grape harvest and can cost over £30 for name brands. But if you buy supermarket own-label the prices are more like £20, and the quality is often superb, as in the case of Asda Extra Special Vintage Champagne 2002, just £19.07.

Then, of course, you’ve got non-vintage champagne, which is blended from grapes from different years and offers a certain amount of value, especially if you buy from smaller producers and co-operatives. But if you’re aiming for well under a tenner, you’ll have to accept that champagne may have to come off your shopping list.

Thankfully you can enjoy a similar drink made in the same method simply by looking elsewhere in France. Look for ‘Crémant’ on the label: generally under a tenner, it’s similar to champagne, though arguably with less finesse.

The Loire produces some good examples, and you can find some Burgundian ones too – Marks & Spencer Crémant de Bourgogne NV is £9.99. Even Alsace is at it (Tesco stocks Finest Crémant d’Alsace, a zesty sparkling Riesling for £8.54). But for me Limoux is the place in France to hunt for a brilliant bubbly – Crémant de Limoux Cuvée St Laurent 2008 is £9.50 a bottle at thewinesociety.com, while Cuvée Royale Brut NV Crémant de Limoux is £8.54 in Waitrose.

France aside, Spain offers a lot of fizz for your buck – cava is made using the same traditional method as champagne but with local Spanish grapes. There are reliable brands such as Codorníu and Freixenet, but you can also find outstanding value among the supermarket own labels. Marks & Spencer and Asda have good examples, but Tesco’s Brut Cava for just over £4 is bargain central.

There’s also some serious value to be obtained from outside Europe. New Zealand has some excellent examples of bottle-fermented sparkling wine (Cloudy Bay Pelorus is a name to look for), though the price tags are generally above the £10 hurdle.

Australia has plenty to offer, too – quality fizz from Tasmania that costs a bit more (but can be smashing) and endless examples of big-brand bubbly for under a tenner.

With ‘traditional method’ bottle-fermented bubbly, each bottle is individually dealt with to ensure the quality is superb – fine tiny bubbles and plenty of them. But there are also methods that are cheaper, if less fine, such as the ‘tank method’, whereby the secondary fermentation occurs in a giant tank rather than individual bottles. The bubbles tend to be harsher and may conk out quicker, but if it’s a quick hit of bubbly you’re after, this could be one to try.

For me, though, it’s finding proper fizz for under a tenner that makes the heart leap. The champagne house Mumm produces Cuvée Napa in California, and you can find several good examples coming out of South Africa too. Hop in the bubbly wagon and don’t spare the horses!

Olly recommends:

Asda Extra Special Prosecco

£7.28, asda.co.uk

Italian Prosecco such as this does what it does on the tin, delivering simple, quaffable refreshment. It’s good value with gentle, bright flavours and matches brilliantly with some torn pieces of buffalo mozzarella – an awesome aperitif/nibble combo.

Villiera Brut Natural 2007

£8.99, marksandspencer.com

South Africa may have forgotten about football for a while, but its wine goes on producing goals. This fizz is made from Chardonnay and has a bright, uplifting tang, good layers of complexity and a superb pedigree. One to stock up on.

Tesco Cava Brut

£4.00, tesco.com

Not the world’s most complex wine, but if you want a refreshing, simple glass of bubbly, you’re unlikely to find anything drinkable for less cash. Crisp and dry fizz made from local Spanish grape varieties, it’s a good glugger for summer or to mix cocktails with.

Moscato d’Asti Gemma 2009

£7.49, oddbins.com

Sweet, frothy fizz that’s a beautiful accompaniment to puddings such as a bowl of soft, fresh summery fruit. Serve this Italian bubbly chilled in the garden or as a fizzy dessert in its own right. It’s also a winner with fruitcake.

This week’s top tipple:

Contesa Pecorino 2009

£8.99, marksandspencer.com

A bone-dry belter from Italy – and despite the name there’s nothing remotely cheesy about this wine. It offers good texture as well as solid refreshment. Think freshness, think ping – in fact, don’t think at all; just buy and enjoy it!

Chilled whites can be lip-smacking and thirst-quenching, rosé could be the ticket with its instant summery appeal, but you might be tempted to dismiss reds as being too heavy, too rich and altogether too much.

Think again. There’s a whole breed of red wines with a lighter body and a fruity angle that are perfectly suited to being lightly chilled in an ice bucket or the fridge (if it’s hot, your wine will warm up in the glass, so it’s wise to keep an ice bucket close to hand). If you can’t quite get your head around it, just think of them as butch rosé, or imagine a lamb chop gently sizzling on the barbecue just waiting for a glass of refreshing red – a meatylicious match.

But before you start grabbing all the red wines you can, gleefully hurling them into barrels of ice, let’s deal with the basics. Not all reds are suitable for chilling. Reds that are aged, savoury or very rich in body are generally not suitable. Tawny port is a notable exception, but we’ll come to that.

What you’re ideally after are young reds that have a fruity character without being too chunky.

France is awash with such styles of wine. Consider Gamay, a light and fruity grape from Burgundy – it produces wines that can be brilliant served chilled. Gamay is the grape variety behind Beaujolais, a style of wine we used to adore – remember the rush for Beaujolais Nouveau? Summer is the perfect time to reacquaint yourself with this lighter style of red and give it a whirl after chilling it in the fridge, much as you would with a white wine.

At the finer end of Beaujolais, with the so-called ‘cru’ wines such as Fleurie and Morgon, you can find more structure, depth and tannin; but you can still experiment with some light chilling. If you see Beaujolais-Villages on the label, it’s a step up from basic Beaujolais, but not as prestigious as the ‘cru’ level – generally featuring good fruit and one to consider chilling.

Another of my favourite areas of France for chillable reds is the Loire. Cabernet Franc is the grape variety to nab, and these wines can have a degree of richness and structure, but just on the right side to make them suitable for chilling – magnificent with meaty fare. Look for examples from places such as Saumur-Champigny and Chinon. They tend to have quite dark fruit with a satisfying tang to it, and with a cold roast-beef sandwich outdoors can make you wonder whether all red wine could work chilled. It doesn’t, of course, but you’re not limited in your experimentations.

A bottle of Pinot Noir from Chile can be delish after a dunk in an ice bath, and you can even try cooling down fruity Grenache-based wines. And the fun doesn’t stop there. Ever tried sparkling Shiraz from Australia?

Fizzy red wine may sound utterly bizarre, but think of it as more like a cold bramble sorbet and you’ll get on a lot better with it. The Aussies often serve it with turkey and trimmings at Christmas when the weather Down Under is piping hot, and it works a treat.

I’ve been served very young Rioja cool (look for ‘Joven’ on the label), and even Blaufrankisch. But the far north and south of Italy come up trumps for me, with Dolcetto in the north and Nero d’Avola in the south. Look for good-value Nero d’Avola, such as Tesco Finest for £6.79. With fine structure and summery, fruity appeal, it works brilliantly after a spell in the fridge.

Finally, we come to the rule-breaker – tawny port. It’s an aged style of port with a nutty colour and an awesome dried-fruit flavour (think raisins and sultanas, even nuts), and it works a treat served well-chilled as an aperitif with a bowl of salted almonds.

Check out Warre’s Otima, widely available for around a tenner. If you can find it, Colheita is a tawny port from a single vintage and makes a smashing treat to kick off a day of sipping in the sunshine.

Glorious!

Olly recommends:

Terre dell’Isola Nero d’Avola 2008

£5.99, majestic.co.uk

A brilliant fruity and simple light red from the island of good value, aka Sicily. Soft, fruity, easy and ready to chill – and you can even match it with meaty fish. It’s just £4.79 when you buy any two Italian wines.

Gianni Voerzio Dolcetto 2007

£14.25, laywheeler.com

A fine wine with gorgeous damson-style fruit and some floral twinges. It’s soft with a sensational  lively tang, and one you could consider lightly chilling or serving in the traditional way. Either way, it’s a total belter for summer sipping.

Saumur Champigny Lieu-dit Les Villaises 2008

£9.49, corneyandbarrow.com

Comes from a vineyard on the site of an ancient, third-century Roman villa. Savoury niffs and tangy black fruit abound, with medium-bodied oomph. There’s enough structure here for a love-in with lamb chops after a stint in the chiller.

Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference Beaujolais-Villages 2008

£5.99, sainsburys.co.uk

Fun, simple, light and fruity, this wine is 100 per cent Gamay, made using a technique called maceration, which ensures a soft and fruity character. No oak on this bad boy – just sleek and light fruity flavour, ready for chilling.

This week’s top tipple:

Fox Hollow Hunter Valley Verdelho 2008

£9.99, marksandspencer.com

Shows off Australia’s ability to create fun, inventive and fresh styles of wine. Pungent and lemony with plenty of gluggable fleshy fruit, this jazzy unoaked number is laced with zing and works as an aperitif or partnered with aromatic fish dishes. Prawns on the Barbie, anyone?

I find strawberries highly addictive and adore them in jams, tarts and ice cream – but if I’m truly honest I love nothing more than a fresh strawberry in its naked state. When they’re perfectly ripe, there’s no better emblem of summer. But given the extent to which we worship their godlike flavour, what on earth should we be drinking with them?

Now, you may immediately think of Pimm’s, and that’s a good shout. Strawberries in the mix with Pimm’s is fab, and I’m a well-known worshipper of Mr Pimm. But get this: have you ever tried adding chopped strawberries to a jug of chilled white wine?

It’s a trick that the camera crew used to use when I was away filming Cheers From Chile in South America. If they had a white wine that was crisp, dry and neutral, they’d chop some fresh strawberries and bung them in the jug – even adding ice on a hot day.

Now, I’m not saying that every wine is suitable for this, but if you think about it, it’s not a million miles from adding a fruit purée to your glass of Prosecco or boosting your fizz with blackcurrant cordial to make a Kir royale. Strawberries tossed into a jug of simple chilled white wine, or even a slice of strawberry in a glass of good-value fizz such as Prosecco, can bring a sense of occasion and summery fun to your day.

But wait for it. There are those who consider that serving a bowl of strawberries steeped in red wine such as a hearty Shiraz and then grinding fresh pepper over the top is flavour nirvana. It’s not the most obvious combo, so try it on a small scale to see if you like it (it tends to evoke a fairly clear-cut Marmite-type love-it-or-hate-it response). Half a strawberry sprinkled in pepper in a dessertspoon of red should give you the heads-up.

At the super-posh end of the scale, I’ve seen fans of strawberries and top red wine splash out on a pricey bottle of Margaux just to slosh over their fruit. For me, that’s taking things a touch too far. Don’t get me wrong, I love them both – but for fruit-sloshing, I’m opening the everyday red vino! And if I’m ever lucky enough to taste top-level Margaux, I love getting to know the hidden layers of the wine without altering its flavours.

For me, a major factor in matching wine with strawberries is what you’re serving the little red morsels of glory with. Often with food, matching the dominant flavour of the dish can lead to a surprising wine choice. For example, when you serve strawberries with cream, there’s a richer, thicker texture to consider, and a mellowing flavour to think about when selecting a wine.

For this kind of classic combo, a richly layered pudding wine is perfect. Late-harvest Jurancon is an option, or sweet wines from the Loire such as sweet Vouvray or Bonnezeaux, both made from the Chenin Blanc grape.

I guess the most famous sweet wine is Sauternes from Bordeaux, made from Semillon, Sauvignon and Muscadelle grapes infected with ‘noble rot’. It sounds foul, but it concentrates sweetness and acidity in the grapes – if you’re a fan of Opal Fruits or sweet-and-sour sauce, you’ll probably dig Sauternes.

And with strawberries and cream, it’s a wonder. However, it costs a fair old stash of cash, so it’s not a bad idea to look for supermarket own-label versions or cunning alternatives such as Botrytis Semillon from Australia or Monbazillac, which comes from near Sauternes and is similarly sweet while tending to command lower prices.

But for superb value, crack open a bottle of sweet bubbly Moscato – Asti Spumante is the sort of stuff. Chill it out, pop the cork and revel in its sweet frothy fun – it’s like liquid sherbet and superb with sweet strawberries. Now then, where’s my hammock?

Olly recommends:

De Bortoli Noble One Botrytis Semillon2007

£17.99, majestic.co.uk

An amazing-value alternative to top-quality Sauternes, this achieves a perfect balance between sensational zest and lusciousness. Drink it now and enjoy its funky complexity or lay down for a few years and let its more savoury secrets unfurl. A smashing find.

Château Laville Sauternes 2003

£13.99, marksandspencer.com

Unusually, a Sauternes that’s a bit of a bargain. This has plenty of flavour and a honey-like character that brings out the natural sweetness in strawberries, with a rich texture that works especially well if you’re serving them with a dollop of cream.

Tesco Finest Botrytis Semillon 2005

£5.99, tesco.com

This one hails from the famous Riverina region in Australia and is made from Semillon, Riesling and other grapes that give it a sweetness-and-zing balance that works a treat with strawberries. A rich, luscious and terrific-value sticky wine.

Sainsbury’s Asti

£4.79, sainsburys.co.uk

Frothy, grapey sweet fun from the Monferrato hills in Asti, Piedmont, Italy. Serve it well chilled in champagne flutes to lift your plate of strawberries to a higher plane. Sipping this along with your berries is the wine equivalent of dusting them with icing sugar.

This week’s top tipple:

De Martino ‘347 Vineyards’ 2008 Carmenère Reserva

£7.49, majestic.co.uk

Smell this Chilean red and you’re off on an invigorating spicy white-pepper-type trip. Sip it and you’ll discover it’s spicy without being overly heavy, fabulous for glugging at a barbecue or as an accompaniment for any other meaty fare. It’s yours for £7.49 or £5.99 when you buy any two Chilean wines.

In part, I think we got too familiar with it, but I also think quality could have been less patchy. Thankfully, there’s been significant investment in Muscadet so that today’s bottle o­ffers some decent value to those in the know. And the really splendid part is that it often tastes far better than you remember it.

So what exactly is Muscadet? It comes from north-west France, in the Loire region. It’s made from the Melon de Bourgogne grape (which is sometimes known simply as Muscadet) and pairs exceptionally well with shellfish. Moules marinière and Muscadet is as sublime a match as Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean in the midst of Boléro.

Why? Muscadet has a briny, ever so slightly salty tang to it – which I absolutely adore, as no matter how chilled I serve it, it always makes me thirsty for another sip. My kind of wine.

And if talk of a salty edge to your glass of vino is putting you o­ff, think again – it’s like the freshness of an invigorating ocean breeze cooling your very essence on a hot day.

It’s not just a winner with mussels either. With oysters it’s a bargain alternative to champagne, and it also works with a surprising number of fish dishes, such as sardines, as well as beurre-blanc and brown-butter sauces.

However, for me, Muscadet is what an aperitif is all about. If you’re the kind of person who loves a dry Martini, or who has sipped fino sherry and felt the hand of destiny beckon them for another glass, then this wine should be at the top of your shopping list.

Muscadet comes from some of Brittany’s only vineyards, with some of the better-quality examples hailing from the Sèvre et Maine area – this should be clearly labelled on the bottle. Look out for ’sur lie’ on the label, too, as that’s a good thing for adding a layer of complexity to your vino – the wine stays in tanks over the winter on its lees (dead yeast cells), which fleshes out the body and gives it a satisfying tang.

That’s what you should be after – especially if you’re matching it with food. The danger with bog-standard Muscadet is that it’s a touch, well, dull. In the wrong hands, the Melon de Bourgogne grape can become as boring as licking cling film. But when it’s given the right treatment, it produces a wine that’s so fresh it makes the Atlantic Ocean look like a muddy puddle.

I could swill the stuff­ all day long – and happily it remains one of the best bargains on the shelves. But if you’ve never had it, how do you know if you’ll like it?

Well, if you’re somebody who enjoys the flavour of dry wines such as Sauvignon Blanc and salty snacks such as green olives, and loves the smell of the seaside, then this is the perfect wine for you.

However, if your penchant is for sweet rosé and you’re someone who can’t snack on a fresh strawberry unless it’s laced in sugar, Muscadet may send you running for the hills.

The good news for fans of the wine is that it’s not the only hidden gem tucked away on the supermarket shelves. The northern French are rightly proud of their fresh, tingly Muscadet, but the southern French have a delightful riposte: Picpoul de Pinet. It’s what they match with their bouillabaisse fish stews, and sip as an aperitif under the cypress trees before thrashing the next village at boules, then going on strike for a week because the weather’s nice.

You can find it in Waitrose, but if you’re passing by Majestic, pop in and snag a bottle or two of Picpoul de Pinet Prestige 2009 Domaine Guillaume Cabrol, usually £7.99 but down to £6.99 when you buy two bottles – which almost makes it as good value as marvellous Muscadet.

Olly recommends:

Taste the Difference Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie 2008

£6.99, sainsburys.co.uk

This one’s packed full of ping, with a lip-smacking bone-dry zest to it. Just smelling it reminds me of the freshness of the sea – lemony, light, tangy and lovely. It’s a good wine at the great price.

Chateau Salmonière Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie 2008

£6.07, asda.co.uk

One of the saltiest Muscadets I tasted in this line-up, and it works a treat. Searingly dry with a salty tang to the finish, this is wonderful with a plate of oysters. Just close your eyes and you could almost believe you’re at the beach.

Tesco Muscadet de Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie 2009

£6.09, tesco.com

A softer and more fruity style of Muscadet. Let salty and full on than some of the others here, but with more of a gentle sense of breezy freshness abd simple quaffing. Good fruit, good fun.

Fief Guérin Muscadet Côtes de Grandlieu Sur Lie 2009

£6.49, waitrose.com

Tongue-tingling with a balance of salty freshness and uplifting verve. Superbly crafted to deliver ultimate refreshment and long-lasting flavour, this is good value at £6.49, and until August 3^rd it’s a snip at just £5.19. Buy the lot.

This week’s top tipple:

Saint Joseph Les Chaponnes 2008

£10.99, sainsburys.co.uk

One hundred per cent Syrah and a beautiful wine. Take a sniff and your nose is wreathed in a swirl of smoky complexity with a tickle of rosemary-like depth. To sip, it’s simply divine, tightly packed with vibrant spicy glory. If you love tapenade, black olives and the smell of a bonfire, strap on your jet-propelled roller skates and fire yourself into the wine aisle to buy a bucket of this stuff.

I guess partly this is in reaction to the lack of top-notch mixers on the market. Happily, spirits such as gin are being set free by a wider range of serious quality mixers. I’m happy to recommend the work of Fever-Tree. But there’s far more to gin than the ubiquitous G&T.

Let’s begin with the basics. For starters, no two gins are alike. Broadly, you can divide them up into London gin, which is very dry, Plymouth Gin, which tends to be a touch more fruity, and what I term ‘novelty gins’, which have a quirky headline ingredient.

Juniper is always the dominant flavour, but the other botanicals can vary hugely: think star anise, orris root, angelica, citrus peel, cardamom and so on.

Then there are those gins that have made a virtue of particular ingredients, such as Hendrick’s, with its cucumber, or Geranium Gin, which speaks for itself.

For me, Whitley Neill takes the prize in this category, with its uniquely African slant – its botanicals including baobab fruit and Cape gooseberries. Grab it in Waitrose and try an Apple Tease – take 40ml Whitley Neill, 70ml apple juice, 15ml lime juice and three sliced chillies, muddle, shake over ice and strain into a Martini glass with an apple fan garnish.

You could also keep your eyes open for the forthcoming Gin Mare (about £35), distilled from olives, thyme, rosemary and basil. It’s a Mediterranean twist on gin from Barcelona, and with its salty herbage is worth trying in a Dirty Dry Martini (with a splash of salty olive brine, two olives and a dash of Martini).

There are gins for different occasions. If you want a jot more sweetness, Plymouth Gin is a good one to hunt for (£17.99 in most supermarkets). London gin is where most of the classy dry gins are at.

For an all-rounder at a fair price, it’s tough to beat Beefeater London Dry Gin, which is widely available for around £15. Alternatively, you could pick up the limited Summer Edition, with elderflower, blackcurrant and hibiscus flower, for £17.99 at Selfridges, Harvey Nichols or Harrods.

As far as the other big names go, Tanqueray No Ten is a reliable benchmark, with punchy herbs and a real depth of citrus flavour that works well in short and long drinks. For interest, Berry Bros & Rudd No 3 London Dry Gin adds a touch of wow to your tipple. It was designed especially for the Dry Martini, with its aromatic freshness (think zing and cardamom).

If it’s sheer class you’re after, though, there’s a new kid on the block shaking up the gin scene. If you haven’t already heard of Sipsmith, you soon will. Its gin is awesome and sold at Majestic nationwide and in Waitrose within London.

The secret of the Sipsmith model is in its dryness. Classic and invigorating to taste, it’s close to perfection, and I take my hat off‑ to the team behind it.

Bring on the summer of gin!

Olly recommends:

Berry Bros & Rudd No 3 London Dry Gin

£32.95, bbr.com

An outstanding gin with grab-you-by-the-hair character. It’s bright and herby with real personality, and gorgeous in a G&T with a slice of cucumber.

Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Blackfriars London Gin

£15.99, sainsburys.co.uk

Recommended thanks to its strong value, this also recently won a gold medal at the International Wine and Spirit Competition. For me, a better bet in long drinks than straight, but it has a superb dryness characteristic of London dry gin.

Sipsmith London Dry Gin

£24, majestic.co.uk

This is new on the scene and showing up in all good bars – top-drawer gin handmade in batches in Prudence, the first copper-pot still in London since 1820. London dry gin should be bone dry, and this is beautifully crisp with sensational texture and pure water sourced from Lydwell Spring, the source of the Thames. My choice for a Martini.

Tanqueray No Ten

£29.99, sainsburys.co.uk

A winner due to its zesty versatility – as at home in a Martini as in a long drink, and a certain fixture behind the bar or the counter of the local offie.

This week’s top tipple:

Secano Estate Sauvignon Gris 2009

£7.49, marksandspencer.com

You’ve heard of Sauvignon Blanc, of course, but have you got your chops round a glass of Sauvignon Gris yet? This one from Chile is richly zingy with plenty of ripe tropical refreshment – full-on fruit with intense ping and some serious verve. Match it with a seafood barbecue and you’re in heaven.