2005 Salice Salentino, La Masseria, Cantine di San Marzano, Italy, Wine Rack, £5.99 or buy three for £3.99 each. A sunny, easy-glugging red from a classic Salento blend of negroamaro and malvasia nera grapes. The cherry-laden fruit makes it a juicy partner to meaty pastas and pizzas.

2003 Berberana Reserva, Carta de Oro, Rioja, Bodegas Berberana, Spain, Thresher and Wine Rack, down to £4.99 until April 29. A spicy reserva-level rioja made predominantly from tempranillo, topped up with garnacha and delivering all manner of seductive sandalwood scents.

2006 Vouvray, Domaine du Vieux Vauvert, France, Waitrose, down to £4.79 until April 27. Slim pickings at Waitrose’s French wine showcase this year. Never mind. This light, grapey, off-dry green apple and rice pudding-stashed vouvray is worth way more than a fiver.

2005 Domaine du Joncier Lirac, France, Waitrose, down to £5.99 until April 27. I would also happily pay a lot more for this southern cru des côtes du rhône from the village next door to Châteauneuf-du-Pape. It bristles with similar burly, herby, inky, faintly summer pudding-scented fruit.

2006 Petite Arvine, Vigne Champorette, Les Crêtes, Vallée d’Aoste, Italy, Les Caves de Pyrène (01483 538820), £16. Not all of you will enjoy the savage flavours of the forgotten wines of Europe such as this quirky Alpine Italian white, whose fat, apricot and lemon-spiked fruit is a joy.

2002 Arbois, Cuvée des Géologues, Lucien Aviet & Fils, France, Les Caves de Pyrène, £14. Pale Arbois reds like this are the French Alpine equivalent of the previous bottle. It oozes tasty, savoury, spicy fruit, which makes a change from the usual run of French reds.

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