Four good wines for a party

Rosé may seem an obvious choice for a summer gathering, but an interesting one from Provence might be especially popular. Photograph: Ekaterina Molchanova/Getty Images/iStockphoto

It’s a strange anomaly that party food can be (and generally is) exciting, while party wine is rarely so. Partly that’s a question of cost – if you’re buying wine for, say, 30-40 people, you’re not generally looking to spend over £10 a bottle – and partly of a desire not to serve anything too polarising, such as a gewürztraminer. My guess is that, for most guests, the wine is much less important than the food: all it needs to be is drinkable and appropriate to the occasion and time of year.

So we’re talking summer right now, , so it is in theory a time for rosé, which is what many people expect, and at parties there’s a lot to be said for going for a crowdpleaser. And that means, as I pointed out a couple of weeks ago, pale rosés from Provence, of which the Estandon below in today’s pick is a classy-looking example.

For whites, meanwhile, I’d tend to go for a crisp, fresh, young, fruity one, maybe avoiding chardonnay, which people think they don’t like, even if they do, and the blindingly obvious option of New Zealand sauvignon blanc. If you pride yourself on your wine knowhow, though, the trick is to pick one that tastes like a wine people enjoy and that’s maybe from somewhere a little more interesting than the usual suspects, if only to show that you’ve at least given the matter a bit of thought. In the under-£10 bracket, you’re probably looking at the likes of picpoul or a Portuguese vinho verde, both of which fit the bill, or, if the menu’s Italian-led, a food-friendly white such as Mastri Vernacoli Cavit’s Nosiolo Trentino (12%), a brilliant £7.25 bargain from the Wine Society.

Reds, on the other hand, can be a bit trickier. Many people still yearn for a hefty, oak-aged red, even at this time of year, but over the course of an entire afternoon or evening, they can start to pall, especially if, as is likely, they’re served at the outside temperature. So ditch the oak for once and serve an exuberant, juicy red instead: pinot’s a bit pricey, but there are a lot of good options from southern France, Spain (look for the bobal grape) and Portugal. The best tend to breach the £10 barrier, but for a smaller gathering, I’d be tempted to splash out on a good beaujolais – Berry Bros & Rudd, for example, has the gorgeous Alexandre Burgaud Beaujolais Villages 2018 (13%) for £11.50 from next month, which is summer in a glass.