If you're someone who flies Virgin Atlantic, borrows Virgin Money and signs up to Virgin Active because you're a fan of Richard Branson's brands, then Virgin Wines might surprise you. Not because there's anything wrong with the brand. But, while started by Branson, it was subsumed in 2005 under the Direct Wines umbrella.

Many grapes have a day dedicated to them, but the Germans are – somewhat greedily – claiming the whole of July for their riesling grape. During the '31 Days of German Riesling' restaurants and independent retailers will be holding numerous tastings and events (see 31daysofgermanriesling.co.uk).

If you call your own wine an icon, then it's probably not one. An icon is a wine that's earned its stripes with a proven track record of quality and longevity, recognition factor and investment value. Bordeaux's Château Lafite and d'Yquem, Burgundy's Domaine de la Romanée Conti, and Champagne's Krug are all bona fide icons.

Our expert Anthony Rose reveals the bottles to suit any budget or summer event.

Bordeaux hasn't got where it is today through stupidity. The biggest fine-wine region on Earth is run by shrewd businessmen with a unique mechanism for selling their wines. In essence, the châteaux entrust their sales to specialist merchants who trade them on the Bordeaux place. Which makes it even more mystifying as to why they should have so badly misjudged this year's disastrous campaign to sell the 2012 vintage. Prices were down on the absurdly overinflated 2011s, yet the gesture was too feeble to stop sales from plummeting.

Every so often, a supermarket takes pity on us and gives a generous wine discount. They play their cards close to their chest and details emerge only shortly beforehand with veiled threats to excommunicate any press who don't play ball. Some offers are more anticipated than others and Waitrose's 25 per cent off any six bottles or more (until this coming Tuesday) really is one not to be spurned. If you don't have a store near you, the discount also applies to any 12 bottles bought at waitrosewine.com.

I should have learnt by now that in any attempt to pacify the rain gods, the words to be avoided are barbecue, rosé and picnic. Despite sunshine at the time of writing, it's generally business as usual, ie grey skies, by the time of publication. At least when the sun comes out you can have a few bottles ready to suit the rare occasion.

Which wine country has the greatest capacity to confuse, irritate, reward, inspire and delight? Got it in one: Italy. It's not surprising for a country of 20 wine regions stretching from the Alps to the Mediterranean. Adding to the confusion, Wine Grapes (Allen Lane, £120) a scholarly new work co-authored by Jancis Robinson MW, tells us that Italy leads the world in the number of commercially produced native-grape varieties: 377 compared to France's 204 and Spain's 84.

I had high hopes for the Vin de France designation for table wine when it first burst on to the scene four years ago. A new rule letting producers blend wine from different regions and put the grape variety and vintage on the label gave French producers a chance to say goodbye to plonk and compete with New World brands.

After a topsy-turvy year in the vineyard, the question exercising the mind of Bordeaux and its customers is whether the 2012 vintage is a silk purse crafted from a sow's ear. On two counts. Firstly, was the weather good enough to make 2012 saleable en primeur, ie right now, before the wines are bottled in two years time? And if so, are prices attractive enough to have us reaching for our silk purses?