Wine: Great outdoors

If you're stuck in town this summer and you fancy a bit of stroll in a vineyard you might give Liverpool Street in London a try. The Australian wine producer McGuigan has been busy constructing a "city vineyard", where you can meander among the vines, try the wines and chat to winemakers. Not that London can compete with Europe's more vin0-centric capitals. Paris's long-established vineyard at Clos Montmartre now has a competitor in the first vintage of Clos Bretonneau. And even Paris's green tendrils pale into insignificance next to Vienna's hinterland, whose six different districts produce nearly two million bottles of white and 400,000 of red.

When the sauvignon blanc producers of Marlborough first banded together to adopt the screwcap to guard against cork taint, they probably weren't thinking of picnics, but technical advantages apart, the wonder of the screwcap is its sheer convenience for outdoor drinking. Among the New Zealand sauvignons I'll be quenching my thirst with this summer will be the elderfloral, juicy 2007 Asda New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, £5.38, the gooseberryish, tangy 2007 Kaituna Hills Sauvignon Blanc, £6.99, M&S, and for richness of aromatic flavours, the 2007 Jackson Estate Sauvignon Blanc, £9.99, Waitrose.

Where New Zealand sauvignon led, Australia's Clare Valley followed with its highly aromatic, crisp dry rieslings. From this exceptional region for riesling, the 2007 O'Leary Walker Polish Hill River Riesling, £8.99, Waitrose, contains in its refreshingly dry fruitiness all the tantalisingly lime zesty hallmarks of the style, while with a more evolved, floral riesling character, Paulett's 2006 Polish Hill River Clare Valley Riesling, £9.99, buy 2 = £8.49, Majestic, zips and zings in similar mould. As Europe catches on, Austria's growers have woken up to the benefits to its scented grüner veltliners with wines like the summer-spritzy, white peppery 2007 Gobelsburger Grüner Veltliner, £7.49, Waitrose. Not everyone has had the wake-up call yet, mind, but you can almost forgive Sancerre when it comes up with a wine with the thrilling elderflower fragrance, the gooseberry and white peach delicacy and bone dry finish of the 2007 Vacheron Sancerre, £14.99, Majestic, Waitrose.

The great thing about fizz is that there's no need for a corkscrew in the first place, so champagnes and sparkling wines make perfect outdoor companions. So, turn your attention to the delights of English fizz, such as Ridgeview's fine Cuvée Merret, Bloomsbury, £19,99, Waitrose, or its Cuvée Merret, Cavendish, £22.95, Jeroboams shops, whose creamy full-flavoured mousse and energisingly tangy acidity tastes as good as the real thing. There is superb champagne too: a new little stunner in at M&S, the Berèche et Fils Brut, £25, is a grower's champagne with intense biscuity aromas, a beguiling, ultra-smooth baked apple and cream richness and bone-dry attack.

This may not leave a huge amount of space for barbecue reds, but let's continue in the convenience vein with the screwcapped 2006 Yalumba Y Series Shiraz Viognier, £6.99, Tesco, £7.19, down to £5.69, from Wednesday, Waitrose, the ideal, spicy brambly red, while the richly fruited, rioja-in-McLaren-Vale-like 2006 Cascabel Tempranillo Graciano, £86.35, case of 6, M&S online, is a more imaginative, superbly juicy choice. Bring the corkscrew with you and you can add to the list the plummy 2006 Asda Extra Special Primitivo di Puglia, £6.12, Sainsbury's damson-rich 2006 Taste the Difference Douro, £7.99, and Waitrose's utterly compelling, spicy equivalent, the 2007 Douro Reserva Red, £9.99, made in partnership with Quinta de la Rosa.

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