Here's the voice of happy experience. Guests can drink Guigal Cotes du Rhone 1997, white or red (right, quite widely available, both usually £8.99), all night long and still love it enough to guzzle it again. I've been there, done that - with good friends and neighbours whose brilliant bashes are invariably fuelled by the peachy white and soft, easy red of top Rhone producer Marcel Guigal. A classic duo that's pretty hard to beat.
YOU'D rather be New Worldly? Chile shows how assured it can be in the reserva range of long-established Santa Rita, whose wines keep getting better. Santa Rita Reserva Sauvignon Blanc 1998 (widely available, usually £7.69) has a nice, nettle pungency as well as tropical fruit and a really long finish. Santa Rita Reserva Merlot 1998 (left, widely available, usually £8.49) is lush and concentrated but juicy enough to be moreish. And those plain parchment labels look classy.