Intense on the nose, fresh and zippy, these are for you if you like a lighter style of dry white wine, or similar lightness of touch in your sweet whites with the local grapes offering superb value in both camps.

These are delicious apéritifs and summer wines, none more so than the excellent La Cabane, outstanding at its price. Our own Tanners Gascony White is another great example of clean, crisp winemaking, while further explorations in Aquitaine revealed Château Le Fagé, a superbly situated property looking over the plain towards the town of Bergerac, with Sauvignon that errs to Bordeaux for inspiration. Further south, Producteurs Plaimont and P Grassa are harnessing the now relatively well-known Colombard and Ugni Blanc varieties to great effect for lemony, summer wines.

There is a great tradition of sweet wines from the area too. Plaimont produces the excellent Pacherenc du Vic Bilh, a blend of Gros and Petit Manseng and a speciality of the region, which has a light, silky quality. More in the style of its Bordelais neighbours, Château Le Fagé’s Monbazillac has more depth, while Domaine du Tariquet, offers great value for a zesty medium wine.

For their reds, growers in the South-West tend to use Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon to make wines in a similar style to claret. Straightforward, juicy and with a fresh feel, Château Le Fagé’s Bergerac is just this sort of wine, fruity and well-balanced. Heading east along the valley, Château de Tiregand is a classic claret blend whose maturation in barriques gives it a rather classy character. If you are seeking more intrigue, the Madiran from Patrick Ducournau show-cases Tannat, a grape that needs a few years cellaring to come round. Blended with forty per cent Cabernet Franc; his Domaine Mouréou could easily be mistaken for a Saint-Emilion at twice its modest price tag and is drinking particularly well.

Languedoc-Roussillon covers a huge area from the Spanish border right up to the Rhône delta and is probably the most exciting place for the wine explorer in France at the moment. Familiar names such as Minervois sit next to the new-comers: La Clape, Pic-St-Loup, Les Méjanelles all producing some fabulous flavours to their own, subtly different recipes.

Kick off your exploration with the delightful Picpoul de Pinet from Domaine des Lauriers, a fresh flavoured, dry variety that is excellent with fish, made right on the shores of the Med. Viognier, full flavoured and aromatic, you will find this a really well-made example from Domaine Condamine l’Evêque. Blending Roussanne with Viognier at Domaine du Grand Crès in Corbières brings a step up in depth and complexity, but all three of these wines give you a change from more familiar varieties. However, if it is familiarity you want, you can pick up some excellent Sauvignon and Chardonnay. The Rémi & Jérôme Sauvignon is weighty and satisfying, the Tanners Sauvignon very expressive, with Lurton also employing all their garnered Bordelais expertise to make Domaine de Berlande, to be one of the best Sauvignon Blancs in the Languedoc. If you prefer Chardonnay, the range runs from lighter Rémi & Jérôme to the oaky Cuvée de l’Odyssée from Château Rives-Blanques. Finally, don’t overlook the succulent, lightly oaked, buttery Tanners Chardonnay.

The reds of the Languedoc-Roussillon are equally diverse in flavour and interest. The Pays d’Oc covers the whole area between the Rhône delta and the Spanish border, formed as the catch-all Vin de Pays name for those using introduced varieties. The honest La Cabane achieves very good balance - an easy taste and an excellent price - while Rémi & Jérôme Merlot achieves a similar, very drinkable glass of wine. Tanners Merlot has a touch more oak by comparison.

The more recognisable regions of the western end of the Languedoc part, Minervois, Corbières and Fitou all have a proud history. From the catch-all Vin de Pays, Côtes de Thongues, Domaine La Condamine l’Evêque produces excellent Viognier and Mourvèdre wines, while Château Villerambert-Julien in Minervois turns out some very special blends at everyday prices. Château Sainte-Eulalie is a little lighter, yet full of generous ripe fruit, while Domaine Grand Crès never fails to impress with its class and depth of flavour. Lurton’s Fitou is a similar, brilliant wine; in fact, this little range contains some star performers.

We believe some of the Coteaux du Languedoc’s best terroir is to be found in the hills behind Montpellier, an area growing more and more in reputation. At Vailhauques, Robert and Kim Cripps have embarked on an odyssey of discovery having bought a rundown estate; they met while working in the Napa Valley. Their Podio Alto is a Grenache, Syrah and Carignan blend. From the fashionable area of Pic-Saint-Loup, ringed by limestone cliffs and dominated by the vertiginous outline of the Pic itself, we import from Château de Lancyre where Bernard Durand and Régis Valentin make supple characterful Syrah-dominant wines. In high summer, the air is full of the scents of rosemary and thyme. We have a selection of heady, herby wines from here such as Les Garrigues, a warm, fruity blend made by Pierre Clavel in ‘La Méjanelle’, a gravelly strip of land, just north of Montpellier. His Copa Santa is more serious, but equally delicious. La Clape, like Pic-Saint-Loup, is a demarcated area of the Coteaux du Languedoc and is the location of Mas du Soleilla whose outstanding wines show what generosity and full-on flavour can be packed into a bottle! They really are a wonderful discovery. Meanwhile in the village of Aniane, where Mondavi famously tried to buy vineyards, Jean-Pierre Venture makes his full, rich garriguey Mas de la Seranne, a wine to take on all comers. This part of the Languedoc is one of the most exciting areas for you to explore.

Further eastwards is Provence. Always pricey in comparison with their neighbours to the west, their famous rosés have been somewhat eclipsed by more fashionable, darker styles. However, the renowned area of Bandol, a sandy terrain with its feet in the sea, produces full-bodied reds mainly from the Mourvèdre grape. Domaine Le Galantin is owned by Achille and Liliane Pascal who make a fine, well-priced example with plenty of depth and character.

For a sweet wine from the South, Saint-Jean-de-Minervois borders the Minervois, and is fashioned in the same way as Muscat de Rivesaltes. The sweetness is retained by halting the fermentation part-way through with a dollop of grape spirit, making a lively, fresh Muscat which is ideal with summer pudding.

Stephen Crosland