Drinking: Comfort shopping

IN THE Eighties it was discovered that shopping, to paraphrase Miles Davis describing the first time he heard Charlie Parker play, is the most fun you can have with your clothes on. If that's still true, then shopping for wine should be even more fun than some of the things you do with your clothes off. All those exotic labels, those unfamiliar names, the promise of new discovery and delicious flavours.

Unfortunately, most of us buy wine in supermarkets, where nothing can be described as fun. Those bright lights and trolley-crowded aisles make supermarket wine buying an antiseptic experience. This is one of the many wonderful things about Oddbins, whose individual branches have the feeling of the eccentric, one-off wine shop of yore.

La Reserve (56 Walton Street, London SW3, 0171 589 2020) is also a chain, but one that has just three other London branches. This tiny, extraordinarily fine wine shop has a clientele of majestic affluence: average spend per bottle is pounds 70. It specialises in Burgundy, some of it crushingly expensive, but there's much more to this trend-bucking outfit than wallet-mincing classics. There's the downstairs room for a start, a dark, wood-panelled nook, lined with empty bottles of claret and Burgundy of mouth-watering antiquity. It looks a lot like the wine bars of 10 or 15 years ago. And that's precisely, if informally, what it is in the evenings. But this is a wine bar with a difference: one where you can drink whatever you buy in the shop, whether it's Clos de Vougeot 1992 from Domaine Leroy (pounds 125) or the House Red Burgundy 1996 (pounds 6.95). Book yourself in, since space is limited, and book the bottle as well if it will need special handling prior to cork-pop. Then take it downstairs and drink it with a buffet of cheeses and charcuterie bought direct from France. If you got together with 25 friends, you could take over the place and have a whale of an evening.

What you'll drink depends on your finances, but it will be interesting whatever the price. Proprietor Mark Reynier, a third-generation wine-trader, aims only to buy wines that have real individuality. He is proud of not having to "follow" producers year on year in pursuit of the false god continuity, and he is never happier than when finding a few dozen cases of something interesting. (Try asking them to do that at Tesco.)

If Burgundy is the traditional star here, the south of France (especially the Midi) is the star for lower-priced wines with attitude. Typical of the selection is a wonderful drink (50 cases only and selling fast) called Vallongue Montpeyroux 1997, Domaine St Andrieu (pounds 5.95). Sweet, supple, just a tiny bit of sweaty barn-yard roughness around the edges. Another wine sold only here: Chateau de Murviel les Montpellier 1995, Coteaux du Languedoc (pounds 4.95), bursting with minty cassis fruit. "This was a special cuvee too good for blending," explains Reynier, "and we got it because we were there at the right time."

On the white side, too, the south of France produces interesting stuff. Not as immediately appealing to Chardonnay-trained (read: deadened) taste buds as the reds, but all the more intriguing for that. Picpoul de Pinet 1997, Domaine St Peyne, Coteaux du Languedoc (pounds 4.95) is a fresh and vivacious mouthful of pungent fruit. Even more distinctive is Chateau La Calisse 1997, Coteaux du Varois (pounds 6.95), an aromatic cocktail with aniseed on the nose and weird hints of quince and lychee on the palate.

Please note: quantities of some of these wines are minuscule, and the one you're after may not be around much longer. But if they don't have that one, I'll wager they will have an equally interesting alternative.

To drink now

In the frame this week, three svelte South Americans from Safeway. First, Chilean Errzuriz Cabernet Sauvignon 1996, El Ceibo Estate (pounds 5.49), a herbally fragrant blackcurrant potion with a light tannic bite. Delicious and gluggable. But a couple of others appeal even more: Patagonian Diego Murillo Family Reserve Malbec 1997 (pounds 5.99) has nice grip on nose and palate with the earthy sour-cherry fruit characteristic of this grape. And the inkily pungent Argentinian Fantelli Barbera/Cabernet 1998, Mendoza (pounds 4.99), is a seriously enjoyable quaffing wine for sufferers from wintry chill.