There are good parties and bad parties. Political parties are bad and house parties are good.

Here are three user-friendly wines that are guaranteed to break the ice at parties. You have until Tuesday to catch them at a knock-down price courtesy of Tesco. Sorry about the late notice but the parties that happen spontaneously are always the best.

No need for a corkscrew when drinking New Zealand wines these days, they are nearly all sealed with screwcaps. And nearly all Kiwi wine seems to be sauvignon blanc from the Marlborough region. If it's flavour you're after, this is no bad thing.

Matua Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2004 at the sub-£5 offer price represents good value. Typically for the region, there's plenty for the tastebuds with all the usual sauvignon characteristic goosegog and fresh-cut grass flavours. It has plenty of good, crisp acidity as well.

Staying in the Antipodes with a hugely approachable merlot from Australia's Barossa Valley. You might decide that the splendid bottle, complete with embossed pewter label, is worth the money on its own but I urge you to consume the contents also.

I've enjoyed Lisa McGuigan's Tempus Two wines before, although some national publication wine writers turn their nose up.

Matua Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2004, £4.89 from £6.99 at Tesco. 16/20

Tempus Two Pewter Merlot 2003, £6.99 from £9.99 at Tesco. 17/20

Ancien Comte Fitou 2003, £3.99 from £7.99 at Tesco. 16/20

Perhaps this is because the wines have such an easy drinking style. Tempus Two Pewter Merlot 2003 is soft and shows plenty of tasty French oak with high-octane fruit flavours of raspberry, rosehip, strawberry and plum. All rounded off by dark chocolate notes.

Finally to the Old World and the Languedoc. Not only famous for being the Oc in vin de pays d'Oc, the area in the south-west of France also has some good, relatively inexpensive appellations.

Ancien Comte Fitou 2003 is from the Mont Tauch co-operative, it's best with food and so you should save this one for a dinner party.

Grapes from vielle vignes are put through modern wine production methods to produce a vibrant, well-oaked red with plenty of tannin. The wine is truly spicy and peppery, you have been warned. The fruit flavours are dark and underpinned by lingering flavours of fennel root.

Who knows where there's a party happening tonight?

Updated: 15:20 Friday, May 06, 2005