Feudi di San Gregorio, Falanghina

This is a delicious trip to the sunny south of Italy; tranquil blue limpid water, market stalls with tomatoes, peaches and all sorts of seafood. If you've been there, this is the white to match. Rounder, fuller and tastier than most north-Italian white wine, this is a celebration of sunshine, ripeness and la dolce vita. Full of peach and ripe lemon flavours, this is a gorgeous white for drinking on its own or with seafood, salads and even barbecues.

Falanghina is grown all over the south of Italy, but has a special home in Campania. The specific region that Feudi di San Gregorio have their vines is the area called Sannio, which is to the north and east of Naples. Falanghina ia one of the ancient varieties, its name coming from - wait for it - classical times, the word falangae meaning the stakes used in the ground to support the vines, which itself comes from the word falange which was the spear used by the phalangisti who belonged to the phalanxes of the Roman and Greek armies. These were the shielded units of masses of soldiers who carried long pokey spears between their all-protecting spears as they marched through much of Europe. And that's where the delicious, soft, round and fruity wine gets its name...

Like the Greco di Tufo and Fiano di Avellino, this Falanghina is aged in steel tanks on its fine lees, but in this case it ages a month longer as, in truth, it's not naturally as complex as its neighbouring grapes, so the extra time is most welcome to extract more quality. It's then bottled with minimum intervention and all of the delicacy, structure and texture are preserved in a lovely sunny glass of Tyrrhenian loveliness.