Decanter guide to PICNICKING FOR WINE LOVERS

If you prefer your summer picnics to feature something rather more special than a juice carton, a sandwich and a packet of crisps, this is the seasonal guide for you

- CHRIS LOSH

According to lifestyle and happiness guru Gretchen Rubin, you bring your own weather to a picnic'. Ms Rubin, I'd suggest, has never shivered under a tree watching raindrops turn her fish-paste sandwich to mush because the weather forecast was wrong.

There are, it's safe to say, picnics and Picnics. It's a term that takes in everything from a rubber baguette in a French 'Aire' off the Autoroute du Soleil to a four-course spread while listening to opera at Glyndebourne.

What's definitely true is that the Picnic As Event is enjoying something of a resurgence. With travel largely off the table for the last two years, and bars and restaurants intermittently shut, people have had to get their fun in other ways, often involving a large tartan rug, plastic glasses and screaming children being chased by wasps.

If you've actively decided to go and eat en plein air, then something decent to drink is very much part of the equation. Unless, of course, you're Edouard Manet. His Le Déjeuner sur l'Herbe painting - the most controversially famous picnic of all time - appeared to feature nothing but some bread and apples and, apparently, not enough clothes to go round.

So assuming that we can't, disappointingly, learn from impressionist artists in this matter, how do you get your drinks offering right?

PUTTING IT TOGETHER

Before we go off selecting bottles, understand that picnics are largely about logistical preparation. So if you're the kind of person who starts assembling an Ikea wardrobe without checking you've got all the components first, you need to have a word with yourself.