WATCHING the sun set fierily over Inya Lake from the manicured green lawns of the Dusit Inya Lake hotel, with wine bottles from all over the world lined up in serried ranks on crisp white tablecloths – what more idyllic setting could there be for an early evening gathering?

It was a wine tasting put on by fine food and wine distributors Quarto Products and they did us proud. With a total of 27 white and red wines available for tasting, it was impossible to try them all and still be standing up, but we did our absolute best.

And we managed to discover some seriously good and relatively inexpensive wines from the cellars of this generous supplier.

Personal favourites, although they were hard to narrow down with such a wide choice, were: the French Le Bouquet de Laporte Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire valley at just $14 a bottle - light and crisp and excellent hot weather drinking; the Italian Pinot Grigio della Venezie – a full-bodied white from the north of Italy in the famous lakes region with some real fruit flavour at $15.50 a bottle; and an old favourite, an Evans & Tate Margaret River unwooded Chardonnay – excellent drinking at $15.10. Before we got to the reds, we diverted past the Sileni Rose from New Zealand – much richer tasting than most roses, and a perfect summer reviver at $12 a bottle. Then it was on to the reds with the Ascherie Dolcetto d’Alba being a popular choice – a drinkable and smooth drop from Italy at just $11.70; and the Normans Encounter Bay Shiraz at $10.70 also got the thumbs up.

It was all downhill after that, as everyone had a try at the blind tasting, trying to guess just which wines were in the masked bottles. Despite the delicious snacks provided by the hotel, it seemed that the wines began to blur into each other as the evening progressed. They were all delicious, but which was which again?