Translation missing: en.Handpicked: Goona Warra Chardonnay + Picnic Time!: Handpicked: Goona Warra Chardonnay + Picnic Time!

The days are getting longer and the afternoons are finally warm enough to be worth something, which means I can stop hiding indoors. I am lucky enough to live in a building with big rolling lawns out the front, so from about now until it gets too hot I will be out on the grass most weekends with friends, a plate of cold cuts, some olives, a few cheeses and everything as cold as I can get it.

Picnic wine has a job to do and it is not a complicated one. Nothing heavy, nothing that needs a decanter, and almost all of it better with a chill on it. Textural whites that can stand up to a salty bit of cheese, a rosé with actual flavour rather than just colour, an orange wine for the charcuterie, and light reds you can pull straight out of the esky. Get that spread right and you can eat and drink your way through a whole afternoon without anyone having to think about it.

These are the six I would be packing. The '25 'Gorgeous Grenache Blanc' from Thistledown in McLaren Vale is the easy way in. The '25 'Yellow Flower Pecorino' from Praeter in the Adelaide Hills spends nine months on lees in old oak with no sulphur until bottling, which gives it a nutty, slightly reductive edge and loads of texture. The '25 'Simone Rose' comes from Tim Mason's Minim down in Central Victoria. For the charcuterie there is the '24 'Rkatsiteli Zvari' from Okros in Kakheti, a Georgian qvevri orange with nothing added at all, savoury and properly textured. Then two to chill, the '25 'Gonzo' from Les Fruits, a Barossa Cinsault and Grenache full of spicy red fruit with a bitter orange twist, and the '25 'Mood In Scarlet' from Parley, a light organic red out of the Adelaide Hills. Pick some of these up and get outside while the weather is still on your side!