WINE doesn't always come in bottles. In some markets, Sweden for example, bag in box represents more than half the wine sold, but we've been slow to catch on.

Perhaps it's because we think that only cheap and nasty wine is packaged like this, but it's not necessarily so. It can be a great way of delivering good wine, in quantity, at a bargain price.

Five litre boxes are ideal, but 2.25 litres is a bit disappointing, especially if the packaging is a tad twee like that of Camper Van Chenin Blanc now on sale in Asda for £15.

It's a bit of a fiddle too, but the wine itself, a fresh, vibrant little number from South Africa is terrific, and at the equivalent of a fiver a bottle, hard to resist. Once open, it'll keep fresh without any hitch in the fridge for a few weeks.

Chenin Blanc is one of my favourite grape varieties. It has the weight of Chardonnay, but often with keener, zippier acidity and a range of flavours from barely ripe, green apple to luscious pineapple. Unlike Chardonnay it also makes stupendous sweet wines.

It's a happy quirk of history that so much of it is grown in South Africa. Not all of it is wonderful, but I warmly recommend The Wine Society's A Fistful of Schist Chenin Blanc 2015 (£5.95), which is far less gritty than it sounds and has lots of ripe, stone fruit flavours.

Alternatively, if you like your wine, richer, creamier and oaky, Bellingham The Bernard Series Old Vine Chenin Blanc 2015, is rather wonderful in Majestic at their mixed half dozen price of £11.99. You have probably guessed that it doesn't come from the Côtes du North Tyne - global warming is not yet that extreme - but from Franschhoek, near Cape Town.

Chenin's homeland is the Loire Valley and the place where, to my mind, it succeeds best. In Vouvray, where I first discovered it, it's often an exquisite balance between mouth-watering freshness and the softening hint of sweetness. Try Waitrose's Château de Montfort Vouvray Demi-Sec 2015 (£11.99) and I hope you'll see what I mean.

It's delicious and so well-balanced that given half a chance it can age gracefully for decades. I suspect this won't ever get the chance.

As for the sweet wines, the gentle slopes of the Coteaux du Layon, just south of Angers, is the place to be. The very best are affected by 'noble rot', which renders the skins porous so that juice inside the grapes become an intense, highly-perfumed syrup.

It doesn't happen every year, but in 2011 nature smiled on the region and the Domaine des Forges made a fabulous wine. You can buy half bottles of this precious liquid for the derisory price of just £8.99 at Waitrose.

Please, however, don't think of it as 'pudding wine': a sticky toffee pudding will overwhelm it, as it does most sweet wines; instead enjoy it with good Northumbrian or Weardale cheese. You'll love it.