WINE DRINKERS and fans of the time-travel cop series Life on Mars will have allowed themselves a nostalgic chuckle during a recent episode. Two of the officers, Sam and Annie, had been invited to a typical suburban 1970s party, all lava lamps and Crimplene, and the alcoholic highlight of which was 'a chilled bottle of Blue Nun'.

How times have changed.

"Thirty or 40 years ago, a bottle of wine was a real treat, but now if you take a bottle round to a friend's house you have to be careful that they don't take a drink and say 'Oh my God'," said mail order wine merchant John Walmsley.

"Similarly, if you bought a mixed case of wine 30 years ago, you would have had to tip some of it down the drain it was so bad. That is a very rare thing these days."

John and his wife Marie, who live in Cattistock, established John Gerard Wines as a 'third career' to supplement their pensions and bring their love and knowledge of fine, well-priced liquor to a wider audience.

They specialise in wines from Western Australia and in Irish Whiskey - and you won't find the former in the supermarkets, largely because they come from small, family-owned vineyards which often don't produce enough wine to make it economically viable to ship abroad in large quantities.

"Sometimes we will have a lovely wine in and people will come to tastings and like it and say they'll buy some next time they are passing. Then I have to tell them that they would be better buying it there and then because I might not get any more that year.

"It's not a sales pitch - it's the truth," said John. "The average man on the street pays less than £4 for an average bottle of supermarket wine. Our wines cost between £6 and £48 and I think people are happy with the price/quality combination if they know they can't get the wine anywhere else."

He added: "We visit Australia every couple of years and meet the producers and growers, and even we sometimes miss out on wines we want. I remember going to one vineyard and there was a sign outside it saying 'sold out - please come back next August'"

Western Australia produces less than four per cent of Australia's wine output but it accounts for around a quarter of the best wine from the country - and the UK imports more Australian wine than it does French.

Every day, 2.5 million bottles of wine leave Australian shores. Popular labels such as Hardy's and Jacob's Creek in all their variety are blended and from the east of the country.

Part of their success lies in the fact that they taste the same year in, year out, so you can go to the supermarket at any season and know what you are getting.

According to the Walmsleys, three-quarters of wine bought in the UK comes from supermarkets and most people state £3.99 as the price they are prepared to pay for an average bottle of wine.

"Ninety-eight per cent of wine is bought for drinking that night or on the next weekend," said Marie. "It's for immediate drinking, and people don't tend to lay wine down so much.

"I think that's a great shame because having been to a number of wineries in Australia and drunk their wine, I say that much of it repays time spent resting and ageing. We buy wine and we like it to rest, sometimes for up to two years.

"And despite what people think, white wine improves with keeping."

One of the most popular wines available through John Gerard Wines is HWB and HRB - Houghton's classic, simple and extremely drinkable white and red wines.

These are Australia's most popular wines, entry level, unpretentious - and on sampling, it is easy to see why.

"We have been drinking it for more than 30 years and have seen Australian wine change from being very variable to consistently good.

"You can go to drive-through wine shops - they call them bottle shops - and the quality of their table wine is faultless."

The whisky end of the Walmsley business is mainly carried out around Christmas, when people are looking for a classy and slightly different spirit to give as a gift or indulge in with loved ones at a festive gathering.

"It is another niche area we are aiming for and the prices range from £16 to £50 a bottle for a 12-year-old, peated single malt," John explains. "They are gorgeous drinks, distilled three times and all the softer for that. Again, with many of them it is a case of buy it when you find it' because sometimes they are in short supply. With the top-end Connemara whiskey, for example, only 114 bottles are shipped to the UK each year, so we are lucky to get some of them."

For further details of available wines and dates of tasting sessions, contact John Gerard Wines on 01300 320987, or send an email to info@johngerardwines.co.uk Full details, prices and how to go about ordering whiskeys and wine paraphernalia are also available on the John Gerard website at www.johngerardwines.co.uk