I'M trying not to think about how many shopping days there are between now and Christmas, lest the grisly thought induce total abandonment to the bottle. At Dublin airport the other day it struck me there is a more cheerful approach to the same bit of arithmetic. Eight weekends to go between now and the end of the year. Eight possible chances to escape - if not for Christmas itself then for a burst of away from home shopping, or a visit to friends or both. In which case you'll need a present. Allow 10 extra minutes to peruse the wine shelves in Dublin Duty Free.

Now, wine enthusiasts have long been inclined to turn up their finely tuned noses at the very notion of looking for any excitement here. Certainly Aer Rianta reports that two litre wine boxes - especially popular with departing British travellers - are the best sellers of all.

But over the past year or more, Aer Rianta has extended and improved the range of wines on offer in Dublin airport. Unencumbered by the shocking excise duty our foolish government levies on wine, along with 21 per cent VAT, the prices are pure joy.

Obviously, as a rule of thumb, the higher the duty, the better the bargain. This means you should perhaps look beyond ordinary table wines (excise duty £1.61 per bottle) to fortified wines - sherry, port and dessert wines - (duty £2.34 per bottle), and further still to sparkling wines and champagne (duty the highest in the EU at £3.22).

Many regular travellers will already know that Aer Rianta runs the Casks wine club for their benefit. Set up five years ago in Dublin and recently launched in Shannon, it's the biggest wine club in the country, with 2,000 members. There have been four Casks wine fairs to date, with guests such as Oz Clarke, Jilly Gootden and Jancis Robinson, and there will soon be tutored tastings. Members can also avail of special offers, announced in a regular newsletter edited by wine consultants T.P. Whelehan and Tom Doorley.

An airport wine club is a novel idea and, as far as Aer Rianta can determine, a first. The British Airports Authority and Bahrain Airport are apparently interested in following our lead: both have sent scouts to Dublin for advice.

It is likely Aer Rianta will soon appoint a wine consultant. Plans are also afoot to arrange wine trips for Casks members and to make duty free buying more customer friendly by providing descriptions of the better wines at the point of sale and cartons to carry them in, rather than leave them to clank in plastic bags.

Wine sales in Dublin Duty Free are up 20 per cent on last year - partly, no doubt, because people in our part of the world are steadily drinking more wine and less spirits, but also because the range of wines is more enticing than it was. As well as the wines listed below, there are plenty of other good bottles out there, including Gran Sangre de Toro (£5.30), Stoneleigh Sauvignon Blanc (£5.95), Faustino I (£7.90), the sumptuous Eileen Hardy Shiraz (£15.30) and non vintage champagnes such as Taittinger (£16.95) and Moet (£17.25). Any one of them would make a thoroughly acceptable present - even if it's only to yourself.