Is Ken Follett a champagne socialist? As a long-term Bolly drinker, he says he quite likes the term Bollinger Bolshevik, coined by fellow writer John Mortimer, but would prefer to invent something of his own. 'We'll have to find a Third Way,' he laughs. 'Let me think about it for a few minutes.'

Despite the fact that he's married to MP Barbara Follett, the best-selling novelist has had his share of run-ins with the New Labour party machine. A few years ago, he was outspoken about spin, calling anonymous briefings 'the media equivalent of the poison pen letter'. You sense that Follett disapproves of New Labour's hair-shirt tendency, too. 'I don't fit in with the puritanical side of New Labour, although if I were a Minister I'd probably have to go on the wagon. You couldn't do those hours and drink wine.'

The one (ex) Minister he's had 'many fine bottles with' is Jack Cunningham. 'He's great value around the dinner table, very convivial. The Houses of Parliament used to have a fine cellar in the late 1980s and in those days they hadn't got round to adjusting the prices. On one occasion, we drank Dom Pࢹrignon at something ridiculous like £10 a bottle.'

Champagne, be it Bollinger, Dom Pࢹrignon or Salon, is something of a theme in Follett's life. He can still remember the first time he drank it on the Thames. After a post-London University spell on his home-town newspaper in Wales, Follett moved to the London Evening News. 'I used to do a weekly column about the river, called Thames Talk. In 1974, I went along to the launch of a boat and was handed a glass of Bollinger.' Courtesy of a journalistic jolly, Follett had discovered 'one of the great pleasures of my life'.

By that point, Follett had begun to write thrillers in his spare time. When his first effort was published in 1974, he bought a bottle of Bolly to celebrate. Over the next four years, Follett 'banged out' a further nine novels. 'I used to get a £200 advance, which was enough to take the family to Tunisia on holiday, but not much more.' The Bolly became a tradition. 'Every time I sold a book, I would buy a bottle.'

And then came Eye of the Needle, the book that made Follett's name and(initial) fortune. 'The novels had been getting better,' he says. 'With each one I was learning more about writing.' Yet he wasn't prepared for what was to come. The hardback rights to Eye of the Needle had been sold for 'a modest sum', but the paperback rights were auctioned. 'I got a call from my agent saying that the auction had reached half a million and was still going.' Follett went out and bought two bottles of Bolly and sat back to wait for the outcome. Five hours later, he was a wealthy man.

Wine didn't feature in any of Follett's early thrillers. In fact, it didn't appear in any of his 24 books until Jackdaws, a novel about the French resistance published last year. Follett deliberately set the story in and around the town of Rheims. 'I chose Rheims because of the cathedral and because it gave me the chance to drink lots of champagne.' The book could have been set anywhere in France, he says, but doing the research meant he could visit Salon, his favourite producer. 'There's a scene set in a champagne house and I used that as an excuse to go to Salon. I could have set it in a pepper mill, to tell you the truth, but that would have been far less fun.'

Follett drinks champagne most evenings. 'I write from nine until four, then do interviews and things like that. At around six, I have a glass or two of champagne.' The champagne is usually a half bottle, invariably drunk alone. 'Barbara doesn't like champagne, because it makes her burp and that would be a bit embarrassing in the House. She'll drink a little if we go out for dinner, but never enough to get squiffy.' Follett says that drinking and writing, in the macho tradition of a Faulkner, Fitzgerald or Hemingway, doesn't work for him. 'I can't write if I've had a sip of booze. The point of wine is that it makes you relax and I need to be on edge to write well.'

He insists that he's not a 'train spotter', but Follett is very serious about wine. He is one of the few people to have chosen wine as his luxury on Desert Island Discs, for example. 'Wine is a great consolation when you're on your own, but I hate the idea of being marooned. The only way I could survive being cut off from my family and friends would be with an unlimited supply of fine wine.'

The Folletts have two cellars - a large 70- case one in Stevenage (Barbara's constituency) and a smaller one in London. 'Stevenage is where we entertain friends, so we get through a lot of booze. In London, we're not at home much, so I only keep a dozen cases or so.' Follett's tastes are Francophile: clarets, white Burgundies and, naturally, champagne. 'I rarely drink anything but French, because that's what I know and love. If I were discovering wine today, I'd probably have broader tastes, but when I started collecting in the mid-1970s, French wines were the best.' His sources are Corney & Barrow (020 7539 3200), Bibendum (020 7916 7706) and Majestic.

Follett's six favourite wines are all French. As an aperitif, there's a bottle of 1997 ChÀteau de Sours Bordeaux RosÀ ('a serious rosÀ that reminds me of one of those restaurants on the beach in Cannes'). Next come two Grand Cru white Burgundies: the 1991 Corton Charlemagne, Louis Latour ('wonderfully nutty') and the 1997 Criots-BÀtard-Montrachet, Domaine Leflaive ('much subtler, but just as satisfying'). These are complemented by two equally distinguished clarets: the 1989 ChÀteau Pichon-Lalande in magnum ('everything is in perfect harmony') and the 1983 ChÀteau Latour ('a wine from my favourite chÀteau that I bought at Sotheby's four years ago. I've got a bottle of the 1949, my birth year, that was given to me by Erica Jong. But I'm saving that for my sixtieth birthday'). And finally - no surprises here - Follett picks a bottle of champagne. For him, the 1990 Salon, with its memories of happy times spent researching Jackdaws on the CÀte des Blancs, is 'one of the most delicious champagnes I've ever tasted. I drink the 1995 Delamotte, made in the same village, as my everyday champagne. But Salon is for special occasions.' Would he call himself a Salon socialist, then? 'Yes, why not,' says Follett. 'That'll do as a Third Way.'

Ken Follett's top six

1997 Château de Sours Bordeaux Rosࢹ
1991 Corton Charlemagne, Louis Latour
1997 Criots-BÀtard-Montrachet, Domaine Leflaive
1989 ChÀteau Pichon-Lalande Claret in magnum
1983 ChÀteau Latour
1990 Salon Champagne