Whites under £10

Morrisons Soave Italy 2020
(£4.35, Morrisons)
An unfussy, uncomplicated but very useful Italian dry white with a gentle, soft pear fruitiness and easy freshness. It’s fine as an aperitif, good for matching fish, seafood or salad, and cheap enough to cater for any larger gatherings.

Taste The Difference Chilean Viognier Bío Bío Valley, Chile 2020
(£7, Sainsbury’s)
Made for Sainsbury’s by the consistently good own-label supplier Viña Indómita, this is a nicely modulated take on the heady Rhône variety, viognier. The cool of the southern vineyards brings a breath of freshness to the opulent stone fruit and honeysuckle.

Ferdinand Mayr Exklusiv Grüner Veltliner Niederösterrich Austria 2020
(£7.75, thewinesociety.com)
The Wine Society describes this good value white as a “great example of bistro grüner veltliner”, but it works even if you’re not ordering schnitzel somewhere wood-panelled and Viennese: simultaneously leafy, racy, spicy and peachy-juicy.

Marks & Spencer Found Grenache Blanc Western Cape, South Africa 2021
(£8, Marks & Spencer)
M&S’s range of off-beat “finds” is filled with good things, such as this South African dry white. It’s mouth-filling, heady (14%) and weighty with stone fruit but retains a freshening nip: all good for turkey-and-trimming matching.

Waitrose Loved & Found Bukettraube Cederberg, South Africa 2020
(£8.99, Waitrose)
My Christmas pick from Waitrose’s equivalent of M&S’s “Found” is another offbeat South African. Made from obscure German variety bukketraube, in a floral, citrus-inflected, tropical-fruited off-dry style. One to have with any spiced-up leftovers.

Ormarine Villemarin Picpoul de Pinet Languedoc France 2020
(£9.99, or £8.99 as part of a mixed case of six, majestic.co.uk)
A textbook version of the southern French seafood-matching specialism, Picpoul de Pinet, from vineyards near the oyster beds of the Languedoc’s Étang de Thau, this dry white ripples with breezy freshness and lemon zesty tang for fishy first courses.

BEST BUY UNDER £10
Tesco Finest Viña del Rey Albariño Rías Baixas Spain 2020
(£9, Tesco)
Albariño under £10 can often disappoint, but Tesco’s version of the seafood-friendly dry white style from Galicia in north-west Spain gets it just right: a lick of citrus, a splash of salt and sea-spray minerals, and plenty of apricot juiciness.

Adnams Fine Dessert Wine Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh, France
(£9.99, 50cl, adnams.co.uk)
A classic Gascon dessert wine made from the local favourite grape varieties arrufiac, petit and grand corbu and petit manseng, this is tangy with crystallised tropical fruit and grapefruit drizzled in honey. Not rich enough for Christmas pud, but superb with cheese.

Whites £10 to £20

Max Ferd Richter Riesling Classic Mosel, Germany 2019
(£13.50, tanners-wines.co.uk)
Classic by name and by nature, this is a scintillatingly good dry German riesling from a leading Mosel Valley producer with 300 years of experience. Light and filigree, with apple and citrus and the style’s characteristic steely spine of acidity.

Susana Esteban Inho Alentejo, Portugal 2018
(from £16, vinoteca.co.uk; philglas-swiggot.co.uk)
A wine of enormous character and verve from the talented Susana Esteban, this rounded, ripe apple, melon and pear-scented blend of the local arinto, maria gomes and viosinho from high altitude vines fairly crackles with mineral energy.

BEST BUY OVER £10:
Waitrose No. 1 Sauternes Château Suduiraut Bordeaux, France 2013
(£16.99, Waitrose)
Waitrose has teamed up with one of the best producers in the sauternes business, Château Suduiraut, for a flat-out gorgeous, amber jewel of a dessert wine, filled with butterscotch, honey, apricot and superbly tangy crystallised citrus.

Scorpo Aubaine Chardonnay Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia 2019
£17.25 as part of a case, Haynes Hanson & Clark)
Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula is a cool-climate hot spot producing some of Australia’s best chardonnay and pinot noir. This exquisitely balanced white burgundy-alike – all clean lines and subtle creaminess – is one for smoked salmon or turkey.

Domaine Castera Jurançon Sec Jurançon, France 2019
(£17.95, Swig.co.uk)
A superb example of the great south-western French grape gros manseng from the foothills of the Pyrenees, this livewire dry white combines honeyed tropical fruit with a ripple of mountain-stream purity and a grapefruit-citrus tang.

Ver Sacrum Geisha Dragon Los Chacayes Uco Valley, Mendoza, Argentina 2020 (£19.95, thewhiskyexchange.com)
A highly original blend (viognier, marsanne and criolla blanca), made in a highly original way (a portion of the blend is aged under a layer of yeast à la dry sherry), leads to a uniquely delicious, complex dry wine. One that is floral, fruity, savoury, nutty, and delicious.

Le Morrete Benedictus Lugana, Italy 2019
(£19.95, independent.wine)
From vineyards around Lake Garda, this is a beautifully poised and harmonious dry white, bright and full, rounded and soft, with a restrained summer-garden floral scent and lovely fruit concentration. A stylish choice for the main Christmas Day event.

Pegasus Bay Aged Release Riesling Waipara, New Zealand 2009
(£19.99, waitrosecellar.com)
It’s very rare to find New Zealand riesling with more than a couple of years of age, but this stunning example shows how much these wines can improve over time. It’s packed full of lime intensity and subtle caraway seed and illuminated with a sunbeam of acidity.

Whites over £20

Luigi Maffini Kratos Fiano Campania, Italy 2020
(£22.95, or £20.50 as part of a case, leaandsandeman.co.uk)
From coastal vineyards just south of Naples, this is a beautiful expression of the charms of the ancient local white variety, fiano. With notes of fennel and leafy herb behind ripe white peach, it’s intoxicatingly aromatic, sumptuously rich, yet vivacious.

BEST BUY WHITES OVER £20
Domaine Philippe Colin Bourgogne Chardonnay Burgundy, France 2018
(£24, thesourcingtable.com)
Very good value for a beautifully crafted Burgundy chardonnay from a leading producer in one of the region’s smartest addresses, Chassagne-Montrachet, this offers a pristine mix of concentrated golden apple, toastiness, creaminess and brightness.

Gut Oggau Theodora Burgenland, Austria 2020
(from £30, buonvino.co.uk, rawwine.com)
Made very much in the natural idiom, there is a love-it-or-hate-it savoury funkiness and haziness in play in this off-dry grüner veltliner, but it works so well in harness with the sweet ripe pear and gentle floral notes. Try it with a very stinky soft cheese.

The Society’s Exhibition Hermitage Blanc Rhône, France 2017
(£38, thewinesociety.com)
Both Jean-Louis Chave (the producer behind this bottling) and the vineyards on the hill of Hermitage are better known for intense syrah reds. The rare dry whites can be just as beguiling: full, rounded, soft and billowing with nougat and candied citrus.

Reds under £10

Co-op Romanian Pinot Noir Romania 2020
(£5.50, the Co-op)
The pinot noirs made under both their own name and in many a supermarket own-label by Romanian producer Cramele Recas are consistently great value. This Co-op bargain is no exception: soft, light and filled with juicy red berries and cherries.

Alain Grignon Carignan Vieilles Vignes IGP Pays d’Oc 2020
(£8.99, or £6.99 as part of a mixed case of six, majestic.co.uk)
The titular old carignan vines lend plenty of depth and sinew to this ever-reliable southern French red from one of the region’s biggest producers, which is filled with vivid finger-staining blackberry juiciness offset with a sprinkle of spice.

Aldi Specially Selected Lebanese Red Bekaa Valley, Lebanon 2019
(£7.95, Aldi)
The Aldi wine department has grown increasingly confident and adventurous, with this bold and robust red one of several striking new additions. A richly warming blend reminiscent of the southern Rhône, it’s also strikingly good value.

Finest Peumo Carménère Peumo Cachapoal Valley, Chile 2019
(£8, Tesco)
Consistently one of my favourite wines in Tesco’s Finest line-up, this is made by Concha y Toro (of Casillero del Diablo fame among other things) with carménère’s characteristic leafy-herbal and red pepper joined by ripe, pure blackcurrant fruit.

Fleur de Moussas Médoc Bordeaux, France 2019
(£8, Marks & Spencer)
A delightfully crunchy, succulent youthful claret, unoaked and all the better for it: it’s all about the fragrant, just-ripe blackcurrant but there’s plenty of depth and freshness, too. Ideal for mopping up the cold cuts between Christmas and new year.

BEST BUY RED UNDER £10
Yalumba Galway Shiraz Barossa Valley, Australia 2019
(£8.99 reduced from £12.99 until 30 November, Waitrose)
This would be a fine buy at the full price, but it really comes into its own on offer, when you’re getting a lot of dark, spicy, savoury wine for your money, with notes of aniseed, white pepper and juicy dark brambly berries.

Morrisons The Best Valpolicella Ripasso Veneto, Italy 2018
(£9.75, Morrisons)
Morrisons has two very good and good value Veneto reds made either entirely (The Best Amarone; £16) or partially (this Ripasso) from dried grapes. This is the one I’d have with Christmas dinner: rich with chocolatey dark cherries, but with a lively sour plum tang.

Taste the Difference Old Vine Garnacha Calatayud, Spain 2019
(£10, Sainsbury’s)
Scottish expat winemaker Norrel Robertson is a master of untapping the potential of the once neglected, decades-old, garnacha bush vines of Aragon. He’s at it again here with a wine that gushes with bountiful paprika-inflected berry juiciness and soft tannin.

Reds £10 to £20

Agricola de Vinos la Higuera La Pinada Bobal Utiel-Requena, Spain 2017
(£12.50, leaandsandeman.co.uk)
Once considered a workhorse fit only for the most basic bulk wines, bobal has been thoroughly reappraised by Spanish winemakers. This high-altitude, old-vine take on the variety is lithe, lively and gently grippy with rosemary-inflected cranberry and plum.

BEST BUY RED £10-20
Oenops Wines Apla Red Drama, Greece 2019
(£12.88, laywheeler.com)
This heart-stoppingly beautiful Greek red is astonishing value. A blend of local varieties xinomavro, limniona and mavroudi, it’s pitched somewhere between pinot noir and northern Italian nebbiolo in its mix of elegant, fragrant red fruit and supple texture. A pure joy.

Domaine de la Rochelierre Cuvée Tradition Fitou, France 2020
(£14.85, privatecellar.co.uk)
From the hills of Mediterranean France just an hour north of the Spanish border, this deeply flavoured and scented red blend sings of its origins in the purest voice with garrigue herbs, pepper and dusky blackberry fruit. A superb value alternative to Châteauneuf du Pape.

Domaine Filliatreau Saumur-Champigny Loire, France 2019
(£15.25, yapp.co.uk)
Light and coursing with energy, raspberry, cranberry and blackcurrant, moreish acidity and just enough crunchy tannin. This effortlessly charming cabernet franc sends a postcard to dark winter direct from a sun-dappled, early summer Loire day.

Château Sénéjac, Cru Bourgeois Bordeaux, France 2017
(£17, the Co-op)
Made by the same people responsible for classed-growth Bordeaux estate Château Pontet Canet. Château Sénéjac is always one of the best-value clarets in the lower cru bourgeois division, with, in this vintage, impeccable cedar and cassis and fine, polished tannin.

Giulia Negri Langhe Nebbiolo Pian delle Mole Piedmont, Italy 2019
(£18.50, corneyandbarrow.com)
Langhe nebbiolo is generally thought of as entry-level barolo; for this wine from Giulia Negri, however, it’s better to think of it as its own delectable thing. More immediately silky, pretty and aromatic than its big barolo brothers, it’s an ethereal beauty for drinking now.

Querciabella Organic Chianti Classico Tuscany, Italy 2018
(£19.99, Waitrose)
A relatively affordable example of the impeccably polished Querciabella house style, this is Chianti Classico at its most stylish. Made solely from the region’s great local grape sangiovese, it balances the purest of red cherry fruit with notes of tobacco and oregano.

Whistler Wines ‘Get In My Belly’ Grenache Barossa Valley, Australia 2020
(£19.50, thewinesociety.com)
One of the best examples of a modern Australian way of grenache made from very old vines in a decidedly elegant style: pale, red-fruited and light on its feet, it has more in common with pinot than shiraz. Ideal for turkey; great with cold cuts, too.

Reds over £20

BEST BUY RED OVER £20
Bodegas Valsardo Reserva Superiore Ribera del Duero, Spain 2002
(£22.50, swig.co.uk)
Made in an unusually restrained, traditional style at a time when Ribera del Duero’s winemakers were going all out for big fruit and alcohol, this is now beautifully mature in a way few of its peers could match. An amazing, savoury, elegant, hugely complex find.

Zaha Toko Vineyard Paraje Altamira Malbec Uco Valley, Mendoza, Argentina
(£25, thewinesociety.com)
The wines made high up in Altamira in Mendoza’s Uco Valley under the Zaha label by Alejandro “Colo” Sejanovich and Jeff Mausbach are among the purest expressions of malbec around. Playing up the variety’s floral-aromatic and swooningly silky-textured side, this is world-class fine wine.

Domaine Bachelet Monnot Maranges La Fussière 1er Cru Rouge Burgundy, France 2015
(£23.38, justerinis.com)
Talented winemaking brothers Marc and Alexandre Bachelet produce wines in a number of top grand cru sites in Burgundy, but this bottling from a lesser known premier cru shows their skill just as well: filled with berry fruit, it’s just so fine, graceful and supple in texture.

Patrick Jasmin La Girofleurie Côte Rôtie, Rhône, France 2017
(£49, yapp.co.uk)
From one of the winemaking stars of the northern Rhône, Patrick Jasmin, this is a typically dramatic expression of syrah grown on the steep slopes of Côte Rôtie just south of Lyon. A wine of peppery, meaty, dark, almost elemental intensity that will age for years to come.

Sparkling and champagne

Specially Selected Sparkling Shiraz South Australia, Australia NV
(£6.99, Aldi)
Very good with the cheese course, but also working well with antipasti (especially salami and other cured meats), this punchy example of the uniquely Australian take on sparkling red wine is a deliciously sweet-sour explosion of inky black fruit.

Monteolivo Moscato d’Asti DOCG Piedmont, Italy 2020
(£8.99, waitrosecellar.com)
With its 5.5% alcohol and easy fruity sweetness, gently foaming Moscato d’Asti makes the perfect Christmas morning partner for presents and panettone. Monteolivo’s example is a joyful mix of muscat grape, wild flowers and sweet honeydew melon.

La Gioiosa et Amorosa Prosecco Rosé DOC Millesimato Italy 2020
(from £10, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Majestic)
The marketer’s dream of combining two of the 21st century’s most successful wine styles – rosé and prosecco – got the official go-ahead in Italy in late 2020. La Gioiosa’s is one of the best around: a rush of raspberry cream soda, it’s just right for festive parties.

Marks & Spencer Classics Crémant de Bourgogne Burgundy, France NV
(£10, Marks & Spencer)
Slightly counter-intuitively, given the price of its best still wines, Burgundy makes some of the best-value sparkling alternatives to champagne around. Made in the same way and from similar grapes as its northerly neighbour, M&S’s version is richly creamy and full of life.

Bernard Fouquet Domaine des Aubuisières NV
(£15.45, Haynes Hanson & Clark)
Burgundy is just one of many French regions to have upped their sparkling game in the past couple of decades. Fizz in the Loire, too, has arguably never been better, with wines such as Bernard Fouquet’s pristine chenin blanc and its crisp apple, honey and subtle buttered toast.

Can Sumoi Ancestral Montònega Catalunya, Spain 2020
(£23, shrinetothevine.co.uk)
A spin-off project from the Catalan sparkling master Pepe Raventós, this naturally made “pet-nat” is a million miles from so much of the ordinary cava produced in the same region. It’s so distinctive and alive with soft foaming bubbles, preserved lemon and tarragon.

Morrisons The Best English Sparkling Vintage England 2010
(£25, Morrisons)
This is one of the more remarkable supermarket wines around: it’s sourced from a mysterious firm that’s rumoured to be connected to England’s most celebrated fizz producer, and, at 11 years old, it’s unusually mature. It’s also brilliant: richly savoury with toasty yeasty notes and baked apple pie, with still-steely acidity.

Best buy
Wiston Estate South Downs Cuvée Brut West Sussex 2015
(£40, wistonestate.com; laywheeler.com; swig.co.uk)
Now firmly established as one of the handful of England’s finest sparkling wine producers, Wiston Estate’s wines get better with every year. This vintage blend of pinot noir, chardonnay and meunier is unusually deeply flavoured and pillowy textured but has that distinctive searing English acidity.

Louis Roederer Collection 242 Champagne, France NV
(£52, Waitrose)
A new cuvée that replaces the deservedly popular Brut Premier from the house behind Cristal, Collection 242 quickly erases any disappointment at the demise of its predecessor. A base of 2017 wine blended with older, reserve wines from six vintages, it’s indulgent, glossy, luxurious.

Vouette et Sorbeé Fidèle Champagne, France NV
(from £64.95, thewhiskyexchange.com; Harvey Nichols; vinetrail.co.uk)
If Louis Roederer represents the best of the haute couture Champagne houses, Bertrand Gautherot’s Vouette et Sourbée is one of its finest artisan grower-producers. His Fidèle is a 100% pinot noir of serious dry savoury, red-fruited intensity and fathomless depths.