RAISE A GLASS

Are we really heralding the start of a brand new year? Did I blink and miss 2021?

My wine writing life ticks along with little milestones. One of them is the start of the New Year.

Some of us (hello !!!! ) aren’t too keen to shake off an air of celebration before launching into the annual deep sighs of broken resolutions. If you’re still in that celebratory space, then this wine will bring a glint to your eye, because it is very glinting.

Bottega Gold Prosecco DOC (RRP £24.99, Ocado, Selfridges) is a bottle that looks like luxury; and at that price for a prosecco it needs to be.

If you can’t have goldblinging luxury when we’re surrounded by New Year wishes, hopes and dreams, then when can you?

The wine is a DOC quality – top of the quality ladder for prosecco are bottles marked with DOCG – and so it needs to make a flavour statement to justify the price.

And perhaps it has, winning a nod this year in the Glass of Bubbly Awards. Its pink prosecco sister won a medal in The Prosecco Masters.

It tastes of apple, pears, lemon with floral notes and has an elegant riveting acidity. It’s a conversation starter wine and then one you can’t put down.

Perhaps New Year is heralding alcohol-free resolutions… but you still want fizz. You might want to say “no!” … and instead you could say “Nozeco”!

Because Nozeco Rosé (£3, Tesco) is one of the many no-alcohol wines now on the market. And they’re increasing in popularity.

A wine is produced from grapes and then the alcohol is stripped out using a technical process. This one, from France, is prettily pink with subtle red fruit flavours. It is also vegan (think Veganuary).

Finally for your “no alcohol” perusal, is this new offering from the Co-op. Irresistible Non-Alcoholic Botanical Drink (£10) isn’t at all bad if you love the flavour hit of a gin and tonic.

Of course it doesn’t have the “phew, I needed that” power of a cheeky 6pm working-from-home palate teaser.

Add lots of chunks of ice and tonic to this drink – dressed in gin-style bottle livery – and you’ll find dried herb (rosemary), bitingly crisp green fruit (gooseberry) and sweet spice (cardamom).

I hope 2022 brings you all you could wish for and more.

■ Jane is a member of the Circle of Wine Writers. Find her on social media and online as One Foot in the Grapes.