80 FESTIVE OF THE BEST WINES FROM JUST £5

TODAY, I’m bringing you a fabulous collection of wines to enjoy during the festive season. I’ve tasted thousands of bottles and managed to find some real stars for you to enjoy. With these beauties in your glass, you are guaranteed to have a very classy and delicious Christmas. It pays to be picky when choosing wine because there are a lot of dreary bottles out there. But I admire the way some of the more inventive wine buyers have found some superb bottles for us this year and I’ve listed the very best to suit all budgets. As always, as soon as this list is published, there will be a rush to snap up these wines, so don’t delay and plan ahead. With terrific wines, starting as inexpensively as £4.50, you can be assured that I have pinpointed only truly elite bottles – so stick to the 80 wines on these pages for your festivities and you can’t go wrong. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! NV Prosecco, Romeo & Juliet, Treviso, Italy (£11.99, reduced to £7.99 each until December 11, and then £9.99 each until January 1 for a Mix Six deal, Majestic) ASIDE from the gorgeous label, which will surely summon up some romance from even the most stony-hearted of Scrooges, this is a delightful wine with bright citrus fruit and a fabulous prickly palate. At the deal price this is a superb buy and will get the party well and truly started. NV Tesco finest* 1531 Blanquette de Limoux, France (£9, Tesco) I HAVE championed this wine for a good few years now and it never fails to impress. Made from the little-known mauzac grape with 10 per cent chardonnay and chenin blanc, and a deft touch of oak, you are in the presence of a lovely and rather racy sparkler. At this price, few sparkling wines add this much flair or bite. This smart bottle has both. NV Sainsbury’s Brut Champagne, France (£18, Sainsbury’s) LISTEN in friends, because this is a very accomplished wine indeed and it might escape your attention on the shelves. The new arty label signals a wine with ambition and it is more than surpassed by an elegant champagne. Made from 40 per cent chardonnay, 40 per cent pinot meunier and 20 per cent pinot noir, and aged for three years before release, this gets the full treatment at a bargain price for champagne. NV Hattingley Valley, Classic Cuvée, Hampshire (£30, reduced to £24 until 23 January, 19 branches of Waitrose & waitrosecellar.com) THIS is one of my favourite English wineries’ most beautiful wines. The 70 per cent pinot noir, 30 per cent chardonnay blend is treated to a smattering of barrel fermentation which adds gravitas and style. This is a world-class beauty that sits atop my Christmas Eve sparklers. 2016 Clara Hills, Albariño, Rías Baixas, Spain (£6.58, Asda) INEXPENSIVE albariño has no right to taste this zesty and invigorating. Spain’s most revered white grape usually needs a few more pounds to get going, but this refreshing beauty ticks all the boxes, including the inexpensive one. Hints of tropical fruit hover over a bone-dry core. A lovely little white for all occasions. 2016 Pinot Grigio, Friuli, Italy (£8, Marks & Spencer) THERE is a distinct lack of design and certainly no boastful assertions on this label, but you could cover this wine in superlatives because it is a classic pinot grigio, with tangy citrus fruit and a really chic feel throughout the aroma and flavour. If you are after the real thing, with discretion and style, then this is it. 2016 Taste the Difference, PouillyFumé, Loire, France (£12.50, Sainsbury’s) THE word fumé doesn’t refer to smoke, but flint or old-fashioned gunsmoke. This flintiness is so important in the Pouilly’s vineyards and gives these mineral-soaked, citrusy sauvignon blancs their unique flavour. Very dry, very lean, but oh so sophisticated, this is a lovely version of an iconic wine flavour. 2016 MâconVergisson, Les Rochers, Domaine Guerrin & Fils, Burgundy, France (£12.40, Tanners, 01743 234455 & tannerswines.co.uk) THIS is one of my favourite white burgundies of the season at a competitive price. With lush chardonnay fruit and masses of flair, I venture that it will turn out to be one of the most delicious chardonnays of the year. 2016 Felsner Moosburgerin, Grüner Veltliner, Niederösterreich, Austria (£11.99, reduced to £8.99 until December 26, Waitrose) THERE is a delicacy and succulence about this grüner that starts from its gentle pressing in the winery and continues all the way to our glass. Keenly acidic but juicy on the mid-palate, this is a lovely, complex aperitif wine for budding connoisseurs. 2016 Tesco finest* Greco Beneventano, Campania, Italy (£9, Tesco) MADE by the great Feudi di San Gregorio winery, this is a triumphant white. Weighing in at a tidy 13.5 per cent, it ramps up the drama on the nose with green apple notes and again on the zesty finish. This shows just how delightful the greco grape is. It’s perfect when paired with seafood starters.