NEW YEAR’S EVE REDS

2016 Il Sarmento, Nero d’Avola, Sicily, Italy (£4.99, Co-op) I HAD to ask the Co-op wine team to double check this price for me! I then asked again to be absolutely sure. This is the finest value red wine in the UK today. The flavour is plush, ripe, juicy and delicious and I cannot urge you enough to sprint to the store today if you want to secure stock for your festive celebrations.

2016 Taste the Difference Morador Malbec, Mendoza, Argentina (£8.50, reduced to £7.50 until December 12, magnum £17, reduced to £15 until January 1, Sainsbury’s) I LOVE the fact that this wine is sold in both 75cl bottles and magnums and that both formats are subject to deals, too. In spite of its lowly price, this blackcurrant-soaked malbec sees some French oak, which serves to heighten the fragrant lavender and herb notes and adds impressive complexity to this creation.

2015 Craft 3 Zinfandel, California (£10, Marks & Spencer) IF YOU are after a super-sexy, mouthfilling, turbo-charged red wine, then Craft 3 — made from 92 per cent zinfandel and 8 per cent syrah, with 12 months spent in both French and American oak — is the wine for you. Sleek, velvety, huge and brooding, this is a crazy wine and it will romance your taste buds in a trice.

2016 Crozes-Hermitage, Les Launes, Delas, Northern Rhône, France (£13.99, Co-op) MY TOP red for New Year’s Eve is a sooty, spicy syrah which spends 12 months in large oak barrels in order to bring even more flavour to the fore. Powerful, rich and brooding, this is the perfect wine to match with a heroic selection of cheese.

2015 Rocca Pagliara Appassimento, Puglia, Italy (£10, Marks & Spencer) IF YOU thought that Craft 3 was big, then think again! Made from 60 per cent negroamaro, 25 per cent merlot and 15 per cent primitivo, this intense creation uses a technique which dries the grapes on the vines for 15 days in order to raisin them a touch. This concentrates the flavours and the result is a thoroughly hedonistic red with a cosmic array of flavours.