18. SWEET WINES

The essential dinner-party accessory, sweet wines remain largely unpopular but I cannot stress enough how much I love this style of wine, and also how much it impresses guests if you take the plunge and serve one with a well-matched dessert.

2017 Coteaux du Layon, Domaine des Forges LOIRE, FRANCE (£10.99, 50cl

bottle, Waitrose) Effortlessly graceful and ever so hypnotic, this is an ancient and hugely respected style of sweet wine, made from the chenin blanc grape variety. With refreshing lemon balm and lightly honeyed fruit, this is not a rich sweet wine, but a very long and sophisticated one that would be sensational with a fruity tart or even a well-selected cheese course. It’s one of the finest and most elegant in this entire feature. 2015 Domaine Lasserre, Jurançon SOUTH-WEST FRANCE (£7, half bottle, Co-op) This is another nostalgic French classic, which you might find in many a Parisian bistro but rarely see on the shelves in the UK. With tangy acidity and a refreshing, fruity palate, it’s as far from a rich sweet wine as you could possibly imagine. I even suggest drinking it as an aperitif, such is its allure. I venture that this will convert every palate to the sweet wine cause. 2014 Morrisons The Best Botrytis Semillon NEW SOUTH WALES, AUSTRALIA (£7, half bottle, Morrisons) Made by Aussie superstars De Bortoli, this is the complete opposite of the two other wines in this section. A heroic, marmalade and honey-soaked beauty, it has one of the richest and most tropical palates imaginable. It is astonishing just how much heady sweetness it can cram into the glass and, as the proud possessor of a very sweet tooth, I adore it – and its price.