40 OF THE BEST CHRISTMAS WINES BY MATTHEW JUKES WHITES AND SPARKLERS NEXT WEEK MATTHEW’S TOP 20 REDS AND SWEET WINES

PART ONE

It’s crucial to get organised in the run-up to Christmas and the New Year and it won’t surprise you to hear that wine is at the top of my to-do list. Over the next two weeks I’m sharing with you the 40 most exciting wines I’ve picked

out from the best independent wine merchants and supermarkets across the land. This week it’s sparklers and whites – covering all prices from a mere £3.95 to £39. Whether you’re looking for party wines, lip-smacking aperitifs

or dinner party treats, every flavour and style is covered and every merchant delivers to your door. Happy Christmas!

2020 Muscadet, Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie, Le Grand Fief, Domaine de la Chauvinière

LOIRE, FRANCE (£10.65, reduced to £9.40 by the case, hhandc.co.uk) My favourite Muscadet of the year dips under a tenner when you buy it by the case – and you won’t regret doing just that because the flavour is so downright compelling. With hints of sea spray over a linear, ultrarefreshing, green apple core of fruit, this is an elite white for glugging while laying the table, pottering around the kitchen and even doing the dreaded washing up. Whatever your duties this Christmas, this elegant, unoaked white will lift the spirits and put a smile on your face. 2021 Bodega Norton, Colección Sauvignon Blanc MENDOZA, ARGENTINA (£8.99, reduced to £6.99 until 2 January, Waitrose) This bargain sauvignon hails from the high-altitude vineyards of Mendoza, where you ordinarily find red grapes like malbec. Norton is a famous winery and this sauvignon is an absolute star. Citrus, elderflower, fresh green herb notes and a touch of grassiness can all be found on this joyous little wine.

2019 Arbois

Chardonnay,

Florent Rouve

JURA, FRANCE

(£18.99, Waitrose) My quest to find something different this year continues with this wonderful chardonnay. Crafted in the mountainous Jura region, this Burgundy taste-alike is extraordinary. Jura’s sunny yet chilly weather heightens the ripeness while accentuating the cleansing acidity in this jawdroppingly beautiful wine, making

it my elite turkey wine of 2021.

2021 Finest Stellenbosch Chenin Blanc

2020 Finest Falanghina del Sannio CAMPANIA, ITALY (£9, Tesco) This scintillating white is a diva in the glass. With a flavour more suited to Michelin-starred restaurants than supermarket shelves, it is loaded with orange zest, stone fruit and lime leaf notes, and the finish is riveting, with

tanginess and raspiness offsetting the enticing fruit notes. Drink it with seafood, smoked salmon, sushi… just fabulous!

2020 Lenz Moser Selection Austrian Chardonnay

BURGENLAND, AUSTRIA (£5.99, Aldi) Austria might not be the first place that springs to mind when you seek great chardonnay, but this wine is delicious. It is the sunny days and cool Austrian nights that give this chardonnay its dramatic stance and apple theme. Unoaked, crisp and delightfully refreshing, this is a classy apéritif white that does its job with grace and style.

2020 Finest Viñas del Rey Albariño

RÍAS BAIXAS, SPAIN (£9, reduced to £8 for Clubcard holders until 6 December, Tesco) This expressive albariño will draw you in with its alluring perfume and citrus and pear juice notes. Hints of violets and ginger keep the palate on edge, then a silky-smooth mid-palate takes over and rolls on to a neat finish. This beautiful wine can tackle a turkey if needed, but it really adores fish and seafood main courses and even recipes with strident flavours and spices.

SOUTH AFRICA (£7.50, Tesco) South African chenin blanc covers a vast array of flavours from cheap gluggers to intense main course wines. You can take any example under a tenner and put it up against this bottle and this wine will walk away triumphant. Made by the Stellenrust winery, which has a near-100-year history in the Cape, this spectacular creation sees a whisper of oak underpinning its pineapple husk, Comice pear and lemon zest fruit notes. It is a ravishing wine with masses of breeding and poise – and it looks rather smart, too! 2020 Trebbiano d’abruzzo ITALY (£3.95, Tesco) This price is not a typo. I went back to this bottle over and over just to check I wasn’t going loopy and I can assure you this crystal clear, bright-as-a-button beauty is a winner. Dry, clean, fresh, accurate and well-balanced, this tremendous wine will save you a load of cash on any parties you are hosting this Christmas.

2020 Taste The Difference Gewurztraminer ALSACE,

FRANCE (£9, reduced to £8.50 from 15 December until 1 January, Sainsbury’s) The gewurztraminer grape is highly perfumed and very juicy, and this wine, made by the excellent Cave de Turckheim, is bursting with exotic lychee and rose-water notes. While the palate is sleek and gossamer smooth, the finish is not as grapey as some versions due to its perky acidity. Great with spicy food and also rather nice with your Christmas feast, this talented wine gives enormous flavour for your spend.

2020 Masseria Pietrosa, Verdeca PUGLIA, ITALY (£8.50, reduced to £6.50 until 1 January, Morrisons) ’Tis the season for discounts. I always think this wine is a bit of a bargain anyway, so when £2 is pared off it prompts a genuine giggle. Coming from the south of Italy and blessed with richness, a hint of exoticism and a discreet amount of oak nuance, this is a very turkeyfriendly white wine. A main course fellow with an unassuming label, there is so much flavour going on here.

2019 Menetou-salon, Domaine Jean Teiller

LOIRE, FRANCE (£16.95, yapp.co.uk) If you love sauvignon blanc, then my tip of the year is this wine from little-known Menetousalon, just down the road from the most famous sauvignon blanc-producing villages in the world, Sancerre and Pouilly-fumé. It is nothing short of electrifying on the nose and palate, the sort of wine listed at the finest restaurants – at a very different price! This will amaze you with its

elegance and persistence of flavour.

2018 L’atzar, Cava Reserva Brut

CATALUNYA, SPAIN (£11.99, reduced to £8.99 until 2 January, Waitrose) There are a good few cavas that sneak international grape varieties, like chardonnay and pinot noir, into their blends these days – and while I don’t disagree with these recipes, I feel that the wines are somehow more authentic when they use Spanish varieties. Made from parellada, macabeo and xarel-lo grapes, L’atzar is a truly authentic creation, and I think it is the finest-value cava of the year. Fresh, pure and with superbly elegant bubbles, it is a welcome shock to the system – both on the palate and thanks to the incredible value of this wine this Christmas.

2019 Specially Selected Crémant du Jura FRANCE (£8.49, Aldi) Christmas wouldn’t be quite the same without this tremendously priced sparkler. Made from

100% chardonnay, so it is a Blanc de Blancs in technical parlance, this wine comes from the chilly hillsides of the beautiful Jura region of France – and it is this unique situation that gives this attractive wine its piercingly refreshing acidity which underpins the floral, crisp apple and crunchy pear fruit. It is also a terrific wine to use if you are making sparkling wine cocktails.

2018 Gusbourne, Brut Reserve KENT, ENGLAND

(£39, bbr.com, davywine.co.uk; £38.95, fortnumandmason.com, jeroboams.co.uk) Instead of finding you a heavyweight Champagne to top my sparkling wine tree this Christmas, for a change I have chosen the very finest English sparkling wine of the year. Just released, this 2018 from Gusbourne is a monumental wine with so much class and breeding it is staggering. 2018 was a stupendous vintage in the UK, and the Gusbourne winery has captured the energy and vivacity of this year and managed to fit every fractal

of beauty and wonder into this bottle.

2020 Taste The Difference Conegliano Prosecco Superiore Brut

TREVISO, ITALY (£10, reduced to £8 until 1 January, Sainsbury’s) My tasting note for this wine in my notebook is remarkably short! Just two brief expressions sum up the precision of this prosecco and it continues an unbroken run of superb vintages for this wine. ‘Spot on’ and ‘brilliant’ might be a little less verbose than my usual enthusiastic expressions, but at £8 this is a thrilling wine with the silkiest of bubbles and a palate that remains keen and refreshing while so many others slide down the slippery slope into sweetness. This is your emergency sparkler for the 2021 festive season.

NV Taste The Difference, Blanc de Noirs Champagne FRANCE (£21, reduced to £19 from 15 December until 1 January, Sainsbury’s) You will have to put a diary reminder in your phone for Wednesday 15th because this seductive wine will duck under the £20 mark, making it the best value red-grape-into-white-wine sparkler around. I love it when you can smell the pinot noir and pinot meunier fruit on the nose, and here they manifest themselves as wild cherry and

strawberry perfumes. This heavenly theme runs on into the succulent palate and crisp, bright finish. There is enough fruit weight here to drive this wine from apéritifs into your starters and even main course, such is the depth of flavour and persistence.

2020 Prosecco Brut, Conte Priuli Oro, Millesimato

VENETO, ITALY (£20, 150cl magnum bottle, Marks & Spencer)

I usually recoil from over-elaborate bottles, and coloured or decorated glass is rarely if ever going to get me excited, but I have made an exception for this golden torpedo of joy! Made from glera grapes harvested from the two top regions in Veneto, I gave this a mighty score in my notes. Dry and keenly refreshing, it is also massive and golden, so this is one bottle you do not need to wrap as a gift – thus saving a few quid in paper! Hurry along to grab this double-sized bottle because I think it will be one of the unlikely wine heroes of the season.

NV Hattingley Valley, Classic Reserve

HAMPSHIRE, ENGLAND

(£30, reduced to £24 until 2 January, Waitrose) This wine from the brilliant Hattingley Valley winery benefits from 19% of it having been fermented in old white Burgundy barrels, which adds extraordinary class to the finished wine. While it is a non-vintage creation, it certainly sports a ‘vintage’ flavour, and you are left gasping for more. Bold, ripe, classy and the sort of wine that makes you feel extremely proud when you drink it, this is an elite English sparkler and it is tailor-made for top-flight entertaining this Christmas.

2013 Le Mesnil, Blanc de Blancs, Grand Cru

Champagne FRANCE

(£34.99, Waitrose) Like the

Tesco own-label Champagne below, this wine takes its chardonnay grapes from the Côtes des Blancs, but in Le Mesnil’s case it is 100% chardonnay and all the vineyards are Grand Cru classified

– these are the best of the best.

I have loved Le Mesnil’s wines for over 30 years and while the price tag is not cheap, the wines are always extremely impressive and half the price of more famous Houses who use identical ingredients. So this year splash out and reward your very best friends with this refined sparkler.

NV Finest Premier Cru Brut Champagne FRANCE (£21, Tesco) This beautiful wine leads with 70% chardonnay and completes the blend with 30% pinot noir, which changes the flavour stance on the palate and turns this into an upright, commanding and layered wine. Purists will love the tension and apparent grandeur here because it manages to capture all the reputation of the Côte des Blancs in its well-balanced delivery. If I were given this wine ‘blind’, I am not ashamed to say that I would be hanging around the £40 mark and not the £20 zone. Well done, Tesco – this is a highly accomplished piece of winemaking.