HOGMANAY WHITES

2019 La Vieille Ferme Blanc, Famille Perrin, France

£7.50, Tesco WHILE the label on this wine is rather uninspiring, the flavour is anything but. The meadow flower perfume and gentle fruit notes are delightful and this delicacy and restraint make this a lovely white for mellow sipping. There is no need to cook up a storm with this wine, as it needs no help from food to woo your senses.

2020 Yealands, Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand

£7, Sainsbury’s; £9.50, Co-op; £10.99, reduced to £7.99, Majestic A NEW arrival in the UK, this 2020 vintage is brimming with explosive lemongrass and elderflower fruit. In terms of impact and pungency, the wine is at the opposite end of the spectrum to La Vieille Ferme (above) because it jumps out of the glass and captures your senses.

2018 Vandenberg Chardonnay, Adelaide Hills, South Australia

£11, selected Co-ops VANDENBERG is a curvaceous and succulent Chardonnay — 25 per cent of the blend spends six months in oak barrels, which means it is full-flavoured and main course-shaped. There is a lot of wine here for the money and I note that the label says ‘fortune favours the brave’: Oli Crawford is a brave winemaker and the results are sensational.

2018 Bellingham, The Bernard Series Chenin Blanc, Coastal Region, South Africa £10, Tesco

THE Bernard Chenin is a big-boned, full-flavoured wine which is aged in French oak barrels of which half are new. This makes a big impact on the deportment of this powerful white and it means that it can handle all manner of main course dishes. Nutty, lemony, and indulgent this is a heroic and affordable white.

2019 Cà di Maggio Gavi, Piemonte, Italy £12, M&S

THIS is the most serene and controlled Italian white in the collection and it comes from a great Araldica winery. This is another delightful white which you can sip away at while you chat and cook — saving more forceful and flavoursome wines for food duties. Made from the Cortese grape, this is a posh Italian white for refined entertaining.