Pegasus Bay Aged Release Riesling Waipara, New Zealand 2009 (£19.99, ) It’s very rare to find New Zealand riesling with more than a couple of years of age, but this stunning example shows how much these wines can improve over time. A stylish choice for the main Christmas Day event. Le Morrete Benedictus Lugana, Italy 2019 (£19.95, independent.wine) From vineyards around Lake Garda, this is a beautifully poised and harmonious dry white, bright and full, rounded and soft, with a restrained summer-garden floral scent and lovely fruit concentration. One that is floral, fruity, savoury, nutty, and delicious. Ver Sacrum Geisha Dragon Los Chacayes Uco Valley, Mendoza, Argentina 2020 (£19.95, ) A highly original blend (viognier, marsanne and criolla blanca), made in a highly original way (a portion of the blend is aged under a layer of yeast à la dry sherry), leads to a uniquely delicious, complex dry wine. This exquisitely balanced white burgundy-alike – all clean lines and subtle creaminess – is one for smoked salmon or turkey.ĭomaine Castera Jurançon Sec Jurançon, France 2019 (£17.95, .uk) A superb example of the great south-western French grape gros manseng from the foothills of the Pyrenees, this livewire dry white combines honeyed tropical fruit with a ripple of mountain-stream purity and a grapefruit-citrus tang. Scorpo Aubaine Chardonnay Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia 2019 £17.25 as part of a case, Haynes Hanson & Clark) Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula is a cool-climate hot spot producing some of Australia’s best chardonnay and pinot noir. 1 Sauternes Château Suduiraut Bordeaux, France 2013 (£16.99, Waitrose) Waitrose has teamed up with one of the best producers in the sauternes business, Château Suduiraut, for a flat-out gorgeous, amber jewel of a dessert wine, filled with butterscotch, honey, apricot and superbly tangy crystallised citrus. Susana Esteban Inho Alentejo, Portugal 2018 (from £16, .uk .uk) A wine of enormous character and verve from the talented Susana Esteban, this rounded, ripe apple, melon and pear-scented blend of the local arinto, maria gomes and viosinho from high altitude vines fairly crackles with mineral energy.īEST BUY OVER £10: Waitrose No. Light and filigree, with apple and citrus and the style’s characteristic steely spine of acidity. Max Ferd Richter Riesling Classic Mosel, Germany 2019 (£13.50, .uk) Classic by name and by nature, this is a scintillatingly good dry German riesling from a leading Mosel Valley producer with 300 years of experience. Ormarine Villemarin Picpoul de Pinet Languedoc France 2020 (£9.99, or £8.99 as part of a mixed case of six, .uk) A textbook version of the southern French seafood-matching specialism, Picpoul de Pinet, from vineyards near the oyster beds of the Languedoc’s Étang de Thau, this dry white ripples with breezy freshness and lemon zesty tang for fishy first courses. One to have with any spiced-up leftovers. Made from obscure German variety bukketraube, in a floral, citrus-inflected, tropical-fruited off-dry style. Waitrose Loved & Found Bukettraube Cederberg, South Africa 2020 (£8.99, Waitrose) My Christmas pick from Waitrose’s equivalent of M&S’s “Found” is another offbeat South African. It’s mouth-filling, heady (14%) and weighty with stone fruit but retains a freshening nip: all good for turkey-and-trimming matching. Marks & Spencer Found Grenache Blanc Western Cape, South Africa 2021 (£8, Marks & Spencer) M&S’s range of off-beat “finds” is filled with good things, such as this South African dry white. Ferdinand Mayr Exklusiv Grüner Veltliner Niederösterrich Austria 2020 (£7.75, ) The Wine Society describes this good value white as a “great example of bistro grüner veltliner”, but it works even if you’re not ordering schnitzel somewhere wood-panelled and Viennese: simultaneously leafy, racy, spicy and peachy-juicy.
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