Doesn’t Christmas come around quickly. It only seems like yesterday when I put the 2017 list out, but it has been a good year for wine, and after the 2018 harvest, it looks like we shall have some great years to look forward to.
This Christmas, more than ever, there are stunning bargains to be had, especially with most supermarkets offering 25% off 6 bottles. Goodness knows what offers we shall get next year after a few months out of the EU. Expect the worst and fill your cupboards now!
There are just hundreds of good wines to choose from, good because wine drinkers like you demand good quality, and the competition is huge. Aldi and Lidl have certainly pushed the bar up for good quality wines. I can only recommend the wines I have tried, and then hope you like them.
This list will be in two parts, sparkling and white this week and reds and ports next.
Start the merriment!!
Sparkling
Jules Mignon Brut Reserve Champagne
Excellent champagne from a supermarket with all the classic flavours
Great value from Morrisons at £14 a bottle
Codorniu 1872 Vintage 2016 Brut Cava
Spain
Lovely flavours of citrus and apple with honey and toast finish. Single harvest grapes makes for a cracking aperitif.
Amazing price of £7.99, down presently from £11.99
Taste the Difference Pignoletto Brut
Emilia-Romagna. Italy
A real difference to Prosecco with less sugar and more fruit. Light, dry and a zingy flavour. As you know, I am a great fan of Taste the Difference from Sainsbury’s,
And this really is worth trying. Down presently from £8.00 to £6.00.
Crèmant de Loire Rosé
France
Lovely place producing great sparkling wines from near Anjou. Well-balanced Crẻmant with bouquet of red fruits with a long finish.
£7.99 from Aldi (of course).
White Wines
Exquisite Collection Mâcon-Villages 2017
A white burgundy goes very well with turkey, but usually they don’t come cheap. This is a very good example but very reasonable. Mouthfuls of lemon and floral flavours, a good typical chardonnay.
Another from Aldi at £6.99. I don’t know how they do it!
Craggy Range Sauvignon Blanc 2018
New Zealand
One of the best sauv blancs from New Zealand, really classic stuff, intensely citrus and guava flavours, and in Waitrose, now £10 from £15, but you will have to hurry and this offer ends on the 15th December.
Taste the Difference Côtes du Rhone Blanc 2017
Cracking white from my favourite stable of wines, with exotic, smoky candied peel flavours. Not that well-known, but so worth trying.
Will be down from £8.00 to £7.00 very soon
Late Harvest Tokaji 2016
Hungary
I had to put this gorgeous white dessert wines from the great country for sweet wines. This 50cl bottle is packed with luscious flavours of cooked peach, and is brilliant with all Christmas desserts. In France they often drink this type of wine as an aperitif.
Lovely stuff and at £6.99 from Lidl, pure nectar.
Now… to start tasting the reds. It really is a tough job tasting wines for you to try!!
Pip pip
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