£13.99/£12./59, Laithwaites A red Bordeaux in a Burgundy bottle without a capsule and label graphics showing a love-you hand squeezing a bunch of grapes was never going to be a conventional Bordeaux. Stand by, then, for generous, bright fruit (sweet plums, blackberries and blackcurrants), fleeting whiffs of parma violets and spicy tobacco and a gentle undertow of refreshing leafiness. Tannin? There's not an elbow or an angle in sight, just glossy curves and mouth-filling, ve

£26.50, Berry Bros & Rudd There is joy tinged with sadness in this week's wine. Let's start with the joy, which is that this is a beautiful wine. Elegant, precise, pure, textural and gently rippling with aromas and flavours of blossom, spicier flowers (marigolds), citrus and minerals, turning to red apple, lychee (just a whisper), orange zest and peach – and all emphasised by the silk-smooth texture and long, fresh, mineral spine. You may find other or completely different ar

£13.99 on offer, Waitrose I said at the beginning of the year that we should all drink more Sauternes and followed with a resolution a couple of days later to drink more dry white Bordeaux as well. This Pessac-Léognan (the superior AOC enclave of Graves) is one of the dry whites I've loved – and it's currently on offer, so there's no excuse not to indulge. It also happens to go well with smoked salmon, if that's on any of your festive menus. It's a barrel-fermented Sauvignon

However different this Christmas turns out to be, wine is going to be at least as vital as usual. Here then is my round-up of red wines to cater for all kinds of occasion during the festive season, or no occasion at all. As always, wines are in 75cl bottles unless stated and are listed in ascending order of price, give or take differences in retailers’ prices and special offers. If you're in the money, you'll know to scroll down and start at the end. A couple of other things

£8 (on offer), Tesco I'm posting this week's wine three days ahead of schedule because it seems a lot more useful to highlight it when there's still time to buy it for Christmas, rather than leave it until Boxing Day (when some people will be more focused on Alka Seltzer than wine anyway). It's made with some input from the technical director of Château Pichon Baron and is the kind of red that gives everyday Bordeaux (aka claret) a good name. The fruit is nicely rounded and f

My round up of red wines to take you through all kinds of festivities - major, minor and in some cases festivities for years to come. As always, wines are listed in ascending order of price, give or take differences in retailers’ prices and special offers (note that offers in stores and online are not always the same). If you're in the money, you'll know to scroll down and start at the end. One big retailer worth a mention is the Co-op: several wines I would like to have reco

£10.50/£11.50, Lea & Sandeman The buyer pointed this out at the autumn tasting as one of the new lines Lea & Sandeman was particularly pleased with. Rightly so – it's great value. The very good 2015 vintage, with its extravagant ripeness, gets it off to a standing start, but there's more to it than plummy, ripe Merlot and soft, easy tannins. There's a mouthwatering brightness to the fruit complemented by notes of spice, blueberry and chocolate and a lingeringly fresh, savoury

Ten years after returning to Saint-Estèphe to take the helm at the family's fourth-growth estate, Basile Tesseron showed the results at a tasting in London and then showed some vintages from his father's, grandfather's and pre-Tesseron eras over dinner Bottles at the ten-year retrospective tasting hosted by Basile Tesseron (right) at Berry Bros & Rudd Bordeaux classed growths vary their blends according to the vintage. Of course they do. Over time they may shift the emphasis

£17.99, Waitrose It may seem unlikely that any sort of Bordeaux wine is underrated or not as well known as it should be, but white Bordeaux, whether dry, elegant and complex like this or lusciously sweet and intense like Sauternes, is neglected by great swathes of wine drinkers. There are signs – just – that the dry whites are starting to pick up speed, but there's plenty of room for more, so here's a wine to convert people. It's made entirely from Sauvignon Blanc, giving th

£9.99, or £8.99 in any mix of six bottles, Majestic Bordeaux Supérieur – everyday claret – doesn't come much better than this, and certainly not at this price. The excellent quality of the 2015 vintage helps, but the Xavier Milhade family, who've owned Recougne since 1938 (happy 80th anniversary), produce good wine every year. The 2015 is polished, perfumed and velvety with rich mulberry, spice, coffee and chocolate flavours, supple tannins and cedary freshness. It's perfect

Fruitless it may be, but I couldn’t help speculating recently how the 2007 Bordeaux red wines would have turned out if this vintage had come a year later or if the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 and ensuing global financial crisis had come a year earlier. The prompt was a ‘Bordeaux 10 Years On’ tasting that fine wine merchant Bordeaux Index generously puts on in London every year. The wines are high-end, largely classed growths up to and including the first growths and t

£14.95, Tanners, tanners-wines.co.uk The name may sound a tad old school, but the wine, I’m happy to say, is not. It’s claret for sure, aka red Bordeaux, but it’s not the old-fashioned, weedy, thin sort that use to fuel gentleman’s clubs at lunchtime (and may still do, for all I know). It’s a supple, rounded blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon aged in barrels for a year to give a spicy oak softness to the mulberry and blueberry fruit, graphite and green pepper flavours. It

Ten red wines to serve with the Christmas feast Wines listed in ascending order of price. I've given a UK stockist (or two) for each, but you can find other stockists in the UK and other countries on wine-searcher.com Cimarosa Carmenère 2012, Colchagua, Chile Crowd-pleasing, fresh, velvet-soft Carmenère with a typical, smoky, green-pepper edge to the blackberryish fruit. A match for turkey, but not up to goose. £6.99, Lidl Domaine Mas Barrau Cabernet Franc 2014, Pays du Gard,

£23.95, worldofzing.com ​ I know, I know, it's not wine, but World of Zing's Negroni is aged in oak barrels that previously held Bordeaux red wine – and, believe me, it's very good. Obviously the judges at last year's Spirits Masters competition thought so, too: they gave it a gold medal. It's made with Tanqueray gin and the classic bitter-sweet taste is given a twist with Zing's Serenity Bitters. Ageing in Bordeaux barrels gives extra depth and complexity, 28% abv. Bordeaux