This is wonderfully vibrant and refreshing, but with subtle richness, too – and it's from a category that isn’t well known enough in the UK: dry white Bordeaux. If you like white Sancerre, you are sure to like this wine, which is 100% Sauvignon Blanc and unoaked.

This is Loire Valley Cabernet Franc just as it should be, so hats off to the Bougrier family and winemaker Franck Chatelain of Caves de la Tourangelle, the producer of this Saint Nicolas de Bourgueil. It's all the more of an achievement in a year like 2024 because growing seasons don’t come much more difficult.

Rosé may be a much less seasonal wine than it was, but we all need good rosés to drink in the summer. And what a summer this is turning out to be, not least for the weather, and the sport. Here, then, is round-up of rosés to enjoy whatever you are doing and whatever the weather.

Even if you think you don’t need another Chardonnay, trust me, you need Domaine Frédéric Lambert Côtes du Jura Chardonnay 2024. It’s different and it’s lovely. It comes from the Jura, the small, chilly, hilly region in the east of France between Burgundy and Switzerland, and it’s made and aged in a traditional way, spending nine months in oak barrels

White Corbières is not something you see very often, but I didn’t pick Château Ollieux Romanis Racine Blanc 2025 for its novelty value. I chose it because it’s a wine that really sings – refreshingly, generously and expressively, with floral and white peach aromas.

If you didn’t know, you might be hard-pushed to say where this Pinot Noir comes from – the upper Aude Valley is not the best known of wine regions – but you would be having a bad day if you didn’t recognise the grape variety. It’s Pinot Noir to a T, with glistening cherry fruit and silky palate.

This polished, oak-matured Côtes de Bourg shows what good value and sheer drinkability there is to be found in some of the less well known, less glamorous appellations of Bordeaux – especially in an outstanding vintage like 2022. Wth its appealing crimson-purple colour, whiff of violets and vanilla, generous plum and black fruit, its calm tannins, cool freshness and notes of oak-spice, cedar and graphite, Château de Thau 2022 would surely persuade anyone.

It doesn’t sound as if the Easter weekend is going to be the weather for flip-flops, sun shades and barely-there pale rosé, but Tavel rosé is an all-seasons rosé. It’s the only French wine AOP (aka appellation contrôlée) that's exclusively for rosé and it has never been afraid to be out on a limb. In a market that equates pale pink with sophistication and subtle flavour, Tavel is showy pink – sometimes copper-pink – well weighted and full of flavour

What I like about Château Haute-Borie is that it's textbook Malbec from the Cahors region. If you like Argentine Malbec, you’ll like this, but Cahors has a distinctive, more mineral style, together with ripe blackberry fruit and bay-leaf spicy freshness. There’s succulent, ripe blackberry fruit wrapped around the graphite minerality here, with bay-leaf spicy freshness and a hint of cocoa, all quietly underpinned by satin-smooth tannins and herbal length.

The lovely Maris Rare Orange, is a fresh, dry, aromatic orange wine made from Muscat on Bertie Eden’s 45-ha biodynamic Château Maris estate in the Minervois La Livinière appellation

I know it's not spring yet but the aptly named Spring Vouvray is a welcome reminder that it's on its way. Made from Chenin Blanc, as all Vouvray must be, it's a mouthwatering dry white wine with flavours of citrus, quince, apricot and a tantalising undercurrent of honey.

This is a Cahors for fans of Argentinian Malbec just as much as it is for dyed-in-the-the wool devotees of Cahors. It’s a generous, plush style with dark fruit – think sun-warmed blackberries and ripe black plums – woven with classic liquorice, spice and mineral graphite notes

A Viognier with a with a spring in its step from renowned Rhône producer Paul Jaboulet Aîné. This is just the thing if you want a dry white wine to lift your spirits on a wintery day. It has the classic floral and peach-cum-apricot flavours and hint of spice of the Viognier grape, but with zesty citrus fruit giving a fresher, zippier style than many Viogniers

Made from 55-year-old vines at the historic Château de Pizay estate in an outstanding vintage for Beaujolais, this 2023 Régnié is beautifully expressive, with a lustrous deep ruby-red colour and succulent cassis and strawberry fruit. It could be on the table on Christmas day and would make a great red wine for Boxing Day.

Jurançon Sec is a wine that can smell sweet but taste bone dry and be rich in texture but mouthwateringly tangy. Clos de la Vierge Le Carré de Peés 2023 is all these. It smells of honeyed quinces and zingy lime juice

Red Burgundy is never going to be cheap but, if you know where to look, it can be good value, especially from less famous appellations. Domaine Machard de Gramont Hautes-Côtes de Beaune 2023 makes the case eloquently.

The first wine I ever took to my mythical desert island was a Jurançon Sec and I can confidently say that this one-of-a-kind dry white from the far southwest of France will always have a place. It’s a wine that combines riveting juiciness and tanginess with a waxy rich texture

Rébus is a deep coloured, medium-bodied red Gaillac with crunchy hedgerow berry fruit, herbal and black pepper notes and appetising freshness. If you like Loire Cabernet Franc, you’ll like this wine – and it can be paired with seared salmon as well as meat

This Crozes-Hermitage Syrah is a beauty: deep ruby, with floral, spicy, sweet earth and red berry aromas and a palate with the characteristic peppery, iron-oxide Crozes tang complementing succulent, pure, cherry, raspberry and wild strawberry fruit and a fine-boned structure

Gewurztraminer is a difficult wine to get right, especially at a moderate price, but Le Chant des Roses Gewurztraminer gets it exactly right with classic aromas of lychee rose and lokum