£19.95–£26.75, Master of Malt, Cheers, Cambridge Wine Merchants, Ocado, Bon Coeur Fine Wines, Oddbins Never mind saving this until Christmas, I can't think of a more comforting wine in this cold weather. Late bottled vintage ports simply don't come better than this. Sit by the fire or wrap yourself in a blanket (or both) and soak up its rich embrace of blackberry, fig and black cherry, dark chocolate and mocha, Christmas-pudding spice and velvet-smooth tannins. Like Quinta do

£19.99, Cellar Door Wines, Cambridge Wine Merchants, Street Wines; £69 for 6 en primeur, Tanners Wines An inviting, approachable but cellar-worthy Portuguese red from the team at the Quinta do Noval port estate in an excellent vintage. Generous, perfumed and fruity with floral notes, dark cherry, damson and a touch of liquorice carried by soft, cedar and sandalwood spice, sleek tannins and the energising, mineral lick of wet rocks that is so characteristic of wines, both red

£10.95, The Wine Society This is one of a trio of interesting reds that The Wine Society has just added to its Blind Spot Australian range (the others are a Montepulciano and a Carignan). I’ve written about the thinking behind the range before here but, in a nutshell, they’re wines made from small parcels of top-quality grapes, ferreted out before they disappear into big-company blends. The Society chooses from samples sent by its man down under, winemaker Mac Forbes, and he

£14.50, Tanners Wines It was a hard choice: Tanners Côtes du Rhône, an absolute charmer from the very good 2016 vintage, or this Douro red. In the end I settled on the dark, full-bodied, oak-matured Reserva, partly because it went irresistibly well with a magret de canard and Pyrenees sheep's cheese that I was eating. It's made by Duorum Vinhos with input from Tanners, using classic port grapes led by Touriga Nacional, and is aged in French oak, which gives depth and toasty e

£9.99, Laithwaites I was going to recommend this velvety Portuguese red a while back but it was out of stock everywhere. It’s now available again and every bit as good as it was, and Laithwaites has a next-day delivery option (£8.99 – only £1 more than their standard delivery charge) should you need it for Fathers’ Day or a weekend barbecue. People are sometimes surprised to hear that Portuguese wines are some of the best value around, but it’s because there’s a wonderful arr