£17.99 (in any 6-bottle mix), Majestic stores New Zealand Chardonnay is still overshadowed by the country's Sauvignon Blanc, as is every other grape variety and wine style, but the current shortage of Sauvignon after last year's devastating frosts is a perfect opportunity to give the Chardonnays some love. And they deserve it, believe me. The barrel-fermented Nautilus from Marlborough is typically expressive and stylish, capturing the freshness of a salty sea breeze and the s

£8.99, Majestic Getting the balance right between oak and fruit in barrel-fermented white Rioja has eluded many a bodega over the years, partly because Viura (aka Macabeo), the principal white grape variety of the Rioja region, can be a bit neutral and low in acidity. This blend of Viura with 20% Garnacha Blanca gets the balance just right. The inviting, softly nutty oak allows the fresh, sweet apple and pear fruit to shine. Three months on lees has given a polished, creamy t

£17.99, Majestic I don't know where I would have thought this was from if I was tasting it blind, but you can be pretty certain I wouldn't have identified it as a vineyard in Essex vinified in Devon. And even if I'd hit upon England, I doubt I would have identified it as a product of the frost-devastated 2017 vintage. It goes to show how local and uneven frost can be: Martin's Lane Vineyard escaped most of the damage and the rest of the season was favourable enough for the ha

£9.99, Adnams Bright, pure, succulent, supple and fresh with proper concentration and yet a lightness of touch – hallmarks of Susana Balbo, a leading winemaker, consultant and inspiration to the Argentine wine industry since the 1980s. It's her son José who now leads the winemaking at El Dominio del Plata, the family estate in Mendoza's high Lujàn de Cuyo region, so he can take credit for the blackberry and black-pepper depth, satin texture and subtle oak of this Malbec, but

£15.99, or £12.49 in a mix of 12 or more, Laithwaites Argentina nailed its red wine colours to the Malbec mast years ago, but it’s also turning out in much smaller quantities some very smart Cabernet Francs. Exhibit number one: Fabre Montmayou Reservado, made by Bordeaux ex-pat Hervé Fabre who has recently added three estates in Cahors, Malbec's French motherland, to his Mendoza and Patagonia portfolio. His 2015 Reservado Cabernet Franc combines depth and complexity with typi

£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

£15.99, or £13.99 in any 6-bottle mix, Majestic This is a best of both worlds Pinot Noir – cherry and raspberry perfume and fruit, gentle earthy sweetness, almondy spice and supple texture, making it Burgundian in style but with a touch more of the sweet fruit and flesh you find in new world Pinots. In fact it comes from neither place, but is made by a Burgundian, Laurent Delaunay, in the region he thinks has what it takes to make the best Pinot Noirs in France outside Burgun

£20, Oddbins and oddbins.com Dazzlingly good Viognier from a winemaking paradise in the foothills of spectacular mountains deep in the south of South Africa. Or, to put it another way, a winemaking paradise in the middle of nowhere, three hours’ drive from Cape Town. The Age of Grace Viognier, from vineyards in the cool, high-altitude Elgin region, has a touchstone floral perfume – a combination of jasmine and honeysuckle – and flavours of white peach and apricot wrapped arou

£16.99/£14.99, Majestic Godello grows in the far north west of Spain, like the better known Albariño, except that Godello's stronghold of Valdeorras is inland from Albariño's damp, coastal heartland of Rías Baixas. The wines they produce aren't a million miles apart in style. Both are aromatic, often with peach, citrus and mineral flavours, but Godello has more richness and flesh, which can make it a deal more satisfying than a bog-standard Albariño. Cuvée O combines peach an

£7.99 in a 6-bottle mix This was so nearly a £15 red, but someone at the winery felt inspired to add some grapes from outside the designated Toro region to give the wine a bit of extra freshness and someone decided to send it outside the region for bottling, neither of which is an option for DO (denominación de origen) wines. So it has ended up as a bargain Vino de la Tierra. It has the power of a Toro, the chocolaty spice and smoothness of maturation in oak barrels and a hea

£15.75, Oddbins I feel a bit of traitor choosing this Malbec when I’m more or less within spitting distance of the grape variety’s home territory of Cahors in southwest France. It’s not even as if Malbec is a speciality of New Zealand, as it is of Argentina. In fact it’s pretty unusual to find it solo in New Zealand: it’s much more often added to Cabernet and Merlot to beef them up a bit. Anyway, this wine is too good not to recommend it. In a way, it’s a halfway house betwe

£8.75, Oddbins I love the heady blossom and peach aromas of this organic white and its peaches-and-cream flavour and soft citrus-zest freshness, but Viognier isn’t always one of my favourite grapes. It can be a bit like the nursery rhyme: when it’s good, it’s very, very good, and when it’s bad it’s horrid. In the wrong place it turns from aromatic beauty to flabby plodder almost overnight. What Viognier likes, and gets in the cooler parts of Chile’s Central Valley, is a good

£7.49 in any 6 bottles, £8.99 per single bottle, Majestic Godello may sound like a character in a Mozart opera but it’s a high quality white grape grown in Galicia in northwest Spain. It’s often compared to Galicia’s better known and more fashionable Albariño: there are similarities, but Godello is richer and more mineral. The good value Caixas (caixas are the crates the freshly picked grapes are put into) starts with a grapefruit zestiness, fills out with creamy peach-skin a

£10.99, Wine Rack I’ve chosen a new-wave red wine from China to mark Chinese New Year on Saturday. The alternative would have been a zingy, off-dry Riesling from Europe, the southern hemisphere or North America to match a variety of seafood, vegetable, dim sum, rice and noodle dishes, but I wanted to highlight the quality and style emerging from this vast new world of wine where Cabernet Sauvignon is king. This one, from vineyards planted around a dozen years ago in the fast-

£9.75, Oddbins The 2015 vintage was brilliant for Beaujolais, from straight Beaujolais to the ten appellations in their own right at the top, the so-called crus such as Fleurie and Morgon. Henry Fessy is the only producer to make wine in nine out of the ten, but the 2015 cru wines won’t be ready for shipping until next year. In the meantime, the generous, strawberry-perfumed Beaujolais-Villages (a step up from straight Beaujolais) is here and ready to drink, although even thi

£14.99, or £12.99 in a 6-bottle mix, Majestic Seems odd that this is the first white Burgundy I’ve recommended here. I’ve homed in on Chardonnays from other regions but neglected it in its homeland. Time to put that right with the zingy candied-citrus fruit, rich buttery texture, walnut and vanilla flavours of Domaine Cordier’s Jean de la Vigne. Christophe Cordier could label this Mâcon-Villages instead of Bourgogne if he wished, but chooses not to because his wine has so muc

£11.99, or £8.99 in any 6-bottle mix, Majestic Most red wine is drunk too warm, but people are reluctant to put it in the fridge for the 30 minutes or so that would bring it down to a more flattering 15–18ºC, rather than around 22ºC (restaurants and bars are even worse – don’t let me start on that). The fear is that the wine will emerge unpleasantly cold or somehow damaged. In 30 minutes it won’t unless your fridge temperature is exceptionally low, but the label of this suppl

£16, Oddbins There are lots of misconceptions about red burgundy, two of the most glaring being that it’s a full-bodied wine and always costs an arm and a leg. The best red burgundies are fascinating and complex in flavour but never heavyweights. They can’t be cheap, not least because of the tiny quantities they’re made in, but there are alternatives to the hallowed names. From the right grower, burgundies bearing the simple Bourgogne designation can be beautifully pure and g

£14.95, The Wine Society; £17.99, or £15.99 when you buy any 6 bottles, Majestic If you want a red wine that goes down well with lovers of classic claret as much as with fans of new world reds, this Bordeaux-style blend from New Zealand is just the ticket. It’s mainly Merlot, but with some Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Malbec, and it’s matured in expensive French oak barrels in the same way as a classy Bordeaux (aka claret). The result is dark, ripe fruit edged with

£9.99, or £7.49–£7.99, when you buy any 6 bottles, Majestic Let’s show the Carignan Blanc grape a bit of love. Mas Lavail’s Carignan is a beautifully rounded, full, southern white with spicy citrus, herb and apricot flavours and a dry, refreshing finish – and it’s practically given away at the offer price (until midnight, Monday). I don’t know why white Carignan is such a neglected grape variety, except that it’s very susceptible to mildew, which can’t endear it to growers, b