There’s no shortage of good Pinot Noir in California. What there’s a dearth of is California Pinot Noir that’s good value by the time it reaches UK shelves, which makes Ide Alcalde Pinot Noir 2024 from Sonoma County a rarity – it’s not just good value, it’s great value

It's fitting that one of the signature aromas of Kékfrankos, Hungary’s most widely planted red grape, is paprika, the country’s national spice. To me, it often leans more towards pimentón, Spain’s smoked variety, as it does in Tűzkö Kékfrankos 2022, but either way it’s delicious and wholly characteristic. The other key notes are ripe red cherries, softly earthy, spicy oak and freshness

Red Rioja in summer? Sure. Sela is a summery Rioja, although that’s not to say it wouldn’t be just as welcome in the depths of winter. It would. But it’s not the traditional comfort-style of Rioja that depends on oak and age for its character. Sela is new-wave Rioja. Matured for 12 months in semi-new French oak barrels, the fruit really shines

Could the red wines of Cahors finally be having a moment in the UK? I hope so. It feels long overdue. I love the wines now, but I didn’t always. And it’s not because they’ve grown on me, but because they’ve changed greatly for the better in the last 15 or so years.

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.

You may be thinking anything but big reds in the current weather, but Shiraz doesn’t have to be a big beast. This isn’t. Medium-bodied, bright and polished, it’s a classic cool-climate Australian Shiraz and tastes brilliant lightly chilled. It also makes a great barbecue wine.

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.

Georgian wine is having a moment – as is the country’s food, conveniently. One of the main reasons is that however the wines are produced, especially the reds made from the indigenous Saperavi grape, they never lose their distinctive Georgian identity – their authenticity

I took a bottle of Wynns Coonawarra Estate John Riddoch Limited Release Cabernet Sauvignon out of the rack with a couple of other wines a few weeks ago, thinking that at 30 years old (the bottles not me) it was a good time to open them. If nothing else, I really couldn’t expect the corks to hold out any longer. On the cellar tag, I had written, long ago, 1996. It was only when I came to open the bottle that I saw 'Vintage 1986'. So, not 30 but 40 years old

Chianti is a wine I can drink anytime. The best of times, the worst of times, high days, holidays and down days, count me in. This Vignamaggio Terre di Prenzano Chianti Classico 2022 is softly spicy and fragrant with open, sweet, cherry-ish fruit, a wisp of vanilla, and supple background tannins

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.

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.

There are still three weeks to go but, if you’re beginning to think about Easter lunch, this could be your red wine. It’s Rioja, so it’s a comfortably traditional choice, but it’s not wholly traditional Rioja, so it falls into the something-a-bit-different category too

I was torn about which one of the trio of Greek wines under the new Three Bowls label to choose. In the end, I put aside – for now – the pale, dry rosé and the white Assyrtiko in favour of the red Xinomavro from Naoussa, the heartland of this distinguished and distinctive Greek grape variety.

If you like elegantly juicy, lithe, pure-fruited red wines with wild strawberry fruit, subtle spice and sappy, herbal notes, you’ll love Avamposti Cerchi Slarina 2022, an Italian red wine that's also very versatile with food

This is a wonderfully welcoming, approachable red wine, but characterful and distinctive, too: dry, rich and mouth-filling with ripe cherry and dried-cherry fruit. And, along with everything else going for it, Cerasuolo di Vittoria, and especially Santa Tresa’s, is very food-friendly.

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

Kicking off with a very reasonably priced Australian Pinot Noir has to be a good way to start any new year. It should also be a welcome one if you want a lighter red after the heavyweight festivities, or if you want to hunker down in the northern hemisphere, but with thoughts of summer rather than winter

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.

This Rioja Reserva has already featured in my Festive Red Wine Guide 2025, but it’s so good, so appropriate for Christmas and also relatively widely available that I’m revisiting it here