My round-up of white wines from around the globe to cover Christmas and all the other festivities from simple supper to a big splash that demands something like a smart white Burgundy. It's always more difficult to find cheap white wines with something to say for themselves than it is to find inexpensive reds with some character, but the ones below should do the trick and I've also thrown in a keenly priced pale rosé from New Zealand. Wines are listed in ascending order of pr

The first of the season's round-ups of recommendations is sparkling wines, from far and near but not Champagne – that gets its own show soon. Give or take special offers, they're in ascending order of price, except that this year I've given English sparkling wines their own zone (scroll down). Their quality warrants it. I'd like to have included more, but wanted to keep numbers manageable. One wine I intended recommending is out of stock, but it's worth noting for when it's b

£10.35/£9.20, Haynes Hanson & Clark This is beautifully expressive, unoaked cool-climate Chardonnay – both vibrant and generous, with citrus, white blossom and fresh bay leaves on the nose and a textured palate suffused with quince, lemon and a briney, grapefruit-zest finish. It's from Christophe Réthoré's 42-hectare estate in the heart of the Pays des Mauges, an area between Muscadet to the west and Coteaux du Layon to the east, and it's a selection of his best parcels on sc

£14.99, Majestic Welcome back, Majestic. After we nearly lost the pioneering wine warehouse chain altogether earlier this year, it’s good to see it not just hanging on but bouncing back with a revitalised wine range that recalls its heyday. Stalwarts such as the gorgeous Inama Soaves have been joined by old favourites that had been dropped, among them Château Caronne Ste-Gemme, and boosted by a raft of captivating new wines, of which this Chenin is one and the light, lip-smac

£34/£27, Tanners Wines I wasn't planning to do Champagne this week, but now is the time to stock up on this Joseph Perrier. The current tempting offer price of £27 when you buy two or more ends in 10 days' time on 28 October. I hadn't tasted Cuvée Royale for a while and was hugely impressed. It's vivacious and elegant yet generous, too, and beautifully balanced, with a floral note on the nose and lemon curd and toast on the palate. It's a more or less equal blend of the three

£15.50–£15.95, Great Western Wine, NY Wines I'm not a notably seasonal drinker – it's more of a case of whatever I feel like whenever – but I do think this white Rueda resonates especially well at this time of year, when it's certainly not summer, but by no means winter either (or perhaps I'm just finding excuses because I like the wine so much). The Verdejo grape's natural citrus, pear, bay leaf, delicate almond nuttiness and freshness have been cosseted by ageing the wine o

£14, The Daily Drinker A weighty, characterful dry white made from Cayetana Blanca, an old variety that goes under a variety of names in both Spain and Portugal (among them Pardina, Jaén Blanco and Mourisco Branco). Apparently, a lot of Cayetana is used for Brandy de Jerez. I can only hope it's not grapes of the quality that have produced this wine, which is made from 40-year-old vines in the DO of Ribera del Guadiana in Extremadura, southwest Spain. The aromas are quite low-

£12.80/£10.60, Tanners Wines This wonderfully original and delicious dry white is from a family-owned and run organic estate in Corbières that has been in the family since 1750 (I love that kind of continuity). Although it’s in the Corbières region, the wine bears the simple classification Vin de France because it’s made from an array of grape varieties, including several non-traditional: Petit Manseng from southwest France, one of my favourite white grapes, out in front at 3

£19.99, Selfridges Visiting British Columbia’s breathtaking Okanagan Valley for the first time last year was one of the most eye-opening wine trips I’ve been on. There’s so much more to Canadian wine than Ice Wine. Read more about my trip here, but don’t stop at that: check out the wines Selfridges has this month in its special focus on Okanagan and Canadian wine. I could have chosen any number of varieties for this week’s wine (Grüner Veltliner, Pinot Noir…) but I’ve chosen

£13.40, Tanners Wines I don't think I can come up with two more refreshing still wines for hot weather than dry Riesling and Assyrtiko. I’ve made the Clare Riesling my Wine of the Week, but I recommend the Barry’s family’s Assyrtiko, too. It’s the follow-on vintage to the 2016, the first Assyrtiko not just in Australia but anywhere outside Greece (there's more about it here and see picture below). The 2017 is juicy and fruity with softly smoky lime and lemon flavours and pith

£24.50, Berry Bros & Rudd Considering that Chablis is one of my desert-island wines (on my increasingly chocca island) I’m astonished to find that this is the first to occupy the Wine of the Week slot in nearly four years. I could, of course, have found a cheaper one to recommend, but Le Domaine d’Henri’s Saint Pierre is, to me, the quintessence of Chablis – an exhilarating oyster-shell freshness and flavour, a savoury nuttiness that owes almost everything to Chardonnay and l

£8.95, The Wine Society Mouthwatering, juicy quince, apricot and citrus fruit, supple texture and zingy acidity – the latest vintage to be released of an old favourite from one of France’s least well-known appellations, Saint Mont in Gascony, southwest France. Here the admirable quality-focused Plaimont co-operative specialises in rediscovering and restoring production of old, indigenous grape varieties, both red and white – in this case white Gros Manseng, Petit Courbu and A

£19.95, Corney & Barrow Much as I love discovering quirky, unsung grape varieties, I've never given up on Chardonnay. I love it – good Chardonnay from anywhere in the world. New Zealand makes beautiful, complex, bright Chardonnays, but they often struggle to get the recognition they deserve under the weight of the country's Sauvignon Blanc. Time, then, to take a look at this one from Hawke’s Bay – and, in case anyone thinks it represents any kind of conflict of interest, time

£16.99, waitrosecellar.com and 8 stores Sémillon is in decline pretty well all over the world, often losing out to the more aromatic, feisty Sauvignon Blanc. Sémillon is still big in Bordeaux, of course, giving the world exceptional botrytis sweet wines, but as a dry wine it's just not in vogue. And yet it can be wonderful, with flavours not unlike Sauvignon, but more muted, and a distinctive, rich, lanolin-like texture. With age, it often develops a nutty or toasty character

£12.99–£15, All About Wine, Strictly Wine, Corking Wines, Whole Foods, Harrods, Handford Wines Unless you've had this wine before, I can confidently say that you've never drunk a Merwah. Château Ksara, Lebanon's oldest and largest winery, is the first to release a wine made entirely from this centuries-old, indigenous white grape variety (it's been suggested that it could be a local clone of Sémillon but without DNA testing there's no way of knowing). Ksara's Merwah vines are

£20.50/£18.50, Lea & Sandeman Savennières from a favoured vintage and good producer is an absolute treasure – dry and mineral, yet honeyed, especially after a couple of years' age, and always carried by pivotal acidity. The appellation is just west of Angers on schist hills on the north bank of the Loire and 2016 was a year in which frost wreaked havoc, but for the vineyards that were spared it closed on a high with a sunny, warm late summer. The result is intensity of flavou

£11.95, Davy's Portugal isn't as known for its dry white wines, other than Vinho Verde, as it deserves to be. Dão is certainly much more familiar for its reds, but this branco is exactly what I like about Portuguese whites: medium-full and quite succulent with a lip-smacking, almost bracing salty mineral character, juicy lime and herb flavours and a hint of spicy white pepper. The grape varieties are Encruzado, Malvasia and Verdelho and part of the key to the wine's quality a

£6.66 on offer, Marks & Spencer (stores only) This is made for M&S by Boekenhoutskloof, a winery that never seems to put a foot wrong, whether it's producing its cult red, The Chocolate Block, or the good value, dependable Porcupine Ridge range. The Bohoek Semillon, reduced to £6.66 from £10, is practically being given away. It's from old vineyards dating back to the 1900s, which means small crops but with the benefit of intense flavours (all the more reason to marvel at the

£7.99/£9.99, Majestic Pinot Blanc, or Bianco, is one of those grape varieties that has a bit of a B-list image, certainly in Alsace where it plays second fiddle to Pinot Gris, not to mention Riesling and Gewurztraminer, but where it's especially valued, such as in Goriška Brda in the far west of Slovenia by the Italian border, it can give wines full of charm. Witness this deliciously approachable, fresh dry white, with its gentle citrus and jasmine perfume, soft citrus and re

£13.75–£13.95, The Daily Drinker and Corney & Barrow I chose a dry Furmint as my Wine of the Week in November and make no apologies for choosing another. This cheaper one is a great introduction to a grape variety, which, as I said then, "is up there with the best". It's also timely: Furmint is being promoted in London this month by Wines of Hungary UK, under the banner Furmint February. I tasted it with a slew of other good examples at the trade tasting that kick-started pro