Welcome to my round-up of 58 red wines for the 2025 festive season. It's designed to cover all occasions, eventualities and tastes, ranging freely through styles and grape varieties, from classic to contemporary, old to young, and across continents and regions to far-flung corners

This typically dark and inky looking Georgian Saperavi has deep, briary blackberry and damson fruit, peppery, meaty undertones, a whisper of violets and salty tannins softened to just the right degree by brief oak ageing

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

This is a wonderful old-vine red wine made in a traditional way by accomplished oenologists, husband and wine Jorge Serôdio Borges and Sandra Tavares de Silva, at the tiny estate around an old port warehouse that they bought in the Pinhão Valley in the Douro in 2003.

There are currently some massively tempting supermarket offers on this white wine made from the Verdejo grape in Spain's Rueda region. It's an aromatic dry white with citrus, herb and meadow-flower aromas and a palate combining zippy lime with delicate almond, nutty richness.

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.

If you like trying wines that are off the beaten track, I can't wax too lyrical about this dry white made from low-yielding old vines high up in the arid hills of Manchuela in the Calatayud region in the west of Aragón

Wines made from Cabernet Franc often feature as good reds for summer because they can be lightly chilled, but that doesn’t mean they have to be served from the fridge or only in the summer. Finca Lalande The Land Cabernet Franc is a delight when lightly chilled, but it’s a fuller bodied example than many and works well at this time of year and through the winter served at around 17ºC

This double-trophy winning New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is a wine of flawless verve and harmonious flavors and is a great partner for fish and seafood, vegtables and Thai food

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

If summer comes back this year, Tenuta Cappellina Chianti Classico will be just the wine to greet it. If autumn sets in, it will still be just the red to have in your glass.

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

A round-up of rosé wines to blaze a trail into autumn, with some bargains along the way as retailers drop prices to make space for wintery reds.

There aren’t many places in the world where a family-owned and run winery produces wine of this quality at just £6.75, but the Peace family, now into the third generation, is one of Australian wine’s success stories.

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

You might think from the price that this was one of the bland mass-market Vinhos Verdes, but it’s proper stuff – mouthwateringly fresh with green apple, lemon, lime and leafy green herb notes and a dry, crisp palate with the succulence of a little lees ageing

Ringbolt is a classic example of Margaret River’s pure and focused style of Cabernet Sauvignon and it's at a keen price for this premium Western Australian wine region. It's ready to drink now, but you could also cellar it for five years.

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

This is a wine that offers a more unusual, great value alternative to some better known, more expensive red wines, namely Beaujolais-Villages, Pinot Noir and Etna Rosso

If you like Picpoul de Pinet, that zingy, springy dry white from vineyards just inland from the Mediterranean, you’ll love Les Filets Côtes de Thau. And if you like a wine bargain – who doesn’t? – you’ll like it even moreat £8, instead of £10.