£10, Tesco
For those people who still need a red wine for the Christmas Day feast, I've picked this Cape Cabernet Merlot because it's versatile enough to go with most of the main Christmas options and should appeal to a wide audience.
It's a full-bodied, poised and balanced blend of just over 60% Cabernet Sauvignon with Merlot, Cabernet Franc and a smidgen of Malbec, bringing together cassis fruitiness, currant-leaf freshness, smooth dark chocolate and savoury black tapenade flavours with polished oak and supple tannins. The clean-lined purity is impressive at the price.
As I say, it's adaptable with many Christmas main courses, although I would probably exclude salmon from the list unless the cooking involves red wine or wrapping it in something like prosciutto or pancetta. But it can handle turkey with its multitude of trimmings and side dishes, it can be paired with with beef, lamb, venison, pork or duck and is good with an array of vegetable and cheese dishes. With stuffed roast goose, which is what I serve on Christmas Day, I usually pick more mature reds, but the Vergelegen has no abrasive young tannins, so it would work (you can read my thoughts on matching wine to goose here). 14%. Bottle weight: 572g
Vergelegen Premium Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot 2018, Stellenbosch, South Africa
£10, Tesco