2006 La Basca Uvas Blancas, Spain, Marks & Spencer, down £1.50 to £3.99 until October 1. M&S has a good run of September steals from Europe and the New World, and this fat, spicy, verdant, principally verdejo-based Spanish white from wine whizz kid Telmo Rodriguez is one of them.

2006 Palacio del Marques Tempranillo-Syrah, Spain, Marks & Spencer, down £1.50 to £2.99 until October 1. La Mancha’s wines have changed mightily over the past two decades, like this new-wave red, where the tempranillo grape is lifted by a splash of syrah to deliver ripe, plummy, exotic fruit.

2004 Wild Rock Gravel Pit Red, Merlot-Malbec, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, Waitrose, down £2.50 to £7.49 until September 30. Traditionalists will particularly appreciate the elegant smoky scent, sweet, grainy red fruits and ripe velvety finish of this classy 14 per cent alcohol Kiwi red from one of the country’s prime red wine spots.

2005 Errazuriz Estate Sangiovese, Chile, Waitrose, down £1.75 to £5.24 until September 30. Transport Tuscany’s top red wine grape, sangiovese, to South America and this is what you get: a glorious, fine, fat, violet-scented briary red, underpinned by Chile’s creamy, creosote-spiked fruit.

2005 Bourgogne Cuvée Oligocène, Patrick Javillier, France, Lay & Wheeler (0845 3301855), £14.49. This humble bourgogne blanc from a great year, good terroir and a reliable producer oozes elegant, scented, steely, hazelnut, lemon and glacé fruit spice, and punches well above its appellation.

2006 Langhe Arneis, Bricco Cappellina, Gianni Voerzio, Italy, Lay & Wheeler, £12. The perfect summer-into-autumn white has lots of nutty, stone fruit-layered complexity from the arneis grape grown in a prime Piedmont spot, Langhe, and is shot through with lively, zesty, lime peel-redolent flavours.

Times Recommends

• Champagne cocktail
• Food that's good for body and soul
• Joe McCanta’s never-fail hangover-relief shake