Competition: Win all 100 bottles

Star buy White

2006 Domaine de l’Olivette, Vin de Pays des Côteaux de Cabrerisse, France, Waitrose, £4.99.

This unusual, organic, limited-edition (scarcely 3,000 cases) white, made predominantly from the grenache blanc grape, topped up with 20 per cent of the Rhône’s rich, spicy marsanne and ten per cent of the rare smoky bourboulenc, is a big food-suitable, concentrated, nutty, smoky star with a very fine, long, peppery, almost apricoty finish.

Star buy Fortified

PX Pedro Ximenez Finest Sherry, Luis Alvarez Garcia, Spain, Tesco, £4.99, 50cl.

A wondrous winter sticky like this is perfect with everything from fruit cake and plum pudding to crème caramel. Made from dried pedro ximenez grapes that yield an amazingly luscious, concentrated liquid which in turn is partially fermented to yield a rich, sweet, intense wine that oozes gorgeous, figgy, moscatel raisin scents and tastes, plus a fine toffee-charged finish.

Whites

2006 Les Fumées Blanches, Sauvignon Blanc, Vin de Pays d’Oc, Domaines François Lurton, France, Majestic, £5.99, down to £4.99 each if you buy two until February 4.
The intense, zesty, herby, gooseberry and white currant fruit of this wine makes it one of the most exciting sub-£5 Languedoc sauvignons I have tasted all year. Proof that southern French sauvignons can be every bit as rewarding as those of northern France.

2006 Finest Chablis, Cuvée Claude Dominique, France, Tesco, down £3 to £4.99 from December 5 to January 3.
This chablis’ superb, smoky, steely scent and ripe, floral, nutty, faintly cheesy palate, coupled with its keen price, was just too good to miss and is well worth waiting for. Almost every supermarket sports a cut-price Christmas chablis, but this one, from the terrific 2006 vintage, vinified and aged in stainless steel,is the sub-£5 bottle to buy.

2006 Muscadet La Régate, Pierre Bonnet, France, Sainsbury’s, £2.99.
The credit for this dirt cheap JS muscadet goes to winemaker Serge de Bucy from Lacheteau-Vinival and Abigail Hirshfeld, Sainsbury’s Loire wine buyer, who joined forces on this tasty blend. Made from cool, fermented muscadet grapes, with the wine aged on its lees to extract extra flavour, this appley, lemony muscadet makes a perky winter aperitif and useful seafood wine.

2006 Sauvignon Blanc, Vin de Pays d’Oc, Vignerons Catalans en Roussillon, France, Sainsbury’s, £3.79.
Ignore the dreary label and dive into this easy-drinking, 12.5 per cent alcohol sauvignon, whose lively, fragrant, grassy yet juicy style is less assertive and acidic than most French whites made from this variety. As such it will have wide festive appeal and will work as well with restrained white meat and fish dishes and punchy salads as it will without.

2006 Vignale Pinot Grigio, Veneto, Italy, Waitrose, £3.99.
Pinot grigio’s streamlined, fresh brown bread-scented spice and light, unoaked, lemony style makes a pleasant, easy-glugging aperitif and accommodating simple white fish and meat dish wine. Vignale’s version is 100 per cent hand-harvested pinot grigio from superior Veneto vineyards, and its light, elegant, thirst-quenching, grapey, lemony fruit will come in handy on many winter occasions.

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