This week: 25 best wines under £12

WHITES

2007 Chablis, Daniel Dampt et Fils, France, Haynes Hanson & Clark (020-7584 7927), £11.60 or £10.33 each by the case.
Summer is the season for chablis, as its bone-dry, flinty fruit is terrific with fresh crab and wild salmon. 2007 may lack the complexity of previous chablis vintages, but its strident youthful flavours more than make up for that, and I loved this one’s fragrant, lemony style with lots of juicy, faintly cabbagey fruit on the finish. Bravo.

2007 Chablis, Domaine Séguinot-Bordet, France, Montrachet (020-7928 1990), £11.95.
Jean-François Bordet’s tart, leafy, zippy chablis works equally well as an apéritif or fishy white. Chablis is the white burgundy style that New World winemakers find impossible to mimic, and this crisp, mouthwatering 2007 neatly illustrates why. Bordet is convinced using horizontal rather than standard vertical fermentation tanks gives his wines extra flavour and richness.

2005 Rully, Domaine Rois Mages, Anne-Sophie Debavelaere, France, Private Cellar (01353 721608), £11.55.
Anne-Sophie Debavelaere is new to the wine game and without formal training, but anyone tasting this rich, creamy, lemony white burgundy with its fine oaky finish would never know. Debavelaere follows the “lutte raisonnée” or minimal intervention route, and with a lesser white burgundy like this as good as it is, I am keen to taste her reds.

2006 Ampelidae Le S, Vin de Pays de la Vienne, France, Waitrose, £9.99.
Ampelidae’s 50cl bottles were a great addition to Waitrose’s wine list earlier this year; now this fancy low-yielding sauvignon from the Loire is sold in standard 75cl bottles. Frédéric Brochet farms organically, harvests at night and barrel ferments one third of Le S’s grapes, which explains the rich, verdant, grassy, greengage-charged flavours of this impressive white.

2006 Domaine du Petit Val, Coteaux du Layon, Denis Goizil, France, Tanners (01743 234455), £8.45.
It’s that year again, noted Tanners buyers of this tasty Anjou white, and indeed the 2006 vintage created as many duds as delights in this region. Fortunately, this Loire white is the latter, and less heat at vintage time has created a softly as opposed to rampantly sweet white with a ripe, verdant, gently honeyed style and an apricot and lemon-licked finish.

2007 Salomon-Undhof, Wachtberg, Grüner Veltliner, Austria, Lea & Sandeman (020-7244 0522), £9.95 down to £9.25 for Times readers until July 5. “Wachtberg in Krems” says the back label, and this superior grüner veltliner, from a top producer and top area for Austria’s most important indigenous white grape, sings. The best grüners are renowned for their light, lively, floral, zesty, white pepper-spiked spice, and this precocious 2007 has all that and more.

2007 Piesporter Goldtröpfchen, Riesling Kabinett, Weingut Kurt Hain, Germany, Tanners, £9.50.
No summer selection is ever complete without a really good, single-estate, kabinett-level German riesling. Proper piesporter goldtröpfchen riesling comes from a suntrap amphitheatre vineyard and Kurt Hain is one of its greatest growers. All of which helps explain why this is such a thrilling, elegant, zesty, lemon sherbet dab of a white that is best drunk solo.

2007 Wither Hills, Pinot Gris, Marlborough, New Zealand, Waitrose, £9.99.
Wither Hills has had its ups and downs over the years, most notably with inconsistent bottles of its 2006 sauvignon blanc. Never mind. All that is behind the winery now, and this gorgeous, soft, spicy, floral, exotic rose-scented, almost Alsace-like pinot gris is a triumph. This aromatic white is perfect served cool with summer stir-fries and the like.

2007 Hunter Valley Verdelho, Fox Hollow, Bruce Tyrrell, Australia, Marks & Spencer, £9.99.
Verdelho is a traditional but relatively unsung Aussie white variety. This classic Hunter white is made by Tyrrell’s, one of the valley’s oldest wineries, and though at 14 per cent-plus alcohol it is heavier than some might wish for, with so much spicy, lime juice-redolent style it’s the perfect white to go with hefty summer dishes such as coronation chicken.

2007 Pauletts Polish Hill River Riesling, Clare Valley, Australia, Majestic, £9.99 or buy two bottles for £8.49 each until July 28.
The Clare valley is home to some great rieslings; this impressive bottle is named after the Polish settlers who arrived here in the 1800s. Cool nights and a long growing season produce exceptional night-harvested rieslings with this tongue-tinglingly zesty, lime peel-spiked white a wonderful addition to summer swigging.

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