Early frosts and snow and the game season in full flush call for warming winter reds. Officially, winter does not start until next month, but keeping out the cold with a big, burly, yet comforting red is the way to go with such a sudden seasonal change. Forget about the neo-prohibitionists – the first requisite of a big red has got to be a decent slug of alcohol. So put aside those pale, delicate, sunny-day reds such as beaujolais, which can barely muster 12 per cent alcohol, and crack open a 14-per-cent-plus bruiser with the flavour, weight and warmth needed for winter. Out go spindly grapes, too, such as gamay, merlot and cabernet franc, and in come the heavyweights: syrah or shiraz, zinfandel, pinotage and a host of cockle-warming Italian grapes led by nebbiolo.

I used to find the all-brawn and no-brain reds with alcohol levels of 15 per cent and more hard to stomach. However, at the recent round of high-street tastings, the wines on show at the upper end of the strength spectrum were better balanced than before. Winemakers coping with some of the warmest years ever, with much riper, sweeter grapes, have learnt that along with the extra alcohol, extract, pigment and tannin, more flavour and fruit is needed, too, otherwise these turbo-charged reds are impossible to appreciate, let alone drink.

The New World is the place for blood, guts and thunder, but if you want to ease yourself gently into this style, start with a Rhône red. Syrah is the Rhône valley’s top-dog red grape, but while I adore its full-on bramble and spicy black-pepper taste, some initially hate its cold, raw-potato-scented intensity. In which case, try the softer, warmer, but still alcoholic spice of grenache. The red wines from the southern Rhône appellation of Beaumes de Venise used to be surly, inky brutes. Times change, and the wondrous Cave de Saint Désirat’s fat, velvety, plummy 2007 Beaumes de Venise is a 15 per cent alcohol charmer from Majestic (£7.99, or £6.99 each for two). Another grenache-dominant syrah blend is the same producer’s 14.5 per cent 2007 Lirac – all bold, burly prune-and-plum pizzazz (£7.99, or £5.99 each for two).

Wood-heads crave obviously oaked winter reds, and Asda’s 2004 Extra Special Marques del Norte Rioja Reserva (£8.98), made from low-yielding 30-year-old vines and aged in oak barrels for nearly 2 years, is a ripe, oaky, savoury, chocolatey, winter-stew-suitable treat. Australia’s hefty shiraz is ideal with the boldest game dishes such as venison, and Hensche’s splendid 2005 Henry’s Seven blend heaves with complex, truffley, spicy, burly, 15 per cent alcohol fruit (Waitrose, £14.99). The same price at Wine Rack, or three for £9.99 each, is the gorgeous, perfumed, spicy, sandalwood-scented 2006 Seven Canoes Syrah-Viognier from Hawkes Bay, a Kiwi winter essential.

2008 South African Pinotage, Swartland, South Africa, Tesco, £3.63. Give the Cape’s indigenous workhorse pinotage some tender loving care in a vineyard and winery and even at this price level you can be rewarded with a fat, ripe, spicy, inky mouthful.

2008 Chilean Reserva Sauvignon Blanc, Tesco, £4.69. Chilean sauvignon makes a welcome New World change to that of the Cape or New Zealand, but still with more fruit than France. So try this gently grassy, grapey ’08 from Cono Sur that over-delivers on ripe, zesty, verdant fruit.

2007 Washington Hills Sauvignon Blanc, Columbia Valley, Washington, US, Co-op, £5.99. Washington’s vineyards are almost as far north as you can go before you hit Canada, and this terrific new duo deliver winning cool-climate fruit, with this elegant, floral, leafy, waxy sauvignon a must-have winter white.

2006 Washington Hills Merlot, Columbia Valley, Washington, US, Co-op, £5.99. Masterful Bordeaux-apeing merlot blend, topped up with a dash each of cabernet franc and syrah, serving up lively, ripe, plump, plummy fruit, rounded off with a year in US, French and Hungarian oak.

2006 Château Le Chec Blanc, Graves, Bordeaux, France, Adnams (01502 727222), £9.75. Gorgeous, Bordeaux blanc made from 80-year-old, low-yielding sémillon and muscadelle vines oozing with elegant, ripe, leafy, musky, faintly apricot and peppermint-charged fruit.

2006 The Tattybogler Pinot Noir, Bannockburn Creek Vineyards, Central Otago, New Zealand, Adnams, £14.99. The Forrest family have decamped from Marlborough way down south to Central Otago to make this superb, spicy, gamey and decidedly luscious pinot noir.

jane.macquitty@thetimes.co.uk

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