WHITES

2007 The Wallops Marlborough Chardonnay, Allan Scott, New Zealand, Hedley Wright (01279 465818), £13.50.Marlborough chardonnay makes a welcome change from sauvignon, and it’s one of the few whites that can take on turkey. I loved this bold, rich, toasty, oaky white’s elegant hazelnut palate. A step up from Scott’s standard range, the Wallops is one of this estate’s prestige wines – the Kiwis’ answer to domaine-bottled burgundy.

2008 Ata Rangi Sauvignon Blanc, Martinborough, New Zealand, Noel Young (01223 566744), £13.79, Wimbledon Wine (020-8540 9979), £15.99. If you want a nippy, refined sauvignon to perk up Christmas palates, this precocious ’08 is the bottle to serve. Martinborough, on the North Island, gets rather overlooked in the Cloudy Bay South Island sauvignon stampede. A pity, as this floral, white peach-stashed, yet herb and gooseberry-laden, wine demonstrates.

2007 Château Doisy-Daëne, Grand Vin Sec, Denis Dubourdieu, Bordeaux, France, The Wine Society (01438 740222), £14.50. My love affair with dry white bordeaux continues, and Denis Dubourdieu’s sauvignon sec, one of the first dry white wines from the Sauternes district, gets my Christmas vote. Much as a luscious barsac from this château will woo festive drinkers, I suspect this powerful, citrussy, oaky white will win out. Makes a superb Christmas Day apéritif.

2004 Chablis Premier Cru, Les Vaillons, Domaine Billaud-Simon, France, Whitebridge Wines (01785 817229), £14.99, Montrachet (020-7928 1990), £17.99. Premier cru chablis pleases on Christmas Day, but most would rather not spend £30 on their bone-dry festive treat. Situated on the left bank of the Serein river, opposite the swanky grand crus, Vaillons nonetheless delivers all the ripe, elegant, leafy, minerally flavour and finesse you would expect.

2007 Domaine Georges Vernay, Viognier, Le Pied de Samson, Vin de Pays des Collines Rhodaniennes, France, Yapp Brothers (01747 860423), £16.95. Precisely the firm I’d expect to have an aristocratic viognier from one of Condrieu’s finest producers – but from vineyards immediately above the steep slopes of the real thing. So you get much of condrieu’s seductive scent and flavour, heavy with spicy, peach and hawthorn-styled fruit, at half the price.

2006 Savigny-les-Beaune, 1er Cru Les Peuillets, Blair Pethel, Domaine Dublère, France, Howard Ripley (020-8877 3065), £17. Love burgundy? It’s high time Howard Ripley was on your speed dial: once again, this merchant has triumphed. 2006 white burgundy is thought by most to have the edge on 2005, and is deemed a top white burgundy year, so compare and contrast this fine, oaky, spicy, sandalwood and hazelnut-spiked wine with the star white.

2006 Salomon Undhof, Von Stein, Grüner Veltliner Reserve, Austria, Lea & Sandeman (020-7244 0522), £18.95. Austria’s finest grüner veltliners marry well with the Christmas feast, as their spicy, sparky, white-pepper flavours can cope with all those rich sauces. 2006, with its Indian summer, was one of Austria’s finest recent vintages, and the rocky, terraced Hund and Danzer vineyards, overlooking the Danube at Stein, produced exceptional quality grapes.

2007 Cometa Fiano, Bianco di Sicilia, Planeta, Italy, Majestic Fine Wine, £25, or buy two for £20 each until December 22. You’ll have to go to Majestic Fine Wine (020-7604 3143 for your nearest branch, or order direct) to grab this gorgeous, scented Italian white. At 14.5 per cent alcohol, this is no shrinking violet and delivers a tremendous thwack of concentrated grapefruit and apricot-layered fruit. Just the ticket with a game terrine or meaty pâté.

2006 Puligny-Montrachet, Premier Cru Les Pucelles, Domaine Alain Chavy, France, Howard Ripley, £23. The big one: a sensational premier cru puligny, at an unsensational price. Les Pucelles is one of the slower maturing of the puligny premiers crus, displaying more festive food-suitable steel and power at this stage than the rest. I loved its lively, lemony, waxy, floral, faintly honeyed, stone fruit-charged style, and so will you.

STAR WHITE 2005 Mercurey Les Bacs, Château Génot-Boulanger, France, Wine Rack, £20.99 or buy three for £13.99 each.Fancy white burgundy at this price is an unexpected windfall, so buy long of this brilliant mercurey from a small estate. It’s lively, yet lingeringly ripe, sweet, hazelnut and glacé fruit flavours make a dreamy festive white. Mercurey is best known for its red burgundies, but given the outstanding quality of this, that could all be changing.

REDS

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