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Aperitif: Bruno Paillard Brut Rosé NV Première Cuvée

When it comes to wining and dining, there’s just no beating Champagne to kick the evening off. What’s more, a rosé version like this one really adds a hint of romance and decadence to proceedings. It’s an elegantly presented bottle with a delicate rose-pink colour. It’s not too heavy a style so slips down very easily as a pre-dinner drink, with flavours of red fruits, cream and a touch of honeycomb. Perfect for getting everyone in the mood for a bit of fun.

Type: Sparkling wine

Country: France

Region: Champagne

Grape variety: Red blend

Style: Bone dry

Alcohol: 12%

Try with: Aperitif

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With the mushroom risotto: Saint-Veran 2005, Rives de Longsault, Domaine des Deux Roches

These days it is very difficult to find good white Burgundy at a reasonable price. While this one isn’t cheap, it certainly offers superb value for money – in my book it is better than many wines at twice the price. Being from the southern end of Burgundy, around the town of Macon, this white is quite full-bodied and rich in style. But that’s just what you need with a full-flavoured dish like mushroom risotto. The flavours are a beautiful combination of nutty, buttery notes with ripe apple and fresh citrus acidity.

Type: Still white wine

Country: France

Region: Mâconnais

Grape variety: Chardonnay

Style: Bone dry

Alcohol: 13%

Drink before: End of 2008

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With the fillet steak: “The Hundred” Cabernet Sauvignon 2004, Coonawarra

The wine world is your oyster when it comes to choosing a succulent, juicy red to partner a fillet steak. Australia’s Coonawarra is well known for producing a style of red that bears a passing resemblance to Bordeaux, with its savoury flavours of roasted peppers, cassis and tobacco. This one’s a full-bodied wine, though, with all the juicy flavours you’d expect of the New World, and as such really brings out the best in the meat. Great price, too.

Type: Still red wine

Country: Australia

Region: Coonawarra

Grape variety: Cabernet Sauvignon

Body: Rich and flavoursome

Alcohol: 14%

Drink before: End of 2010

Try with: Blue Stilton, chargrilled steaks, rich casserole, roast beef

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With the chocolate tart: Deen de Bortoli Late Semillon 2002, Family Reserve

The De Bortoli family are well known in Australia for their signature sweet wines, or “stickies”, as they’re known down under. (Their top sweet, Noble One, has been known to upstage the best that Sauternes has to offer, though that’s another story…). All their sweet wines offer great bang for the buck, and this one’s no exception. It has loads of honeyed apricot sweetness but also a lovely bitter orange acidity to stop it being too sickly. Great balance and character – almost a pudding in its own right.

Type: Still white wine

Country: Australia

Region: New South Wales

Grape variety: Semillon

Style: Sweet

Alcohol: 10.5%

Drink before: End of 2010

Try with: Apple tart, chocolate, Foie gras, fresh fruit salad

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With the cheese: Andresen Colheita Tawny 1982

It’s not every day that you find an affordable wine that’s been aged in oak for nearly two decades. And this is the essential difference between tawny port and, say, ruby or vintage port. Tawny undergoes extensive ageing in oak, which gives it the colour (tawny) and also a wonderfully nutty, raisined character. And it’s precisely that nutty, almost salty character as well as heart-warming sweetness, that means it goes so well with cheese. A great way to end an evening on a high note (and you don’t have to drink too much if you’re worried about hangovers – the oak ageing means this one will keep for a fair time after it’s been opened).

Type: Fortified wine

Country: Portugal

Region: Port

Grape variety: Red blend

Alcohol: 20%

Drink before: End of 2020

Try with: Blue Stilton

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