Whites
Specially Selected Greco di Tufo
Italy 2020 (£5.99, Aldi)
A southern Italian with gentle blossomy nose and pear, peach and lemon flavours. It’s the kind of softly refreshing dry white that performs a triple function: aperitif, unobtrusive and inexpensive party white, and partner for light fish, seafood or green leafy salad starters.
AA Badenhorst The Curator White Blend
Western Cape, South Africa 2020 (£8.99, Waitrose)
A maverick star of South Africa’s Swartland region, the source of so much that is good in the recent history of Cape wine, Adi Badenhorst has a nice line in affordable bottlings alongside his more expensive wines. This chenin blanc-based blend is filled with juicy peach and snappy Cox’s apple brightness.
Alexandre Cady Resilience Chenin Blanc
Vin de France 2021 (£9.95, thewinesociety.com)
2021 was a very difficult year for many in the Loire Valley, with much of the crop lost to frost, but the Cady family also had to deal with a fire in their winery. This wine is, as the name suggests, testament to their resilience; it’s also thrillingly, mouthwateringly dry, racy, and vibrant.
Viña Indomita Chardonnay
Bío Bío, Chile 2020 (£10, Marks & Spencer)
Chile’s ever-improving white wines have benefited from the increasing maturity of its recently planted cool-climate regions, such as the southerly Bío Bío. It’s the source of the ever-reliable Indomita’s classy chardonnay, which balances creme fraiche richness with riverbed coolness.
Lavradores de Feitoria Branco
Douro, Portugal 2021 (from £10.50, thewinesociety.com; buonvino.co.uk; reservewines.co.uk)
Douro is a region best known for port and its red wines are increasingly acclaimed although its whites are sometimes in danger of being overlooked. That’s a shame, since wines like this unoaked blend of local varieties, with its pretty, floral nose and restrained, exotically fruited palate, are completely and utterly charming.
Kurt Hain Piesporter Riesling Trocken
Mosel, Germany 2019 (£13.30, tanners-wines.co.uk)
If years of inferior bottlings have conditioned you to expect something akin to the sugary acid-water of generic Liebfraumilch from wines labelled “Piesporter”, here’s a classy dry example to give a truer impression of this part of the Mosel. A bright, crystalline riesling ideal for Good Friday fish.
Shaw + Smith Sauvignon Blanc
Adelaide Hills, Australia 2022 (£19.99, or £16.99 in mixed case of six, majestic.co.uk)
One of the key players in the cooler climate Adelaide Hills region, Shaw + Smith make wines with a trademark brightness and vivid fruit. This supremely stylish sauvignon blanc provides blackcurrant leafiness and pithy grapefruit in a pristine package which suits first-course seafood and smoked fish.
Serodes and Kovac Cazot Orange Vallée des Aigles
Côtes du Roussillon 2021 (£19.50, vinoteca.co.uk)
A southern French “orange” wine made from macabeu, muscat and grenache blanc grapes that have been given extended time in contact with their skins during winemaking. A nip of chewy tannin provides texture to the moreish, spicy, herbal orange citrus flavours and it’s brilliantly versatile when it comes to food pairing.
Reds
Château Gillet Bordeaux
France 2020 (£7, Marks & Spencer)
Although still associated with its expensive club of top-flight classed growths, Bordeaux is also home to some of France’s best-value wines, not least in warm and bountiful vintages such as 2020, which provided the conditions for this classically refreshing, cassis-and-cedar-scented claret.
Molinillo Malbec
Mendoza, Argentina 2021 (from £8.99, allaboutwine.co.uk; woodwinters.com; darcywine.co.uk; ndjohn.co.uk; winesofinterest.co.uk)
This fragrant, ripe but refreshing malbec has sufficient weight to serve up with an Easter roast while retaining the suave feel that makes malbec such a reliable crowd-pleaser. There’s plenty of, fleshy cherry and plum fruit, vibrant colour and all-around fresh fruit compote juiciness.
Tesco Finest Saint-Chinian
Languedoc, France 2020 (£9, Tesco)
Consistently one of my favourite supermarket wines, this typically robust southern French blend of grenache, syrah, mourvèdre and carignan is filled with local rosemary-scented, bramble berry, peppery and black olive flavours in a spicy, rich style that’s an excellent match for roast lamb.
Ciù Ciù Bacchus
Rosso Piceno, Marche, Italy 2021 (from £10.45, josephbarneswines.com; noblegreenwines.co.uk; buonvino.co.uk; nattyboywines.co.uk; shrinetothevine.co.uk)
From an organic estate near the Marche’s Adriatic coast, this brilliantly authentic blend of sangiovese and montepulciano has a classically Italian, food-friendly mix of tomato- or cherry-like acidity and lightly grippy tannin with oregano-shaded strawberry and plum fruit. Great value.
Thymiopoulos Atma Xinomavro
Macedonia, Greece 2020 (£11.99, Waitrose)
Thymiopoulos is easily the most visible Greek wine brand in the UK these days, so it’s lucky for the country’s vinous reputation that winemaker Apostolos Thymiopoulos is as skilled and consistent as he is prolific, with this red offering succulence and tang with red fruit and savoury tones.
Ronsel do Sil Mencía Vel’Uveyra
Ribeira Sacra, Spain 2018 (from £15.61, hnwines.co.uk; strictlywine.co.uk; vinogusto.co.uk; corkingwines.co.uk)
The spectacular, steep vineyards of Ribeira Sacra in inland Galicia are home to some of Spain’s most exciting red, with the mencía grape, either on its own or, as here, leading a blend, creating a slinky, light-bodied pinot noir-like feel but a distinctive earthy, rosehippy flavour profile.
Distant Noises Cabernet Sauvignon
Yarra Valley, Australia 2019 (£18.50, swig.co.uk)
Tom Carson has built a justifiably high reputation for the chardonnay and pinot he makes under the Yabby Lake label in Victoria’s Yarra Valley. His latest project is every bit as good, with the ethereal, perfumed cabernet just pipping the equally good pinot and syrah as my pick for Easter Sunday.
Akitu A2 Pinot Noir
Central Otago, New Zealand 2020 (£29.95, ndjohn.co.uk)
One of the rising stars of one of New Zealand’s best places to grow pinot noir, Central Otago’s Akitu makes some of the most purely pleasurable versions of the grape variety around, with this, the more affordable and accessible of its two red bottlings, a stream of floral-raspberry juiciness.
Sparkling
Marks & Spencer Found Blanquette de Limoux
Languedoc, France (£8, Marks & Spencer)
Limoux, with its elevated vineyards forming a cool-climate outcrop in the warm climes of the Languedoc, is one of the historic centres of French sparkling wine. It’s the source of some of the world’s best value fizz such as this characteristically apple-tangy blend of mauzac, chenin blanc and chardonnay.
Medici Ermete La Favorita Reggiano Lambrusco Rosso Secco
Italy NV (from £11.91, strictlywine.co.uk; greatwinesdirect.co.uk)
The dry sparkling red wines of Emilia-Romagna are well-suited to Easter, having a range of characteristics that make them a refreshing foil to antipasti and roast meat, as well as the cheese course and even dark chocolate. This is a lovely, gently foaming example, filled with crunchy, finger-staining cherry-blackberry juciness.
Tesco Finest Premier Cru Champagne NV
(£23, Tesco)
Tesco’s textbook non-vintage champagne, made from grapes grown in superior “premier cru” (first growth) ranked vineyards, has been something of an awards magnet over the years, and deservedly so. The latest bottling offers a classy combination of creamy mousse, patisserie, green apple and lemon.
Pojer e Sandri Zero Inifinito IGT Trentino
Italy 2021 (from £24.95, thewhiskyexchange.com; thevices.co.uk; petershamcellar.co.uk)
Made without filtration or sulphur, this natural sparkling white from Alpine northern Italy is full of life and energy, a mix of spring meadow aromas and perfectly ripe and juicy fruit – pears, apples, cantaloupe melon and white peach. It’s a joyful aperitif for but also has enough substance to pair with Good Friday fish.
