The Society’s White Rioja, Spain 2020 (£8.95, thewinesociety.com) My choice of Christmas dinner wines starts this year with a pair of smart Iberian whites that are among the best-value wines around at the moment. The Portuguese pick is from the Dão region, home to encruzadro, one of the most distinctive white grape varieties in a country not short of them, with Aldi Specially Selected Encruzado 2021 (£7.49) showing off its wonderful pithy citrus cut and thrust and brightness coupled with fleshy white peach. From Spain, The Wine Society’s White Rioja is a gently oaked savoury mouthful of toasted nuts and apple with a sleek feel. These are excellent alternatives to a pair of traditional French Christmas chardonnay classics, respectively steely Chablis and oak-aged white burgundy. But if it’s the real thing you’re after then Domaine Daniel Dampt Chablis 1er Côte de Léchet (£26.75, hhandc.co.uk) is star-bright, scintillating but concentrated while Domaine Trouillet aux Chailloux Pouilly-Fuissé Premier Cru, Burgundy 2020 (£29.99, or £26.99 as part of a mixed case of six, Majestic) is rich with blossomy honey-on-toast oak, juicy succulence and luminous balancing acidity.
Troupis Route Gris Moschofilero, Mantinia, Greece 2021 (£16.99, nakedwines.com) For me the most versatile drink to have with food is orange wine, a dry style which is made from white grapes which have remained in contact with the grape skins for much longer than when making white wines. They have a kind of red-wine, or green tea-like tannin, but white wine-like freshness, and a streak of bitterness which is, to use a technical term, incredibly moreish and refreshing, but also a super foil for so many foods including a full-on, all-the-trimmings Christmas roast. Three I’ve enjoyed recently: the fennel-and-gentian-infused Qvevris Kisi Orange Wine, Kakheti, Georgia 2020 (£14.99, Waitrose); the citrus peel-and-muscat floral Troupis Route Gris Moschofilero; and the super-dry but suave and pleasingly bitter and spicy Steitz Orange Zéro RS, Rheinhessen, Germany 2018 (£17.49, vidawines.co.uk). Any of this trio is also great with the cheeseboard, although my own preference, certainly at Christmas is for something sweet such as the gorgeously crystalised, tangy fruit of Majestic Definition Sauternes, Bordeaux, France 2014 (£9.99, 37.5cl, Majestic).
