No one wants to be a Scrooge – still, most of us will be pleased that a tenner can still buy some terrific Christmas wines. If you start your celebrations in traditional style and budget is an issue, your best bet is the Castillo Perelada cava, which won through in my Top 100. Sadly, it has bounced back up to £9.49 at Waitrose.
For those who can stretch to the real deal, the ever elegant, light, floral, lemon-zest zing of Laurent-Perrier’s Brut Champagne is best bought at Waitrose and Oddbins for £25.99 and £27 respectively until January 3.
With bubbles sorted, most of us will tuck into smoked salmon, so crack open the traditional fine chablis, which acts like a squirt of fresh lemon juice. Asda’s lively 2015 own-label Chablis, £10, has lots of this white burgundy’s steely style. Or spend a fiver more on a bargain buy premier cru chablis, Morrisons 2013 Signature Chablis 1er Cru, £15, which bristles with nutty fruit.
Big white wines capable of coping with turkey and all the trimmings are hard to find, but the white 2015 Hacienda López de Haro Rioja is crammed with bold, buttery, oaky fruit and £8.99 at Majestic.
If you like red with your turkey, or are having goose, you will want a chunky new-world bottle with lashings of fruit. Try the spiced currant, dried herbs and prune-packed, American oak-aged 2014 Rustenberg RM Nicholson, a shiraz, merlot and cabernet blend and £9.50 at Booths until January 2, or £9.99 at D Byrne or six for £9.99 each at Majestic.
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If you are having beef, scoop up the plum and coffee perfumed 2015 Château Treytins, Cuvée Lalande de Pomerol, for £10 instead of £15 at Morrisons until January 1.
Don’t forget a festive sticky, tailor-made for plum pudding and mince pies. Snap up Aldi’s tangy, nutty, caramelised raisin of a De Bortoli’s Masterclass Liqueur Muscat, aged for eight years in oak and given away at £11.99 for 50cl.
Star buys
2015 Pouilly-Fumé, Petit Fumé, Michel Redde, France
Handford Wines (020 7589 6113), £15.99; Oddbins, £16.50
Classic, racy Loire white, with lots of flinty yet mouthwatering gooseberry and lime peel-edged fruit.
2013 Domaine of the Bee, Côtes du Roussillon Villages, France
Handford, £25.99
A magnificent, grenache and carignan-stashed 15 per cent Midi monster, all beguiling, bold, herby, black cherry, liquorice and cherry kernel oomph.
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2012 Berry Bros & Rudd Sauternes, Bordeaux, France
Half-bottle, Berry Bros & Rudd (0800 2802440), £12.75
Sauternes is the festive sticky, so sip this luscious, candied peach and apricot-licked 2012; it’s Château Doisy-Védrines’ second wine.
2013 Cantina di Negrar, Amarone della Valpolicella, Italy
Waitrose, £14.99 down from £19.99 until January 3
Festive food-loving Italian, all sweet, creamy, Bovril and dried red-cherry fruit, tailor-made for spiced beef, or game.
2014 Bolney Estate Pinot Noir, West Sussex, England
Waitrose £12.79 down from £15.99 until January 3
Cracking, slimline English red, made from the wily pinot noir grape and bursting with crunchy cranberry and raspberry fruit.
2014 Berry Bros Puligny- Montrachet, Domaine Jean-Louis Chavy, Burgundy, France
Berry Bros & Rudd, £35
Grab this gorgeous, white blossom, grilled almond and white stone-fruit triumph from 2014, a great white burgundy vintage.