2004 Mas Janeuil, Le Tiradou, Côtes du Roussillon Villages, Lurton, France, Waitrose, £15.
Jacques and François Lurton are the latest generation of the Bordeaux-based Lurton dynasty to make wine, and this amazing, velvety, 14 per cent alcohol red, from the Tiradou vineyard at their Mas Janeil estate in Southern France, is impressively rich with intense red fruit. Add more than a year’s ageing in small French oak barriques, and the wine develops some rich, seductive, tarry character. Best enjoyed with big festive food.
2004 Savigny-les-Beaune, Domaine Maillard Père et Fils, France, Majestic, £13.99.
Domaine Maillard’s splendid red burgundies have won through in the Top 100 before, as the estate produces rafts of carefully made, traditional wines that represent good value for money. Dive into this delicious, fruity, yet well-structured food-suitable savigny, with oodles of lively, beefy style, coupled with a rich, chunky, creosote-laced finish. Best enjoyed alongside your finest game recipes, including coq au vin and roast partridge.
2002 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru, Estournelles Saint-Jacques, Fr?d?ric Esmonin, France, Howard Ripley (020-8877 3065), down from £22 to £16.99 for Times readers.
Fr?d?ric Esmonin took over from his father in 1998, but Andr? continues to make the wines. The domaine owns a few grand cru plots, but the majority are village or premier cru wines like this. In fact, the Esmonins are the principal producers of this premier cru with just over half a hectare in their care, thought by all to be the best, so tuck into this elegant, spicy, silky red.
2001 Châteauneuf-du-Pape, E. Guigal, France, Tesco, £19.99; Fareham Wine Cellar (01329 822733), £20.99.
Guigal’s classy and distinctive red rhônes are a must for the festivities, as their reliable yet distinguished spicy, beefy style goes down wonderfully well with the heavy, highly seasoned specialities we all look forward to at this time of year. I lined up lots of different châteauneufs for this section and Guigal’s 2001 effortlessly romped home – a magnificent rich, beefy, leather, coffee-bean and sandalwood-scented festive red.
2003 Château Fontenil, Fronsac, M. & D. Rolland, France, Waitrose (Canary Wharf only, 020-7719 0300), £20.
With his signature emblazoned all over the label, no one could accuse the well-travelled oenologist and Mondovino star Michel Rolland of being a shrinking violet. No matter, concentrate on the wine instead, from 2003, a good, not great Bordeaux year, and you will lap up a bold, sweet, plummy,
spicy, oak-influenced claret, whose ripe, young, crunchy fruit will go down well with Christmas food and win it many festive fans.
2003 Amarone della Valpolicella Classico, I Communali, Villalta, Italy, Marks & Spencer, £14.99.
Carlo Speri has made a smashing single-vineyard amarone della valpolicella Veronese red from the superior, south-facing slope of the I Communali vineyard. Made from air-dried valpolicella grapes, the juice for this intense red is thus extra-concentrated, which explains its ripe, herby, prune and dried-cherry flavours, closing on a fine, chocolatey finish. This gutsy, full-flavoured offering will be ideal with big food, such as spiced beef and game.
1996 Urbina Rioja, Reserva Especial, Bodegas Urbina, Spain, Caves de Pyrène (01483 538820), £12.35.
Bodegas Urbina is not as well-known here as it should be, which is a pity, as this low-yielding, predominantly tempranillo red, with a dash of mazuelo and graziano, deserves a wider audience. So contact Caves de Pyrène now and order in sufficient festive stocks of this sweet, beefy, earthy red rioja, with lots of mature, ripe, spicy fruit on the palate. Definitely ready for drinking now, woodheads will be in heaven with this one.
2005 Au Bon Climat Pinot Noir, Santa Maria Valley, California, Berry, Bros & Rudd, £15.95.
Wild man of wine Jim Clendenen makes a wide range of single-vineyard and specific-area pinot noir wines at his southern California Santa Barbara winery. This one is made from pinot noir grapes grown at two different sites, Bien Nacido and Le Bon Climat, to create a gorgeous, world-class pinot noir, whose fine, damson-plum scent and sweet ripe red-fruits palate is disturbingly close in style to the Burgundian original.
2002 Château La Dominique, Saint Emilion, Bordeaux, Cl? ment Fayat, France, Majestic, £19.99.
La Dominique’s distinguished merlot-dominated St Emilion clarets, with a drop of cabernets franc and sauvignon, have featured here before with the lesser 1997 vintage. 2002 is a much better year, so selling this for a similar price is a Majestic coup. I enjoyed the rich, elegant, sappy, sandalwood spice of this claret, whose vibrant young, spicy fruit, clearly showing its lengthy oak-ageing, will make it a happy partner with festive food
1997 Château de Fieuzal, Pessac-L?ognan, Bordeaux, France, Sainsbury’s, £19.99; Farr (020-7821 2000), £17.06 per bottle by the case for Times readers.
Château de Fieuzal’s dry, elegant, bricky clarets are some of the Graves’ best, producing a distinguished, more contemporary wine than some of its neighbours. What you get with this restrained, elegant claret is lots of bold, ripe, beefy, spicy finesse with a glorious green pepper-spiked finish that will be just the bottle to serve with roast beef or lamb with a cracked-pepper sauce.
2003 Elio Grasso, Vigna Martina, Barbera d’Alba, Italy, Lay & Wheeler, £18.75.
This humble barbera d’alba is a stunner with lots of dark velvety spice, and is testament to Elio Grasso’s conscientious, hard-working approach. Elio was supposed to have handed over responsibility for his estate and wines to his son Gianluca, but, typically, he is still at the helm. With just 35 acres of vines, this tiny property, taken over by Elio in 1978, continues to vinifiy each plot separately, and this attention to detail shows, with this delicious, plump, plummy, perfumed red.
FORTIFIED
1996 Quinta do Crasto Vintage Port, Portugal, Sainsbury’s, £19.99.
Made from 65-year-old vines at Quinta do Crasto, one of the oldest properties in the Douro Valley, this vintage port is matured for years in bottle, gradually throwing a hefty sediment, which means it has to be decanted. Just pour this delectable, fine, floral and faintly marzipan-redolent port slowly into a jug, or decanter, stopping the minute you see flecks of sediment at the neck of the bottle