Whites under £10
Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Chilean Sauvignon Blanc, Casablanca, Chile 2012
(£6.99, Sainsbury's)
Using grapes grown in vineyards in some of Chile's cooler spots (Casablanca and coastal Aconcagua), this vigorous, lip-smacking sauvignon was made for Sainsbury's by the ever dependable Errazuriz, and has just the right mix of verdant leafiness, passion fruit and citrus at a very fair price.
Tesco Finest Saint Mont, France 2010
(£6.99, Tesco)
Very few sub-£10 supermarket whites have anything like as much character as this Gascon white. A blend of the local grape varieties – gros manseng, petit courbu and arufiac – it has an explosively fruity palate poised between tangy tropical fruit and citrus (lemon, mandarin orange) that makes it a very versatile food match (white meat, fish, nutty hard cheese).
Lefkes Moschofilero, Mantinia, Peloponnese, Greece 2011
(£8.49, Marks & Spencer)
A Greek answer to chablis or muscadet, this whipsmart white is almost shockingly dry and bracing on its own, but it works beautifully with a bit of food, notably seafood. Its zesty lemon rind and white grapefruit flavours, subtle herbal notes and saline acidity provide the perfect squeezed lemon-like foil to smoked salmon.
Jaspi Blanc Terra Alta, Spain 2011
(£8.50, The Wine Society)
A completely charming new wine from a pair of winemaking brothers in Catalonia that demonstrates once again how far Spanish whites have travelled in the past decade. A blend of garnacha blanca and macabeu, it has a very pretty floral nose, a soft, harmonious palate full of orchard fruit and just a touch of wild herbs for seasoning.
Surani Pietrariccia Fiano, Puglia, Italy 2011
(£8.99, or £6.99 if you buy two bottles, Majestic)
Southern Italy's fiano grape variety has really caught on in the UK in the last few years, and this tangy white from an estate near the tip of Italy's heel shows once again why it's generally a much better buy than yet another bland pinot grigio. Unoaked, clean and crisp, it's also full of punchy mandarin orange and peach.
Ebner Ebenauer Grüner Veltliner, Weinviertel, Austria 2011 (£9.95, Roberson Wine)
Already impressively good value, this very stylish, layered example of Austria's signature grape variety, grüner veltliner, has been discounted from £12.95 over the Christmas period, making it a genuine bargain. It fairly ripples with fresh green apples and vivacious acidity, topped off with a sprinkling of Grüner's trademark white pepper.
Domaine des Oullières White, Coteaux d'Aix, France
(£9.95, Yapp Bros)
Think of Provençal wines and chances are you'll think rosé, but there are many other wines made in the area, and they can be rather more interesting. That's certainly the case with this quietly impressive white blend, which has a tarragon or fennel-like streak to the perfectly ripe stone fruit that takes you straight to the Mediterranean.
Vistamar Late Harvest Moscatel, Limarí Valley, Chile 2011
(37.5cl; £6.49, or £5.49 if you buy two bottles, Majestic)
An exuberant modern Chilean take on the traditional practice of making sweet wines from grapes that have been left to dry in the sun, this is a lusciously rich, unctuous but refined sweet wine for Christmas stilton and desserts. Its perfumed muscat grape and honeyed peachy fruit is kept bright and fresh by frisky acidity.
Whites over £10
Hugel Gentil Classic, Alsace, France 2010
(from £10.50, Tanners; Cambridge Wine Merchants; Vintage Marque)
A kind of beginner's kit to the charms of Alsace from one of its best producers. This is a seamless blend of five of the region's white grape varieties, with gewürztraminer, riesling pinot gris, muscat and sylvaner all contributing to a typically aromatic and spicy white full of character.
Villa Maria Clifford Bay Reserve Sauvignon Blanc, Awatere Valley, Marlborough, New Zealand 2012
(£11.99, Sainsbury's)
If, like me, you have friends and family who will pretty much only drink New Zealand sauvignon blanc, then this is the one to drink with them. A step up from the reliably good private bin from the same producer, this has an invigorating dash of fresh lime amid the subtle passion fruit and blackcurrant leafiness in a really pure, juicy and properly dry white.
Coto de Gomariz The Flower and the Bee, Ribeiro, Spain 2011
(from £11.95, The Butlers Wine Cellar; Bottle Apostle; Noel Young Wines, nywines.co.uk)
If you've been charmed by the peachy albariños of Rías Baixas in north-west Spain, this complex white made from treixadura in the neighbouring Galician region, Ribeiro, is well worth considering for the turkey. It's textured and full with ripe greengage and apricot and a touch of yeasty savouriness, plus a pithy citrus quality that gives it real verve, bite and balance.
Mullineux White, Swartland South Africa, 2011
(from £16.95, Domaine Direct; Berry Bros & Rudd)
From one of the standout producers in South Africa's rising-star Swartland region, a typically intense and complex Loire-meets-Rhône Valley-style dry white blend. It marries the honeyed baked apple intensity of chenin blanc with the ripe peach of viognier (among others) to make an exceptionally classy wine.
Yabby Lake Red Claw Chardonnay, Mornington Peninsula, Victoria 2009
(from £17.50, Jeroboams; Swig; Noel Young Wines)
The brilliant Yabby Lake are making some of Australia's finest pinot noir and chardonnay at the moment, in a restrained but luminous style that is just thrilling to drink. This blistering chardonnay, from their more affordable Red Claw second label, crackles with mineral acidity beneath some very generous, carefully oaked fruit.
Simmonnet-Febvre Chablis Premier Cru, Burgundy France 2011
(£17.99, Waitrose)
A lot of chablis can be overpriced and dull, trading on its name rather than what's in the bottle. But this multiple award-winner, from a "premier cru" site, really delivers on what the trademark promises: mouthwatering steely-mineral acidity, intense apple and lemon fruit and an evocative crack of flintiness.
Clemens Busch Vom Grauen Schiefer Riesling Qba, Mosel, Germany 2011
(£18.85, thewinebarn.co.uk)
As far removed from the sickly, watery liebfraumilch-infused stereotype of German wine as it's possible to get, this exhilaratingly pure dry riesling from a fastidious (and brilliant) biodynamic producer is all stone fruits and flowers on the nose, all stones, minerals and driving acidity on the palate, making for an entirely refreshing antidote to all that heavy Christmas food.
Clos Lapeyre La Magendia de Lapeyre, Jurançon Moelleux, France 2010
(37.5cl; from £13.99, Selfridges; The Smiling Grape)
Like all the best sweet wines, it's the dashing blade of acidity that makes this wine from the Pyrenean foothills so eminently drinkable, cutting through the densely rich, crystallised tropical fruit and leaving the mouth cleansed and wanting more. It's good with pâté, blue cheese or a fruit-based dessert.
Whites over £20
Ken Forrester FMC Chenin Blanc, Stellenbosch, South Africa 2010
(from £22, swig.co.uk; sawinesonline.co.uk; Great Western Wines, greatwesternwine.co.uk; harperwells.com)
With its fabulously deep and inviting mix of honeyed apples, honeysuckle, acacia and honeyed almonds, this rich, weighty chenin blanc from the Cape's acknowledged master of the variety, Ken Forrester, has long been one of the country's best whites, and is a match for many a starrier name in both the Loire and Burgundy.
Domaine de la Bon Gran Sélection EJ Thévenet Viré-Clessé, Burgundy, France 2004
(£24, Lea & Sandeman)
An arrestingly different but completely beguiling chardonnay from southern Burgundy. Its flavours include delicate white flowers, spice, nuts and ripe pears dipped in honey. Rich and full-flavoured but dry, it would sit happily with whichever bird you happen to be roasting on Christmas Day.
Domaine Cuilleron La Petite Cote Condrieu, Rhône Valley, France 2010
(from £35, AG Wines; Exel Wines; Berry Bros & Rudd; Uncorked)
Though it has spread throughout the world in the past two decades, viognier still reaches its greatest peaks in its original home, the tiny northern Rhône appellation, Condrieu. This is a typically opulent, golden example from the highly skilled Yves Cuilleron, shimmering with apricots, satin-textured and long.
Dobogo Aszu 6 Puttonyos Tokaji, Hungary 2006
(from £46.90, 50cl, slurp.co.uk; exelwines.co.uk; The Sampler)
With a history that goes back centuries, Tokaji is one of the world's great sweet wine regions, and this is as good as it gets. Very sweet, but with tokaji's distinctively explosive, almost enervating acidity to keep it alert, it has marmalade, dried apricots, honey and straw: a sensual, hedonistic finish to any Christmas meal.
