Sit down, sip a glass of a wine, and be transported to sunny southern Spain, lifting your mood and encouraging you to head for the high street with a smile on your face.
I’m talking sherry, one of the biggest of wine bargains.
There will be specific suggestions shortly (and other easily accessible recommendations for seasonal entertaining), but first some reasons why sherry needs to be high on your to-buy list.
There are so many styles, from light, fresh, sea-scented manzanilla to sticky, indulgent PX (Pedro Ximenez).
So much care goes into their making, with expert blending and years of ageing in soleras where young wine subtly merges into older.
Quality is generally high – often own-label supermarket bottles come from highly respected producers – yet prices are exceptionally reasonable.
And, quite simply, sherry gives such pleasure.
Let’s look at two related but different examples I’ve just been enjoying.
Medium amontillado was for far too long considered the inevitable, uninspiring choice between dry and sweet, left to linger in unfinished bottles for months.
But that diminishes it unfairly.
Properly dry amontillado develops after extra fortification kills off flor, the protective layer of yeast that grows naturally when palomino base wine is doctored with alcohol and left to mature in four-fifths-full barrels in airy bodegas, metamorphosing into fino or amontillado.
The already fragrant liquid starts to oxidise, turning from pale yellow to light amber, and flavour also intensifies.
Gonzalez Byass Vina AB 12 Year Old Amontillado (£18 mix-six, Majestic) is effectively a very grown-up aged example of classic Tio Pepe fino.
It’s bone dry, fresh, nutty and long – a thoroughly modern drink.
The origins of Palo cortado come cloaked in mystery, as wines intended to become fino failed to develop flor.
Skilled cellar masters spotted potential candidate barrels, marked them and left nature to do its work.
Now modern winemaking intervenes to deliberately create wines somewhere between amontillado and much richer oloroso.
They can be wondrous – Barbadillo Criadera Selection Palo Cortado En Rama (£18-£19, thewinesociety.com, thewhiskyexchange.com) – has silky intensity and hugely complex scents and flavours, extraordinary value.
It’s history in a glass, from an 18th century cellar in a former bishop’s palace.
Whichever sherry you drink, let its character expand in a good-size wine glass, never squeeze it into a schooner.
And remember that many styles pair perfectly with food, beyond iberico ham and olives to terrines, casseroles, game birds.
Now for a quick sweep round some convenient places to buy festive wines.
Different styles and origins (Italy is one go-to country), a variety of prices, all tempting value.
First, highlights from M&S (in store, or online at Ocado): fizz: Ribolla Gialla £8, M&S Collection Hattingley Valley English sparkling wine 2018, £30; dry whites: Lo Scudo Soave Classico £8, Pecorino £9, Maison Riveraine Petit Chablis £14; reds: Notte Stellata Primitivo di Manduria £12, Ch La Diligente Puisseguin Saint-Emilion £12, Sancerre Domaine Chevreau £22; fortified: M&S Palo Cortado 37.5cl £9, 5 Year Medium Rich Madeira 50cl £12.
Waitrose has a specially sound choice of Italian whites, including Terre dei Grifi Frascati £10, Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico Colle del Sol £10, La Monetta Gavi £15, Roberto Sarottro Srej Langhe Arneis £18.
More from Waitrose: dry white: Louis Luberon Sec £12; off-dry: Dry Dam Riesling d’Arenberg £13; reds: Norton Malbec Reserve Fina Agrelo £10 (fine-wine offer), mini-Amarone-style Ricossa Barbera Appassimento £13, Cantina Vignaioli Roggiano Morellino di Scansano Riserva, £14; vermouth: Barbadillo Ataman 50cl £18; fortified: Alvaro Domecq Aranda Cream Sherry £19.75.
At Majestic, two totally contrasting wines, both a delight to drink while nibbling mature grana padano or parmesan: La Gioiosa Prosecco £9 and Masi Costasera Amarone Classico £34. Also, dry white: Abbotts & Delaunay Languedoc, £10. All mix-six prices.
The Wine Society (lifetime membership £40, £20 off first order, free delivery): fizz: Exhibition Cava Gran Reserva £12.50, Exhibition English Blanc de Blancs 2018 £28.80; dry whites: A.A. Badenhorst Curator £9.95, Domaine Laougué Pacherenc du Vic Bihl Sec £12.50, Doña Paula Gualtallery Chardonnay £12.95, J.M. Brocard Bourgogne Chardonnay £13.50. Think red, more Italian inspiration: The Society’s Sicilian Reserve Red £8.95 and light, juicy Santa Tresa Rina Russa Frappato £10.50; for a sweet finish: Cabidos Vin Doux 50cl £10.95.
Both Tesco and Ocado have two happily versatile good-time wines from Chilean star Errazuriz: Estate Reserva Pinot Grigio and Pinot Noir, rrp £10 – watch for offers.
And, as always, champagne prices are tumbling everywhere, though tread cautiously with unknown labels.
Liz Sagues is a committee member and events co-organiser at the Circle of Wine Writers and author of A Celebration of English Wine (Robert Hale, 2018) and Sussex by the Glass (Tanwood Press, 2021).
She was regional winner 2005, 2011 at the Louis Roederer International Wine Writers Awards.
