Don’t splash out on a bottle that doesn’t live up to its label. There are plenty of underrated bottles out there that are more than fit to grace your table
With a week still to go before you need to decide what to drink at Christmas, today doesn’t really count as last-minute in my book (that’s not applicable until the 24th, strictly speaking), but if you’re inclined to panic, there’s a danger you’ll end up spending more than you need on a wine that doesn’t live up to its label.
And what might that be? Well-known French whites such as sancerre, big bordeaux hitters such as margaux and saint-émilion, and Italian reds such as barolo and barbaresco are all rarely a good buy, or not from supermarkets, anyway. (I used to put châteauneuf-du-pape in the same category, but, thanks to a recent run of good vintages in the Rhône – 2016 is drinking particularly well – it does now deliver and looks great on the Christmas table). There are, however some good “village” wines around – for example, Morrisons’ Bonpas Vacqueyras 2017 (£15, 13.5%) – that are of at least comparable quality.