Top 10 wines in the UK press

2013 Buena Vista Vinicultural Society, Zinfandel, Sonoma County, California

Picking out some “expressive, sensual” wine at this godforsakenly cold and bleak time of year in the UK, Matthew Jukes in the Daily Mail first recommends this “lush, rich, suave and sexy” Zinfandel. “Full-bodied but not clumsy,” he says, suggesting it pairs particularly well with Tom Kerridge’s mustardy roast lamb shoulder.

£13.00, Marks & Spencer

2014 Pellegrino Passito Liquoroso di Pantelleria, Sicily, Italy

From California to Sicily for his next pick, a Pantelleria straw wine Jukes recommends pairing with chocolately dessert: “This marmalade-scented, heady sweetie is one wine style which doesn’t miss a beat with any choccie dish,” he says, “and you only need a small glass to send your palate into orbit”.

£10.75 (half bottle), Oddbins

Sandeman 20 Year Old Tawny Port NV, Douro, Portugal

Writing his weekly column in the Express, Jamie Goode in on the port, which he prescribes as a perfect antidote to the winter blues. We’re with you, Dr Goode.

This tawny from Waitrose is “elegant and fresh” with “pure, light red-cherry fruit and fine spiciness”.

£37.49, Waitrose

2010 Yalumba Steeple Vineyard Shiraz, Barossa Valley, Australia

Sarah Ahmed writes on her Wine Detective site of the high-quality, single-vineyard reds being made at Yalumba in the Barossa Valley.

This one she describes as full of juicy Barossa Shiraz fruit – “red cherry, mulberry, blackberry and plum with a lick of toast” – with “gently supportive tannins and a very subtle, cool hint of spearmint”.

£25.90, Amazon

2014 Meyer Pinot Noir, Okanagan, Canada

In the Guardian, David Williams is staring into his crystal ball to discover the big wine trends of 2016. As well as talking up the rise of a ‘new Australia’, he predicts Canada will come to the fore as a wine region of note.

He picks out M&S as the first supermarket “to take the plunge with Canadian pinot”. This one from the Okanagan Valley he describes as “supple, silky and bright with red fruit and subtle oak spice”.

£18, Marks & Spencer

2014 BK Wines Syrah Nouveau, Lobethal, Adelaide Hills, Australia

And to represent the ‘new Australia’, Williams selects a “shining example of Australia’s creative small producer scene” – an Adelaide Hills Syrah which, as the varietal name suggests, looks to France for inspiration.

“A fluent, floral, red-fruited red with a shake of black pepper and low (12%) alcohol.”

£19.95, Swig

2011 Howard’s Folly, Sonhador, Alentejo, Portugal

Matthew Jukes, writing in Moneyweek, picks out a red “of hypnotic power” from Portugal, whose wine industry, he says, has “pulled its socks up” over the past 10 years and is producing interesting indigenous varieties of “real flair”.

Jukes has high praise for this this blend of 30% Syrah, 30% Alicante Bouschet, 30% Aragonez (Tempranillo) and 10% Touriga Nacional, saying that you are “unlikely to find a more complete, succulent and layered red anywhere in the world for the money”.

2014 Momento Swartland, South Africa

“At last, Grenache’s time seems to have come,” says Jancis Robinson MW in her FT , adding that “many of those who make wine in its most famous stronghold, the southern Rhône, could learn a thing or two from those blazing a trail in Spain, South Africa and Australia for a new style of this red-wine grape”.

Among her fantastic selection of ‘new wave’ Grenaches is this one from former Beaumont winemaker Marelise Niemann.

£24.00, Armit Wines

2013 Jiménez-Landi, Las Uvas de la Ira Méntrida, Spain

Robinson is a big fan of Dani Landi, a young winemaker making old-vine Garnacha from grapes grown in the Gredos mountains south-west of Madrid.

In fact, this is at least the third time she has recommended his wines. Her original notes for this outstanding ‘Grapes of Wrath’ Garnacha: “Light and fresh with real wet-stony sensation on the finish – light years from the classic concentrated Garnacha. Really lifted and refreshing. Very muscular and ambitious. Extremely sophisticated.”

£23.00, The Sampler

2014 Cerutti Moscato d’Asti, Piedmont, Italy

“Move over, Prosecco!” shouts the Telegraph‘s most recent wine piece from Felicity Spector. As well as flagging up the rise of Bologna’s answer to the world’s best-selling fizz, Spector recommends several other sparkling options, including the all-too-often unsung Moscato which “deserves to be chilled for a celebration”.

This one from BBR is described as “not too fizzy, and with a very light touch”.

£12.95, Berry Bros & Rudd