Top 10 wines in the UK press

Paso-Primero Tinto, Somontano, Spain, 2014

“It’s very much box-set season, so this week I’m pairing drinking and viewing pleasures,” writes the Sunday Times’ drinks writer Damian Barr, as he chooses some good-value easy-drinking wines perfect for sipping in-front of the screen.

He begins with this “soft but lively red” which “bursts with easy, juicy strawberry fruit. It manages to pack a long finish — simple wine for simple folks and a bargain.”

£8, Tanners

Terre de Lumière Viognier Celliers Jean d’Alibert IGP Pays d’Oc, France, 2011

“Floral upfront, but nowhere as sweet as you’d expect,” this next pick “stands up to interrogation with a strong mineral finish”, Barr writes.

£8, Corney & Barrow

Rioja Reserva 2009 Marqués de la Concordia, Spain

“The price applies if you buy six, and I would,” Barr enthuses. “Rich red fruit gives way to aromatic cedar and something of Dubonnet.”

£8.65, Majestic

NV finest* Cream Sherry, Jerez, Spain 

Next up is Matthew Jukes’ recommendations in the Daily Mail. Choosing his top Valentine’s Day wines, he begins with what he admits “might seem like an odd choice, but this sweet Sherry is a thoroughly seductive drop with the heavenly Amaretto & Amaretti Cheesecake recipe or alternatively you could just sip it, chilled, on the sofa in front of a romantic film.”

£5.50 Tesco

2014 Penfolds, Koonunga Hill Shiraz/Cabernet Sauvignon, South Australia 

“If you are partial to rich, soothing, heady red wines”, Jukes recommends decanting this “bargain-priced, completely over-engineered Penfolds stunner and let it wash over your palate.”

£9.00, reduced to £7.19 until 16 February, Waitrose

Ventoso Morellino di Scansano, Tuscany, Italy 2014

David Williams at the Guardian takes readers on a tour of Italy through the veil of Sangiovese. “You don’t find a great deal of Sangiovese outside Italy. But given it’s the main ingredient in roughly one in every 10 bottles made in the world’s most productive wine country, it’s still one of the most widely planted grape varieties around,” he writes.

On this particular offering, “the style is slightly plumper, with less of the bitter herb and sour red cherry that you find in the famous Sangiovese zones of Chianti, but still, in the case of Ventoso’s succulent example, just a touch of the rasp and grip that makes it such a fine foil for red meat with or without tomato-based sauces.”

£11.99, Oddbins

Col di Lamo Rosso di Montalcino, Tuscany, Italy 2012

“The winemakers around the costume drama-ready southern Tuscan hill-town of Montalcino also have their own name, Brunello, for the particular clone of Sangiovese they use in their burly, muscular reds,” Williams continues.

“Many estates also make a cheaper version from younger Sangiovese vines labeled Rosso di Montalcino, which are ready to drink on release and often superb value: the luscious black cherry, oregano and suave tannins of Col di Lamo’s example being a delicious case in point.”

£16.50, Stone, Vine and Sun

Loretto Sangiovese, Emilia Romagna, Italy 2014

“While Tuscany may be the region that is most intimately associated with Sangiovese, it pops up all over the peninsula”, he writes.

“Much of the time it finds its way into unpretentious Rossos of the simple trattoria kind, such as Marks & Sparks’ gluggable Loretto from Emilia Romagna, which, with its bright and bonny mix of cherry and ripe tomato flavours, is made for a plate of pasta doused in that region’s Bolognese sauce.”

£6.50, Marks & Spencer

2014 Santa Julia Uco Valley Tempranillo

Our final contributior is Anthony Rose at The Independent, who recommends this Tempranillo “with a Rioja-esque smattering of vanilla oak”; a youthful drop that he says is a “bargain”.

£7.50, down from £10 until 23 February, Sainsbury’s

2012 Corte Ibla Nero d’Avola Terre Siciliane

“A finely perfumed rosso whose plum fruitiness shows a touch of gamey complexity and a savoury finish,” is Rose’s dinner party pick, and the final wine of the week.

£12, Marks & Spencer