The best wins in difficult times

The first shall be last and vice versa. So the Good Book says and so says your humble wine correspondent, Raymond Gleug.

And so it came to pass that last week I doled out gongs for the best red, white and sparkling wines tasted in 2022 which were selling for £10 or less. A working man's price.

Anyway, now that the peasants have had their fun, we true aficionados can get round to the serious business. Goodbye, little people. I love you very much but it's time to take out the really good stuff, the bottles that only the more affluent among us can afford.

Of course, I am aware that in these difficult times even we richies have to be a little more prudent with our slush funds so I haven't gone for anything too exorbitant. Nothing over £15.

As an aside, my very dear wealthy friends, the price of wine is almost certain to rise significantly this year as the benefits of Brexit start to really kick in so now's the time to buy in bulk and fill up your cellars.

Best red: the smooth, ineffably soft and wildly precocious 2020 M&S Collection Crozes-Hermitage (£15). This classic northern Rhone red is made from 100% Syrah grapes and has a complex, fruity palate with hints of cinnamon and peppery spices alongside exuberantly juicy summer berries. It drinks well now but will mature nicely if you are the patient, disciplined sort who can happily leave it unopened for a year or five. One for roast lamb or a slowly cooked beef Bourguignon.

Best white: the elegant and deftly spiced 2021 Gewurztraminer Spatlese (£11.99, Lidl). This off-dry, opulent and aromatic white has a hint of Turkish Delight on the nose before a lively palate which is packed with melon, peach and lychee flavours while a hint of ginger. An ideal match to seafood, poultry or mildly spiced vegetable curries.

Best wine club: Please don't abandon your own local wine merchants. A fact of life, however, is that since Covid more and more of us have been ordering wine from mainly online retailers. Best of the bunch for my money is The Wine Society (www.thewinesociety.com or 01438-741177). Lifetime membership costs £40 and gains you access to a variety of both familiar and unusual wines at competitive prices, sourced primarily from small growers and supporting sustainable growing practices and fair trade. It's also where I've managed to source today's Wine of the Week. The refreshing, crisp and food-friendly Society's Cotes du Rhone Blanc (£9.95) blends white grenache with marsanne and roussanne to create a dry, tangy white with floral aromatics, plenty of peach and pear flavours and a touch of honey in its lingering finish. I'm thinking fish, chips, curry sauce and why did nobody get me an airfryer for Christmas?

As we enter a new year, most likely with a sense of fear and trepidation on account of the cost of living, dire political stagnation, our crumbling ecosystem, not to mention war, war, endless war, it would be easy to turn to the bottle in despair. But fear not, for the last shall be first. That's what the Good Book says and his very poor servant, Raymond Gleug, most cordially agrees.

Till next week tipplers, sante!