How you can take advantage of this 'unbeatable' wine offer at Waitrose

Robert Oatley Chardonnay 2022, Australia, 12.5% Co-op down from £10.50 to £9.50 until December 10: A terrific value Chardonnay with light apricot and citrus notes and a rounded, creamy finish. Perfect with roast chicken.

Taste the Difference Gamay Comté Tolosan 2023, South West France 12.5%, Sainsbury down from £9 to £7.50 with Nectar card until December 10: Ripe, juicy cherry and blackberry flavours in this Gamay from the Gaillac region of France. Team with paté and crusty bread.​

Pigmentum Malbec 2021, Cahors, France, 12.5%, Booths down from £12.25 to £10.75 until January 1: Malbec started out in France before it found its home in Argentina. This is a taste of the original, with big mulberry fruit, a hint of spice and enough structure to handle a steak.​

Blandy’s Rich Madeira, 19%, Morrisons, down from £15 to £11 with a More card starting until January 1: Don’t wait for a specail occasion to sip a glass of Madeira. Try a small glass with a mid-afternoon mince pie alongside a sliver of Wensleydale.​

Fine Wine for £10 at Waitrose

Every year Waitrose selects 10 wines that normally retail at around £13 to £16 .99 and prices them at £10 while stocks last.

This is an unbeatable offer and this year the deals include the soft, complex flavours of Louis Jadot Beaujolais-Quincié, normally £14.99. this may be a Beaujolais, but it tastes like a good cru Burgundy.

There is also a fine Croix des Coteaux St Emilion 2020, normally £15.99 that I shall probably have on my table around Christmas and a fabulous, dense, chewy Doña Paula El Alto Single Vineyard Malbec 2022 from Mendoza, normally £15.99.

Some great value whites include an elegant Mâcon-Lugny Les Charmes 2023, normally £16.99, and a creamy Crémant de Loire fizz, Prince Alexandre Brut, normally £14.99.

These deals are also available online and are well worth snapping up for drinking well into the New Year. The Malbec in particular will keep on developing for another 12 months at least.

Books for Christmas

The Loire region in France is not just a lovely place to spend a holiday but it is also the source of an amazing variety of wines.

From crisp dry whites to richer complex styles, heavenly sweet wines, red wines and fizz. Master of Wine Beverley Blanning has spent many years living in and exploring this region.

She has discovered the many wine appellations in the twists and turns of the 1000 kilometres river, and talked to producers to find out how the Loire is now ranked as one of the most dynamic and exciting wine regions of the world.

In her book, Wines of the Loire Valley, (Academie du Vin, £35) she naturally starts with the region’s 2000 years of history, but this is a brief snippet before moving on to the massive changes in the vineyards in recent years.

There are new classifications, a new attitude to organic and biodynamics and a resurgence of quality that has taken the whole region back to its roots.

This book is a result of many years of research and is an essential companion when you visit the region or even just for armchair travels.