6 fun and fruity, food-friendly wines

If your wine rack’s looking a little lacklustre and you’re after something to spark up a dark night, a fun and fruity midwinter wine can work wonders for weeknight dinners.

Especially with cosy, comfort food the best recipe for those dips in temperature, and gloomy grey skies making you want to sink into the sofa.

Think a playful white to pimp up your pasta, and fireside red to beef up a casserole or chilli con carne.

Here’s what’s caught our eye and getting our taste buds tingling…

1. Kooliburra x The Hidden Sea Chardonnay 2024, South Australia, £7.50, Aldi, in-store

No need to splurge when you can drink in the charms of this mouthwatering chardonnay – bright and beautiful with bags of fruit. Aromatic, with a combination of citrus, peach and fresh nectarine, similar flavours unfold with subtle hints of vanilla, spice and fresh finish. A collaboration with eco-friendly wine brand, The Hidden Sea, it’s a star buy from Aldi.

2. La Belle Angèle Sauvignon Blanc 2023, VDF, France, £9.99 (£7.99 mix six), Majestic

With its picture postcard label, and value and consistency a hallmark of Vin de France wines, you can’t go wrong with this stylish savvy blanc. Vibrant and juicy with lemony freshness, there’s some tropical gusto with well-judged gooseberry, lime, green apple notes and zesty finish. Instantly uplifting, its one for mild chicken curries or fish and chips.

3. Co-op Irresistible Gavi Broglia 2023, Piedmont, Italy, £10, Co-op, in-store

With its appetising, silky freshness and bright acidity, gavi is a go-to with easy-peasy pesto pasta; with its characteristic flavours of fresh white stone fruits, citrus and peach, aligned with honeyed nuances and enticing almond note lingering on the finish, it’s the perfect foil with pesto’s salty tang. Bellisimo.

4. Lusus Douro DOC 2022, Portugal, £9.99, Laithwaites

A riot of freshly crushed, spice-edged blackberry fruit, this deftly blended, crowd-pleasing ruby red is just as impressive as those famous ports. Floral, juicy and layered, with ripe, fruity flavours and spicy notes, enjoy with Portuguese cod fish casserole or bowl of spicy chilli and garlic bread.

5. M&S Notte Stellata Primitivo Di Manduria 2022, Italy, £11, Ocado

Plush with plenty of rich, plummy fruit, primitivo is a trump card with spaghetti bolognese; and enough fruity concentration to tug on the taste buds. With a lick of vanilla and chocolate from ageing in French and American oak, expect sweet and sour cherry notes coming into play with plums and blackberry on the long, generous finish.

6. Domaine Bousquet Finca Lalande Organic Cabernet Franc 2024, Argentina, £10.99, Waitrose

Move over malbec… distinctive and utterly delicious, Argentina’s single variety cabernet franc (a key grape in a Bordeaux blend) is finding a firm place on wine shelves with its high altitude freshness, herbal notes and vivid red fruit flavours. Beautifully aromatic with raspberry and violet notes, a forest floor of structured sunkissed fruit entwined with complex notes of tomato leaf, black pepper and velvety smooth finish, this one’s a winner with sausage, pepper and potato bake.