Daily Telegraph

Victoria Moore

Val do Salnes Albarino 2009 Spain (12%, M&S, £10.99)
A wonderful, intense albarino that tastes like apricot kernels and the juice that drips out of a fresh white peach when you bite into it. It is fractionally off-dry, which you won’t pick up on except to notice that it seems very succulent. Drink with fat barbecued garlic prawns or crab with mayonnaise.
Finest Manzanilla NV Spain (ABV, Tesco, £5.29 for 50cl)
The Waitrose Solera Jerezana Manzanilla is tastier, and only slightly more expensive, but if you’re shopping in Tesco and want to pick up a bottle of sherry’s lightest, driest style – think sourdough and rime – then this is jolly good with salted almonds or chorizo, plus it’s in a smallish bottle so will stay fresh. Avoid its sister fino, which is too blunt and stodgy.
Châteauneuf du Pape: Elisabeth Chambellan 2007 France (14.5%, £24.95, Yapp in Mere, yapp.co.uk)
Wine cravings can descend suddenly and be as enveloping as an infatuation. I got one on reading my notes for this beautifully put together, elegant Châteauneuf, “from mature (80 to100-year-old) vines on La Crau plateau right next to Vieux Telegraphe” as Jason Yapp points out. It smells of summer’s heat and tinder-dry herbs.