Back up the truck, JC pink fizz is my bubbles of choice when the room is heaving and the bride’s father is looking nervous about the bill! I’ve converted many a red-blooded bloke with this stuff because it’s made like proper sparkling and it’s NOT SWEET! $8.50 at Dan’s, sometimes $7.80 at 1st Choice.

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These mild autumn evenings call for zesty whites with a touch of the mellowed maturity of bottle age. Belford arrives perfectly pre-aged to that magic Hunter semillon moment when toasty complexity meets zesty preserved lemon, dissolving in a shower of glittering minerality. $24 at WineStar.

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After instructing you to Buy George Cabernet Tempranillo last week, I did a double-take when his Foxy shiraz partner showed its tail at 1st Choice under $14. It should be illegal to snare such sensitively crafted Barossa glory at these miserly prices! A few secret ingredients inject spicy lift and perfume.

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Peter and Hannah Logan are the slickest operation in Mudgee and they sure know how to turn on a party! Their bargain SSB will kick-start all kinds of shenanigans with its spicy pear and apple fruit, crunchy lime palate and lingering guava finish. $10 at Cracka Wines.

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Sauternes is the cradle of France’s finest sweeties and its enchanting 07s are just starting to land. It hurts to shell out more than $100 for a half bot of dessert wine, but Rieussec’s second label is one of the best value alternatives. Classic lighter style, layered with honey and succulent stone fruits.

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Give straight shiraz the swerve for once and try on Australia’s most under-rated blend! Scribbler is so precise, it tastes like cabernet and shiraz at the same time. Well, duh… but no one else can pull this off for $20! The best bargain red in the country? Too right it is! $15 at Dan Murphy’s […]

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Need to sell one of the kids just to afford a bottle of Kiwi pinot? Thank heavens for this bargain from Hunter’s, your offspring are safe! One of the first producers to put Marlborough on the wine map, Hunter’s Pinot only gets better each year, attaining new levels of cherry bliss in 2009.

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With his corkscrew black hair and designer jeans, you’d never pick DJ rocker Michael Fragos as the sensitive voice of McLaren Vale winemaking. His beautifully delicate chardonnay proves it, dancing with lemon blossom, subtle white peach and finely tuned minerality. Gorge, indeed.

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Like your favourite album of greatest hits, this is a prestige champagne with a unique philosophy, blending only the finest vintages. Long ageing (about five years) produces insane complexity, strung in tension with Laurent Perrier’s signature cut of razor-edge acidity, finishing taut and restrained.

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Forget everything you’ve ever believed about Barossa grenache. This beautifully perfumed, low alcohol, textural imposter was harvested early and created like a pinot noir, capturing all of the aromatic glory of a variety too often baked to within an inch of its life. It will leave you refreshed and enlivened!

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