Bottles Of The Week

Why stick to one when you can have two? Not a bad motto for Christmas dinner wines in general, and especially relevant in the pudding department where good tastes are guaranteed with two utterly different styles. Light, frothy Mondoro Asti (right, widely available, usually £9.99) acts as a surprise pick-me-up at the end of the eating marathon, its grape and orangepeel character perfectly complementing the dried fruit in the pud. D'Arenberg McLaren Vale Noble Riesling 1995 (left, outlets above, half-bottle £11.99£12.50), which gave the J.P. Moscatel a good run for its lesser money, is a classy dessert wine delivering harmony, intensity and a lovely, palate-priming, lemony acidity. A pair of crackers to suit all comers.