I make no apology for drawing attention to so many of these stunning wines. They are not overpriced considering the age of many of them. Nor do I apologise for how often Waitrose features below; the supermarket has long taken fortified wines more seriously than its peers. As usual, the bigger retailers I have concentrated on are those with a particularly good range and whose merchandising is such that I can make reasonably reliable recommendations of availability – until thirsty readers pounce. (Lidl, for instance, has some bargains but they tend to disappear in a flash.)
It’s always puzzled me why port (and some sherry) prices are reduced at Christmas when this is the season of peak demand but I advise you to take advantage of it. For more sweet-wine recommendations, see my late-July article about Sauternes.
Madeira is wonderfully useful because it lasts for ever in an opened bottle. But port needs more care. Serve wood-aged tawnies coolish and drink open bottles within eight or so weeks. Bottle-aged ports, such as vintage-dated examples, are more fragile and, while they need decanting off the sediment, they should be finished within days (not weeks) of opening. My tastings suggested that single-quinta ports, the produce of a single wine farm and made in years not ‘declared’ as full-blown vintage years, offer incredible value.
Dry and strong
Barbadillo, Solear NV Manzanilla 15%
Pungent, bready and fresh as a daisy. Just the job to refresh jaded palates over Christmas.
£10.25 reduced from £13 for 75 cl Waitrose, Ocado; £7.25 reduced from £9.99 for 75 cl from The Wine Society. Also from The Whisky Exchange, Taurus Wines, Oxford Wine Co, Cambridge Wine Merchants
Pedro’s Almacenista Selection, Fino NV Sherry 15%
Manages to be both tense and creamy. Real drive and a long, savoury, grippy finish. Superior Fino at a bargain price. This would go beautifully with smoked salmon on Christmas morning.
£12.25 Waitrose Cellar
Pedro’s Almacenista Selection, Amontillado Medium Dry NV Sherry 19%
Much older wine than the Fino, also selected from an almacenista, or a small, family-run bodega, but this is still very refreshing, and as much of a bargain. I can personally attest to its healing powers on those afflicted by colds and flu.
£13.25 Waitrose Cellar
Álvaro Domecq, La Janda Fino NV Sherry 15%
Darker than most finos – aged longer, up to 10 years. Pungent and characterful but more expensive than Waitrose’s great-value own- label sherries at £9.95.
£13.50 reduced from £16.50 Waitrose
Waitrose, No 1 Dry Oloroso NV Sherry 19.5%
Made by Lustau. Rich nose and then real tension in this pale-tawny, dry, long-aged wine. Revitalising.
£13.95 Waitrose
Sánchez Romate, Encontrado 1/5 Oloroso NV Sherry 20%
Bone-dry Olorosos have tended to trump Palo Cortados in this year’s tastings. This beautifully labelled (with old sherry posters) series offers half-bottles that deserve to be served with food. Nutty, gorgeous yet ethereal.
£17.25 reduced from £17.50 for 75 cl Waitrose Cellar
Barbadillo, Criadera Selection En Rama Palo Cortado NV Sherry 19%
Pungent but delicate and gorgeous. Nutty, tangy and seductive.
£18 The Wine Society, £21.99 The Wine Library, £22 Oxford Wine Co
Sánchez Romate, Escondido Palo Cortado NV Sherry 20.5%
Recently discovered 25-year-old treasure. Bright golden amber. Heady, dry, prune flavours, and so much fun. But how many people will try it?
£19 for 75 cl The Wine Society
González Byass, Alfonso Oloroso NV Sherry 18%
Eight years old. Pale golden tawny. Bone dry but lots of rancio and buttery tang. Long and fresh. A great bottle to tide you over the festive season.
£20 Majestic
Bodegas del Río, Marea Baja NV Manzanilla 15%
Excellent producer new to the UK. Complex eight-year-old wine that’s scrumptiously layered and tense.
£29.95 Davy’s Wine Merchants
Blandy’s, 10 Year Old Sercial NV Madeira 19%
Pale golden amber. Salty prune flavours. Very nourishing, somehow. An unusual aperitif?
£34 The Wine Society
Sweet
Château Barrejat, Élixir Doux 2024 Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh 12%
Imagine a stimulating blend of lime juice and golden syrup. This is it, from the far south-west of France and at a great price.
£14.50 reduced from £16.50 Stone, Vine & Sun
Château Pech La Calevie 2022 Monbazillac 13%
Rich and impressive from the Dordogne.
£14.95 The Wine Society
Domaine de la Rectorie, Côté Montagne 2022 Collioure 15%
Not a fortified wine but one that’s so strong you could drink it instead of a port. Really rich and alcoholic. Halfway to port but no excess of oak. Just an expression of this hot south-west corner of France. This red wine could go really well with jugged hare!
£25 The Wine Society
Disznókő, 1413 Édes Szamorodni 2021 Tokaj 12.5%
Mid gold. Lots of lovely apricot acidity. Pure pleasure on the palate. Great freshness as well as all that pure sweetness. Like a jewelly pear-shaped pendant, somehow.
£18.50 reduced from £22 for 50 cl Waitrose
Domaine Castéra 2024 Jurançon 12.5%
Petit Manseng grapes in this delicious blend of sweetness and tang with a hint of smokiness. But the acidity is so high it should be reserved for cheese or spicy dishes or fruit desserts. It would be killed by chocolate!
£28 Swig
Füleky, Pallas Late Harvest 2017 Tokaj 12.5%
Mix of raisined and nobly rotten grapes in this heady wine with old-fashioned Eastern European spice, bruised apples and a hint of cinnamon.
£18.50 for 37.5 cl Amathus
Kracher, Noble Reserve Trockenbeerenauslese NV Burgenland 11%
Deep amber. Sweet, easy, creamy apricot fool in a bottle from Austria’s king of noble rot. Complete.
£23.75 for 37.5 cl Corney & Barrow
Nicolas Brunet, Cuvée Paradis 1990 Vouvray 14%
Dark gold. Lots of acidity and lift in this ancient rarity.
£74.50 Amathus
Talosa 1995 Vin Santo di Montepulciano 12.5%
Lively tawny colour and such tangy appeal I found it impossible to spit this wine out.
Really gorgeous!
£41.50 for 37.5 cl Amathus
Royal Tokaji, Betsek First Growth Aszú 6 Puttonyos 2017 Tokaji Aszú 11%
Bright gold. Correct and exciting! Expensive but exceptional. Lovely smooth texture.
£66 for 50 cl Waitrose
Sweet and strong
Pellegrino NV Marsala Superiore 18%
Healthy tawny with a greenish rim. Heady, sweet, rancio and less convincing than the (more expensive) Waitrose version. But a good price and maybe useful in the kitchen, too?
£13 Tesco
Álvaro Domecq, Aranda Cream NV Sherry 18.5%
Brave to be launching a Cream Sherry now! This would be lovely with Christmas pudding as it’s so much more than just sweet.
£16.75 reduced from £19.75 Waitrose
Graham’s 10 Year Old Tawny NV Port 20%
With rather an ethereal nose, this somehow manages to be relatively delicate! A very refreshing tawny with real persistence. You could almost drink this as an aperitif. A snip at the reduced price and in a cardboard tube for gifting.
£20 reduced from £24 Waitrose, £22.50 Tesco
Ramos Pinto, Adriano White Reserva NV Port 19%
Pale orange. Almond flavours and beautiful mix of sweetness and – rather obvious – alcohol but a great buy, Long and gorgeous but very sweet!
£20 reduced from £24 Waitrose
Domaine Fontanel, No 66 Ambré 2017 Rivesaltes 16%
A vin doux naturel made from late-picked 60-year-old Grenache Blanc and Gris – a style becoming rarer and rarer, alas. With its dried citrus-peel flavours, this is a bottle that would disappear very fast at the end of Christmas dinner.
£24.95 Stone, Vine & Sun
Penfolds, Father Grand Tawny NV South Australia 18.5%
Healthy glowing red. Great blend with lots of interest, age and depth. Extremely sweet-tasting but still lively!
£26 Tesco
Cockburn’s Quinta dos Canais 2014 Port 20%
Heady, luscious and extremely winning single-quinta vintage port. Some tannins on the end but mainly just gorgeous, violet-scented cocktail of super-ripe fruit. Very long. A real success and a much more serious wine than the price suggests. Crazy Christmas pricing!
£31 Tesco and Sainsbury’s
Taylor’s, Quinta de Vargellas 2019 Port 20%
Deep purple, this positively smoulders! Then it’s delightfully mellow on the palate as well as fresh on the end. This is class! A wine made for our fast-forward age. Glorious.
£32 Tanners
Pellegrino, Vergine Riserva 2000 Marsala 19%
Glowing orange. Just a little cheesy on the nose but so refreshing on the end! Bitter golden marmalade character. Long and really rewarding. Enjoy with cheese? Or even main courses. Lovely!
£34 Waitrose Cellar from 19 December
Blandy’s, Malmsey Colheita 2017 Madeira 19%
Pale orange tawny. Very sweet start with notes of leeks, believe it or not! Really great balance and another great cheese wine. Sweet start, dry finish.
£25 for 50 cl Waitrose Cellar
Graham’s 20 Year Old Tawny NV Port 20%
Headier and sweeter than the Taylor’s equivalent with distinctly treacly notes but it’s not heavy at all. Really rather sumptuous, and, like the Graham’s 10 Year Old, it almost tastes delicate. You could sip it without food and it would probably need quite careful food pairing – nothing too robust.
£38 reduced from £46 Waitrose
Kopke, 10 Year Old White NV Port 20%
Attractive stencilled flask from the specialist in wood-aged ports. Translucent dark-apricot colour. Nuts and dried fruit – and alcohol! Finishes dry after a lusciously sweet palate. This should stand up to quite sweet desserts. Good with cheese, too.
£39 Waitrose
Williams & Humbert, As You Like It Amontillado Medium Sweet NV Sherry 20%
Latest bottling of a wine that won the hearts of Wine Society buyers when tasted blind. Bright golden amber. Age and complexity and with perfect balance. Not that sweet but the S-word will doubtless put most people off. Serve with cheese.
£31 for 50cl The Wine Society
Henriques & Henriques 15 Year Old Boal NV Madeira 19%
Pale brownish tawny. So heady and rich! Nutty and treacly. Long. Just gorgeous.
£33 for 50 cl Majestic
Villa Oeiras NV Carcavelos 18.5%
A revived rarity from the Portuguese coast aged in Portuguese oak for seven years. Flavours of orange peel and walnuts. Deep
flavoured and really delicious. This would be great with cheese – how about Portugal’s Serra da Estrela? Match made in heaven, I’d have thought.
£28.50 for 37.5 cl Beckford Bottle Shop, £29 for 37.5 cl Stroud Wine Co
For detailed tasting notes, scores and suggested drinking dates, see our tasting notes database. For international stockists, see Wine-Searcher.com.
Photo credit: Cat Fennell.
