Fine Wines

White

White

1998 Hardy's Banrock Station Chardonnay, £3.49, on special offer until next Saturday (normally £3.99), Sainsbury's, Somerfield

Gold medals are not handed out lightly at the International Wine Challenge and most wines that do strike gold cost a tenner or more. Every year there's the odd exception that proves the rule. This year it's a modestly priced, lightly oaked, tropically fruity blockbuster of a chardonnay which finds itself, possibly to its producer's surprise, in the illustrious company of premier cru chablis and Batard-Montrachet.

Red

1998 Simonsvlei Reserve Shiraz, £4.99, Safeway

This co-operative-turned-wine company near Paarl in the Cape keeps improving under the stewardship of cellarmaster Phillip Louw, who, in this vintage, has produced a typically robust, toasty-oaky shiraz full of earthy, spicy black fruit flavours. One for Indian summer char-grills on the barbecue, if we should be so lucky.