Joanna Simon

Unless we take up the Argentine habit of having asados all year long whatever weather – not a bad idea, perhaps – we’ve probably had the barbecue season for 2026, but that’s no reason to lay off the Malbec.

This Côtes-du-Rhône is just the kind of wine to take us from summer into autumn.

I can’t help feeling that what the many French people currently suffering from post-summer holiday blues could do with is a nose-tingling, racy, reviving dry white wine like Tingleup Riesling 2025.

There’s no shortage of good Pinot Noir in California.

It's fitting that one of the signature aromas of Kékfrankos, Hungary’s most widely planted red grape, is paprika, the country’s national spice.

This is one of my favourite rosés of the summer.

This is French Mediterranean Viognier at its most appealing – radiant, airy, succulent and supple, with honeysuckle and peach on the nose, peach-cum-apricot and citrus fruit on the palate, sea-spray freshness, subtle marine minerality and a seamless, roun…

Red Rioja in summer?

When the then-mayor Jean Taittinger twinned the city of Reims with Canterbury in the 1950s, it presumably never crossed his mind that 60 years or so later his family would be embarking on an English sparkling wine venture in the Kent countryside nearby.

New Dawn is the creation of multi-award-winning Cape winemaker Rüdger van Wyk, whose vision is to make affordable wines that you can open without any faff or ceremony – wines that don’t need fancy food matches, but which don’t compromise an iota of quality

Could the red wines of Cahors finally be having a moment in the UK?

This is wonderfully vibrant and refreshing, but with subtle richness, too – and it's from a category that isn’t well known enough in the UK: dry white Bordeaux.

This is Loire Valley Cabernet Franc just as it should be, so hats off to the Bougrier family and winemaker Franck Chatelain of Caves de la Tourangelle, the producer of this Saint Nicolas de Bourgueil.

Rosé may be a much less seasonal wine than it was, but we all need good rosés to drink in the summer.

Even if you think you don’t need another Chardonnay, trust me, you need Domaine Frédéric Lambert Côtes du Jura Chardonnay 2024.

You may be thinking anything but big reds in the current weather, but Shiraz doesn’t have to be a big beast.

English still wines don’t get much better than this crystalline, polished dry white made in Norfolk from grapes grown in Essex and in Flint’s own vineyard in Earsham, Norfolk.

This red from the Douro is one of four Portuguese wines in the new Nós Somos (‘We Are’) regional range from Esporão, one of Portugal’s largest, most impressive producers and one of the world’s biggest organic growers.

White Corbières is not something you see very often, but I didn’t pick Château Ollieux Romanis Racine Blanc 2025 for its novelty value.

If you didn’t know, you might be hard-pushed to say where this Pinot Noir comes from – the upper Aude Valley is not the best known of wine regions – but you would be having a bad day if you didn’t recognise the grape variety.

In line with global trends, wine drinkers in the UK have been switching from red wines to white – not to mention rosé.

Georgian wine is having a moment – as is the country’s food, conveniently.