A top-flight Grapillon d’Or

2010 Gigondas, Domaine du Grapillon d'Or, Southern Rhne, France (£18.99, Waitrose, available in six branches and on www.waitrosedirect.com.

Early December is not just about stock-piling awesome wines for Christmas and New Year's Eve. It is also about buying top-flight reds to drink before the mad rush, which leave you with spare cash to splurge on the flash stuff later on. This means I drink a lot of red Rhne in the run up to the holidays.

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This means that the oft-hairy, brutish Gigondas (known as giggle juice' in my household) can be honed, suave and dashing. The recipe of Grenache with a splash of Syrah makes this an excellent winter wine with consummate food and wine-matching skills. Hearty, honest, long and thought-provoking, it will make you yearn for more southern Rhne blends.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (www.matthewjukes.com).

Matthew Jukes has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006.

He has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website.

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy. His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.