A lunchtime white for less than a tenner

2011 Gavi di Gavi, La Monetta, Piemonte, Italy (£9.99, reduced to £7.99, until 9 October, Waitrose).

Here's a lovely white wine that works perfectly well at a tenner, but really is worth a detour at £7.99. Gavi di Gavi is a style of wine that can cost the earth my favourite version, 2010 Montessora, La Giustiniana (£21.99, Caruthers & Kent, 0191-213 1818), is three times the price of my featured wine so when a decent discount applies to well-made Gavi, I am on it.

Made by Araldica, a smart co-op, and coming from their La Battistina estate, this wine has pedigree. There are no winemaking tricks here, just a short, cool fermentation, and then it's ready to go. This means that great Gavi is made' in the vineyard either the fruit is special or it is not. This is certainly true of my aforementioned Montessora, but it is also very evident in this keenly priced wine.

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Araldica is a large outfit with very high standards and it shows. The lemon balm and lime leaf nose is beautiful. The palate is pear-imbued and sleek and the finish, rasping and refreshing. It is also only 12.5% alcohol, so very much an aperitif/lunchtime style. Give La Monetta a whirl it will certainly raise an eyebrow or two.

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.