12 best white wines that will impress everyone this Christmas (and beyond)

This is our best buy as it’s cracking value, with the complexity of a white Burgundy for a fraction of the price. Made by an iconic Barossa winery, this Australian chardonnay is bright and crisp, and has bags of flavour – think scented peaches and lime with a touch of cashew nut, fig and vanilla. It’s restrained and quite beautiful, which is everything you would want for a Christmas white wine.

This Italian white wine pops up everywhere and is easy going, fruity and excellent value for money. It’s fresh, with bright notes of lemon and tropical fruits, and a fantastic wine to have in the fridge, seeing as it’s an easy crowd pleaser.

This pecorino is lovely matched with pasta dishes, crudités and picky nibbles. Most importantly, it’s a perfect wine to serve when more guests have arrived than you expected.

Peaches and cream for Christmas? Yes please! This wine is both really special and great value for money. It’s perfumed and aromatic, and bursting with honeysuckle and apricots. It really does taste of peaches and cream too, with an almost savoury, herby finish.

A viognier is a lovely choice for Christmas because it has a richer weight and taste than other white wines. It also makes quite a delectable pairing with roast chicken or turkey, as the herby notes make a great match for any herbs in your tasty roast.

The best when it comes to value for money, this bottle comes in at under £10 while being a pretty special wine for the festive period.

This New Zealand sauvignon blanc is a fantastic find. We’re yet to find someone who hasn’t enjoyed this zesty and fruity wine from the famous producer, Villa Maria. It’s bursting with the juiciest flavours of passionfruit, mango and lime zest  – perfect for bringing some flavour to a lively party. It’s also a match made in heaven with canapés of smoked salmon, baked goats’ cheese, and fresh burrata cheese with grilled peaches or zesty lime spiced prawns.

A great wine to take to festive Christmas parties when you have no clue what to bring.

This wine is a find, and one of the most crowd-pleasing we’ve tasted. It will impress any wine buffs in the house, thanks to its exciting blend of alsace noble grapes: muscat, riesling, pinot gris and gewurztraminer.

This is a dry, light and easy-going wine that has a delicious fresh rose, stone fruit and spicy, warming taste. Brilliantly made, it has plenty of freshness to pair with a range of Christmas foods.

This is always a big hit every year, as a rich, oaked chardonnay just screams Christmas. It’s bursting with fresh citrus fruits, tropical fruits such as pineapple, and stone fruits like peaches – which develop into a delicious warm hug of vanilla – plus coconut, toast and butter. It’s a big, bold and rich white wine, so if you’re looking for something that packs a punch, this is for you.

Open this bottle when wrapping presents by the fire, alongside a board of soft creamy cheeses like Chaource, brie or delice de bourgogne. 

This wine is from Waitrose’s own label but it’s made by the incredibly talented winemaker at Denbies Estate in Surrey. And, not only is it great to support the English wine industry, but when it’s this delicious and great value, you win all round.

This wine is light, elegant and easy to drink, and one to try if  you like an aromatic sauvignon blanc. With lashings of fruit like zesty lime, grapefruit, English apples and lychees, it will not disappoint. It will be particularly delicious with a light starter like asparagus, goats cheese and honey.

Have you tried a gewurztraminer yet? If not, this is your chance. This wine is one of our favourite Christmas wines. It’s off-dry so expect some sweetness, yet it’s fresh and aromatic, too, like an exotic lychee and rose bomb.

The producer Ernst Wolf states that drinking this is “like lying on a bed of roses”, which sounds like it would be perfect after having a full house over Christmas.

Gewurztraminer can handle delicious Asian meals or dishes with some spice. So, if you’re fed up with turkey, grab a bottle of this with a Thai takeaway and you will not be disappointed. This wine will also be scrumptious with honey-glazed roasted ham – a perfect boxing day treat.

Christmas is all about white Burgundy, as it’s warming, round and complex. It’s also a delicious pairing for the famed festive dinner. Plus, white Burgundy wine can be super expensive, so this is a steal for under £20.

This chardonnay is rich and elegant with juicy stone fruits and subtle vanilla and butterscotch undertones owing to being matured in lightly toasted barrels. It’s a gem! The wine is perfect with roast chicken and vegetables ladled with butter, while it will also be delicious with a wide range of Christmas dishes, including cheese boards, prawns, turkey and lobster.

If you’re feeling extra special, pair it with smoked salmon and creme fraiche blinis or warmed camembert and crusty bread, as the warmth of the wine will complement these canapés.

Now, this wine is special. Made with chenin blanc grapes from the Loire Valley in France, it’s a stunning wine and something to look forward to over the Christmas period. It has notes of tropical fruits and green apples that give way to honey-roasted nuts, peaches, hay, truffled mushrooms and more.

We think the main thing to remember here is that you want to let the wine show off, so pair it with something delicate like roast chicken or grilled monkfish. It would make a lovely present for a wine-loving friend, too.

We all deserve a little treat for Christmas and this wine really is just that. It’s restrained yet rich and powerful – a perfect balancing act – and it has an incredibly alluring aroma of white flowers, pears, stone fruits, honey, nuts and dried Italian herbs. Think apricots drizzled in honey but more refined, with a little hint of festive spice. It has a clean, mineral, flint-like finish, which is seriously good, and is what the wine world would call “complex”. It’s damn right delicious, too – so go on, treat yourself.

It isn’t cheap, so probably best if you have a small group over for dinner. Otherwise, hide it in the cupboard and keep it for yourself. Enjoy with a pasta dish on Christmas Eve, or with seafood or fish dishes on the big day.

What could be better than a bright Chablis from a dependable producer like Louis Jadot for pairing with seafood on the big day? The soils of Chablis were once an ancient seabed, which imparts a flinty and saline note to the wine, the perfect partner to all those delicious seafood delights that Christmas has to offer.

This Louis Jadot gem offers fresh white flowers, apricot, lemon and bruised apple, and toasty notes with a zippy stone minerality. It’s rounded with a softer acidity that’s lovely with lobster in butter. Perfect as an aperitif or with a seafood platter, it will also be great with roast chicken.