Domaine du Colombier 2010 Chablis

When we lived in France, back in 1996-2001, the Chablis and Petit Chablis from the Mothe family at Domaine du Colombier were among our regular house wines. The Mothes were delightful people with a friendly little cellar at Fontenay, and their wines offered excellent value for money. Now Marcus Gniel from Ce Soir Wine is importing the Chablis into Australia and I was delighted to discover it is still a really lovely, racy wine. It's pristine and flinty example with terrific acid and length. Match this with oysters, grilled seafood, or some snails in garlic, and you won't go wrong. $32. www.cesoirwine.com.

West Cape Howe 2012 Semillon Sauvignon Blanc

It had been a while since I had tasted any wines from West Cape Howe - but I've always thought of them as reliably good. Working my way through a recent batch of West Australian samples, the WCH 2012 Sauvignon Blanc was very decent, and the WCH 2012 Chardonnay excellent. And this wine blew my socks off - particularly after I looked at the recommended retail price. This is nothing more, nothing less than an excellent summer drink with semillon and sauvignon blanc playing a virtuoso quitar duel on your tongue. There's freshness, crispness and lots of drinkability. Ridiculous value for $17. www.westcapehousewines.com.au

Vignobles Paul Mas 2011 Cabernet Sauvignon

This is such a terrific bargain that I feel like keeping it to myself and going off on a big buying spree. So much of what you see in bottle shops for under $10 is complete rubbish, it comes as a real surprise to find a French import that's quite so good for such minimal outlay. This wine from the Languedoc has has blueberry juiciness and gentle cigar box notes; serious structure, impressive tannins and plenty of length. In short, it's a ripper - and it's under screw cap, as well. There's also a very impressive 2011 marsanne in the same range. Exclusive to Dan Murphy's, apparently. $6.99. [That's not a misprint].      

Mitchell Harris 2011 Mataro Grenache Shiraz

John Harris, formerly the winemaker at Domaine Chandon and Mount Avoca, is now devoting all his attention to his family label. And what a delightful wine from the cooler-climate Victorian Pyrenees this is. Forget all the doom and gloom about the 2011 vintage, there are a lot of excellent wines if you look in the right places - and this is a very good place. This mataro-dominant red blend is juicy, spunky, spicy and very slurpable. There are some bright red currant notes, earthiness, lashings of pepper and some appealing softness on the palate. Good stuff. $27. www.mitchellharris.com.au