Wines of the Times: Toast your Oscar favourite with one of our celebration tipples (From Dorset Echo)

Wines of the Times: Toast your Oscar favourite with one of our celebration tipples

11:30am Monday 20th February 2012 in Drinks

THE 84th Academy Awards on Sunday is the ultimate A-list bash, and a brilliant excuse to step into a stellar cellar for some best dressed labels.

With a front-row seat, here are some celebratory wines to lay out for friends to applaud the critics’ choice.

Taittinger Brut Reserve NV (£35.99, Tesco) is the fizz of choice for special awards dinners.

It’s elegant and toasty with a fine mousse, and a lengthy enough finish to complement a long acceptance speech.

Try an English wine from a top drawer producer to celbrate Bafta Best British Film award winner, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Chapel Down’s latest release,

Chapel Down Chardonnay 2010 (£13.99, slurp.co.uk) is unoaked, a clean, fresh mouthful of green apples with apricot and lime flavours, and typifies the citrus-driven style of English wine.

Next up, try this gem from New Zealand’s own first lady of wine, Jane Hunter OBE.

Her

Hunter’s Gewurztraminer 2010, Marlborough (£12.99, laithwaites.co.uk) is an excellent introduction to this sweeter style of white wine.

Floral and blossomy with a blast of lychee, there’s a subtle fizz and it’s a delicious drop with Asian snacks and bites.

Veteran director Steven Spielberg will be hoping his equine epic War Horse wins by a mile. Try the aptly-named Show Stopper 2010, Durif, New South Wales (£8.99, laithwaites.co.uk). Rich, velvety and spicy with deep savoury fruit and high tannin, it’s gratifyingly intense.

Or if you prefer the minerality of a classy Chablis, try ES Chablis 2010 (£9.34, Asda). Deep apple fresh with a hint of oak, classic mineral shell and good acidity, it’s a top pairing with delicate seafood canapes.