Red wine showdown

Château Lamartine Cuvée Particulière, 2011, Cahors, France 
$26.95, 89 points
This wine has a touch of Tannat added to the Malbec. It’s dense purple in colour with a spicy nose of fennel and blackberries and a pencil lead note. Full-bodied and dry, it’s firmly structured with a rich blackberry flavour and evident tannins. Hold for three to four years. 

Fabre Montmayou Reserva Malbec, 2013, Argentina
$18.95, 87 points
This Malbec is also a dense purple colour and possesses an earthy bouquet of plum, cherry and dried flowers. It’s medium to full-bodied, at 14.5 per cent alcohol, and dry with a juicy baked plum flavour and an abrupt cedary finish.

Winner: Château Lamartine, for its structure and cellar worthiness

White wine showdown

Stoneleigh Latitude Sauvignon Blanc, 2015, Marlborough, New Zealand  
$21.95, 89 points
Almost water white in colour with an intense nose of cut grass, grapefruit and kiwi, this wine is medium-bodied with mouth-freshening acidity that carries flavours of rhubarb and gooseberries. The touch of sweetness in mid-palate is cleansed by its acidic finish.

Roland Tissier & Fils Sancerre, 2014, Loire Valley, France
$27.95, 88.5 points
This pick is a bright, pale straw in colour and offers a nose of cut grass and elderberries with an herbal note. On the palate it’s dry and medium-bodied with gooseberry and green fig flavours and a long finish.

Winner: For price and quality, Stoneleigh by 0.5 points