Wine Club: six stunning alternatives to French Chardonnay

Poor Mrs Ray finally cracked. Ever the stoic, she paid no heed to the life-challenging heatwaves and associated power cuts. She disregarded the Covid that raged through her loved ones and took hours-long delays in and out of Gatwick with her usual eudaimonic tranquillity of mind.

The baggage chaos at Heathrow, the melting runway at Luton, the rail/barrister/postal strikes and prospect of our next PM being elected by less than a quarter of 1 per cent of the country; well, they barely registered. No, what finally did for my dear wife was seeing her favourite Mâcon-Lugny rise in price from £14 to almost £20. Her evening tipple priced out of reach was the final straw. She was quite undone.

Burgundy has suffered a couple of tricky/tiny vintages and prices are going through the roof. But all is not lost. There are some stunning, great-value, non-French alternatives and the following selection from Mr Wheeler did much to console the distraught Mrs R.