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(LCBO 26546, $11.95)

Score 91

When you just want a glass of clean, crisp, refreshment with no oak, no overt fruit and no sweetness, this is your wine. It’s a light-bodied slip of easy vinosity. The colour is water white with sunlit straw inflections. The aromas flit from alpine air to Bartlett pear to lemon ice. And the attack tastes cool, immediate and vibrant. A glassy entry gives way to a tense, textured, tart-tasting centre that saturates the palate and refreshes with abandon before taking its slow retreat. Supremely quenching white wine. (11% alc., 3 g/L sugar)

2024 Estandon Baie Dorée Méditerranée Rosé IGP, France

(LCBO 42433, $12.80)

Score 92

You’d never guess this bottle costs less than $13. It could easily sell for more. The pale liquid shines ultra-pale coral and exudes the delicate perfume of redcurrant and cantaloupe, white flowers and seashell. Then, it glides in with a silky wash of luminescent purity that nods orange peel, limestone and red fruit. Refined yet relaxed, short but keeps you sipping, this is the taste of easy living that whisks you straight to the Côte d’Azur. Extra points for the gorgeous label. Buy this one by the case. (12.5% alc., 2 g/L)

Ogier Rosé Ventoux AC, Rhône Valley, France

(LCBO 134916, $14)

Score 90

For a rosé with a little more weight and colour, reach for this bottle. Each salmon-hued glassful swirls with the soft fragrance of cool flint, white peach and grapefruit before flooding in with citrus fruit, orange blossom and cherries with a touch of rose petal, too. As the wine recedes, the flinty note comes to the fore and leaves the palate seasoned. Dry but juicy, bracing but balanced, this mid-weight rosé works especially well at the table, complementing anything you care to serve. (13% alc., 2g/L sugar)

2022 Borsao Garnacha Seleccion DO Campo de Borja, Spain

(LCBO 386961, $13.05)

Score 93

This Garnacha-based red, seasoned with Tempranillo and Cabernet Sauvignon, is that Spanish wine you need to know about. It offers supremely drinkable juiciness tempered with the structure and character of a more expensive wine. Expect muddled blackberry and summer strawberry scents laced with licorice and leather on the nose. Then, it rolls in slowly with deep, dark, focused fruit. Find earthy berries, peppery plums and grilled meat flavours that shift toward slate, graphite and sun-warmed violet. Long, generous wine with a lamplit centre. Snap it up. (14.5% alc., 3 g/L sugar)

Inniskillin Estate Series Late Autumn Riesling VQA Ontario

(LCBO 219543, $15.95)

Score 90

A glass of sweet wine after a meal beats a big fluffy dessert every time. See for yourself with this bottle from Ontario, served well-chilled on its own or with a sliver of cheese. From the honeyed lime and candied orange peel fragrance to the arresting sweet-tart flavour, each sip is a mouth-watering lick of sugared yellow plum, honeyed pineapple and lime zest that tapers to a slow blood orange finish. At the price, it’s a handy inclusion to the wine rack for those impromptu dinner parties. (12% alc., 24 g/L sugar)

2023 TWR Te Whare Ra Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough, New Zealand

(Vintages 411603, $26.95)

Score 94

This is a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc for the seasoned connoisseur who demands subtlety and finesse — as well as the casual drinker looking for pure pleasure. With equal parts dignity and deliciousness, this wine starts with classic scents of basil and bell pepper, grapefruit and Granny Smith. Then, it slides in tasting glossy and cool as crushed stone, grapefruit pith, mango and tarragon emerge, and then move to elderflower, salted lime zest, green olive, goji and tangerine. Each note tastes chiselled and articulate while plunging acidity anchors the fruit. Magnetic. (13% alc., 4 g/L sugar)