This week, MIKE TIPPING chooses three bottles that you could take to a dinner party with pride.

You’ve got a dinner party invite and it is only polite to take along a bottle of wine. I think your host would be pleased to accept any of the following. I have steered away from the usual suspects and picked out something a little different.

Wines from southern Italy are often really good value for money, A Mano Fiano-Greco 2013, from Puglia, being a case in point. Fiano and Greco are two of southern Italy’s best white grapes and they combine beautifully here.

Crisp, refreshing and floral it is flavoursome stuff, suggesting stonefruit, apple and citrus. It will go well with seafood pasta dishes and fish but it also makes a good aperitif.

I can’t remember ever having included a wine from the Republic of Macedonia in this column but there’s always a first time, so here goes. The bottle in question is Stobi Vranec Classic 2011, from the Tikveš region, and a new listing at Wine Rack.

Vranec is one of the most important red grapes in Macedonia and this is an approachable example, aged in Slavonian oak barrels. With a velvety texture and up-front flavours of plums, cherries, coffee and anise, it is all held together by some firm tannins. Pair this one with roast beef or lamb but it will perhaps go best with a hearty casserole.

Pudding wines can be a good choice to take to a dinner party; I can almost guarantee your hosts won’t have their own. They don’t have to cost a fortune either (although a lot of sweet wines do).

New to Tesco is a reasonably priced sticky from the south of France, Plaimont Producteurs Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh 2011, Duc de Termes. Made from ‘raisened’ petit manseng and gros manseng grapes, from vineyards near the Pyrénées, it has a zesty acidity with flavours of bitter orange and honeycomb, spiced with ginger.
 

A Mano Fiano-Greco 2013, Puglia, £7.95 from The Wine Society 18/20

Stobi Vranec Classic 2011, Tikveš, £9.99 from Wine Rack (winerack.co.uk) 17/20

Plaimont Producteurs Pacherenc du Vic-Bilh 2011, Duc de Termes, (37.5cl) £5.99 at Tesco 17/20