Here's three wines under $25 that you could buy family or friends as presents, or buy for yourself and bring to the dining table on Christmas Day with pride.

IMPORTS like today's three wines make up 18 per cent of what Australians drink and 56 per cent of that is from New Zealand. A distant second is France with 20 per cent, Italy 14 per cent, Spain 3 per cent and Portugal 1 per cent. This enjoyable, good-value pinot noir from southern France's Languedoc-Roussillon Region has 13 per cent alcohol, garnet hues and potpourri scents. The front palate displays juicy raspberry flavour, the middle palate has cranberry, mint, spice and savoury oak characters and smooth earthy tannins at the finish. It will cellar over three years and drink well with tandoori lamb kebabs. Imported by the Vintage House arm of the Angove family wine company, it's available in independent bottle shops.

IN its native Spain, grenache is called garnacha and it also goes under such names as alicante, carignane rousse and cannonao in France, Sicily, Algeria and California. Up to the 1960s it was Australia's most-planted red, but now is sixth behind shiraz, cabernet sauvignon, merlot, pinot noir and petit verdot. This wine from the Altolandon winery north-east of Valencia is organic and vegan-friendly and interestingly had a portion aged in a clay amphora. It has 14 per cent alcohol, inky purple hues and bramble jelly aromas. Spicy cherry flavour features on the front palate and blackberry, briar, licorice and cedary oak on middle palate. Peppery tannins play at the finish. Drink with cannelloni and cellar for two years. At cellarmasters.com.au.

HERE'S a malbec from Argentina, which has made the variety its global flagship - boasting the world's biggest plantings of 31,000 hectares. This one has 14.5 per cent alcohol, tobacco leaf scents and is bright crimson. The front palate has intense mulberry flavour and Maraschino cherry, spearmint, cloves and mocha oak characters on the middle palate. Berry fruit and ferric tannins meld at the finish. It would go well with grilled chorizo sausages, sells in BWS stores and will cellar for two years. Malbec is a grape of French origins that is a major component of the reds of Cahors and a minor role with merlot, cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc and petit verdot in Bordeaux reds. It has small plantings in Australia, including the Hunter.

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