22 great lower alcohol wines for summer

Made in London's first urban winery with grapes grown in West Sussex, this funky PetNat has vigorous bubbles and crisp acid. Bottled with its lees, so if you keep it for three to five years it will evolve in the bottle, developing more bready, yeasty notes. Apple and yeasty farmyard aromas. The palate is crisp and fresh, with high natural acidity, notes of citrus and green apple. Only 200 bottles made.

Glera and Bianchetta Trevigiana from the rolling hills of the Asolo DOCG. Appley and ever so slightly nutty and creamy aromas are followed by a rich vein of pear, apple and soft stone fruit flavours. The softness is accentuated by some creaminess. Drink with canapés.

Made by the Kent-based producer Hush Heath in collaboration with Co-op, the delicate sparkling rosé features a floral and fresh red berries nose. It is saline and cleansing on the palate, which features sour cranberries, citrus and crunchy green apples, with plenty of acidity to refresh.

This new listing is produced for Tesco by Hush Heath Estate, a family-run winery with 160ha in the Kent countryside. It's made by the traditional method, and ages on lees for more than a year. A pretty coral colour, the flavours are of mellow red berries and a hint of brioche. A great choice to see in Christmas with. 12g/L dosage.

This sweet sparkling wine from the Rhône Valley is not something you come across often on supermarket shelves, so hats off to Lidl for featuring it in their Christmas line-up. Very low in alcohol and light in style, it's softly grapey, with a peachy, fruit salad character. If you like Moscato d'Asti, this is definitely worth a try, and it would be a great match for stollen, birthday cake or fruit salad.

At just 7% alcohol and £4.99 per bottle, Asti Spumante is a great sunshine aperitif. It has quite a bit of sweetness from the Moscato grapes, which works well with the peachy scents and floral, stone fruit flavours. It has a soft, creamy mouthfeel which adds a bit of oomph.

This elegant, gastronomic wine shows what can be achieved with English Bacchus in the right hands. Australian winemaker Alex Hurley uses grapes from West Sussex and produces this limited-quantity label (3,000 bottles) at the boutique London Cru winery - the capital's first urban winery. Fresh and appealing Sauvignon-like nose, with lime, gooseberry, herbal and grassy notes. Judicious oak use (23% of the wine spends seven months in used premier cru Burgundy barrels) adds a delightful creaminess to the palate, well balanced by fresh acidity, plus notes of citrus interwoven with passionfruit, fresh pineapple and subtle elderflower. Ends with a crisp grapefruit bite.

If the Andrex puppy came with a bottle rather than loo roll in its mouth, this would be the wine. A beautifully upbeat, fresh, pure, engaging Riesling brimming with green apple and lime flavours, and a wonderfully well judged off-dry palate. One of my favourite wines of the entire tasting, it just got better over time and worked with all kinds of food from monkfish curry to butternut and sage risotto. Utterly refreshing.

The Traminer Spätlese has an aromatic nose of jasmine, camomile, lychee and mint. Made by cooling to stop fermentation at 63 g/l of sugar, it has a sweet palate of ripe yellow apple and citrus fruits, with good level of acidity and tangerine peel bitterness to balance, followed by a hint of nut on the finish.

A blend of half Bacchus and half Ortega from vineyards in Kent, the aim here was to make a super-aromatic white with low alcohol, but also a wine with texture and length – too many English wines have aromatics but lack these additional qualities, believes winemaker Sergio Verrillo. The varieties were fermented and vinified separately – the Bacchus in steel only, the Ortega in Burgundy barrels after a period on skins – before being blended before bottling. Drinking beautifully now, all in harmony; tropical fruit salad flavours, textured and with notes of English hedgerow. Would be perfect at a barbecue with spatchcock chicken or lightly spiced ribs, or try it with a soft cheese like Epoisses. (The 2019 Mix-Up Blend will be Pinot Gris and Chardonnay – not yet released.)

A classic Clare Valley Riesling, showcasing fresh lime juice, candied grapefruit peel and the faintest hint of the petrolly character that will come with age. Tangy and fresh, with a laser-like seam of acidity that carries through the long finish – and refreshingly low alcohol to boot.

And here, ladies and gentlemen, we have summer in a glass. This blend of Gewurztraminer and Moscatel from Catalonia shows exuberant aromas of rose petal, lychee and lime cordial. Dry but soft and succulent, the sensation is like sinking into a bed of feathers. One for the hedonists and lovers of unabashed exoticism.

Good to get a Chenin on the list, and this one's a medium-dry style with lots of ripe peach, apple and pear flavours. The luscious palate is weighty but balanced by good freshness. This could work with spicier or sweeter flavours, like BBQ spicy ribs, or even summer fruit puds.

If you're after a low-alcohol wine, then this is worth considering - however don't expect too much. Harvested early in the season to keep sugars - and thus alcohol - low, this Marlborough Sauvignon has a slightly dank scent with notes of pine resin, gooseberry and mulched grass. It lacks body in the mouth and has a watery composition, but there are recognisable flavours of gooseberry and cut grass accompanied by sticky lime on the finish.