There’s something faintly comical about the notion of Wine Relief. Do you need relief from, or after, wine? Yet Comic Relief today, of which Wine Relief is a part, has become a serious business with Red Nose day the climax of a massive fun-raising, ha ha, exercise for worthwhile charitable causes across the UK and in Africa. While the joke may not be quite so hilarious after 25 years, Comic Relief’s achievements in raising more than £600 million in the fight against poverty and suffering is no laughing matter.

There’s nothing funny either about alcohol misuse and alcohol-related harm, but a proportion of the £4 million raised by Wine Relief since it was founded by Jancis Robinson MW and Nick Lander in 1999 goes towards fighting it. I’m not sure why more supermarkets and high street chains aren’t involved in donating 10% from the sale of specially selected wines until Red Nose Day next Friday, but those that are include Waitrose, Majestic, Laithwaites, Marks & Spencer, Farr Vintners, Oddbins, Naked Wines, Red Squirrel Wines, Virgin Wines and Selfridges.

Apart from some of their own reliable own-label wines, it’s good to see Selfridges offering one of the best of the bunch in Yalumba’s 2009 The Scribbler Barossa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, £12.59. I love this blend for its touch of mint and succulent blackcurrant-leaf-tinged, black fruit essence of cabernet flavours. Among www.virginwines.com’s offering, two favourites are a good value red and white from Chile, the former a delicately mint-tinged 2009 Perez Cruz Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon, £9.99, from Maipo Valley, the latter the exotically rose-petal scented and crisply dry 2010 Viña Leyda Gewurztraminer, £9.99.

Waitrose weighs in with a small selection, among the best of which are the florally aromatic and appetisingly zingy 2011 Domäne Wachau, Terraces Grüner Veltliner, Wachau, £9.29, the consistently fragrant 2012 The Ned Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, £7.99, along with the exuberantly succulent, black cherryish 2011 Arc du Rhône, Côtes du Rhône Villages, £7.99.

Majestic’s Wine Relief offerings include a juicy, cherry-ripe rosso in the 2011 Allegrini Bardolino ‘Naiano’, £8.49, a strawberryish red Burgundy-style 2010 Domaine de l’Aigle Pinot Noir from Gérard Bertrand, £9.99, down from £12.99, a classic drink-me-now claret in the 2007 Château Caronne Ste-Gemme, Haut-Médoc, £13.99, along with the sumptuous, cinnamon spicy and cassis-fruity Margaux-style 2010 Cape Mentelle Cabernet Merlot, Margaret River, £14.99.

Marks & Spencer has the most extensive Wine relief selection of the lot, all, fittingly, from South Africa. There’s the crisp, dry Villiera Brut Chardonnay fizz, £10.99, the same winery’s opulent Barrel Fermented Chenin, £11.49, and the outstanding 2011 Paul Cluver Noble Late Harvest Riesling, £14.99, only a half-bottle but an elixir of lusciously exotic, liquid crystallised citrus and peach fruitiness with the zesty freshness to bring a smile to your Red Nose day.

Something For The Weekend

Something for the Weekend 9 March 2013

Night In

2012 King Valley Vermentino, Victoria, Australia

Made by De Bortoli’s Steve Webber, this bright, dry Australian take on the Mediterranean vermentino grape shows all the aromatic fragrance and the juicy refreshing pear-flavoured zip and zing of the grape variety. £6, down from £8.98 Asda.

Dinner Party

2010 Le Limoux, Château Rives Blanques

The leesy residue of oak cask fermentation adds a touch of Burgundian-style complexity to this fresh chardonnay whose full-bodied and well-crafted stonefruit richness is defined by a clean streak of Atlantic freshness. £11.95, Great Western Wines, Bath (01225 322810).

Splash Out

Oeil de Perdrix NV Champagne

Eye of newt? No, eye of partridge actually, i.e. the delicate pink tinge the pinot noir grape brings to this delicious champagne from Devaux with its raspberry mousse flavour and texture. On special offer at £15, down from £29, Majestic.