It might make members of the House fidget in their seats, but for all but Tower Hamlets Council, which has banned Guy Fawkes, the idea of blowing up the Houses of Parliament brings a little wistfully anarchic glee into our lives. There’s nothing like a sparkler to get you into the mood for, er, sparklers and the like, and so if you don’t want to push the boat out too far on bonfire night, Marks & Spencer’s Sparkling Burgundy NV, £11.99, will give you a biscuity, weighty and richly mouthfilling fizz at an affordable price. Add a dash of Sainsbury’s quintessence of cassis-like Taste the Difference Blackcurrant Liqueur, £8.99, 20 cl, either to that or your favourite cheap cava, and there you have your very own grown-up Kir Royale.

For explosive luxury at a less than incendiary price, one of the top value supermarket champagnes on the market is Asda’s gold-medal winning 2002 Extra Special Vintage Champagne, £20.17, a nine-year-old blend with a briochey, toasty mousse of bubbles and a silky creaminess. If before lighting the fire under the guy you like the idea of playing the patriotic card, you might give Sainsbury’s 2007 Taste the Difference English Sparkling Brut, £19.99, a whirl, for its vinosity and tangy Anglo-Saxon freshness. Or if you haven’t already discovered this guy, the 2009 Ridgeview Merret Bloomsbury from Sussex, £17.59, down from 21.99, Waitrose, is a proudly stylish English blend with a rich champagne-like mousse of bubbles and refreshingly tangy lick of acidity.

Bonfire night food requires reds with autumnal warmth and spice like the dark-fruited spice-scented southern French 2009 Domaine des Crès Ricards ‘Alexaume’ from Mont Baudile, £9.99, buy 2 = £7.99, Majestic. A notch up in power, Sainsbury’s 2008 Taste the Difference Priorat, £9.99, delivers strawberry jam fruit and grippy tannins all balanced by high altitude, cool climate crispness. If a red ever summed up autumn bonfires, the 2001 Rioja Reserva Especial 2001, Viña Ardanza, La Rioja Alta, £22, buy 2 = £17, Majestic, is a traditional rioja whose succulent strawberryish fruit plays second fiddle to the complex, smoky characters of maturity. Ratcheting the heat factor up a notch, the 2008 Châteauneuf-du-Pape Tradition, Domaine Giraud, £26.75, Lea & Sandeman (020 7244 0522), brings young Rhône’s typically musclebound spicy, juicy plum and raspberry fruit and peppery opulence.

Coming in from the cold, or even going out into it, an electric blanket of sherry or port is what you need to fortify you against the elements. Gonzalez Byass’ Apostoles 30-Year-Old Palo Cortado, around £15.99, half-bottle, Waitrose, Berry Bros. & Rudd ((0)800 280 2440), is just such a fortified, and fortifying aged sherry, smoky caramel and coffee blending with a mild sweetness of dried apricot fruit and a nutty aftertaste. Also rich and warming yet elegantly dry, Sainsbury’s bronze-hued Taste the Difference 12 Year Old Oloroso, in half-litre, displays toffeeish dried fruits and grilled nut and caramel complexity. As for port, there’s warmth, sweetness and spice in abundance in Marks & Spencer’s 2005 Late Bottled Vintage Port, £9.99, down from £12.99, a youthful port with a spicy aromatic quality, juicy dark berry fruit richness and the concentrated fruit flavours of treacle toffee and liquid fruitcake pudding. Tawny devotees will warm to Ramos Pinto’s fabulous 10 Year Old Tawny Quinta de Ervamoira, £18.50, half-litre, Fortnums, slurp.co.uk, £32.95, bottle, Roberson (020 7371 2121), a complex tawny port rich in liquid walnuts and raisins fruitiness with an intensely nutty aftertaste. Light the blue touch paper…

Something for the Weekend

Something for the Weekend 5 November 2011

Under £6

2010 Espartero Joven, Rioja

Juicy bright vivid aromas with the gluggy, bright young cherryish red fruitiness of the tempranillo grape and a clean savoury finish, there’s no oak on this Spanish tinto, just pure, quaffable fruit freshness made for washing down tapas. £5.28, Asda

Under a Tenner

2010 Roussanne Vermentino Abondance, Domaine de la Bastide

A scented blend of the Rhône and the Mediterranean, this stylish dry Languedoc white is rich in peachy flavours with a creamy, almost honeyed texture, tempered by vermentino’s lively zing. £9.95, Lea & Sandeman shops (02072440522).

Splash Out

2009 Vin de Corse Sartène, Domaine Saparale.

This is a blend of the Corsican grapes nielluccio and sciaciarello, whose intense cherry fragrance and vivid raspberryish fruit give it a pinot noir-like seductiness with a powerfully herby, spicy Mediterranean twist. £12.95, Yapp Bros, Mere (01747 860423).