There we are in misty, dank and chilly November when nearly everybody seems to be under the weather.

In my youth, the onset of the sniffle season was heralded by a barrage of television adverts for cold remedies.

One ad that springs to mind was for a well-known medicated sweet, available in cherry and honey flavours.

The vapors released by these sickly, cloying, artificial-tasting lozenges reputedly cleared stuffy noses. I have to say they never worked for me.

I’ve been tuned in to honey and cherry flavours all week, but I’m glad to report that my sense of taste and smell is in fine fettle.

It is this week’s selection of wines that have rendered the flavours, not some cure for a stuffy nose.

The honey word crops up frequently in my wine notes, paradoxically this is often a descriptor of bone-dry whites.

I’m told by some winemakers that this is testament to the ripeness of the grapes, a hint of the sweetness that was present before fermentation.

The Wine Society has Chateau Bel Air 2008, from the Entre-Deux-Mers district of Bordeaux. This is made predominantly with semillon but with some sauvignon and muscadelle, too.

It has a clean, creamy mouth-feel and is delightfully fresh, with aromas of grapefruit and lingering flavours of lemon, mandarin orange and, of course, honey.

The honey word also appears in my notes about the latest vintage of a quirky blend of white grapes from South African winemaker Bruce Jack.

His entry level white wine, Flagstone Noon Gun 2009, delivers far more than its price tag might suggest. Made from chenin blanc, viognier and sauvignon blanc, it touts honey and lemon, orange peel, perfume and goosegog.

This fresh, approachable wine is certainly the sum of its parts.

Two reds from Italy yielded the cherry flavours.

Canaletto Primitivo di Puglia 2007 is fruit forward, rather New World in style and great with pizza. Smooth, quaffable and with just a hint of oak spice, it is indeed very cherry but with some blackcurrant and bramble notes also.

Online merchant FromVineyardsDirect has Castello di Potentino Sacromonte 2005, a Tuscan wine made entirely from sangiovese.

This is quite serious stuff for under a tenner and although it is drinking well now, it will be even better with age. It is savoury, spicy and mineral with flavours of burnt cherry fruit and distinct notes of fennel.

• Chateau Bel Air 2008, Bordeaux Blanc, £7.95 from The Wine Society (thewinesociety.com) 17/20.

• Flagstone Noon Gun 2009, £6.99 at Tesco 18/20.

• Canaletto Primitivo di Puglia 2007, £5.99 at Waitrose 16/20.

• Castello di Potentino Sacromonte 2005, Montecucco Rosso, £9.95 from FromVineyardsDirect (fromvineyardsdirect.com) 17/20