Just in time to miss my Christmas deadline, the perfect gift for wine anoraks landed on the office desk.

It was a packet of Wine Trumps, a card game based on the popular Top Trumps, but aimed at big kids, like me.

Top Trumps, when I was a lad, was something of a playground craze. You could get packs based on racing cars, jet fighters, battleships, you name it.

It was all about beating your opponent’s card in terms of speed, size, etc.

I road-tested the cards on my youngest, who nearly bit my hand off when I asked if he wanted a game of Top Trumps.

His look of disappointment when he saw that these were Wine Trumps was priceless and only equalled by the look he gave me five minutes later after he lost.

The pack of 34 cards shows original wine labels, regional maps and descriptions of the world’s top wines.

Players choose from six categories covering average price per bottle, vineyard history, rarity value and drinkability, swapping cards until a winner, with a cellar to die for, emerges.

Packs are available online from winegiftcentre.com for £8.99 including delivery.

In the meantime, make sure you don’t miss a trick and snap up this trio of wines. This week’s selection all feature in the M&S wine sale, which runs until the end of the month.

Two of my pick are made for M&S by De Martino in Chile.

From the Limari Valley in the country there is Cascara Chardonnay 2009. This is an elegant, balanced, clean-tasting expression of the grape, in the Chablis style.

Green apple on the nose leads to honey and citrus on the palate with a wonderful, pronounced, flinty minerality.

If you’re after a winter warmer, then try Cerro Syrah 2008, from Chile’s Choapa Valley.

Full and spicy, this earthy red is alive with berry fruit flavours and notes of dark roasted coffee, held together by supple tannins.

Or head to California for Bonny Doon Mourvèdre 2008, from maverick winemaker Randall Grahm. Smooth and medium-bodied, it suggests cherry and raspberry fruit with fiery spices and liquorice.

• Cascara Chardonnay 2009, £5.99 down from £7.99 at M&S 18/20.

• Cerro Syrah 2008, £6.99 down from £8.99 at M&S 17/20.

• Bonny Doon Mourvèdre 2008, £7.99 down from £11.99 at M&S 17/20.