I decided to try the Vredestein Wintrac Pro based on the price, available reviews and comments made in the 'winter tyre recommendations' video on YouTube.
I paid £98.00 inc vat per tyre, delivered (225/40 R18).

My first outing on the Wintrac Pro's was a trip from Sheffield to Cumbria in very wet 5°C weather, with a good combination of roads to tests them on. Firstly, I was most impressed with the tyres performance in the miserable wet (very wet) conditions! I came from a Falken ZE310 ECORUN - a tyre which has performed very well for me in wet conditions, but the Wintrac Pro had a noticeable increase in lateral grip while cornering over my previous tyres in these conditions, which left a big smile on my face to say the least! Even when pushing the car a little harder than I was previously comfortable with there was no onset of understeer or loss of feel towards the limit of grip.
I was also able to perform a full emergency stop (wet road 5°C), thanks to a suicidal deer! And in and process the car came to a stop very quickly, and with a fantastic sure footed feeling....the dear walked away to live another day with plenty of room to spare.
I would describe the Wintrac Pro as a quiet, very confidence inspiring tyre with excellent handling qualities, with fantastic levels of grip in both the wet and dry. Extremely happy so far! Looking forward to testing them in the ice and snow.

I've had several types / makes of winter tyres fitted to different cars over the years (Mini Cooper S, BMW X5's), although this is an initial review and we haven't had any severe weather yet these tyres seem excellent and better that I have had in the past (plus this car is more powerful (340bhp) and rear wheel drive...). We've only driven the car in temperatures at zero degC and above but we've had some horrendous weather with heavy rain and high winds, driving with these tyres really in both small country roads and main dual carriageways with aquaplane conditions these have been sure footed, I have to commend them. I hope that come snow and the real harsh weather that will come shortly they will continue to impress.