Credit Crunch Drinking

I'm switching the blog to The Frugal Cook!

2011-08-25T15:07:00.003+01:00

Five blogs - as anyone could have told me - are just too much to maintain and The Frugal Cook, my budget eating blog seems a logical home for this one. Hope to see you there!

Some unmissable wine buys at M & S

2011-08-19T15:18:00.004+01:00

Marks & Spencer has a 25% off promotion across its in store* wine range if you buy 6 bottles for the next fortnight - great for credit crunch drinkers. Here are my top picks under £6

Los Nucos Chardonnay Viognier 2010 £5.49 down to £4.18
A light lush Chilean blend with an attractive peachy character that gives it an extra edge over basic Chardonnay. A good all rounder but especially good with creamy fish or chicken dishes and chicken salads. It’s sister (brother?) wine, the Los Nucos Carmenère Shiraz - a bright breezy red that would make excellent everyday drinking is also good (Same price, same deal) ***

Valdepomares Rioja Blanca 2010 £5.99 down to £4.49
A modern white Rioja made in a fresh, citrussy style but with plenty of complexity. Although not organic the grapes are grown without chemical fertilisers or pesticides. Try it with fishy tapas ****

Vermentino Lazio 2010 £6.99 down to £5.24
Grab the chance to buy this elegant Italian white for under £5 - it’s the best of a very good new range of Italian whites from M & S. Great with simply prepared fish, seafood risottos and pasta dishes and vegetable-based antipasti. (The Falanghina and Fiano are also good.) *****

Corriente del Bio Pinot Noir £7.99 down to £5.99
Really good value at its original price, an unmissable bargain with 25% off, this elegant Burgundian-style Chilean Pinot knocks spots off most of its New World rivals. Frankly you’d never get burgundy of this quality for this sort of money. Perfect with duck or seared salmon or tuna. *****

Garnacha Tinto Navarra 2010 £6.99 down to £5.24
This exuberantly fruity Garnacha-based wine is typical of Spain’s fantastically good value modern reds. Great with gutsy food like sausage and mash - or beans. It could take a fair amount of spice. ****

Negroamaro 2010 £5.99 down to £4.49
A rich, brambly southern Italian red that almost tastes of liquid blackberries. Great with duck, lamb and strong cheeses, especially blues. Would go with baked pasta dishes like lasagne too. ***

Côtes du Rhône Villages St Maurice 2009 £6.99 down to £5.24
A really good example of a Côtes du Rhône - warm, generous, spicy and delicious. Great drinking with rustic bistro-style and gastropub food ****

* So far as I can make out the offer doesn't seem to apply online unless you buy 2 cases which seems a bit odd. Maybe they want you to go into their stores and be tempted

3 good buys from the Tesco Finest range

2011-08-06T08:27:00.006+01:00

Tesco may not be exactly flavour of the month in some quarters but for those of you who do shop there there are some good bargains. Particularly from their own 'Finest' range which regularly features 2 for £10 offers on selected wines. Here are 3 that appeal to me:

Tesco Finest Picpoul de Pinet (normally £7.29)
My favourite holiday wine - a crisp dry white that's brilliantly good with fresh seafood
Rating: ***

Tesco Finest Douro Reserve 2008 (normally £7.29)
A big lush brambly red from the same area that produces port. I'd say lay in for winter drinking but it's almost cold enough to drink it now. One for stews, pies and roasts.
Rating: ****

Tesco Finest Touriga Nacional 2010 (normally £7.79)
Made by the same winery (and flying winemaker) as the above but from 100% Touriga Nacional. Even more warming and spicy. Would be great with roast lamb and stronger cheeses like mature cheddar and Stilton.
Rating: ****

Tillington Hills Premium Cider

2011-07-31T18:42:00.006+01:00

What kind of wine can you buy for £2.65? Well, you probably can find one but would you serve it to your friends? This upmarket cider, on the other hand, would look good on any table.

It's made from fruit grown on the Co-op farms in Herefordshire which surprised me as I didn't know the Co-op had any farms, let alone orchards and is a blend of Tillington Ladies’ Finger, Bulmers Norman, Mitchelin, Dabonnet and Yarlington Mill. (What great names cider apples have).

It's on the dry side of medium dry, with a classic sharp cider apple flavour and at 6% would make a great partner for pretty well anything porky - slow roast belly pork, sausages, pork or fidget pies, cold ham - a ploughman's or a chicken or pheasant casserole with cider or a creamy sauce.

It doesn't contain any concentrates, flavourings, artificial sweeteners or colourings and comes in a screwcap bottle so you can keep it in the fridge for a couple of days without it spoiling. If it lasts that long.

Great drink.

Rating: ***

Good Bibendum wine sale but get in quick!

2011-07-19T11:16:00.006+01:00

I don't normally write about wine merchants on this blog, let alone London-based ones but Bibendum has got some cracking offers in its summer sale which started today.

Wines I'd pick out for credit crunch drinkers are the Argento range from Argentina which are now all under £5 - The aromatic Torrontes would be particularly worth trying at £25.09 a case of six (£4.19 a bottle), even though it's from Mendoza rather than Salta, the best region for this grape, along with the Malbec/Tempranillo (£26.48/£4.42), both from the 2010 vintage.

£4.72 a bottle is not a lot to pay for Cotes du Roussillon Villages from the much feted Agly valley, even though some of the fruit comes from over the border in Spain (maybe why it was difficult to sell?).

And £4.80 is nothing for a 2010 New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc from the well-known producer Wither Hills though I'm not sure what they mean by 'sale stock'. (The answer is that it was labelled that by mistake. All the wines on offer are sale stock so a really good offer then.)

The only thing I'd be careful about is older vintages. 2007 Pinot Blanc from the Cave de Ribeauvillé, a co-op I admire, is a bit of a risk. And I'd be cautious about ordering 2009 rosés.

Good value Rioja - to drink with lasagne!

2011-07-15T10:36:00.006+01:00

One of the wines that did best in the What Food What Wine competition results that were announced this week was Campo Viejo's 2008 Rioja Crianza which we voted the best wine to drink with lasagne ('we' being a pretty high-powered group of industry judges including 4 Masters of wine and one of London's top sommelier)

It was the pairing that I found slightly surprising, not the wine (I'd have expected an Italian red to sneak in there). Campo Viejo has always been one of the more reliable, consistent brands and hasn't become over-priced. Currently there are some good special offers on it, according to mysupermarketwine it's £5 a bottle at Asda, £5.99 at Tesco until the 19th and £6.99 at Sainsbury's though I don't know which vintage they're featuring. And Waitrose Wine Direct has the 2007 at £4.97, also until the 19th, which means it's probably around £5.49 in Waitrose stores. Good everyday drinking and, frankly, fine for friends and family too (I'd happily drink it with a Sunday roast). Rating ****

Two Iberian white wine bargains

2011-07-07T06:53:00.000+01:00

Inevitably this blog mainly concerns itself with special offers but here are two terrific under £5 whites from The Wine Society which looks increasingly good value against the supermarkets.

My favourite by a whisker is the Bodegas Virgen de la Sierra Cruz de Piedra Macabeo 2010 from Calatayud, a region which lies between Madrid and Zaragoza. It's fresh and lemony but with cooked rather than fresh lemon flavours and an odd touch of banana (nicer than it sounds). Quite soft - a good all-rounder for summer drinking.

The other is a crisp Portuguese white called Real Lavrador from the Alentejo, 2010 (not up on the site yet) which is made from two of Portugal's weird and wonderful local grape varieties, roupeiro and rabo-de-ovelha. That's more delicate and aromatic - almost floral but without being at all sweet. A good grilled fish wine.

What's great about these wines - apart from the price - is that they're quite different from the great mass of confected cheap whites out there. Clean, natural-tasting and moreish. Good for The Wine Society.

More cheap Waitrose wine buys

2011-06-25T07:04:00.002+01:00

As I mentioned the day before yesterday Waitrose has a 25% off promotion across all its wines until Tuesday night.

Having checked through my notes for the cheapest bargains here are six that are available online and, in most cases, in Waitrose branches though the price may possibly differ there. You only need to buy six bottles rather than the 12 you need to buy online to get the discount though. Prices are adjusted for the 25% discount - all under £6.

Arc du Rhone 2009 Côtes du Rhône £5.99
A good gutsy Côtes du Rhône from the excellent 2009 vintage ****

La Umbra Merlot 2009 £4.49
It's been a while since we've seen Romanian wine on the shelves but this is a really good fruity Merlot that I reckon would be great with robust pasta dishes like lasagne. ***

Vredenhof Cellar Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2010, South Africa £5.09
A really good lush blackcurranty cab. Terrific for barbies.***

Matra Mountain Pinot Grigio 2010 Hungary £4.49
Yes, I know you can buy Pinot Grigio from Italy but this is a really well made example - brilliant for the price. Wouldn't pair it with French onion soup though. Try seafood pasta or risotto.***

Gran Lopez Airen/Sauvignon Blanc 2010 La Mancha £3.74
A decent basic citrussy white. Fine for a summer party. **

Nederburg Chardonnay/Viognier 2010, South Africa £4.49
Another good buy from South Africa. The lush aromatic viognier element is quite noticeable - not always the case at this price. ***

Majestic riesling flies out!

2011-06-24T18:43:00.004+01:00

Who says people don't want to buy German riesling? The limited parcel of Burg-Layer rieslings that Majestic announced yesterday morning are all but sold out. Certainly the ones I would have advised you to buy, so apologies for being away at the crucial moment.

The current trend in the wine trade seems to be for having 'flash sales' - massive reductions that are only available for very short periods. The wine merchant Slurp was offering Taittinger champagne for £21 for about half an hour earlier on today instead of their usual price of £42.95 (which of course is ridiculously over-priced).

The only way to rely on getting them is to sign up for email updates and newsletters. Which is of course exactly what retailers want you to do - and nothing wrong with that. Suspect we'll see a good deal more of it this summer.

25% off at Waitrose, old riesling parcel at Majestic

2011-06-23T21:03:00.003+01:00

A couple of good deals this week to give you the heads-up about.

Waitrose has got a 25% off offer on all its wines until next Tuesday (28th), a great chance to buy slightly more expensive wine than you might normally feel able to afford. It applies if you buy six bottles in store or a minimum of 12 online. Bottles that would tempt me include (reduced prices in brackets)

Domaine Felines Picpoul de Pinet £7.99 (£5.99)
Domain Wachau Terraces Grüner Veltliner already reduced from £8.49 to £6.36 (£4.77)
See Saw Shiraz/Mourvèdre 2009 South Australia £8.99 (£6.74)
Cousiño-Macul, Antiguas Reservas Cabernet Sauvignon 2008, Chile £9.99 (£7.49)
and Chateau Musar 2003 £13.99 (£10.49 - expensive but a great chance to buy this iconic wine at a very good price)

And Majestic has bought in a parcel of mature German riesling which should make riesling lovers very happy. I haven't got my notes with me in France so will let you know what I thought were the best buys tomorrow but I note 3 of the wines are already sold out and that they seem to have already abandoned plans to sell them by the mixed case.

Good value Verdicchio

2011-06-17T13:08:00.006+01:00

Following the great response to my article on Italian whites the other day there's a good offer at the moment on Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi, the slightly herby white that I pointed out was one of the best matches I'd come across for artichokes - along with other Italian veg and seafood dishes. It's selling for 2 bottles for £10 instead of the usual £5.99, not a huge reduction but (unusually for supermarkets these days) it's not overpriced in the first place. I'm not sure if it's the current 2010 vintage but 2009 would be fine. I'd hesitate if you find it older than that. Rating: ***

The same offer applies at the moment to the Taste the Difference Pinot Grigio saving even more (the usual price is £6.99). A cut above the mass of pinot grigios out there even at the full price - it's got some real character. Rating: ***

The offers apply until the 28th of June. And apparently both are the 2010 vintage I've just discovered from Sainsbury's

Rioja offers at M & S

2011-06-09T06:34:00.000+01:00

Rioja offers are two a penny currently but not all of it is as classy as the Rioja Perez Burton 2007 from Marks & Spencer which currently has a 20% discount on all Spanish and Portuguese wines. That brings it down from £9.99 - already a fair price - to £7.99 and if you buy three bottles you get a further 10% off (£7.20).

It's made by the respected Spanish winemaker Telmos Rodriguez and has a light, graceful, less woody character than many riojas being aged in French rather than American oak. I really like it.

There were a number of other wines that tasted promising but I can't totally vouch for them because they only presented tank (unbottled) samples at the tasting. But I'd have a punt on the vivid fruity Garnacha Tinto Navarra (£6.99 reduced to £5.99 this month)a modern Spanish red which I'd serve chilled and a very decent young Valdepomares Rioja Blanca (2010) - normally £5.99 down to £4.79 until July 3rd. Particularly impressive as it's made without chemical fertilisers or pesticides.

A great offer on Grüner

2011-06-03T07:45:00.004+01:00

Austrian Grüner Veltliner has been a bit of a cult wine for the last few years mainly for its food-friendliness (it goes particularly well with Vietnamese food). If you haven't tried it think of other crisp whites you've come across such as Muscadet, Picpoul de Pinet and even Pinot Grigio - but it has a spicy green peppery (peppercorns not green peppers) character that gives it an extra dimension.

Waitrose has got a terrific offer at the moment on the truly delicious 2009 Domaine Goblesburg Grüner Veltliner from Niederösterreich which has been reduced from £9.49 to £6.99 - so good that it's sold out on the website at the time of writing but it is also in 155 of Waitrose larger branches. Snap it up if you find it.

Rating: I don't often give five star ratings but at this price it's a must *****

According to Waitrose who have just pinged me an email it should be back in stock next week.

Asda Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon

2011-05-28T10:57:00.005+01:00

I’ve been to an insane number of tastings in the last few weeks - May is one of the busiest times in the wine calendar when all the supermarkets show their new ranges - so have had a good chance to check out what's on offer under £6, the level I generally set myself for still wines on this blog.

Several trends emerge, none new - a lot of big brands whose price is pitched for dramatic discounts (this particularly annoys me), good value own brands and oceans and oceans of cheap - and in general not particularly good - rosé as I pointed out in the Guardian last week.

The most popular wines I’d say, judging by the discounts being offered, are New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and Rioja: the most reliably good value, South of France, Spain and South America, especially Chile.

A good example is Asda’s own minty Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 whose regular price is - amazingly - £4.06. It’s made by Vina Luis Felipe Edwards a Chilean winery which seems to be making the most consistently reliable cheap Chilean wines. Perfect for a Bank Holiday barbecue - if the weather warms up. Or if it doesn't, with a chilli con carne.

Rating: **/***

Cheap Chilean pinot at the Co-op

2011-05-21T08:52:00.005+01:00

The Co-op has got a wine festival on at the moment, as many supermarkets do at this time of year to clear old vintages. It includes a couple of star buys from the excellent Chilean producer Anakena, a Sauvignon Blanc and a Pinot Noir. Both, the Co-op claims, are normally £9.99 but I've been able to find the Pinot for less - at £7.99 from Hawkshead Wines and £8.79 from Noel Young Wines. (It does annoy me when supermarkets artificially inflate the selling price like that to make special offers look more substantial. For heavens sake at £3 less than the current retail price it's still a good deal.)

Both are slightly older vintages btw - the Sauvignon is a 2009 and the Pinot Noir a 2008 - but that shouldn't be a problem, particularly with the Pinot which should have benefitted from a couple of years' ageing. You could easily drink it with seared tuna or salmon as well as with grilled chicken and other barbecued food. The Sauvignon would obviously be great with seafood.

Rating: ****

Finca Labarca Rioja 2008

2011-05-14T20:01:00.003+01:00

Along with New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc Rioja seems to be the new favoured weapon in the supermarket price wars with every chain finding some way to offer it at under £5.

The latest is Waitrose Wine Direct which is promoting a Finca Labarca Rioja Tempranillo Vendimia Seleccionada 2008 for just £4.51 until May 24th as part of its Summer Wine Showcase.

OK, it's not the most subtle and complex Rioja ever but it's a perfectly honest well-made Spanish red which which you could easily pass off as a bottle twice the price. And which would make great everyday drinking.

Rating: ****

Les Crouzes Cinsault Rosé

2011-05-07T07:56:00.004+01:00

For those of you who follow my column in the Guardian I wasn't sure if today's piece on summer drinks would be out in time to take advantage of the current offer on this wine which is in fact £4.19 at the Co-op until next Tuesday, May 10th. (Don't know if that includes Tuesday itself but buy it this weekend to be safe) A great summer drinking bargain.
Rating: ***

Baron Saint Jean Rouge

2011-05-05T06:55:00.006+01:00

I've been really impressed with the wines that I've tasted recently from Aldi but their Baron Saint Jean Rouge is amazingly good value for £2.99

It doesn't look or sound promising admittedly - it has no vintage and the label is pretty naff - but it's a perfectly decent easy drinking blend of Grenache and Cinsault* 'from the warm regions of southern France' (presumably not Provence at that price). A bit rough round the edges on the finish but it would be fine with food like pizza or pasta. Rating: **

The white on the other hand - the Baron Saint Jean Blanc Vin de Pays du Gers - a blend of Colombard, Ugni blanc and Sauvignon is quite unpleasantly cabbagey. To be avoided.

*In case you think I've gone a bit soft in the head while I've been away (hence the lack of posts - sorry) it won a bronze medal in the International Wine and Spirit Competition last year where it was tasted blind!

Cortello 2008: a bargain Portuguese red

2011-04-19T10:51:00.006+01:00

We're all inclined to think the best bargains come from supermarkets but here's an amazing buy from The Wine Society, which once you pay the once-off £40 fee to join offers some great deals.

It's a wine I came across at a Portuguese supper the other night but was amazed to find was only £4.95 on the Wine Society's list. It's called Cortello, comes from the Lisboa region (formerly Extremadura) and is a blend of castelão and aragonez (aka tempranillo)

It's fruity without being jammy, soft without being flabby and moderate in alcohol - just thoroughly good everyday drinking with anything from a plate of spaghetti bolognese to a barbecue.

The Flying Corkscrew sells the wine for £6.75 and The Oxford Wine Company for £7.99 which shows how keen the Wine Society's price is.

Rating: ****

Sainsbury's Bulgarian Cabernet Sauvignon

2011-04-12T11:25:00.004+01:00

I was wondering the other day why you rarely see Bulgarian wines on the supermarket shelf. When I first started drinking wine back in the '80s they were a real bargain - a cut-price alternative to claret. Then they obviously panicked about being thought old-fashioned and went through a new world-ish makeover with higher alcohol, lots of ultra-ripe fruit and bright jazzy labels but obviously people felt if they were going to buy a new world-style wine they would rather it actually came from South Africa or elsewhere in the southern hemisphere.

This is a relic of the old style and I have to say not a particularly impressive one, despite the budget price of £3.89. There's no vintage on the bottle for a start. It's thin, woody and slightly sour - maybe aged in large oak casks.

If you like this mature oak-aged style you'd be better off going for a Spanish red like Valdepenas or even a Rioja if you find one at a good price. And Sainsbury's has better bargains than this in its 'House' range - the Chianti (£4.29) for a start.

Not a particularly rewarding trip down memory lane. Rating: No score. Well, maybe that's a bit harsh. It's not vile but I really couldn't recommend it.

Laurent Miquel L'Artisan Chardonnay 2009

2011-04-07T07:49:00.003+01:00

People tend to groan when you talk about Chardonnay these days but the fact is it still remains hugely popular and is a wonderfully versatile wine. (No-one complains about always seeing chicken on the shelves, do they? Chardonnay is the wine world's equivalent of chicken.)

Anyway this was one of the wines in a pop-up Chardonnay tasting I went to last night in Bristol run by wine blogger Ben Austin who calls himself (modestly!) number1wino. It's a well-crafted chardonnay made in the Languedoc by Laurent Miquel and is currently on sale at Majestic for £6.99 instead of the usual £7.99 if you buy two or more bottles. Not a huge discount by today's standards but one that makes it a well-priced bottle for the standard of the wine. (Rating: ****)

It has a nice creamy texture and citrussy lift - not too oaky, sweet or overpowering - a good alternative to basic white burgundy. It would go well with pretty well anything with a creamy sauce or richer seafood like salmon.

To make up the six bottles you need to buy to shop at Majestic you could also pick up the Lindauer Special Reserve Blanc de Blancs we also tasted which is currently down from £11.99 to £7.99. Not that it was worth £11.99 originally - more like £9.99 - but this is a good price for party or even wedding fizz. (***) And their Spanish range, like the Vega Sindoa I was writing about the other day, has 20% off at the moment.

Vega Sindoa Cabernet Sauvignon: a stonking Spanish red

2011-03-29T07:24:00.007+01:00

Spain seems to be offering particularly good value at the moment as this bottle proves. It's a 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserva from Vega Sindoa in Navarra which is next door to Rioja but they tend to make their wines in a more forward international style.

At 14% it's a belter - quite extracted, with a big hit of spicy oak - but some good ripe blackcurranty fruit to balance it. A Napa-style Cabernet at half the price. It would be perfect with a steak or any other hunk of well grilled meat.

It's normally on sale at Majestic at £7.99 which is good value anyway but there's a current offer of 20% off all Spanish wines if you buy two bottles which brings it down to £6.39 a bottle. A brilliant deal.

Rating: ****

Yes, wine duty HAS gone up again

2011-03-25T17:43:00.007Z

You might be justified in thinking that the Chancellor had let off Britain's winedrinkers in the Budget a couple of days ago. Sadly not.

Basically he didn't interfere with an inflation-linked rise in duty which had already been put in place by the previous government. Duty will in fact go up by 7.2% - that's roughly 15p a bottle.

As Gavin Quinney of Chateau Bauduc points out in his passionately argued blog post today that makes Britain's wine duty the highest in Europe.

Most retailers are saying that they won't be putting up their prices immediately. But they will over the next few weeks, no doubt about it.

Not that I think that's any cause to panic buy unless you've run low on your favourite tipple. There will always be deals. But there will be still less variety on the supermarket shelf or interesting wines coming into the country and that is depressing.

Vieille Fontaine: two cheap as chips wines from Tesco

2011-03-23T10:12:00.005Z

If you're tempted by 3 for a tenner wine offers you'd be better to pick up this bargain basement pair from Tesco which sell at just £3.49.

They're the sort of wine you buy from a French co-op and I frankly don't see anything wrong with that for everyday drinking.

The red, a Vin de Pays du Comté Tolosan and a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Gamay, Negrette, Tannat is the better of the two I think. Soft, fruity and easygoing it would be perfect for a midweek plate of pasta. Rating *** (for the 2009, a good year)

The white, also currently 2009, is a Vin de Pays du Gers and I suspect Ugni Blanc but could pass for a cheap Sauvignon. And just 11.5% which makes for good springtime drinking. (It's recommended with 'warm asparagus with melted cheese' which is an unusual food pairing suggestion.) Rating **

There's even a Facebook fan group called the Old Fountainians which seems to consist mainly of expats struggling to find bottles of their favourite tipple. But no-one seems to have posted since 2009 which either means Tesco has shipped it to the Falklands or they've moved on to something else.

Buy a Wine Relief wine for Red Nose Day

2011-03-17T18:07:00.006Z

Apologies for the lack of posts but I had to go to France unexpectedly for a family funeral. However I just wanted to remind you that tomorrow was Red Nose Day and that if you haven't already done so to take advantage of one of the special promotions for Wine Relief.

You can find a full list on Jancis Robinson's site here (scroll down to February 12th for the full explanation) but it's worth flagging up again that Marks and Spencer is donating 10% of all its sales of South African wines to Comic Relief which means that a full £1 of more expensive wines like the Charles Back Barbera I wrote about a few weeks ago will go to their charities.

Jancis, who together with her husband Nick Lander instigated Wine Relief, also singled out a Barbera that's on offer at Majestic as one of her top picks. You can see some of the others in her Financial Times column here and the reviews of all the wines on Wine Relief promotion if you're a subscriber to her site here.

And you can find an up-to-date list of more local activities on my colleague Simon Woods blog Drinking outside the Box. So no excuse!

Two good Fairtrade reds

2011-02-26T14:14:00.007Z

Having been quite critical about Fairtrade wines in my Guardian column today it's good to find a couple of recommendable wines I didn't have an opportunity to taste before I filed my copy. Both come from Sainsbury's top level Taste the Difference range, a welcome indication they take the quality of Fairtrade wines seriously.

All are on promotion and cheaper still if you take advantage of Sainsbury's current offer of 25% off all wines if you buy any six bottles (up to and including Tuesday, March 1st)

Taste the Difference Leap Point Fairtrade Pinotage 2010 (14%, down from £7.49 to £5.61, or £4.21 when you buy 6 or more bottles)
A soft, intensely fruity red that would be good with a medium-hot lamb curry or, once the weather warms up, a barbecue. Produced from dry farmed bush vines by the Citrusdal winery, one of the first Fairtrade certified wineries in South Africa. ***

Taste the Difference Fairtrade Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 (14%, down from £9.99 to £7.49 or £5.62 if you buy 6 or more bottles)
A really lush, sweet, delicious minty Cab produced by Bosman Family Vineyards. Some firm tannins which makes it more a wine to serve with food than drink on its own. Would be great with a steak, roast or grilled lamb, roast field mushrooms and hard cheeses like cheddar. ***

They also have a couple of whites I was less impressed by but given the scale of the discounts you might want to give them a whirl:

Taste the Difference Fairtrade Sauvignon Blanc 2010 (13.5% £6.99 down to £5.24 or £3.93 when you buy 6 or more bottles)
Simple, crisp and lemony - a touch sharp but would be fine with with garlicky prawns or a seafood salad **

Taste the Difference Fairtrade Chenin Blanc 2010 (13.5% down from £7.99 to £5.99 or £4.49 if you buy 6 or more bottles) 13.5%
Slightly weedy and sharp for Chenin, despite some attractive melony fruit. Would be fine with a chicken salad or seafood pasta dish. Wouldn't pay the full price for it.**

STOP PRESS: I've just discovered that organic wine supplier Vinceremos is offering a case of wine that's both Fairtrade and organic. Just what I was asking for in my piece. More details here.

25% off at Sainsbury's until March 1st

2011-02-24T09:35:00.003Z

25% across the board discounts on wine if you buy six bottles seem to be the supermarkets' favourite promotional strategy at the moment and this week it's Sainsbury's turn. I haven't had a chance to taste their range since I last flagged up my best buys back in December so I can't recommend any new bargains.

As a general rule I'd stick to their Taste the Difference range which is more realistically priced than the brands they feature. You might take the opportunity to try their Taste the Difference Gruner Veltliner, an intriguing fresh peppery Austrian white that works really well with south-east Asian-style salads, fish and noodle dishes. Normally £6.99, down to £5.24.

The offer also applies to the four Fairtrade wines they've got on promotion. I haven't been that impressed by the Fairtrade wines I've tasted this year (see Saturday's column in the Guardian) but at these prices and for this good a cause you should give them a try.

The offer lasts until March 1st.

Your Favourite Wines

2011-02-18T08:31:00.007Z

With all the special offers going on in the supermarkets I wouldn't have thought there was room for a site dedicated to discounting the big brands but apparently there is: yourfavouritewines.com

The proposition is simple - they offer discounts on the best known wine names in the high street. Nothing wrong with that - we all like a bargain - but do bear in mind that the prices of many of these wines are pitched for discounting which can make the price reductions not quite as compelling as they seem.

They do have the advantage of having a former supermarket wine buyer Angela Mount on board though who used to head up the wine department at Somerfield and whose tastebuds were once famously insured for £10 million pounds. (A brilliant piece of PR!)

I guess it would be most useful - like any mail order service - to people who live miles from a supermarket or who don't have a car. All I'd suggest is that you compare their prices with other sites such as mySupermarketwine and wine-searcher.com or even a supermarket online wine site like TescoWine to make sure you are actually getting the best price.

Also keep an eye on the vintages. Some of them, like Louis Latour's 2007 Ardeche Chardonnay (reduced to £7.16) are clearly bin-ends. That's quite elderly for an inexpensive - or relatively inexpensive - white.

If you must drink pink fizz . . .

2011-02-12T09:40:00.004Z

Those of you who follow my Guardian column will know that I've had a bit of a rant today about the relentless pressure on us to buy our 'loved ones' (loathe that expression) a bottle of pink champagne. It's not that I mind pink fizz as such I just resent the mark-ups the champagne producers put on it and the fact that the discounts are never as good as they seem.

Take Oddbins current price cut of £14 on Laurent Perrier rosé. You might reasonably conclude that makes it a fantastic bargain but at 'only' £45.99 instead of £59.99 it's still overpriced. Lanson rosé, which is by no means cheap, is £11 cheaper at £34.99 (Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Waitrose.)

You'd be better off buying a bottle of Sainsbury's own brand rosé champagne at £20 or, if you can't bring yourself to pour a bottle of own label for your beloved, take advantage of their current offer on Taittinger which they're selling at £23.32 instead of £34.99. Admittedly not pink but not bad for a grande marque. I'm less keen on Marks and Spencer's offer on Oudinot at £15 instead of £25. I've never liked the Oudinot label that much.

For real credit crunch drinking the best bargain this weekend (Cava apart and your partner will know Cava is cheap) is the attractive wild strawberry-flavoured Bluff Hill Rosé from New Zealand, down from £9.99 to £7.99 at Marks and Spencer. It's very similar to Lindauer Rosé (on sale at the same price if you buy two bottles at Majestic) which is no great surprise as it's made by the same producer, Pernod Ricard.

Aldi Italian liqueur specials

2011-02-08T11:02:00.004Z

Those of you who are Aldi fans will be familiar with their 'special buys' which are flagged up every Sunday and Thursday. I'd always been under the impression they were only available for the one day but according to the PR department they're on offer at that price 'for as long as stocks last'. Which I imagine could be quite a long time.

Anyway seems they've got an Italian promotion running from this Thursday which includes a couple of liqueurs and a grappa you might want to try:

A 50cl bottle of Amaretto for £4.99, an Italian Lemon Cream Liqueur for £5.99 (not so sure about that one - sounds like an Italian lemon Bailey's) and a 'premium' grappa for £8.99 in a very fancy bottle.

I haven't tried them so I can't give a verdict on them but would have thought at that price they're worth a punt. (Especially if you like grappa, which I do.)

I was also quite amused to see they're offering a giant Italian pepper mill which you might like to acquire if you want to release your inner Italian waiter . . .

Morrisons Fairtrade wine promo

2011-02-07T17:16:00.005Z

For some odd reason Morrisons is jumping the gun and promoting two of the Fairtrade wines it stocks now rather than during Fairtrade fortnight which starts on February 28th. Or maybe it'll keep them on offer then too.

Anyway they're from the Fairhills range and include a Sauvignon Blanc and a Shiraz/Merlot. To be honest I wouldn't recommend them at their normal retail price of £6.69 but at £4.99 they're reasonable value especially the Shiraz/Merlot (**), a soft juicy red which would make a good partner for a midweek pasta dish or a Friday night pizza. The Sauvignon (**) is a bit sharp but would probably go down fine with a few garlicky prawns or other robustly seasoned seafood.

I just hope it's Morrisons taking the hit for the discount and not Fairhills. The offer lasts till February 20th.

You can find out more about the Fairhills project on Vimeo

Valentine's Day champagne promotions

2011-02-04T10:37:00.004Z

It doesn't seem more than a couple of weeks since Christmas and here we are already with more cut-price champagne offers. Today Sainsbury's is advertising a half price discount on Champagne Lanson bringing it down to £14.74 from £29.49.

Of course, as I never tire of saying, champagne is ludicrously overpriced at that kind of level which is obviously designed for discounting but this is a good price for a much improved champagne.

Sainsbury's also has the heavily-discounted but decent Charles Heidsieck Blue Top on sale at £14.29 (previously £28.59)

Expect more of the same over the coming week to 10 days.

Port isn't just for Christmas

2011-01-29T10:24:00.005Z

I sometimes think the port producers must tear their hair out. How many of us only buy port in the run-up to Christmas? Which is actually the worst time to drink it if you think about it, apart from its affinity with mince pies. Who needs a fortified drink on top of all the other booze we down over the festive period?

January is a different matter. It's cold (freezing, actually), grey and miserable. You've probably cut right back on wine so what could be nicer than a late night nip of warming port?

If you've drunk all your Christmas port here's a bargain from Lidl. A bottle of Armitar tawny port* for just £5.99. I'm not pretending it's subtle, but it's sweet and warming and better than most ruby ports at the price. Nice with a nibble of Stilton. Very nice with a square of dark chocolate or a slice of sticky fruit cake

Port is also a good friend in the kitchen. Add a slosh to a gravy or beef stew. At this price you can afford to.

* Having read the back label it says the wine may leave a sediment. Unusual in tawny port but you might want to decant it if you're serving it for a crowd.

Rating: ***

Marks & Spencer wine sale deals

2011-01-21T20:49:00.005Z

The new year sales trundle on, not least at M & S which is knocking a couple of quid off a number of wines that are moving on to their next vintage. As I've said before you need to watch out as some of them are 2-3 years old now but here are six I'd take a punt on (former price in brackets):

Pirque Chardonnay 2008 £5.99 (£7.99)
Classy Chilean Chardonnay of the full-on buttery kind from a boutique estate I visited earlier this year. Their Cabernet Sauvignon 2008 at the same price is also well worth the price

Corriente del Bio Pinot Noir £5.99 (£7.99)
Pretty good at its full price of £7.99. A snip to find a really quite elegant pinot for £5.99

Kaituna Hills Cabernet Merlot 2008 £6.49 (£8.49)
Haven't tasted this for a while but a normally reliable minty blackcurranty Cab from giant NZ producer Brancott (formerly Montana)

Minervois 2008 Gerard Bertrand £4.99 (£6.99)
A good gutsy blend of Syrah, Grenache and Carignan. Just what you need for the last couple of months of winter drinking.

Torre Scalza Montepulciano 2007 £5.99 (£7.99)
Possibly the best bargain of the lot: a rich spicy southern Italian red that could pass for a posh Tuscan. Would be lovely with lamb and baked pasta dishes.

De Bortoli Verdelho 2009

2011-01-15T14:33:00.005Z

If you haven't tried Verdelho, now's your chance. The very decent 2009 DB De Bortoli Verdelho (13.5%) is on a 25% discount at Waitrose at £4.58 a bottle until January 25th.

It's light, lush and limey (sorry - couldn't resist the alliteration but it's true). A bit less aromatic than a riesling, softer than a Sauvignon but a bit zestier than a Semillon, it would be good with Asian-style salads, seafood (I'm thinking grilled prawns) or noodles. Or just for one of those 'feet-up' moments when you get back from work.

The Aussies pronounced it verdello by the way.

Rating: ***

A mixed bag from Majestic

2011-01-11T08:34:00.000Z

Majestic sent me some samples of a limited parcel of wines it is offering for the New Year - two bottles from the Australian producer Houghton, three from Mondavi's Woodbridge range and a Ravenswood Zinfandel.

All are from the 2007/2008 vintage - i.e. bin ends or vintages they want to clear. Not a problem in the case of the reds but I think both the whites are past it. The best buy to my mind is the Woodbridge Shiraz which at £3.99 is a steal. Here are my ratings and comments

Houghton Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2008 4.99
Has that canned asparagus, tinned pea taste you can get in Sauvignon. A little bit sweaty and oily - i.e. not massively appealing. Even at this price I'd give it a miss. No score.

Houghton Cabernet Shiraz Merlot 2008 £4.99
Soft and fleshy with a nice whack of blackcurranty fruit. Not over jammy. A little tarry on the finish but I don't think you'd notice that with food. Looks smart enough to wheel out with the Sunday roast, especially if it's lamb. Quite full-bodied at 14%
Rating: ****

Robert Mondavi Woodbridge Sauvignon Blanc 2008 £3.99
A bit soft and flabby, like a woolly apple that’s been left in the fruit bowl too long. Past it.
No score.

Robert Mondavi Woodbridge Merlot 2008 £3.99
Light juicy, fruity red but oversweet (like boiled sweets) and a bit rubbery. Not worth buying when you can get the shiraz below
Rating: *

Robert Mondavi Woodbridge Shiraz 2007 £3.99
A little bit jammy but actually has some real substance and character. Decent everyday drinking with e.g. pasta, pizza or sausage and mash. About half the usual price. Worth buying (but not keeping for any length of time).
Rating: ****

Ravenswood Zinfandel Vintners Blend 2007 £4.99
Attractive, soft brambly fruit, a little rubbery when you first open the bottle and a little sharp on the finish. Would work with baked pasta dishes like lasagne. Maybe worth picking up if you're a Ravenswood fan (it's half the normal price) but not as good as previous vintages I've tasted.
Rating: ***

A bit of advice about buying bin ends

2011-01-07T17:35:00.005Z

With wine merchants sales in full swing a word or two of warning about snapping up what may look like unmissable bargains:

* Check the vintage particularly on inexpensive whites and rosés. A 2008 white may not sound that old but if it comes from Australia or Chile it's almost two years from harvest. It may even be a bit elderly for a fresh-tasting European white.

* Be particularly careful about mixed and 'mystery' cases. Check the vintages of all the bottles. Merchants have a habit of slipping in one or two older vintages they want to get rid of.

* Don't buy an unmixed case without tasting the wine. OK there's a danger that someone else will snap it up but it's better than being landed with 12 bottles you wouldn't want to serve to your worst enemy. (This of course is true outside sale time)

* Remember many wines are now priced for big discounts so 50% off may not be the amazing bargain it looks. If you have a chance - and certainly if you're buying online - check the price on wine-searcher.com

* With a few rare exceptions (fine wines, designed to be aged) don't keep the wine you buy in a sale too long. Maybe there was a problem with the corks on that particular bottling so you might get a higher than usual incidence of cork taint. (You can of course take the offending bottle(s) back but that's harder to do a couple of years on.)

* Buy from a merchant you trust rather than one you haven't dealt with before. And ideally one local to you who is not going to risk losing your custom.

Useful UK wine tax calculator

2011-01-04T17:22:00.005Z

Following on from yesterday's post about the VAT increase here's a nifty new iPhone app called UK Wine Tax Calculator you can download to find out how much of the cost of your bottle is accounted for by tax.

It's fairly startling to see that over 50% or £2.52 of a £4.99 bottle of 13% wine is now accounted for by tax - £1.69 duty and 83p VAT, leaving just £2.47 to cover the cost of packaging, transport, labour and of course the wine itself.

On a £6.99 bottle of the same ABV that goes up to £4.14. (The duty remains the same and the VAT goes up to £1.17) which shows that it is worth spending as much extra on a bottle as you can afford - and snapping up special offers on more expensive wines as and when you find them.

Why you shouldn’t panic about the VAT increase

2011-01-03T12:55:00.003Z

If your instinct is to rush off this afternoon and stock up on wine before the VAT increase comes in tomorrow, hold your horses. The increases really aren’t that big. I got my husband, who is considerably more mathematically minded than I am, to work out the increase on a number of popular price points and these are the figures he came up with:

A £3.99 wine will go up to £4.08 (i.e. an increase of 9p), a £4.99 one to £5.10 (+ 11p), £5.99 to £6.12 (+ 13p), £6.99 to £7.14 (+ 15p) and £7.99 to £8.16 (+ 17p).

Of course it’s perfectly possible that retailers will take the opportunity to hike prices further to reflect other costs but equally likely that they - or the supermarkets at least - will continue to put a large selection of wines on special offer. As we’ve seen in the run-up to Christmas wine is a major battleground in the supermarket price war.

There is of course another way to keep the cost of your wine-drinking down which I've suggested in my Guardian column this week. Which is to drink the wine you normally drink, just rather less of it. I'm not taking a moral line on this just pointing out the financial (and health) benefits!

I've also spotted that quite a number of wine retailers aren't increasing their prices til the end of the month including Majestic and Great Western Wine. Yet another reason for keeping calm ;-)

Champagne offers for New Year’s Eve

2010-12-29T16:57:00.004Z

Having gone quiet for a couple of weeks the supermarkets now seem to be having a last thrash to get our custom for New Year's Eve. And inevitably it’s focussed on champagne.

Tesco is now the one discounting Heidsieck Monopole Blue Top Brut NV I wrote about a couple of weeks ago down to £13 from £27.99 although my husband said it was sold out earlier. (Asda has it for £17.)

Sainsbury’s has the Etienne Dumont Brut for £10 instead of £27.99 (can’t vouch for it as I haven’t tasted it but apparently it’s a huge seller for them)

Asda has Piper Heidsieck for £14 (normally £25.88) and Jacob’s Creek Sparkling Chardonnay Pinot Noir for £6 instead of £9.49 if you’re looking for party drinking.

Waitrose is advertising the very decent Duval-Leroy Premier Cru at half-price for £14.99 instead of £29.99

Marks & Spencer has got their Louis Chaurey champagne back on promotion at £15 - again reduced by 50%. Again I haven't tasted it but apparently Jancis Robinson gave it a favourable review. (Let's hope they have more supplies than they did before Christmas).

Majestic is selling Jacquart for £15 instead of £25 but if you can run to it Louis Roederer at £25 rather than £37 is a better deal (but remember you have to buy six bottles - which can be mixed - in total)

It's interesting how similar these figures are. £14-£15 certainly seems to be the magic number although Tesco and Sainsbury's are offering deals below that and I wouldn't be surprised to see someone pop up tomorrow with another under £12 fizz. (Tip me off if you spot one!)

Expect to see the next round of offers during the first two weeks of February in the run-up to Valentine’s Day.

Last minute Christmas reds

2010-12-23T08:28:00.003Z

It's funny how the supermarkets aren't pushing their wine promotions so much now. I guess research has told them that the time people are most likely to be seduced by special offers is the end of November/beginning of December. Maybe people stick to their usual shops by this stage in the proceedings. I know I do.

Anyway I thought it might be useful to round up a few last minute reds for those of you who haven't yet laid in your stocks. Slightly pricier than my usual recommendations but it is Christmas.

Tesco Finest Howcroft Cabernet Sauvignon £7.99
Not one of the Finest range currently on promotion but still decent value for a classic South Australian Cab (from the Limestone coast). Ideal for roast lamb
While you're there: Pick up the Ken Forrester Chenin Blanc on a 2 for £10 promotion and a bottle of Concha y Toro Otorio Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc (£5.99) one of the best value dessert wines around

Sainsbury's Taste the Difference Côtes du Rhône Villages 2009 £5.99
It's hard to go wrong with Côtes du Rhône, especially the 2009 vintage and from a producer as solid as Chapoutier. Good all-round drinking over the Xmas period
While you're there: You could pick up some of the 'House' wines I reviewed here or the good current offer on their own brand blanc de blancs champagne.

Marks and Spencer Cerro Syrah 2008 £7.99
Really delicious, rich, characterful red from one of my favourite Chilean wineries De Martino. Could handle the turkey or drink with roast beef or a steak.
While you're there: Pick up a bottle of the always reliable Secano Estate Pinot Noir for the same price. And the Las Falleras Red £4.29) would make good party drinking

Chateau du Gazin 2008 Canon-Fronsac (on offer at £7.49 at Waitrose or £7.11 online up to January 4th)
Good old-fashioned claret at a very decent price. Will keep elderly in-laws happy.
While you're there: The Château Calage La Méjanelle, a lush ripe biodynamic Languedoc red is also very good value at £7.99

Estampa Estate Carmenère Malbec 2009 Oddbins £7.19 if you buy a total of 6 bottles which need not all be this wine. Normally £8.99
Another delicious Chilean red which my tasting notes say tastes of pears in red wine. Would go with most of the Christmas suspects - turkey, ham, pork or the Boxing Day buffet.
While you're there: The same estate's Cabernet Sauvignon/Petit Verdot would also appeal if you're a Cabernet fan. As would the stunning Mayu Carmenère Reserva 2007 (£8.79 on the 25% off 6 offer) though it's not in all branches. And the Cava Torre Oria Brut (£7.19 on promotion) I recommended in my Guardian column on Saturday could easily pass for champagne.

If I don't post again before Christmas have a happy one!

A Chablis bargain at Morrisons

2010-12-17T16:24:00.010Z

As we're getting closer to Christmas I'm going to flag up a few more expensive wines for those of you who haven't yet chosen your Christmas Day drinking.

I'm normally wary about special offers on the French classics but Morrisons has got a good deal on a very attractive 2009 Chablis 1er Cru Vaillons (****) which is reduced from £14.99 to £9.99. Great with any kind of Christmas seafood (especially oysters) it's worth snapping up at that price.

Unfortunately the Ogier Chateauneuf du Pape that was on a similar offer is back at £14.99 and I don't think is really worth buying now despite the handsome looking bottle. (The same producer's Heritages Cotes du Rhone 2009, a full-bodied blend of 70% Grenache, 25% Syrah and 5% Mourvèdre in an impressively heavy (though not very eco-friendly) bottle is much better value at £8.99 ****)

Morrisons also has a couple of good sweeties including the well-priced Torres Floralis Moscatel (£7.99 ***) and what must be the best-priced bottle of Marsala in the country, the Cantine Florio Liberti Marsala for just £3.99 (****) which you could sip with mince pies, pair with the Stilton or use to make a zabaglione if you felt so minded. Once you've got Christmas dinner out of the way, of course . . .

Waitrose Vintage English Perry

2010-12-13T21:59:00.006Z

Waitrose has got 20-25% reductions on a number of their ciders at the moment bringing this refreshing, elegant perry down to an incredible £1.34 a 500ml bottle - and even cheaper on Ocado at £1.27.

Perry is often thought of as poor man's champagne but it could equally well be described as pauper's prosecco - light (well, lightish at 8%) gently sparkling and perfect for party drinking.

It's made in Herefordshire (by Westons according to ratebeer.com)

If you chilled it well and served it in champagne glasses I wonder if your friends would be able to tell the difference?

There's a recipe for a mulled version here.

Morgan's Spiced Rum offer

2010-12-11T17:43:00.004Z

So few of my friends drink spirits these days that I rarely buy them but here's a good deal on Morgan's Spiced Rum which seems to me a good bottle to have around over Christmas - or to give as a gift.

It's on offer at £12 for a 1 litre bottle at Sainsbury's instead of the usual £16. Asda is selling the same size for £15, Tesco at £16 or £25 if you buy two bottles and Oddbins for £15.99 so you can see it's a genuine bargain.

I should point out that it's only 35% ABV but it is already spiced so you could use it to make a hot toddy or buttered rum without having to add extra spices.

Sainsbury's is also doing the same deal on litre bottles of Bell's Whisky, Gordon's Gin and Smirnoff Red Label vodka.

The curious incident of Spar's Donacella Cava

2010-12-10T07:23:00.006Z

I got a press release from Spar the other day trumpeting that research had shown that the public couldn't tell champagne from Cava

Apparently they conducted a blind taste test amongst 105 wine drinkers to see if they could distinguish between Spar Donacella Cava Brut, their own label champagne Marquis Belrive, Moët & Chandon Impérial and Lansons Black Label.

"Nearly a quarter" couldn't taste the difference between Lansons Black Label and the Cava and 34% incorrectly identified Moet as the Spanish sparkler.

The results don't hugely surprise me. I conducted a similar, less extensive experiment myself recently (the results of which you'll find in my Guardian column on December 18th) but to be fair the Spar experiment actually showed that three-quarters and two thirds of the sample respectively could distinguish between Cava and champagne.

Eager to see what the fuss was about my OH dropped into our local Spar and picked up a bottle which I have to say was pretty impressive. Slightly lacking in fizz (it may have been on the shelf for a while) but attractively soft and honeyed (Rating ***) It could certainly pass for cheap bubbly.

The odd thing though was that he had to pay £8.19 for it instead of £6.79 the price the press release had mentioned. But the actual price is apparently £6.65 on top of which there's supposed to be a 25% offer which should have reduced it further to £4.99.

I raised this with Spar's PR company who told me that "individual branches have discretion on what they charge and whether they choose to run promotions - which is why your husband was charged more in your local branch. As SPAR isn't a franchise, our stores are independently owned or managed by people who live in the communities they serve, they have control over their prices. Anything we quote is a recommended retail price."

So the result of "living in the community you serve" means you rip off your neighbours? That seems a strange kind of trading to me.

Anyway, if you can pick up this bottle at £4.99 - or even £5.09 which would be a 25% on the original trading price of £6.79, go for it - it's a good deal. It was on promo at £5.49 back in September which is also fine. But there's an ocean of cut-price Cava out there so I wouldn't pay any more than that.

Les Crouzes Old Vines Carignan 2009

2010-12-07T08:30:00.004Z

I'm taking a punt on this offer at the Co-op a) because I'm interested in Carignan and b) because it's currently reduced to £4.19 which is worth a gamble of anyone's money. Indeed the fact that our local branch had sold out any suggests that it's well worth drinking. (As indeed my predecessor at the Guardian Victoria Moore, who wrote last year about the 2008 vintage, suggests)

I would have gone to another branch to pick one up but the top temperature in Bristol yesterday was -2°C which wasn't a great incentive to leave the house.

In the absence of a tasting note here's what the Co-op says about it:

“Crouze” is an ancient word which refers to small caves hidden away in remote valleys. Often containing water, they are sometimes used to irrigate nearby vineyards. This particular cuvée has come to the fore almost by accident - originally intended as a blending component, it stood out in a blind tasting and instantly impressed as a single style in its own right. Given the average age of the vines (c. 40 years) and the ripeness achieved, the juicy and full-bodied nature of the wine should come as no surprise. Cherry red, with intense berry aromas and a hint of vanilla on the nose, it boasts a velvety, full-flavoured palate and a lingering finish which certainly belies its price."

I doubt if it's that velvety and lingering at this price, or indeed at its normal selling price of £5.19 but it should certainly hit the spot in this icy weather.

Six more Sainsbury’s buys under a fiver

2010-12-03T16:42:00.007Z

Here, as promised, are six more Sainsbury's buys which are well worth snapping up on the current '25% off if you buy 6 bottles' deal which I've just heard now lasts until December 10th

Crozes Hermitage Cave de Tain 2007 down from £8.49 to £6.49 or £4.87 when you buy six or more bottles
I haven't tasted this characterful Northern Rhone syrah recently but the 2007 vintage was a good one and the Cave de Tain is normally reliable so at this price it's got to be worth a punt.****

Domaine du Colombier Chinon 2008 down to £4.49 if you buy 6
Fresh-tasting light Loire red. Great with seared salmon or tuna ***

House Dry Rosé, Chile. Already worth snapping up at £3.99, this promotion brings it down to £2.99. Light, fruity and, as the label says, dry. **

House Chianti - Normally £3.99 (£2.99 if you buy any 6 wines) Chianti is rarely drinkable at this price - perfect for that takeaway pizza or a cheap pasta supper **

House Red Wine £3.49 (£2.62)
Perfectly decent vin ordinaire of the kind you buy from a local French co-op. Ideal for mulling. **

House Claret £3.79 (£2.84)
Light 'lunchtime' claret. Terrific with bacon and eggs. (Seriously. Try it!) **

Good champagne buys from Sainsbury’s

2010-12-02T10:52:00.008Z

You do have to wonder what kind of margins supermarkets are putting on their wine - and food - if they can afford to keep running these 25% offers but take advantage!

The one I’d definitely snap up is the offer on Sainsbury’s Blanc de Blancs (*****) an elegant all-Chardonnay champagne which has been made for them for a while by the reputable house of Duval Leroy. It’s normally £16.99, currently reduced to £14.99 and down to £11.24 if you buy 6 or more bottles (which needn’t all be champagne).

There are also offers on Heidsieck Monopole Blue Top Brut NV down from £24.98 to £18 or £13.50 when you buy six or more, Lanson Black Label for £16.12 (normally £29.49) and Tattinger at £17.91 as part of a purchase of 6 (though I have to say I’d never pay the full price of £33.88 for it). None of them significantly better than the Blanc de Blancs IMHO.

The offer lasts until December 7th (now extended to December 10th FB)

I'll be highlighting more Sainsbury's deals tomorrow

Six good buys from Oddbins

2010-11-29T14:55:00.007Z

Oddbins is the latest to run the 25% off if you buy six deal - not quite as good as it sounds as their prices are on the expensive side, designed for their normal discount of 20% if you buy a dozen. Still it does bring some wines down to a very affordable level

Usual price first, 25% off price in brackets

Pinot Grigio Frunza 2009 £5.99 (£4.49)
Romanian Pinot Grigio wouldn't be top of my drinking list normally but this is a really appealing off-dry white more in the Alsace Pinot Gris mould than vapid cheap Pinot Grigio. Good with mild Indian curries I would guess
***

Angosto White 2009, Valencia, Spain £8.49 (£6.37)
A deliciously aromatic blend of Verdejo, Moscatel, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc that's nicer than any of those grapes (at this price) individually. Brilliant aperitif or party wine.
****

Chateau Lauduc Classic 2008 £8.49, Bordeaux (£6.37)
Attractive basic, slightly old-fashioned Bordeaux of the 'lunchtime claret' genre. Would please older rellies. ***

Primitivo Vini del Sole 2009, Puglia £8.99 (£6.74)
Dark warm, porty red - perfect for this cold weather. Would be good with a cheeseboard. ***

Estampa Estate Carmenere Malbec 2009, Chile £8.99 (£6.74)
An unusual blend but full of soft autumnal fruit - almost like pears in red wine. Can imagine it going well with veggie mains with mushrooms or roast butternut squash ***

Los Pecadillos 'Glotonia' DO Montilla-Moriles £9.99 (£7.49) Not in all branches
Wickedly sweet lush Pedro Ximenez from Montilla rather than Jerez. Pour over vanilla ice-cream (Glotonia means gluttony apparently!)*****

Wolf Blass Cabernet for under a fiver

2010-11-27T08:02:00.013Z

Asda is currently selling the 2008 Wolf Blass Yellow Label Cabernet Sauvignon for £4.48, half their usual price of £8.97 - which is great news if you like the intense cassis flavours of South Australian Cab. (As you can probably guess from that it's not totally my cup of tea)

Actually it's great news for you and Asda, less good for Wolf Blass who I understand from a former supermarket buyer friend, is powerless to prevent this kind of discounting and not so good for the image of Australian wine which has already taken a battering.

Should supermarkets do it? I guess while they can they will but it seems hard on a decent producer who will then struggle to get a fair return on their wine and must be tempted to reduce the quality. So maybe not so good for Wolf Blass fans in the long run?

* If you're not near an Asda, the dreaded Bargain Booze (surely the government wants to do something about store names like that?) seems to be selling it for £5.99. And it's £7.49 from Wine Rack which suggests that Asda's original selling price is higher than it need be.

Rating (at this price): ****

Good M & S port offer

2010-11-26T16:16:00.005Z

Marks and Spencer has got a good offer at the moment on its Finest Reserve Port which is reduced from £10.99 to £7.99. It's made for them by David Guimaraens of Quinta da Roeda.

Finest Reserve aka Vintage Character port is the rather vague category between basic Ruby Port and an LBV. It can frequently be a bit coarse but this is really well made - warm, ripe and brambly and not too jammy or 'hot' (i.e. obviously alcoholic). It has been aged in oak for three years and is suitable for vegetarians. Totally Christmassy.

Rating: ***

Cheap supermarket wines + more cut-price bubbly

2010-11-25T10:23:00.006Z

The Guardian has a feature today written by wine writer Peter Grogan on cheap supermarket wines. It includes some good tips though we'll have to agree to differ on The Whale Caller which didn't appeal to me at all.

Supermarket champagne and sparkling wine offers also seem to be in full flow. Tesco is offering half price deals off Mumm (down to £14.99), Lanson (£14.49) and Taittinger (£16.99) while Sainsbury's has reduced the price of the very decent Heidsieck Monopole Blue Top to a remarkable £11.99. Obviously you have to take the scale of the discount with a pinch of salt - the original selling prices are ridiculously inflated - but they're still useful reductions.

Undurraga Brut: perfect party fizz

2010-11-23T16:56:00.006Z

If you're one of those who actually doesn't much like champagne or champagne-like sparkling wines snap up the current offer at Majestic on Undurraga Brut from Chile (12.5%) which is selling for a knock-down £4.99 instead of the usual £9.99.

It's peachy rather than citrussy and fruity rather than yeasty which makes it a great party drink for those who find champagne too sharp or acidic. Excellent for Christmas parties.

Rating: ***

A cheap Chateauneuf substitute

2010-11-15T16:34:00.010Z

Given the current 20% discount on the Rhone at Majestic I tasted my way through half a dozen reds at the weekend and came up with 3 to recommend (not a bad hit rate). One you'll have to wait until my Guardian column of December 4th to discover (sorry!), another is brilliant but, even at the discounted price, beyond the price limit I've set myself for this blog* and the third would make a very decent substitute for a Chateauneuf on the Christmas table for short-sighted relatives who don't look at the label too closely.

It's a big generous (14%) Côteaux du Tricastin 2009 from Delas, normally £8.49 but with the 20% discount down to £6.79 if you buy two which is a steal. A tad tarry on the finish maybe but at that price who's complaining? You could drink it with the turkey - or a leg of pork and no-one would know you hadn't spent £12 on it. Which in my book is a result. (There does still seem to be some 2007 around which I can't vouch for so make sure you get the 2009.) Rating: ****

Wines I wasn't so impressed by FYI were the Durieu Côtes du Rhone and Jaboulet 'Les Jalets' Crozes.

*OK. You want to know anyway? It's the Yann Chave Crozes-Hermitages 2008 normally £17.49, currently £13.99. Lashings of pepper and gorgeous supple fruit. Everything a Northern Rhone Syrah-lover could wish for.

PS No more bargains till next week. I'm off to the Lebanon tomorrow.

A classy Chilean cab from the Co-op

2010-11-12T12:33:00.007Z

It might seem perverse to write about a wine that’s not on promotion at the moment but sometimes it’s good to know about wines that are always good value. And this elegant 2008 Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon from the Colchagua Valley which is made for the Co-op by the very respectable Luis Felipe Edwards is a case in point. It’s intensely fruity, as you’d expect from a Chilean Cab (with a lick of Carmenère) but has real elegance for a £5.99 wine. You could drink it with roast lamb, or a steak but it would actually be rather good with a chilli con carne too. Or a strong artisanal cheddar.

The only downside is that the label makes it look more like £3.99. Or perhaps I'm being unfair. What do you think?

Rating:***

3 for £4 deal on Tesco Finest beers

2010-11-09T14:40:00.004Z

I have to say I was rather more excited by the Tesco Finest beers and cider at their wine tasting yesterday than I was about the majority of their wines most of which strike me as being priced for Christmas reductions.

The deal doesn't include the Finest Wheat and Abbey Belgian Beers which are sold in a full size 75cl bottle and which I haven't tasted but still sound good value at £2.96 and £3.35 respectively or the Finest Cidre Prestige which at £3.99 for 365ml is actually quite pricey - but brilliant.

But it does include a stunning Single Orchard Cider (£1.49 for 500ml) made for the range by Thatchers, a scarily alcoholic (9.2% but delicious) American Double IPA from Brewdog (normally £1.99 for 330ml) and, at the other end of the spectrum, a really gingery alcoholic ginger beer from Williams Brothers at 3.8% (£1.49 for 500ml) which I think would be great with a Chinese.

There's also a Traditional Porter from the Harviestoun Brewery (6%, £1.49 for 330ml) which is strongly reminiscent of Old Engine Oil. (And that's not as dismissive as it sounds. There really is a beer of that name in their range - though one that's not particularly to my taste, I confess.)

The offer lasts until December 14th, 2010

Cheap bubbly at Morrisons

2010-11-08T20:38:00.000Z

The pre-Christmas supermarket wine price war continues apace with Morrisons announcing that they're knocking 50% off the price of selected champagnes including Piper Heidsieck (£26.29 to £13.14) Heidsieck Monopole Gold Top (£29.99 to £14.99) and the much improved Lanson Black Label (£29.49 to £14.74).

On the face of it it's a good deal - they're all big names which impresses the rellies but there's always a possibility that they've been bought as a job lot and aren't the same quality as the bottles you'd normally find on the shelf. Ideally I'd check one if you're contemplating buying more than one bottle which shouldn't be too much of a hardship though obviously they may all be gone by the time you've done that. (You can apparently only buy three bottles.)

Don't worry too much if you miss out - I think we're going to be awash with champagne offers this Christmas.

Great deals on reds from M & S

2010-11-05T18:58:00.001Z

These ‘25% off if you buy six bottles’ deals are getting silly. Since everyone’s doing them you can only assume that virtually all prices these days are set to allow for discounting. I heard this afternoon that M & S has a 10 day 25% off promotion from today (lasting until Sunday 14th).

I was tasting through a selection of their wines this afternoon and these are the ones I’d pick out under £6 (normal price first, promotional price in brackets). Interestingly - apart from the sherries - they’re all reds. I wasn’t particularly grabbed by any of the cheaper whites

Secano Estate Pinot Noir 2009 £7.99 (£5.99)
Must be one of the best Pinot Noirs around at the price - fantastic for the money

Cerro Syrah, Chile 2008 £7.99 (£5.99)
Really gorgeous Syrah - full of vivid fruit but not jammy

Las Falleras Red 2009 £4.29 (£3.22)
Cheap’n’cheerful Spanish red - perfect for pizza, pasta and parties. (Not nearly so impressed with the white)

Popolino Rosso 2009 £4.99 (£3.74)
As above, only Italian (or, rather, Sicilian)

Minervois 2008 £6.99 (£5.24)
Gutsy characterful blend of Syrah, Grenache and Carignan - though more typically St Chinian in flavour than Minervois

Dry old Palo Cortado £7.49 a half bottle (£5.62)
Amazing bone dry but deliciously rich sherry. An absolute must for sherry aficionados. As is the slightly sweeter Dry Old Oloroso on a similar offer but I personally prefer the Palo Cortado.

. . . and some Waitrose wine bargains

2010-11-04T09:43:00.006Z

Despite yesterday's trashing of the Whale Crossing I would recommend a trip to Waitrose this week which like every other supermarket seems to be knocking 25% off their prices if you buy six bottles (and 12 if you buy online)

Bear in mind though there may be subsequent offers that don't require you to buy as much. For example the Chateau du Gazin Canon Fronsac - a very decent basic Bordeaux - will be reduced from £9.99 to £7.49 by the current offer but from December 8th you'll only have to buy one bottles to get the same discount.

What Waitrose - and all wine retailers - want you to do during these promotions is to buy more wine and trade up to more expensive bottles. Nothing wrong with that but in keeping with the ethos of this blog here are some of the cheaper buys I'd recommend (promotional price in brackets)

Reds
Chateau Calage, La Mejanelle 2008 Coteaux du Languedoc £7.99 (£5.99) - big lipsmacking blend of Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre

Fontaine du Roy 2009 Costières de Nîmes £6.49 (£4.87) - Syrah, Carignan, Grenache and Marsalan. Gutsy Cotes du Rhoneish red.

Gran Lopez Garnacha/Tempranillo 2009 Campo de Borja £4.79 (£3.59) Robust 'winter warmer' Great Christmas drinking - good for mulling. Snap it up at this price.

Whites
Montgravel Chardonnay 2009 Vin de France £4.99 (£3.74) Not my cup of tea (more Aussie Chardonnay than French) but amazing for the price - good party drinking

Vina Costeira 2009 Ribeiro, Spain £7.99 (£5.99) Attractive aromatic white blend of Treixadura, Torrontes, Albarino, Godello and Laureira from Galicia. Good for spicy seafood dishes

Cowrie Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2010 Marlborough New Zealand £5.49 (£4.12) Massively OTT (to me) gooseberry flavours but it you like this style it's an absolute steal.

Sweet
Fetzer Bonterra Muscat 2009 £6.99 a half bottle (£5.24) Very pretty delicate sweet wine. Would be lovely with fruit salads.

Why buy The Whale Caller?

2010-11-03T16:53:00.008Z

"In the coastal South African town of Hermanus the Whale Caller waits on the cliffs calling for the whales to return from the Antartic waters. As you savour this rich red wine you may just catch the strains of the whale caller’s horn"

Oh yeah? On a wet evening in Watford? Pull the other one. It's this kind of guff on the back label of wines that really insults the intelligence. They're the kind of manufactured brands that do no-one any credit.

The 'rich red wine' in question is the Whale Caller Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 (13.5%. No score) which is handled by Distell Europe and I would imagine is almost certainly bulk wine, bottled in the UK. It's incredibly jammy but not in a nice way with no structure or acidity. The best thing you can say about it is that it's not rubbery. And might be a bit better if you chill it.

The white - The Whale Caller Sauvignon Blanc Colombard (12%) which is a 2010 (*) - is slightly better with some lively fresh fruit though still with a slightly confected aftertaste. It's recommended with salads, seafood and chicken dishes which is fair enough and would make reasonable (student) party drinking.

What do you expect for £3.99? you might ask and it's a fair question. Asda's Vin de Pays d'Oc Marsanne for one at £3.98 has a lot more personality and the new Morrison's own brand range which is coming onto the shelves has some decent buys among it which I'll be flagging up once I know they're in. But frankly you can do better. And so can Waitrose.

* Maybe the 2009s which still seem to be in stock on the Waitrose Wine Direct website are more appealing. They're also a few pence more at £4.07

Taste the Difference Albarino 2009

2010-11-01T22:16:00.004Z

Tomorrow (Tuesday November 2nd) is the last day of Sainsbury's current offer of 25% off all wines when you buy six bottles which brings their already very reasonable Albarino down from £6.99 to a bargain £5.14.

Like all wines - and foods - that become fashionable, Albarino has shot up in price over the last few years which makes this a great deal. If you're not familiar with the grape it makes clean-as-a-whistle whites that are particularly good with seafood - less acidic than Muscadet and Picpoul de Pinet, less full-on and grassy than Sauvignon Blanc.

You can also get 25% off the Taste the Difference Crozes Hermitage I recommended the other week in my Guardian column bringing it down to £6,24 and the TTD Douro to £5.64.

Pukka Pinot Grigio

2010-10-29T10:58:00.010+01:00

I must confess Pinot Grigio doesn't really rock my boat. There are some terrible examples around and I rarely buy it but I'm almost tempted by this offer from Waitrose on the pukka Forte Alto Pinot Grigio 2009, currently reduced from £7.49 to £4.99 until next Wednesday (November 3rd). Or even cheaper if you buy it by the case from Waitrose Wine Direct (for £56.88 or £4.74 a bottle).

It's made in one of the best growing areas in Italy - the Trentino Alto Adige and apparently comes from vineyards that are managed in an environmentally friendly way and on which a minimum of pesticides are applied. It's matured - as you'd expect - in stainless steel to keep the wine clean and crisp and is suitable for both vegetarians and vegans.

Pinot Grigio's virtue (apart from the fact that it's only 12%) is that great with Italian vegetable and fish dishes - I'd happily drink it with antipasti, pastas with light creamy or seafood sauces and risotto or with fried or grilled fish. It would be great with a fritto misto.

The label's quite fun too which makes it look like you've spent a lot more on the wine than you have. I like that.

Rating: ***

A Clare Valley Riesling bargain

2010-10-28T12:04:00.009+01:00

I love Clare Valley riesling but it's become quite pricey. But if you act fast you can pick up a real bargain in Asda this week.

Their Extra Special range is on offer at 25% off until Sunday which brings the cost of their Australian Clare Valley riesling down to £5.98 instead of £7.98 (not that that's a bad price given it's made by Knappstein)

I'm not sure that all of it is the 2008 vintage which has acquired that seductive kerosene (yes, really) and lime character that characterises riesling from this part of South Australia - in fact in this instance it's more like lime pickle which immediately makes me think it would be good with Indian food. A selection of veggie curries and dals maybe as it's suitable for vegetarians. Or a korma, mild green Thai curry or Thai-ish prawn stir-fry.

I haven't had the chance to taste my way through the Extra Special wines recently but not all of them are this good so don't go mad on the strength of this recommendation. The 'Extra Special' Gavi is quite dull, for example. For a full round-up check out my colleague Tim Atkin's blog here.

Rating: ****

Credit Crunch Drinking is back!

2010-10-27T11:18:00.010+01:00

The great thing about journalism is that it changes the whole time. One moment you’re writing about student recipes, the next about beer or wine. I’ve always been one for serial enthusiasms so I’ve blogged - and still blog - about cheese and frugal eating and about odd ingredients, restaurants, books or drinks that take my fancy (Food & Wine Finds).

Credit Crunch Drinking seemed like a good idea when I started the blog back in 2008 but I was more involved in food at the time and found it hard to keep up. But I’m now resurrecting it because I’ve become the Guardian’s new wine writer (Saturdays in the Weekend mag) and have - unsurprisingly - found a fair number of my readers want to see the column focus on sub £6 wines.

There’s also a demand for wines that aren’t stocked by supermarkets - and are therefore going to be more expensive - so I’ve been giving a bit of thought about how to square the two. Not easy in 400 odd words! I also have to write my article two and a half weeks ahead which means it’s hard to let readers now about last minute promotions.

So this is where I’m going to pass on info about good buys that don’t make the column - mainly wine but also beer, spirits and cider when I come across them.

The first bit of news is that Asda has knocked 25% off its Extra Special range until the end of the month (i.e. Sunday) and that Sainsbury’s has 25% off all their wines for a week from today (until November 3rd) if you buy six or more bottles. That includes fizz - which brings their very drinkable own brand Blanc de Noirs champagne (***) down to £12.74 a bottle - and wines that are already on promotion. If you like to plan ahead now’s a good time to get your Christmas drinking sorted.

Time to call time for the moment

2009-02-10T20:23:00.005Z

Apologies to those of you who have started following this blog but I'm finding it hard to keep up in addition to my other commitments so afraid it'll have to be put on hold for the moment.

I'll try and put up the occasional post about drink on The Frugal Cook and you can read my thoughts on food and wine pairing and beer and food matching on www.matchingfoodandwine.com
and on Twitter.

And, who knows, maybe I'll pick it up again in a month or two . . .

Bye for now!

The great mineral water rip-off

2009-01-29T21:42:00.005Z

Despite the reaction against bottled mineral water I still drink it in preference to tap. (Long explanation that could take up the whole of this post but basically I worry about the residues of drugs and other chemicals that it's carrying)

But there doesn't seem much justification for the discrepancy in prices between the heavily promoted brands and the supermarket own brands. I'm not saying they don't taste different - they do - simply that I'm not prepared to pay five or six times as much for a water I like than a water that is maybe a little more bland but perfectly refreshing.

Take San Pellegrino, for instance. A sparkling water which currently sells for 87p for a 750ml bottle in Tesco - or 11.6p per 100ml. You can buy 2 litres of Tesco's own Ashbeck Mountain Spring water at the moment for 33p or 1.7p per 100ml. If you put ice (made with still mineral water) and a slice of lemon or lime in it, it's delicious and a fraction of the price.

I will buy a branded mineral water I like when it's on special offer. Tesco currently has Evian for example at 60p for 2 litres which works out at 3p per 100ml, again, more expensive than an own brand equivalent but much, much cheaper than the £2 odd that you will pay for a medium-sized bottle at garages, stations and sandwich shops. (It's well worth buying a pack of six small individual bottles from the supermarket then keep on filling them from a large one once you've drunk the contents. And I always try and carry a bottle with me so that I don't have to pay the outrageous amount they charge in hotel mini-bars)

Interestingly there's a report in Le Figaro today saying that even the French have cut down the amount they're spending on mineral water and I'm sure the same is true of the UK. So where do you stand? Has the credit crunch made you give up your mineral water habit or change the type you buy or have you always drunk tap?

A good weekend to buy whisky

2009-01-24T12:50:00.007Z

One of the new rules of supermarket shopping is to buy what everyone else wants - or what the supermarkets think they want. Those are the things on which there are the best deals.

In case it's escaped your notice tomorrow night is Burns' Night so the special offers this weekend are on on haggis, swedes and whisky of which the latter is by far the most appealing.

I've just spotted Grants, a perfectly decent brand on sale at Somerfield* for £10.49. Tesco, according to mysupermarket.co.uk has got Bells for £11.92 instead of £13.97 (surprisingly undercut by Ocado which is only charging £11.20 for it) and Talisker for £21.93 instead of £26.93. And Sainsbury's has got Famouse Grouse for £11.

All these brands of course are quite a bit dearer than the supermarket own brand whiskies which cost as little as £7.83 for Asda Smartprice whisky. I haven't got an ASDA nearby so can't tell you if it's any good but Martin Isark of supermarketownbrandguide.co.uk gives it 9/10. My view would be that's great for a cocktail or a toddy but if you're drinking it neat go for the Grouse - or the Talisker if the budget will run to it.

*Have just spotted on the Somerfield site that they also have Glenmorangie for £17.99 instead of £27.99, a whopping £10 discount which beats the Talisker deal. Probably not in all branches though.

A great sherry bargain

2009-01-21T19:08:00.008Z

Amid the shelves of identikit bottles that now fill the average supermarket wine aisle it's incredibly exciting to come across a genuinely interesting drink: an authentic Spanish cream sherry made by the very respectable Lustau company for Sainsbury's Taste the Difference range.

Of course it's not selling otherwise why would they reduce it from £9.99 to £4.99, quite amazing for a sherry of this class and a full size bottle at that. You may, of course, be put off by the words 'cream sherry' but don't be - this is on the edge of being dry but with all that yummy squishy raisiny flavour that makes sweet sherry so delicious. It's almost like liquid fruit cake.

When to drink it? Well towards the end of or after dinner, I suggest - with blue cheese or dark chocolate or even with vanilla ice cream. There don't seem to be that many bottles left so snap it up while you can. RATING: *****

Two under £4 reds

2009-01-17T13:07:00.006Z

Just as the average spend on a bottle of wine was creeping up, the credit crunch has brought it crashing down to earth with a bump again and the sub £4 price point seems more important than ever. I've seen a lot of wines over the last few weeks discounted 'by 50%' to £3.99 but would take that with a pinch of salt. They may be good value at £3.99 but they weren't worth £7.99 in the first place.

My eye was caught the other day by a Bulgarian Cabernet Sauvignon in Tesco at just £3.32. Now that's a blast from the past. When I first start drinking wine, long before the days of New World supremacy, Bulgaria was the source of some of the best cheap and cheerful drinking. So how does it compare now? See below:

Tesco Bulgarian Cabernet Sauvignon, Reka Valley £3.32
There's no vintage on this bottle which is always a bad sign (unless it's a bottle of fizz) though not half as bad a sign as the lurid Borat-like scene on the label. And those who have got used to the intense blackcurrant flavours of Chilean Cab, for example, are going to be in for a disappointment. It's drinkable - just - but frankly is more useful as a cooking or mulling wine. There's far better value drinking in Aldi and Lidl. Give it a miss. NO RATING.

Vineyard X Garnacha 2007, Borja (£3.98 a bottle or 3 bottles for £10, Threshers, Wine Rack)
Snap up this offer before the nanny state decrees that we can no longer have our 3 for a tenner deals. (Do they intend to ban offers on crisps and chocolate, I wonder, to prevent obesity?) It's a marvellous example of a modern Spanish red - exuberant, soft and juicy - at a terrific price, even at the one bottle rate. Knock back with any robust pub-style grub or a plate of tomatoey pasta or pizza. RATING: ****

A lovely, pure perry

2009-01-12T10:21:00.005Z

We had supper with a food writer friend, Andrea Leeman, on Saturday night who’s researching a book on food and drink in Gloucestershire. To kick off the meal she produced a bottle of Day’s Cottage Perry which is made from such romantic sounding pears as Brown Bess and Blakeney Red.

I like perry in theory but am often disappointed by it. Either it’s too sweet, too weak and wimpy or too funky and farmyardy, but this was just essence of pears - pure and unadulterated. You could easily drink it instead of a white wine. In fact I’d infinitely prefer it to most wines of that price (£4 a full size (75cl) bottle).

The great thing about drinks like cider, perry and beer - along with foods such as bread, pasta and rice - is that most of us can afford, even if only occasionally, to buy the best there is - something that doesn’t apply to wine, whisky or meat, for example. Life’s little luxuries, I call them.

You can buy Day’s Cottage products in Bristol and Stroud’s weekly farmers’ markets or direct from the website at applejuice.care4free.net

Save money. Drink beer!

2009-01-09T17:36:00.004Z

Even those people who profess to love beer, I've noticed, hesitate to drink it in a restaurant but it is one of the most effective ways of cutting the cost of eating out. True, not every restaurant has a decent beer list but they never will unless we beer-lovers press them to stock our favourite brews.

One of my new year's resolutions is to order beer rather than wine at every opportunity so I was pleased to get off to a good start with a bottle of Samuel Smith's Organic Best with the very tasty beef, carrot and pickled walnut pie I ordered at our local café. OK, a pie and a pint (or half a pint) is a predictable pairing but it was a deliciously fresh, hoppy brew - even at £3.50 a 350ml bottle, better value than the £3.75 they charge for a 175ml glass of wine. And, of course, twice the amount. You can buy it online for £1.55 a bottle from Vintage Roots.

Ginger wine - the perfect cold weather comforter

2009-01-06T08:33:00.005Z

If there's one bottle I always want in my kitchen after Christmas it's Stone's Ginger Wine. Oddly, because I don't particularly like the taste of preserved ginger. But it makes two great cold weather drinks - a whisky Mac and a very good hot toddy.

A Whisky Mac is simply a whisky with a dash - or more - of ginger wine. Most mixologists seem to favour about two thirds whisky to one third Stone's but it's one of those drinks that depends on your own taste and the quality of whisky that you're using. (No point in using a malt, obviously)

For a really great hot toddy put 1 shot (2 tbsp) blended whisky in a mug or a strong glass with a shot of Stone's, 1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice and a teaspoon of clear honey, pour over 200-225ml boiling water and stir. If you have any cinnamon sticks you could use one for garnish but you don't really need it.

There are also much fancier cocktails and other recipes you can make if you visit the Stone's website some of which sound vaguely repellent (Pork Sausages Whisky Mac, anyone?) but you could add a dash to a chicken stir-fry if you have a bottle handy and I suspect it would be a rather good addition to a fruit cake or gingerbread.

Stone's costs roughly the same as a bottle of inexpensive table wine (usually around ££4.59 but both Sainsbury's and Tesco currently have it on offer for £3.99) and it will last a lot longer which makes it a bargain in my book. RATING: ***

Why Malbec is a good buy on a wine list

2009-01-02T16:55:00.006Z

Credit crunch drinking isn't just a question of snapping up good value bottles to drink at home. You need to be able to fillet a wine list for bargains and by and large those are the wines you - or the winedrinking public in general - don't know so well.

Take Malbec, for example. Not a hugely familiar grape variety just as Argentina, from which most of it comes these days, is a less well-known wine producing country. Result? Malbecs tend to be fairly priced on most wine lists.

I've just enjoyed a very nicely balanced one at a local restaurant The Clifton Sausage - an unlikely venue, you might think to drink anything half way decent but they have a perfectly respectable list of wines by the glass. The wine was called Polo Amateur and comes from a winery called La Chamiza. It was selling at the restaurant for a well-priced £18 a bottle but you should be able to find it for around £5.95 from independent wine shops according to importer worldwideagencies.com. Though inexplicably everywine.co.uk is selling it for roughly twice that at £139.24 a case.

Why it's not worth bothering with cheap champagne

2008-12-31T12:16:00.005Z

This year has been a vintage one for cut price champagne offers. Good for us, the punters? No, not really.

Very few cut price champagnes are worth the money. As a matter of interest we tried a bottle of Nicole d'Aurigny (No score) a champagne that Somerfield is selling for £9.99, more than 50% off. Frankly we'd have done better to buy a cut price bottle of Cava. It was thin and weedy with none of the complexity you have a right to expect from a bottle that originally cost over £20. Think what kind of a still wine you could have got for that.

The best cheap bottle we tried was H. Blin (RATING:***) which costs £15.99 from Oddbins if you're buying a mixed case (£19.99 if you're not). It was elegant and fresh and even at the full price a good deal less than the amount you'd pay for a better known brand such as Laurent Perrier or Taittinger (£31.99 and £33.99 respectively) A better bargain still was a bottle of Philipponnat Royal Reserve (RATING:****) which sells at £22.39 at Oddbins if you buy a mixed case, £27.99 if you don't) which really is the real deal with all the honeyed, toasty richness one expects from champagne.

The moral? If you're not spending more than £15 on fizz buy a less expensive sparkling wine instead. And if you are, be prepared to buy lesser known names and the supermarkets' own brands which tend to be much better quality than the cheap brands.

Mulled wine for one

2008-12-24T13:09:00.003Z

Most mulled wine recipes (including mine) cater for around a dozen people but if there are just a couple of you - or you're addicted to mulled wine and just want a single portion - there's a solution. Rocks, the company that makes very nice organic cordials has an organic Spiced Fruit Punch Cordial which I picked up in my local deli for £2.49 which is roughly on a par with mulled wine spice sachets but much more flexible.

You could either use it to make mulled wine using roughly 1 part mulled wine cordial to 2 parts each of wine and water (and a dash of port if you have some) or a non-alcoholic punch replacing the wine and water with apple or pomegranate juice - and leaving out the port, obviously. Popping in a slice of orange at the end provides a nice orangey twist.

I think Bottle Green makes a similar cordial so look out for them in your local deli or health food shop - or supermarket if you can face the last minute crush.

A very happy Christmas to you all!

A stylish sweetie and a rough Spanish red

2008-12-21T22:14:00.008Z

More feedback from my recent shopping trip to Aldi. A good buy, a bad buy and a (slightly) corked bottle.

Good news first. For £5.99 you can procure yourself a stylish looking bottle of Eiswein (left in the picture on the right) that would look great on any Christmas table and stand up to both the Christmas pud and the Stilton. It's produced under the St Amandus label in the Rheinhessen region of Germany and has a lovely, delicate grapey flavour (it's only 9%). Eiswein, which is made from naturally or artificially frozen grapes, is normally far more expensive than this - and normally more intense and syrupy - but for the price it's an excellent buy. RATING: ***

Disappointingly the Beerenauslese in the same range was corked but it tasted slightly weedy by comparison, unsurprising at £3.99.* RATING: ** (if it wasn't corked)

I also wouldn't buy the 2004 Vina Decana Crianza from Utiel Requena again, despite the fact that it's only £2.99 and packaged like a Rioja. It's thin and slightly sharp with not enough fruit to support the oak. Even with food (an easy-to-match shepherds' pie) it tasted a bit rough. A bargain's not a bargain unless it's actually enjoyable to drink. RATING: no score

* For those of you who don't know what to do if a wine is corked the best thing is to taste a small sip first to check it's OK rather than pouring out wine for everyone then stopper the bottle if it's faulty and take it back to the shop as soon as possible together with the receipt. The shop should exchange it without question.

Why buy Baileys?

2008-12-19T18:06:00.007Z

One of the brands that's been most heavily promoted this Christmas - as it is most Christmasses - is the Irish cream liqueur Baileys.

The discounts look impressive admittedly. Tesco is selling it at £9.97 and Sainsbury's at £11 instead of £12.79 but given that it's only about 17% ABV you wonder why it costs that much in the first place.

For £9 you can buy a litre of Sainsbury's very decent (if you like this sort of thing) Taste the Difference Irish Cream Liqueur while Aldi is selling its own 'Specially Selected' Irish Cream Liqueur for just £4.99 which I thought was pretty good when I tried it this week - rich, creamy and caramelly with a good belt of whiskey. Serve it over ice and I doubt if anyone would notice.

Roger Protz's 10 best winter beers

2008-12-16T21:14:00.005Z

I just found this feature on Roger Protz's beer site beer-pages.com. Roger and I used to be neighbours in St Albans (also home of CAMRA) and despite the number of excellent up and coming beer writers I still regard him as Britain's best beer writer, bar none.

This is a great selection of beers for Christmas, impressive not only for its quality but the price of the bottles, hence it's inclusion in this blog. My own favourites are the Thomas Hardy's Ale and the Lees Harvest Ale - the ports of the beer world. Do try at least one of them with your Christmas cheeseboard.

Cut price port

2008-12-14T21:36:00.011Z

As usual there are a whole raft of offers on port this Christmas but how do you tell what you're getting? Port goes by a confusing number of descriptions. Most of the offers are on basic ruby port which can be made to sound grander than it is by calling it Special Reserve or Vintage Character or somesuch name.

One step up from that is Late Bottled Vintage (LBV) which will have been aged for at least 4-6 years - enough to round out its rougher edges then there's vintage port which is port from a single vintage, bottled when it's still young and aged for 10 years or more. (That's the kind that throws a deposit and which you need to decant. The others you don't)

There are also tawny ports which are aged in wood and have more of a toffee-and-nut flavour as opposed to the warm brambly flavour of ruby ports. They're usually marketed in 10 year bands - mostly 10 year old, occasionally 20 and very rarely 30 or 40 year old.

There's nothing wrong with basic port - in fact it's useful to have some that will do for cooking and mulled wine as well as sipping with mince pies. Here are two that are on offer at the moment:

Cockburns Assured (Normally £9.99, on offer at £4.99 at Somerfield)
With its handsome non-traditional bottle and silver label this is obviously designed to appeal to the younger port drinker. I'm not sure what they mean by 'assured', nor would I get unduly excited by the 'exclusive edition' claim (apparently it's exclusive to Somerfield which some might say is not very exclusive at all) but it's a bright, breezy, berry-flavoured mouthful and certainly a bargain at this price. They say try it with dark chocolate which sounds like a good idea. RATING: ** (**** for the packaging!)

Warre's Warrior Special Reserve (£5.99 Tesco though annoyingly now £8.99 in Sainsbury's which had it at £5.99 last week)
Interestingly the back label tells you almost nothing about this port, merely how incredibly old the Warre's label is and what jolly good vineyards its parent company, the Symington family, owns. This is one of their cheaper ports but still rather more substantial than the Cockburns with a rich, spicy brambly flavour. Could pass for an LBV (which would cost about £4 more) RATING: ***

*Sainsbury's now has a half price offer on Dow's Trademark Finest Reserve at £5.99 which is also a good deal and is selling its own Taste the Difference Vintage Port for £16.99, again cheap for vintage port.

Yet more wine offers!

2008-12-12T15:08:00.005Z

Hardly a moment goes by, it seems, when I don't get a message in my inbox about some new money-off deal or promotion on wine. And we're talking big savings.

In the unlikely event that you have £250 burning a hole in your pocket, one of London's best wine merchants Berry Brothers & Rudd will give you £50 of it back if you place an order to that value with them by midnight tonight.

Wine Rack has just extended its 40% off offer until New Year's Eve although this is only slightly better than the 3 for the price of 2 offer they normally have which is not quite as generous as it seems given their prices are higher than elsewhere.

All the supermarkets are slashing prices though again the discounts are not always as good as they look. A 50% off offer on Cava, for instance sounds fantastic but may only reflect what the product was worth in the first place. (Tesco's 3 for £10 offer on its own brand Cava looks like the best deal for party drinking)

I also picked up from fellow blogger Jamie Goode of Wine Anorak that there's a fantastic competition on the Duchy Originals website to win a bottle of Mouton Rothschild 2004. Now that is worth a punt!

Two Christmas beers

2008-12-11T21:59:00.008Z

Will you put beer on the Christmas table and if not, why not? I’d almost guarantee that at least one of your guests would prefer it to wine and it’s a great deal cheaper to buy a good beer than it is a good wine.

It’s funny though that people don’t take it as seriously. Even men (and it is still mainly men who drink beer) who religiously go to the pub after work and love nothing better than a good pint feel they have to serve wine when they have friends round. Hopefully this blog will help change that.

Anyway - two Christmassy bottles:

Shepherd Neame Christmas Ale 2008 Available from the brewery by the case for £33.95 for 12 bottles, carriage included and from the Co-op for £1.69 a 500ml bottle. Someone also told me they'd seen it in Lidl . . .)
A rich, sweet, strong (7%) malty brew with a taste (apparent or real) of honey and Christmas spice that suggests treating it an alternative to port rather than as a companion to turkey. It would go brilliantly with Stilton or cheddar and even, I think, with sweet things like Christmas cake, Christmas pudding and mince pies. It would also make a cracking beef stew or festive steak and ale pie. RATING: ***

La Chouffe bière blonde £3.99 for 75cl Oddbins
Not a Christmas bottle per se but the rather kitsch gnome on the label suggests this unfiltered, bottle-conditioned, slightly spicy Belgian beer might the one to open with the turkey. Like the above beer, it’s a strong (8%) which means it should take all the trimmings in its stride. Although more expensive than the better known Leffe Blonde it has considerably more character. If you don’t get round to drinking it this Christmas it will still be OK next year and the Christmas after that. The ‘drink by’ date is April 2011!j RATING: ***

Famous Grouse for £9

2008-12-09T17:33:00.004Z

Just in case you've missed the ad in the papers today I thought I'd pass on that Morrisons is selling Famous Grouse for £9 until Sunday. Usual caveats about 'while stocks last' but if you can get your hands on a bottle it's a steal.

I expect they hope that while you're at it you'll pop a bottle of Absolut Vodka and Blue Sapphire gin into your trolley, both reduced by £5, according to the Morrisons website, but that doesn't make them cheap. With the discount, Absolut would still be £14.98 and Bombay Sapphire £16.96. You can get decent vodka and gin for less than that.

A good champagne offer

2008-12-08T23:22:00.007Z

The big lure in the run-up to Christmas is always the special offers on champagne but most of them leave me cold. For a start the prices from which they're discounting are so ridiculous that even 40% off is no big deal. If you're having a party and want to drink fizz there are many cheaper options about which I'll be writing shortly.

If you do want a bottle to celebrate Christmas morning or see in the New Year there is however one particularly good offer for the next two days at branches of Budgens which is selling 2002 Heidsieck Monopole for just £18.99, less than half the original purchase price. And you don't have to buy more than one bottle to get the discount.

2002 is a very good vintage and the champagne has had 6 years to mature which means it will have acquired a honeyed richness that cheaper sparkling wine simply can't match. If you've got a branch of Budgens nearby I'd snap it up.

Two £6 wine bargains

2008-12-07T18:14:00.007Z

Six quid, I can already hear you saying. Doesn't sound much like a bargain to me! But bear with me - they could both pass as wines that cost at least a pound more. What you're getting - and this is useful in the run-up to Christmas - is wines that look and taste posh. Your family and friends will be fooled

Both cost £6.19 from Somerfield - less if you buy six bottles in total which entitles you to 5% off, bringing the cost per bottle down to an even more reasonable £5.88.

Domaine la Tuque Bel-Air, Côtes de Castillon 2006
A smart-looking inexpensive claret from the so-called 'right bank' of Bordeaux meaning it's Merlot-dominated and therefore quite soft, smooth and supple. It'll please traditionalists - it's fruity but not too fruity and has a nice touch of spicy oak without being too oaky. It would go well with simple roasts and grills or with a home-made shepherds pie. Not great with cheese though, despite what the back label says. (These types of reds rarely are). RATING (see top right): ***

Vacqueyras 2007, Vignerons de Beaumes de Venise
Some villages in the Côtes du Rhône region are entitled to have their own appellation - Vacqueyras (pronounced vac-keh-rass) is one of them. This bottles comes from a co-operative better known for the sweet wine Muscat de Beaumes de Venise but it's a cracker with lashings of ripe juicy fruit. At 14.5% it's certainly big enough to take on the turkey but would also be great with a beefy stew or a steak and mushroom pie. Frankly this is as good as many over-priced Châteauneuf-du-Papes (but not the best ones, obviously). RATING: ****

A drinkable £1 bottle of wine, but . . .

2008-12-06T13:25:00.005Z

Good news and bad news. The good news is that I’ve found a drinkable £1 bottle of wine. And the bad news? It’s only on sale in France! An annoying way to start a new blog, I admit but since I imagine a number of you will be nipping over the Channel for a pre-Christmas drinks raid let me suggest you take in a branch of Lidl.

The bottle in question is a Bergerac, a sort of Bordeaux drink-alike which comes from the Dordogne region of France. OK, it’s not great but far better than you have any right to expect for the price.

Having spotted an ad in the paper for Lidl’s wine bargains I actually bought five different bottles to see what they were like. Only one - a Bourgogne Grand Ordinaire (amazingly an AOC wine but in truth ‘ordinaire’ enough) was undrinkable but what do you expect of burgundy at €1.49 (£1.29)? The best, and the only one I would have bought, to be honest, was a perfectly decent Premières Côtes du Blaye for €2.99 which should be dirt cheap but works out at £2.59 thanks to the dire exchange rate with the euro at the moment.

Bergerac 2007, Uccoar €1.19 (£1.03)
OK, this is a bit weedy but it’s perfectly fresh and fruity - there’s nothing confected about it at all. Perfectly OK with a hunk of baguette and some paté. RATING (see right) *

Cotes du Rhone Villages 2007 €1.75 (£1.52)
Recognisably Cotes du Rhone which is something at this price. I can detect the Grenache on the nose which obviously dominates though the back label also lists Syrah, Mourvedre and Cinsault. A slightly artificial touch of sweetness which suggests chaptalisation (added sugar). You’d be reasonably pleased to get this in a pub. RATING: *

Costières de Niimes, Caves du Pré 2006 €1.99 (£1.72)
A handsome looking bottle and label and the deep colour raise expectations that this is going to taste better than it does. It doesn’t have the concentration you normally expect from a Costières de Nîmes and there’s a slight vegetal note I don’t like but I’ve tasted a good deal worse. Fine for knocking back with a takeaway pizza. RATING:**

Premières Côtes du Blaye 2006 €2.99 (£2.59)
A pleasant light, fruity red Bordeaux that you could happily drink with simple meals like charcuterie or a plate of bacon and eggs. What used to be referred to as a ‘lunchtime claret’. Looks the part too. It even has a real cork (as opposed to a synthetic one) RATING: **

Credit crunch drinking

2008-12-05T21:01:00.004Z

I guess the credit crunch has made us all more conscious of what we spend on wine and other drinks but if you think that cutting back means drinking dross think again. (Unless you're in the habit of drinking Krug and Château Lafite, of course, in which case you probably won't need my advice ;-)

So what do I know? Well, I'm a drinks writer AND a blogger who blogs as The Frugal Cook so I've had a fair bit of experience of drinking (and eating) on a budget. In my time I've written weekly wine columns for the Daily Mail, various monthly drinks columns for glossy magazines and a spirits column for the Guardian and I've written a book on beer (with my son, Will, as it happens) I also have my own website matchingfoodandwine.com which basically does what it says on the tin - concerns itself with matching food with wine and other drinks.

But this blog is about value for money drinking. I'll be highlighting wines, beers and other drinks that I think you might like and which will enable you to show off your bargain-spotting skills to your friends. Most, but not all, will come from supermarkets. Some will be worth picking up across the channel or looking out for in duty-free. Come along for the ride . . .