Good value Rioja - to drink with lasagne!

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

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.

Rioja offers at M & S

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.

Vega Sindoa Cabernet Sauvignon: a stonking Spanish red

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: ****

Taste the Difference Albarino 2009

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.

Two under £4 reds

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 stylish sweetie and a rough Spanish red

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.