A big Italian red for £6 –but not for long

I am hugely impressed by the value and expertise represented by the intense red featured here and the classy white that costs just a couple of pounds more.

A fresh Waitrose promotion is currently underway with price reductions on a broad and deep selection of wine. My top two are featured below.

For anyone without a Waitrose store within range, I have found the online operation – Waitrose Cellar – to be quick and reliable.

Although the discounts shown here end on 12 April, the judgements on the wines themselves should hold good for at least another three months from this post.

Click on any of the bottles shown for an enlarged image to help you pinpoint the wine on a crowded shelf.

Taming a big boy

Dark, muscular and slightly bitter, Southern Italy’s negroamaro grape is seldom allowed out on its own – but it often works well as a blending partner for mellower, more sensitive grape varieties.

Skilful winemaking, however, allows it to stand alone in the herbal and concentrated 2014 Codici Negroamaro (£5.99 – instead of £7.99 – and at a mere 13% abv) where it displays savoury black cherry and chocolate flavours, graphite depth, hints of tobacco and predictably chewy tannin.

Alsace – gloriously different.

Alsace wine is different, usually being labelled for example by grape variety – unlike most of France.

More importantly, the region’s latitude, altitude and dry climate make its wines different too – with dry riesling, spicy gewürztraminer, muscat as an aperitif plus lots and lots of the seriously under-rated pinot blanc.

Here though is a fresh and smooth white from the grape a.k.a. pinot grigio; 2014 Cave de Beblenheim Pinot Gris Reserve (£7.99 – instead of £9.99 and 12.5% abv) brings you perfumed, apple fruit and pink grapefruit acidity but with mango influenced (and slightly sweet) viscosity too.