Here is the latest of our more detailed reviews of promotions which, again, puts the focus on three selected items from each retailer’s offers.
That way you can “put flesh on the bones” yourself by heading through to the retailer’s website if something catches your eye or if the promotion deals with a store you often use.
The yellow and pink “Sunrise/Sunset” colour shading has been preserved to alert everyone to promotions that are brand new or, conversely, to deals that are about to end.
Today’s “cover picture” is of Tesco’s excellent 70:30 merlot: cabernet blend Cap Royal Bordeaux Superior with its smooth, rich bramble, black cherry and damson flavours accompanied by firm tannin, good acidity and suggestions of allspice, graphite and chocolate.
It comes down from £10 to £8 as part of this latest promotion.
Remember, though, apart from commendations like that for the Bordeaux red, today’s is an “information post” simply providing details of promotions without specific recommendations.
Also today, though, is an insight into an unfolding transition that may surprise you.
Monday’s post on Top Tips is where my weekly recommendations regularly appear.
At Tesco
A new promotion started a few days ago at Tesco (again, exclusively for Clubcard holders) offering reductions that average around 15%.
This time there are quite of lot of price cuts to £5 especially among the Hardy’s and First Cape ranges, which drop by a pound.
The expiry date for most deals is shown in the table below but some of the least expensive featured items do revert to their list price a little earlier so check the finishing date carefully.
As before, a snapshot of the content of the promotion appears below but do seek out more details on the retailer’s website.
STOP PRESS: I hear that Tesco started a new “25% off when you buy six” promotion yesterday for Clubcard holders and it is expected to run until 21 February. There may well be restrictions so do read any small print carefully.
At Sainsbury’s
The current three-week promotion is well under way at Sainsbury’s with over 130 price reductions (typically, again, of around 15%) – some coming down to £5.50.
Here is table giving a snapshot of what is on offer but do head over to the retailer’s web site for fuller details.
At Morrisons
Once again, Morrisons have an extensive range of promotions (tailored to cover the pricing and other polices in different parts of the UK) with these new deals averaging reductions of about 17%.
Among its discounts, are a number of reductions on Morrisons premium own label wines (“The Best”) of, in some cases, 20% including Best Pinot Grigio Alto Adige (down to £8) and Best Toscana (also down to £8).
As before, here is a chart picking out some of the features of this promotion but for more details, the retailer’s website is the place to go next.
At Waitrose
Waitrose probably has the most extensive range of promotions on the High Street, and they cover an equally wide spectrum of price points.
My chart, therefore, can only pick out a small sample of what is available but the rest of their offers are particularly well documented on this page of their website.
At M&S
Once again, details of what’s new in M&S take a broad view and highlight what they can offer for a series of events.
Outlining what is available is tricky because the M&S website puts its focus on sales of cases of six while individual bottles do appear on the Ocado site but can be at different prices to those applying to M&S physical stores.
This chart does, however, show you what deals can be found where M&S have a “bricks and mortar” presence.
At the Co-op
We are now making inroads into the current Co-op promotions but, good as so many Co-op wines are, things can be complicated by this retailer’s structure, with (often autonomous) local groupings meaning things can differ from place to place.
It’s especially important, therefore, to check the price in any particular store before marching boldly to the check-out; the price on the shelf is the definitive one.
In a similar format to that used for other retailers, here is my snapshot of the content of this current promotion.
What happens when White Burgundy gets too dear?
For years, I have added a caveat to any discussion about white Rioja by saying “viura is a goldilocks grape which can be brilliant, but quality can vary wildly”.
But, according to this piece in Drinks Business, White Rioja is about to emerge from its niche market to challenge White Burgundy on restaurant wine lists.
Two factors appear to be at work here.
First, different grape varieties seem to be joining the party with tempranillo blanco, maturana and chardonnay getting into the mix more frequently.
Secondly, longer maturation in wood is being seen more often which, some feel, gives the end product greater Burgundy style smoothness and nuttiness.
So, while the road may be a long one, producers in Rioja have those increasingly expensive White Burgundies firmly in their sights.
Do read the full article for more details or, for a simple test of how good even inexpensive White Rioja is now, both Sainsbury’s and Morrisons regularly stock examples.
We’ll be back again next week with Monday’s round up of Top Tips that continue to astonish with the quality they achieve for the price, so I hope we can meet up again then.
