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This week’s top tips and current promotions
An impressive Verdicchio and a smooth Primitivo are my top tips of the week – and both great value around the £6 mark. Read on and you'll also find my picks from some of the current supermarket wine promotions.
2019 Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico (£6 – instead of £6.50 until 26 January – at Morrisons)
As they did with the previous vintage, Morrisons has acquired (and has currently even discounted) an impressive example of Italy’s Marche region signature white.
It's fresh and delicate in texture but supplements that lightness with apple, nectarine and dried fruit flavours, gentle lemon acidity and savoury nuttiness. Move quickly though, the discount ends tomorrow.
2019 Castellore Italian Negroamaro Primitivo (£4.99 at Aldi)
Meanwhile, in Southern Italy, we find this great value marriage between two grape varieties, merged here to produce smooth, ripe red wine with hints of sweetness behind its loganberry and cherry flavours.
Supplementing the fruit are baking spice and liquorice elements with sharp acidity but only minimal tannin.
Current promotions
At Sainsbury's
A new promotion started at Sainsbury's last week and its components have varied expiry dates between 5 and 9 February. One in particular to look out for:
- Sheep Hill Shiraz Malbec (Drops £1 to £6) – a fruit driven (but admittedly lightly textured) red on offer until 9 February.
At Morrisons
Morrisons also have a new set of deals running from Wednesday until 16 February. See their website for full details. My highlight is:
- The soft and fresh Klein Street Chardonnay – usually £6.50 but available on a “two for £10” (for legal reasons, only in England).
At Tesco
Tesco seem poised to start a new promotion tomorrow and we should be able to say more about its content next week.
At Waitrose
And to complete the set, remember the current Waitrose promotion ends tomorrow.
Drop by again on Thursday when we look at my picks from the top-rated wines in the latest Lidl promotion.
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Brian Elliott
Brian Elliott is an established wine journalist, taster, judge and writer with a weekly column in Scottish newspapers.
Comments
6 Comments
Thanks, Brian. The Castellore looks interesting.
Have you any inside info on the possible impact of the trade agreement on price and availability of wine in the UK. It doesn’t look good, based on reports.
Hi Carl – thanks for getting in touch and that Italian wine is certainly well worth a look. As for prices and availability, I am as much in the dark as anyone else but I will gladly share my instincts. Currency issues will, I feel, keep pushing up the price of wine from the EU but UK wine imports are sufficiently important to Europe that a way will be found around any initial availability problems – but probably not quite yet. If you want my hunch (and it is no more than that), then Chile is a promising “value for money” option not least becasue we already have a trade agreement with them.
Thanks for your reply, Brian. I’m so glad I stocked up in the last couple of months of 2020, especially European wine. It will keep me going for a while, hopefully until things settle down.
I guess New World wine will be the way forward!
Good piece of forward planning – well done. Be interesting to see whether the “Pacific” trade group we have now applied to join will affect Australian or New Zealand wine or, assuming that country revives its interest in it, bottles from the United States. Too early to be sure of anything much yet though.
Just got hold of the Castellore and very impressed. It’s a gift at £4.99. Enjoyed the lingering non-tannic finish and the almost strawberry flavour. And this is midwinter- I could imagine this wine slightly chilled on its own on a summer evening. Thanks for the recommendation.
Glad it worked for a fan of Italian wine like you. As you imply, the controlled tannin was one of the things that impressed me ….. Brian
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