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This week’s top tips and current promotions
An excellent, exotic New Zealand Sauvignon and a celebrity Cabernet Sauvignon both hit the target as this week's Top Tips. Read on and you'll also find details of new offers and promotions at Sainsbury's, Morrisons and Waitrose.
2019 Giesen Estate Sauvignon Blanc (£6.50 – instead of £7.50 until 1 June – at Morrisons)
With extras like tropical fruit and herbal influences to complement the customary exotic fragrances and reverberating acidity, this New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc is an undeniable winner.
Aromatic and bright, it has apple, mango and melon flavours with pithy grapefruit acidity and those herbal components to add a certain mintiness.
2020 The Botham All Rounder Cabernet Sauvignon (£5.99 – instead of £7.99 until 1 June – at Waitrose)
Celebrity wines could once be variable in quality but this well-made version from Ian Botham illustrates how that has changed.
Soft with sweet edges yet savoury contrast too, it brings us mulberry and black cherry flavours with good acidity, nicely balanced tannin and suggestions of eucalyptus, aniseed and toffee.
Current promotions
At Sainsbury's
A new promotion started last week at Sainsbury's and is expected to run until 25 May. Here's my top pick from the promotion:
- Taste The Difference Langhorne Cabernet (Drops £1 to £6.50)
At Morrisons
A new set of offers also kicked off at Morrisons last week. This Portuguese red is well worth trying while the discount applies:
- The Best Douro Red (Down to £6 until 1 June)
At Waitrose
A third new promotion began last week at Waitrose. Save a 1/3 on this fresh South African white:
- Zalze Bush Vine Chenin Blanc (Down to £5.99 until 1 June)
At Majestic
Pick up some of Majestic's Top Wines for £9.99 this week when you ‘mix six'.
We continue our round-up of Sunday Best options on Thursday when we bring you more special occasion wines that we didn't have space to include in last week's post.
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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
4 Comments
Hello Brian. We are at last able to get south at the end of the month to family in Northampton so I’ll have a Waitrose to go to at last, and will indeed have some of the Botham bottle, at that money! Going back to a time when the Tesco Wine Community still existed, 8-9 years ago, and I was using that store a lot capitalising on Clubcard deals and reductions, I picked-up a short-lived, 24 half-bottle case,at £1.99 a bottle, of a Giesen SB offering! A pal of mine who had a very good pub/menu/wine list as long ago as 1990 had plied me regularly with Cloudy Bay when I went to visit him. That was quite new back then and I felt rather fortunate to have the chance to try wine regularly held-up by the colour supplements as the one-to-have. But years later when I took a punt on those Giesen half bottles it fair took my breath away with the distinctive quality of the stuff. The abiding memory was the flintiness and sharpness that the smoother CB-SB didn’t give no matter the CB is still a favourite but almost unaffordable to me these days. But this Giesen all these years later at this money at Morrisons does seem to make great sense where southern hemisphere SBs are concerned. Cheers for now. Eddie.
Glad you found Giesen to be a cut above the average sauvignon at its price point; that is certainly my view. Although not a cheap option, as an alternative to Cloudy Bay try Greywacke. It is made by Kevin Judd who was a main man in the intial set up of Cloudy Bay and has lost none of his skills.
We bought the Ian Botham in Home Bargains a couple of weeks ago for £4.99. They may still have stock if you don’t have a Waitrose nearby. A big, enjoyable wine.
Thanks Martin – that is a really helpful addition to the supplier options. Glad you like the wine too …. Best …. Brian
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