Fear not, I do continue to hunt down the impressive wines that find their way onto temporarily discounted price lists.
However, last week and this l have tried to tease out tasty options in retailers’ core ranges.
This can prove especially useful when many current promotions are of the “buy six etc etc” variety – and conventional reductions are suspended.
Not all retailers allow what MidWeeker Eddie calls “double dips” when promotions run concurrently.
Here, then, are two wines at “ongoing” prices that I think you will enjoy.
Once again, pictures (and, where available, hyperlinks) are included to make it easier to track down the wine in question.
First to France
2023 Ventoux Blanc (£6.49 at Lidl and 13.5% abv):
While France’s Southern Rhȏne region can be blisteringly hot, cool nights in Ventoux (together with some excellent local grape varieties) help produce impressive white wines like this.
Bright and beautifully smooth, this delivers textured apple sauce, melon and quince flavours enlivened by lemon based acidic verve.
Suggestions of herbs, coconut and celery built into an attractive white peach finish serve to complete the picture.
Then to the New World
2023 Stormhoek Pure Organic No Added Sulphur Shiraz–Cabernet Sauvignon (from £7.99 at Majestic and 13%):
Results from organic wines can vary appreciably, but this South African blend of major grapes neatly draws the best from both varieties.
Dark with fruity aromas, it is centred around soft raspberry, blackcurrant and black cherry flavours.
These are supported by good acidity and modest tannin along with gentle liquorice savouriness and suggestions of cocoa and clove.
Here is a link for more details …. https://www.majestic.co.uk/wines/pure-organic-shiraz-cab-sauv-20678
Join me again on Thursday when I review High Street chardonnays to steer you towards the top choices among affordable versions.
3 responses
Morning Brian
I have a modest invested interest here in the expression ”double-dip” , DD, but have to admit it was not my invention in the first place!
The history sits originally with membership in the Tesco Wine Community, TWC, initiated some 13 or 14 years ago, organised by Tesco as an online club of sorts for those with a more developed interest in wine who bought a lot of their preferred choice from Tesco back then.
It wasn’t a big group. We did competitions and submitted reviews . I was for a while already their #1 reviewer online based purely on the number of bottles I posted on!
They gave away loads of product in the review competitions, cases of wine, gourmet food and vouchers. They only asked for feedback and any endorsement we felt we could give. At one point, Easter 2013 maybe, I won a whole case of wine and a £100 voucher for a few choice lines on what I’d be drinking with my Easter Sunday roast lamb, all bought from Tesco naturally!
But all good things come to an end under the oft repeated guise of rationalisation!! Talk about lack of nous when it comes to appreciating ”good will’. I think Tesco took a serious nose-dive after this with more than just wine shopping.
It was out of the demise of the TWC that came a real enthusiasts excellent endeavours to hold on to some of the “gang”. Clare Hearndon through Tapatalk came up with cuveereserve ”blog site” that was a proper labour of love and for best part of 6 years she assembled comment and reviews that still exists as an informative catalogue . Supported by her husband Nick, Dave Cronin was an important contributor too and goodness knows we got through some bottles!!! It was a lot of hard work maintaining her site too. It finished after COVID, and it had been another member there who I first remember using the expression “double dip”. That’s where I first heard it …
It mainly arose out of what had not existed until relatively recently .. maybe 2016 earliest, of having this 25% off buy 6 bottles. I’ll suggest it was Sainsbury’s that first set that ball rolling . You Brian will likely better know a date for this development. The two times reduction facility occurred when the usual shelf price, that was already down as part of some ongoing discounting promotion, collided with the 25% and we got a benefit of a DD.
Likely having developed a relationship with a particular supermarket for our weekly grocery shop we also had favourite wines that were repeat buys. Those of us who already had been working on developing our own small “cellars” at home and were buying in larger quantities anyway getting those favourites with a discount of maybe 45% or even 50% on the DD facility meant a massive saving on products much in the same way as people stocked-up the chest freezer in the garage and got reductions buying food in bulk. It certainly came into its own with the 2022 inflation cost of living rises. If we have the inclination and the time to bother we can live well on less even when on meagre pensions.
Time changes everything … and we have the favourable discounting still at all levels of retailing but a certain discernment came into play for many, after COVID lockdowns especially, and the price and duty rises on alcohol having effect on poor value of cheaper wine that gets discussed here plenty. Spend just a little more but up goes the quality proportionally, massively.
And for me I guess one organisation The Wine Society satisfies that better than any other . But no DD with TWS of course, not their policy at all! The thing about TWS is it isn’t exclusive, though to some might look like that. We just buy-in and join the club! Some bottle prices for excellent entry level stuff are actually cheaper than a lot of Aldi and Lidl Wine Tour bottles and with no delivery charge it’s a facility that others like Laithwaites/Times/Averys are having to follow just to keep up for their share of he market.
I just bought TWS Portuguese red at £6.50. But then pushed on a touch and got their Ruppertsberg Grauburgunder Trocken at £9.50 that is fabulous white wine for that money.
Seems like we can’t always be buying SO cheap. That Old Vines Garnacha from the Co-op that Richard and Paul spoke about last week is £6.59 that certainly isn’t expensive at all. But it’s unlikely to reduce much below that because the Co-op don’t do 25%. Never mind because at under £7 if it is quality who will complain.
However, the Roditis and Carricante Asda Wine Atlas bottles from a few weeks back … and they are not expensive in the first instance either …. can be ridiculously cheap when Asda will do a further 25% off their price. Save when we can and spend all the savings in our budgets upping the ante on more pricey bottles that we might ordinarily can’t easily afford.
Apologies .. a bit long-winded but goes to explain a couple of things that I hope are of interest.
Yes, I remember those Tesco Wine Community days but did not realise that “double dip” was spawned there. Yes, it was Sainsbury’s that introduced the “Buy Six” promotions and were astonished by the result – as, presumably, are the others that have taken it up. Tesco’s initiative in restricting most price reductions to Loyalty Card holders was the next “mechanic” I expected to spread but, so far, it does not seem to have done so widely.
Hi Brian / Eddie
I also remember those Tesco wine Community days fondly, met so many great people (members) as well as meeting numerous winemakers at various events we were treated to. I always remember the very first winemakers dinner we were invited to in London, I sat next to Patrick Materman (Brancott Estate) and had a fascinating evening and great wines, also a wonderful dinner with Marcelo Papa (Casillero del Diablo). Cuvee Reserve was the next chapter as Eddie says for 6 years or so and I’m still in touch with many Cuvee Reserva’s .