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Two top supermarket bottles at £6
You'll need to move quickly to enjoy the discounts and promotions currently running at many of the high street retailers but the bottles mentioned below – including this week's top tips – are worth the effort, particularly if you are stocking up for Christmas.
2020 Taste the Difference Pecorino Terre di Chieti (£6 – instead of £7 until 2 November – at Sainsburys)
After the splendid 2019 Pecorino-based white wines from Italy’s Abruzzo region, this new vintage version is equally impressive.
Floral yet joyously uncomplicated, it underpins everything with freshness and herbal components that integrate well with its bright, lemon-based acidity, crisp apple flavours, peachy sweetness and, ultimately, long, lingering finish.
2020 Best Bush Vine Cinsault (£6 – instead of £8.25 until 2 November at Morrisons)
Cinsault is a heat resistant grape that prospers in South Africa. This version from the Swartland region is medium bodied and light in colour with limited tannin.
It has surprisingly powerful liquorice influenced savoury bursts to add contrast to its juicy plum and cherry flavours and supplementary sharp acidity.
Current offers and promotions
At Sainsbury's
Tomorrow sees the end of the current ‘Buy 6 and save 25%‘ offer at Sainsbury's. It includes a number of good buys like the 2021 version of this Sauvignon, which is also discounted on individual bottles:
- Yealands Sauvignon Blanc (Drops to £7.75 until 2 November)
At Morrisons
The promotion at Morrisons also ends tomorrow. Look out for this smooth, fruity red:
- The Best Douro Red (Down to £6.50 until 2 November)
At Waitrose
The offers at Waitrose are also ending tomorrow. Snap up this South African red blend if you can find it before the promotion ends:
- Zalze Shiraz Mourvèdre Viognier (Drops to £5.99 until 2 November)
At Asda
The current wine offers and multibuy promotion at Asda end on Wednesday. This rich red, one of our good-value Malbecs, is among the offers:
- Extra Special Malbec (Down to £6 until 3 November)
At other retailers
The current promotion at M&S ends today. As do the autumn offers at Majestic. The discounts at Co-op continue for another week and the Clubcard offers at Tesco are on until the middle of November. See last week's round-up for details and my highlights or here for Tesco's Clubcard deals.
Look out for Thursday's post when I run the rule over the latest additions to Waitrose “Lost & Found” range that centres on lesser-known grape varieties.
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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
7 Comments
I bought 6 bottles of the Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Pecorino today and it fooled me by staying sullen for 15 minutes and I thought how many bottles did I get; however it then started to dance lightly on my tongue and the bottle just disappeared right in front of my eyes. Lovely stuff and 88/100. My receipt says original price £9.55 however I paid £6 less 25% which is £4.50 so Brian you are the “Man or today’s Match” Thankyou!
Wow! Don’t think I have ever been “man of the match” before, so thank you. That has put a spring in my step this morning!
Your comment raises two other points. First, while first impressions always matter, drinkers should avoid being too hasty in assessing a bottle. The patience you displayed often pays off not least because young wines sometimes need time to open up and, with older wines, exposure to air often softens tannins.
The second point is how helpful it is when folk report how well (or badly) a wine has performed. Although I pride myself on winning significantly more than I lose, my selection processes are not fool proof.
Hearing other people’s thoughts always helps things get better. As Ken Blanchard once claimed, “Feedback is the breakfast of champions”.
Hi Brian/ Chris, I agree with Brian, some do need time to open up, so be patient, the other thing to remember especially with whites is that, if it’s overchilled, it can sometimes mute the flavours and the wine will definitely change, often for the better as it warms up.
Sadly the Sainsbury’s offer appears to have finished earlier than expected. I had hoped to take advantage of the Buy 6 offer today but it is no longer visible.
The date the retailer provided was for expiry at the end of today but I am sorry if I have (unwittingly) misled you. Presumably, it was a superstore you were looking in as these offers do not always apply to convenience stores.
I had looked online rather than in store. I was just disappointed with myself that I hadn’t been organised enough to sort an order yesterday.
Thinking about this, I am guessing that the offer comes off the website when it is no longer possible to deliver the wine before the expiry date of the promotion. That, presumably, means that orders at the offer price could not normally be accepted on the final day of the promotion even though the reductions remain available in physical stores. Guesswork but, nevertheless, every day is still a school day for me – although I am sorry that my finding out was enabled by your losing out. I will try to add a note about those expiry arrangements when future offers are being reported.
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