For many hosts the main criterion for wines for large numbers is price. Here are the best buys I have come across this season selling in the UK for under £6 a bottle. Most of them need drinking soon and very few will be better in 2006 than 2005.
Note that I have encountered three very palatable reds at £2.99 but no whites worth recommending at less than £3.99. Cheap white wines are much less forgiving. They tend to be aggressively tart and, unlike reds, hide no winemaking shortcomings.
Note too Thresher/Wine Rack’s cunning three bottles for the price of two ploy. The high street specialist is fighting back against the supermarkets. Their prices only really make sense if you take advantage of this offer. Majestic have a series of similar reductions for buying more than one bottle.
The big retailers dominate this end of the wine market but, as last year, the smallish, newish independent Stone Vine & Sun has managed to compete with a particularly keenly-priced red.
Australia makes some wines at this price level but I found only one worth recommending. France, Spain and South America are currently much more rewarding sources of real wine value at this price level.
WHITES
Peter Lehmann Riesling 2004 Barossa
£3.99 Morrisons (until 31 dec 05)
Great price for such a stylish wine and label. Racy, dry, lime juice-like. See wine of the week.
Trivento Chardonnay/Torrontes 2005 Mendoza
£3.99 Oddbins
Torrontes is the Muscat-scented Argentine light-skinned grape speciality but the Chardonnay tames it to good effect. Serve well chilled and soon.
Casa Colletta Chenin Blanc 2005 Argentina
£3.99 Sainsbury’s
Just enough attractive tension and freshness for the money but this should be drunk before the end of the year.
Casablanca Sauvignon Blanc 2005
£4.99 Marks & Spencer
Dull label but very exciting mineral notes and a dry finish for a Chilean Sauvignon. More than a nod to Sancerre. From Pablo Morande and surely his best Sauvignon yet from the region he pioneered all those years ago. Good value.
Cono Sur Viognier 2005 Colchagua
£4.99/3.99 Majestic, £4.99 Somerfield, Waitrose
Drink this relatively simple Chilean example this minute but it’s very competent. The Majestic discount applies if two bottles are bought.
Anjou Chenin Blanc 2004 Bougrier
£4.99 Oddbins
Now this is a revelation – super-fruity, open, ‘cool-fermented’ according to the label, Loire white made from its finest white grape with a lovely honeyed streak. Recommended with grilled fish.
The Boulders Viognier 2004 California
£4.99 Co-op (£7.50 for two), Morrisons
Not bad at all considering it was shipped in bulk to the UK. Drink this big, perfumed offering from the McManis Family Vineyards (suppliers also to Tesco) this minute.
Tesco Finest Muscadet Sur Lie 2004
£4.99 Tesco
From the vast Vinival group, a very competent, fresh, saline drip for fans of this North Atlantic wine.
Mâcon Villages Chardonnay 2004 Caves de Lugny
£4.99 Sainsbury’s
Excellent, straightforward value. Unpretentious very clean unoaked fruit. Racy, creamy whoosh like a good scrub of the teeth. Smart package looks worth far more than a fiver. The Lugny co-op is very dependable but this is a very successful southern white burgundy. Much fresher than the 2003s.
Tesco Mosel-Saar-Ruwer Riesling 2004
£4.99 Tesco
A steal of a price from Grans Fassian. No astringency here and lots of crisp, bouncy fruit for drinking over the next 12 months.
Porta Chardonnay 2004 Rapel
£5.99/3.99 Thresher/Wine Rack
Sweet, creamy Chilean of interest mainly because of the reduced price and the fact that Thresher is everywhere.
Cellino Cortese 2004 Piemonte
£6.99/4.66 Wine Rack only
Excellent value if you buy three bottles. Fragrant and very fruity. Cortese is the grape of the generally much more expensive Gavi.
REDS
Bronze Hill Cabernet Sauvignon 2004 Bulgaria
£2.99 Morrisons
At last, a Bulgarian with good clean, fresh fruit, from Menada, a French-owned operation. Labels are determinedly Australian-looking.
Canto de Flora Carmenère 2004 Colchagua
£2.99 Morrisons
Great value – full, floral, Chilean bottled with much more fruit that you would expect at this price. The best of this range from VEO.
La Serrana Tempranillo 2004 Castilla y Leon
£2.99 Majestic
Great value from the Cigales co-op – the wine really does have a beginning, a middle and an end to it.
Les Marquières Rouge 2004 Vin de Pays
£3.49 Majestic
Sweet, round, easy and soft, this Languedoc blend should be drunk almost straight off the shelf but it’s unobjectionable. Not sure about the third glass though...
Sainsbury’s Cuvée Prestige Côtes du Rhône Villages 2004 Caves St Pierre
£3.99 Sainsbury’s
This own-label bottling is fantastic value. It’s sweet and spicy and full – there’s a lot going on in this dense 13.5 per cent blend of Grenache, Syrah and Cinsault, as well as enough freshness to make it good drinking over the next year at least. Far better value than the same producer’s Rasteau at twice the price. I shall be reporting in January on some very good southern Rhône 2004s higher up the scale.
GCFC Garnacha/Cabernet Franc 2004 Catalunya
£4.99/3.33 Wine Rack only
Very nice indeed for this price. Arrestingly smart modern label. Someone has been very clever to marry the weight of the Grenache with the lift and freshness of the Cabernet Franc. This wine may not last very long and it’s certainly unlike anything I have ever tasted before, but it works! Odd but good. It comes from Elias Gil in Terra Alta who presumably used some local Garnacha and blended in some Cab Franc from somewhere a bit cooler, Penedes perhaps.
Paul Mas Marselan 2004 VDP d’Oc
£4.99 Waitrose
Marselan is a new grape variety created by crossing Cabernet Sauvignon with Grenache (see above) and really works. It’s plump and fruity and punchy and really does show the plumpness of Grenache with the structure and aroma of Cabernet. One for wine anoraks.
Otra Vida Tempranillo 2004 Mendoza
£4.99 Oddbins
Good to see more bargains coming out of Argentina, although this one is made by Concha y Toro of Chile. Very echt, savoury notes of the main grape of Rioja without the distraction of oak. A big reverberating mouthful. Smart-looking bottle for the money. The name means ‘the other life’.
Duc de Boissières 2004 Fitou
£4.99 Waitrose
Mont Tauch co-op is the king of Fitou and this aromatic, full-bodied southern French hulk is good value.
Ch La Baume 2004 Costières de Nimes
£5.75 Stone Vine and Sun of Hampshire
Not the Languedoc property once owned by Hardys but a fresh, sweet, big mouthful of ripe Syrah, Grenache and Carignan from further east.
Porta Reserve Pinot Noir 2004 Bio Bio
£5.99/3.99 Thresher/Wine Rack
From Chile’s most southerly and coolest wine region – an interesting take on basic Pinot in the spicy-sweet spectrum but not sickly.
Porta Cabernet/Carmenère 2004 Maipo
£5.99/3.99 Thresher/Wine Rack
There’s a heck of a lot of beef per penny in this concentrated blend if you buy three bottles and therefore qualify for the lower price – and I like the fact that this Chilean producer sources each grape in a completely different, but suitable, region.