2007 R?serve de la Saurine, Vin de Pays du Gard, Laudun Chusclan Vignerons, France
Marks & Spencer, down £2 to £3.99 until November 28
Just £3.99 to spend on a bottle of everyday wine? Relax. The red partner to the £3.99 La Galine chardonnay is this tasty satellite rhône, an unoaked red made from two thirds grenache topped up with a quarter carignan and the remainder syrah. Together the trio combine to create a leafy, gamey, herby red that reeks of the wild, herb-scented scrub, or garrigue, of the hillsides of southern France.
2007 Extra Special, Côtes du Rhône Villages, France
Asda, £4.20 until January 18
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A superior red rhône to the M&S bottle below, and from a better vintage. Principally made from the grenache grape but topped up with 20 per cent syrah and a good dollop each of mourvèdre and cinsault to add complexity and interest. Made by Caves Saint Pierre in the southern Rhône, now part of the giant Skalli group of southern France, what you get here is a simple, sweet, earthy, easy-glugging red with wide appeal.
2008 Côtes du Rhône, Cellier des Dauphins, France
Marks & Spencer, £4.49
Not the greatest rhône I’ve ever tasted but if you are in M&S and need an easy-swigging midweek supper red, this is what you should walk out with. Made from lowyielding, mechanically harvested, warm, spicy grenache grapes, topped up with a 10 per cent dash of peppery syrah, this light, juicy, unoaked blackberry-styled red delivers a good four-pound-plus worth of flavour.
2005 Monte Nobile Squinzano Riserva, Italy
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Tesco, £8.99 down to £4.49 until November 24
Topped with the new, controlled, permeable buttonhole “Korked” closure, the very latest in screwcap technology, this bold, earthy, negroamaro and malvasia nera-based red makes a good winter warmer. From the hot, arid, Mediterranean climate of Puglia way down south in Italy’s heel, this zesty wine takes no prisoners and with so much herb, plum and creosote fruit on board it needs food, such as a big T-bone steak, to show it at its best.
2006 Gamay, Vin de Pays des Gaules, Jacques D?pagneux, France
The Wine Society, £4.95
Never heard of Vin de Pays des Gaules? Neither had I until I tasted this gamay, best described as declassified beaujolais. And jolly good it is too. Now that beaujolais nouveau is yesterday’s wine, the region has a new vin de pays so that growers can boost sales by selling lighter wines made from higher yields. Who cares, when this vibrant, juicy, plum, raspberry and beetroot-laden young gamay is so good. Perfect served chilled with everything from cold turkey leftovers to baked ham.
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2008 Sola Viña Tinto, Cariñena, Spain
Asda, £4.98
Hard to know which sub-£5 screwcap party red to choose from the wall of wine in your nearest supermarket but this tasty, plummy, herby Spanish red made from old bush garnacha vines, one and the same as the French grenache, from Cariñena in northeastern Spain gets my vote. Iberia’s answer to beaujolais delivers all manner of vibrant, juicy, jammy, cherry-scented fruit with the sort of alluringly silky texture you would expect from a much finer wine.
2008 De Bortoli DB Selection Shiraz-Cabernet, Australia
Oddbins, £5.99 or buy three for £5 each from Monday until January 3
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Another turbo-charged 14 per cent alcohol Aussie red, this time from the irrigated Riverina region. Although not in the same league as the Wine Society’s Benchmark below, this is a juicy, jammy, peppery red, made from two thirds shiraz to one third cabernet and aged in American and French oak — as happy with meaty pastas and pizzas as it is with turkey and all the trimmings.
2006 Chianti Riserva, Famiglia Terraccia, Italy
Tesco, £10.99 down to £5.49 until November 24
Like or loathe the behemoth Tesco, it’s been onwards and upwards for their Italian wine range each and every vintage. This chianti stood out from the herd because of its mature, elegant, beefy, truffley fruit, complete with that classic spicy, violetscented, faintly bitter finish that makes chianti so beloved by generations of British drinkers. Bouquets to the Baroncini family who have been growing grapes at their San Gimignano estate in Tuscany since 1489.
2008 Alamos Malbec, Catena, Mendoza, Argentina
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Majestic, £6.99 down to £5.49 until November 30
Malbec is Argentina’s finest red grape and its strongest suit, producing big, bold, tannic, richly-hued wines of world class and renown. So snap up this impressive, cut-price festive red, almost the star red in this section and the perfect sideboard partner to the Alamos chardonnay. Blended with a smidgin of cabernet sauvignon and bonarda, before being aged in French and American oak, this tasty red oozes with lively, ripe, spiced plum and loganberry fruit.
2008 Sainsbury’s Red Burgundy, Pinot Noir, Vignerons de Buxy, France
Sainbury’s, £5.69
Bravo the Buxy co-op at the southern end of the Côte Chalonnaise district and bravo to Sainsbury’s burgundy buyers for achieving the well-nigh impossible: a good, ordinary everyday swigging red burgundy for not much more than a fiver. Indeed, this delicious, ripe, leafy, plummy ’08 with lots of zesty, yet velvety fruit on the palate was very nearly the star red in this section.
2008 Benchmark Shiraz, Grant Burge, South Australia
The Wine Society, £5.95; Booths, £5.99
Spurred on by the credit crunch, the Wine Society’s buyers made a big effort this season to bring a range of cheap and cheerful but characterful sub-£6 wines to market and this is one of them. A whopping 14.5 per cent alcohol shiraz from the Barossa Valley, topped up with Riverland fruit, matured in French and American oak and delivering the sort of spicy, creamy, violet, cassis and loganberry fruit that Christmas food cries out for.
2008 Château La Croix d’Hourquet, Bordeaux
Nicolas, £7.49 down to £5.99 until November 22
I am not a big fan of the Nicolas shops; as a rule French wine buyers are nowhere near as competent as their British counterparts. Yet the odd good bottle pops up chez Nicolas and this is one of them: a cabernet sauvignon and merlot-based claret that is blended and bottled specifically for them. Don’t expect any aged red bordeaux flavours here — what you get is oodles of fresh, easy-drinking, curranty, plummy fruit.
2008 Paul Mas Cabernet Sauvignon de Caude Val, Vin de Pays d’Oc, France
Waitrose, £6.49 down to £5.99 until Wednesday
Don’t confuse this Paul Mas wine with its superior single vineyard La Forge brother, even though it shares an almost identical label. What you get sub-£6 is a blended cabernet made in the Caude Val winery near Limoux that comes from lots of different vineyards, with the finest portion set aside to be aged in oak barrels, while the majority goes into stainless steel. The result is a delicious fat, ripe, juicy, blackcurranty red.
2007 Domaine Les Yeuses, Vin de Pays d’Oc, Syrah Les Espices, France
Majestic Wine, £8.99 or buy two for £5.99 each until November 30
It’s impossible to buy top-drawer northern rhône syrah under £6 now but this smouldering single domaine Languedoc red, another close runner for star status, is a very seductive alternative. A canny blend of part oak-aged, part stainless-steel matured syrah, this wine is not for the faint-hearted. Enjoy its big, fat, tannic, tarry, herby fruit with big winter food, like a cockle-warming game stew, to accompany it.
STAR BUY
2008 Errazuriz Estate Shiraz, Chile
Waitrose, £7.99 down to £4.99 until December 1
I loved this brilliant bottle’s bold, beefy, oaky scent, which leads on to a delicious spicy, creosote-laden black fruits-charged palate. Hand-harvested and oak barrel-aged, this shiraz is what you would expect from Errazuriz, who pioneered the planting in Chile of this leading red rhône grape. White and red duos from the same estate make terrific festive bottles, as they were vinified to follow on from each other, and look great on the Christmas table. Scoop up Errazuriz’s sauvignon, and this grand shiraz too.