Mad March wine offers
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- 5 March 2012 3:48pm
Behind the unimaginative supermarket headlines of ‘Mad March Offers’ are some rather good ones involving wine. Asda leads the way with the lowest priced offer wine at £2.48 followed by the Co-op with their own-label Australian wine at £4.25. The big brands are also having a clear out with several supermarkets selling Wolf Blass at a discount, while savings on the posher brands of Villa Maria and Errazuriz can be found at Tesco.
Bargain of the Year: Castillo de Calatrava
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- 27 February 2012 3:30pm
Morrisons Castillo de Calatrava Spanish Tempranillo Crianza is the Bargain of the Year (so far). Paying just £4 for this complex, fruity red is such a stonking deal (within their 3 for £12 offer which starts today) that buying just one bottle is a missed opportunity – my advice is buy as many as your purse will allow.
Sauternes or tea with pancakes?
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- 20 February 2012 3:56pm
As you squeeze the lemon juice over your pancakes tomorrow will you be contemplating an accompanying glass of wine or a nice cup of tea? Because wine isn’t the natural partner of choice for the traditional Shrove Tuesday meal. Adding lashings of sugar as well will almost stop the taste buds registering anything else – unless it’s even sweeter or more acidic than each of the pancake toppings. So what wine, if any, matches these criteria?
The sensible diet that saves you money
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- 14 February 2012 5:08pm
The ‘fat’ Woman’s Hour listener in her 40s looking for practical weight loss advice didn’t find any from the panel of three experts (a researcher, a diet book author and a life coach) bussed in to discuss ‘Diets don’t work – or do they?’ (broadcast Radio 4, 14 February). Instead woolly solutions were offered including: eat more meat (this to a woman running a home and family of 5 on average wages) and overcoming deep-seated psychological issues (‘I’m very happy and have a fulfilled life’ was her response). So how do you lose weight? Follow the sensible approach – eat slightly less and exercise slightly more.
Chocolate tasting wine for your Valentine
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- 13 February 2012 2:22pm
This Valentine’s Day rather than the usual box of chocs and bottle of wine, why not present your loved one with a bottle of wine that tastes of chocolate? To find those cocoa nuances you’ll need a full-bodied red from the warmer parts of Europe, South America or California.
Inspired Wine: wineboxes reviewed
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- 6 February 2012 5:12pm
If you really like a certain wine, rather than buying it in single cork-stoppered bottles why not get larger four bottle-sized amounts available in boxes? But if stepping along to the supermarket seems like too much of a chilly effort then try the online winebox retailer InspiredWine.co.uk because they’re offering free delivery during February.
Half-sized bottles at halfwine.com
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- 29 January 2012 4:22pm
Half bottles of wine at half the cost? Not necessarily so, unfortunately. Because so few vineyards put their wines in 375ml bottles the price of this handy single-sized portion never gets lowered by mass production and so remains at about two-thirds the price of its 750ml equivalent. But half bottles aren’t all bad – they do allow you to assess the maturing potential of many wines without the risk and all the cost.
Sweet and sour wines for sweet and sour meals
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- 23 January 2012 12:00am
Received wisdom says the naturally sweet-sour flavours of German white wines work best with Chinese food. Which helps with the food-wine matching for this evening’s celebration of the Chinese New Year, but really any wine you like will match, but a bit of sweetness helps.
