Today (15/10/03) on the Dublin Life show on News Talk 106 FM, after the 3pm
news, Martin will be talking about supermarket promotions including half
price wines at Tesco and the Superquinn French wine sale.
BOGOF is the acronym of choice for the UK supermarket's favourite
promotion and it stands for Buy One Get One Free. The UK is obsessed with
it and it has impacted here in Ireland too.
Tesco are the prime movers here of this sort of promotion and they
are currently offering a deep discount on their Chilean chardonnay and
cabernet, reduced from €8.99 to just €4.99. Not quite a BOGOF but a
huge discount.
Are
they any good? I tried them yesterday and they are perfectly fine and
brilliant value at this price. Tesco Chardonnay
NV 85/100 is fairly rich and buttery with melon fruit while the
Tesco Chilean Cabernet NV, 85/100, has
plenty of blackcurrant fruit so typical of that variety. They are as good
as any of the main brands selling for between €9 – 10.00 so grab them
while you can as the offer finishes this weekend. Another bonus for me is
that both are screw cap tops so you can be certain that they’ll be no
taint or oxidation
Meanwhile
over at Superquinn they have their 8th annual French
sale on
at the moment. I didn’t go to their press tasting a few weeks ago so I
have to confess that these recommendations are relative guesswork.
Looking
at their website and talking to colleagues who did attend the tasting,
there would appear to be a lot of good Bordeaux on offer and Tomas Clancy
particularly recommends Ch. du Calvaire 2001 Grand Cru St Emilion at
€13.79 and not forgetting
Ch. Margaux 1995 at €479.79! f, At more humble levels, from Peter
Sichel in Bordeaux I’d go for their reliable Sirius Bordeaux Rouge
2000 and companion white from 2001, both at €8.49 reduced
from €10.99 and try a bottle of their new branded Graves, Alliage
2000, at €9.49 down from €11.29. Also, from the Languedoc a
Fitou, Cuvée des Chevaliers at €9.79 looks like it's worth a lash
and Chablis fans will delighted to see Charles Vienot Chablis down to
just €9.99
One word of warning, the success of these
sorts of promotions means that 65% of all wine is now purchased in the UK
via some kind of promotion and it's a game that only the big brands can play
and they tend to be a bit bland. If you want something good and interesting
don't forget to shop at your local independent wine shop or off-licence,
or they might just disappear. |
