Going with the theory that every pound you spend over a fiver gives much better wine, I splashed out on this bottle from the co-op. It is a Pinot Noir but almost has a hint of Grenache to it. It has striking berry flavours and is so smooth!

The label is interesting and it would be a great wine to take to a party, as it has a lovely taste and you can bet your bottom dollar most people will not have seen it before!

This is on sale at Sainsbury’s, half price, £3.99!

This is a fantastic wine, especially for £3.99. It has great legs (ooh err) and a smooth taste. I reviewed the 2005 a while ago but this is almost the same. Great wine and a great price!

Grab it while the offer lasts!

What a fantastic wine.. smooth and easy drinking. This wine has a richness to it. This is full bodied red wine and has a spicy, pepper nose, followed by ripe plum,smoky leather and intriguing oak enhanched flavours.

This wine can be enjoyed on its own or with red meats and richly flavoured dishes.

This wine has matured with age and it is an absolutely fantastic wine.

I bought a bottle Cecchi wine a few years ago and I enjoyed it. When I was in ASDA the other day I noticed this interesting bottle of Chianti and thought I would try it.

First impression of this wine is it punches well above its weight. I do enjoy a good Italian wine and this is no exception. It is smooth, easy to drink, but had that full bodied richness associated with Italian reds.

On a side note, the basket it is presented in catches the drips very well… bonus!

I bought this wine as it was 2 for £8 at Sainsbury’s. Anyone looking at the bottle would be forgiven in thinking it is a more exclusive variant of the Hardy’s Stamp. Seeing as I love the Stamp I had high hopes for this wine.

A little background:

The Hardys VR Shiraz is rich purple in colour, displaying typical shiraz aromas of raspberry, plums and cherries. These characteristic are reflected on the palate where the wine exhibits soft spiciness with raspberries, cherries, plums finishing with persistent supple tannins. This wine has been crafted to drink as a young wine.

It is indeed a rich purple colour and it does smell very nice. I’m not sure why but it just didn’t seem quite as smooth as the Stamp, and in actual face it tasted a little inferior. Don’t get ba wrong, it is not bad for £4, but if I had the choice I would go for the Stamp or the McGuigan Estate Shiraz.

This is a difficult one to rate. It is a fairly average wine, certainly not worth paying full price for, but it is quite often on offer in the major stores and so is a safe bet if you’re looking for a cheap wine and are unsure what to go for.

History: The legend of Casillero del Diablo began more than 100 years ago, when Don Melchor de Concha y Toro, founder of the winery, reserved for himself an exclusive batch of the best wines produced. To keep strangers and light fingered workers away from this special private reserve; he spread the rumour that the Devil lived in his cellars, hence the name Casillero del Diablo or Cellar of the Devil.

I have enjoyed the Casillero del Diablo wines before but never the Shiraz. I bought a bottle of the Shiraz to review as Shiraz is one of my favorite wines and I wanted to see if the Shiraz lived up to the high standards of the rest of the range. It does! Due to the unique history of this wine I find it is a nice wine to take when going for dinner with friends, it’s an interesting (well I find it interesting!) talking point.

There is a fantastic video review on the Tesco wine club link (Click here and then click Watch Video) which describes this bottle perfectly. A rich, ripe wine, full of flavours of plums, chocolate and blackberries and topped off with subtle vanilla. The guy in the video recommends drinking it with steak or herb(y) sausages, but I went for piri piri chicken instead… fantastic!

This wine is available from Tesco Wine Club (case of 6 = £25.59, that’s £4.27 a bottle… that’s a bargain!)

Coming from the Bodega Dehesa des Rubiales, owned by Grupo Galiciano and located in the Castilla Leon region of Spain, this Alaia red wine is a very typical example of the incredibly affordable high-quality wines that are now being produced in old wine-growing regions of Spain.

Firstly I am not quite sure what is going on with the picture on the label, I suppose it’s a baby with it’s mother, but am not sure… and why? Oh well, I guess there is some meaning somewhere!

This is a really nice wine. I am a fan of Spanish wines in general and this is a really nice example. Like the Rioja’s, this wine is very dark and has a full bodied texture, while remaining smooth at the same time.

Doing a bit of research I found this wine has the following make up:

Prieto picudo (50 percent), tempranillo (45 percent), merlot (5 percent)

I would certainly recommend this wine, and would love to have a bottle of this with some strong cheeses, as the rich fruity taste would compliment the cheese nicely.

Apparently this is not a wine for long term aging, so drink it now through 2008! Fine by me!

This was on a 3 for £10 deal at ASDA so I purchased a bottle along with 2 bottles of Namaqua. I have had quite good success with the 3-4-10 deals in the past so I was hoping to continue my run of success.

First impressions were moderate. There was no strong scent to the wine, in face I would call it non-descript. For a cheap wine this is actually not a bad thing in my experience, some of them can be a bit overbearing.

On tasting the wine I have to say I was disappointed. This wine almost tasted furry (for want of a better word), a little bit like the taste you get if you get some sediment in the bottom of a glass. One glass later and it settled down a bit, but I really cannot recommend it.

I looked around to see if I could find some information on the background of this wine. I couldn’t find a single thing about it anywhere. I wonder if this is just a cheap batch of wine which has been branded for cheap sale?

On reflection it may have been a bad idea to purchase a wine named after a Fish. Oh well, onto the next review… that one has an Elephant on it!

This is an interesting wine. Firstly we have no idea of the vintage… I searched the bottle but there is no reference to it.

It is a medium to full bodied red, similar in flavour to the Hardy’s Stamp Shiraz. There is a strong forest fruit flavour and it is certainly (as most of the Australian wines are) easy to drink. I picked this bottle up from ASDA, but I have also bought it from the Co-Op in the past, usually priced around £4.

I like this wine, but it does fall into the “all-rounder” category. There is nothing new with this wine, but then again there is nothing to offend either. If you want a good value “safe” wine then this is a good bet, but if you are looking for something a bit “special” then look toward the McGuigan Estate Shiraz (a bit more expensive, but has been seen on offer at £4 from time to time).

This is one of my favourite wines. It is very VERY fruity and not to everyone’s taste, but if you like fruity wines you HAVE to try this one. I picked it up for under £6 at ASDA, which is a fairly stable price for this wine. It is good value at this price point and I would recommend giving it a try if you are a Rioja fan.

I find with the low-price red’s that an awful lot of them taste very similar. This one breaks the mould and provides something very different. Put it this way, this is one wine I would bet my house (ok, a case of wine!) that I could identify blindfold!

The scent is fruity and the flavour is quite intense. This wine would hold it’s own amongst most dishes. It is very easy to drink and a perfect accompaniment to a summer BBQ!