Gerard Bertrand Minervois 2010

This carignan and syrah (surely shiraz?) blend is truly excellent value in a Languedoc region that undoubtedly combines big quality flavours and low prices like no other.

At around £8-9 from UK retailer Waitrose you can't go wrong. 

The blend is well balanced, lasting and benefits from a couple of hours in the decanter. Big alcoholic fruit, but never overpowering. As it oxidises it mellows. 

I visited the vineyard near Beziers in August 2013 and was impressed with it variety, scale and hospitality.

Their top wines can age 10-15 years, which is highly unusual in the region. 

Faugeres, not far away, with its schist soils, also has some very solid wines, as long as you don't mind big flavours and high alcohol. Par for the course considering the sun, grapes and terroir.

Five wines of 2012 at under £10 per bottle

Here are five bottles under £10 that I'd pick out as my winners of 2012:

1) Domaine les Grands Bois Les Trois Soeurs Côtes du Rhône 2010

This wine is the best of the two Côtes du Rhône's on my list, the 2011 is reviewed here. 

I wouldn't go as far as Parker, who gave it 90 points and said "The Côtes du Rhône les Trois Soeurs offers a delicious mouthful of wine for a song. Its dense plum color is accompanied by notes of white chocolate, crushed berry fruit, earth and licorice...enormously satisfying." 

But for the price, it's a winner.  I would say though, that for just over £10, this option is a better one.

2) Penguin Sands Central Otago Pinot Noir

I picked this wine out for a few reasons. Firstly, you almost never see Central Otago wines at under £10. In my experience you rarely see them under £20.

I dread to think of the maker's margins on this wine, sold by Tesco at under £10 six or so months ago. However, supplier margins aside, if you can buy some, it's an excellent entry-level wine.

Central Otago wines are far superior to the Marlborough region further north (Tohu is an exception) and for the price this is a bargain.

3) Clos d’Alzan  Côtes du Rhône Villages Signargues

This wine is beautifully balanced. Great acidity, it's full flavoured and needs food.

I was able to buy it En primeur and so picked up a case for around £6-7 per bottle. It's now hard to find, although FromVineYardsDirect.com has the 2011, I wonder if it is quite as good. If you can find the 2010, it's great value drinking. I wish I'd bought a second case.  

4) Wine Society Exhibition Vacqueyras 2010

If I had to pick an overall winner, it would probably be this.

The Wine Society doesn't need to share profits with shareholders, and so pours extra cash back into value for members.

My family have been members for decades and at around the £10-15 level, the Wine Society is always the place to start looking.

This Vacqueyras 2010 is as good an example of the area I've had, and a deserving member of the Society's Exhibition range. You'd expect to pay more than £15 for this wonderfully balanced example.

Unfortunately it seems hard to obtain these days, but again, if you can find it, buy a few cases. At £9.99 a bottle you can't go wrong. 

5) Los Vascos Colchagua Cabernet Sauvignon, 2011

This is probably the runner up, and is much more available than the 2010 Vacqueyras above. The Wine Society has it at £8.95 a bottle and describes it thus:

"A taste of fresh, ripe, unadorned and unoaked perfumed fruit which ripens so well on Chile's ungrafted vines. Elegant and full of charm. From the Rothschild estate".

 It's superbly delicious, fresh, smooth and wonderfully structured, particularly for the price. The 2009 and the 2010, if you can still buy them, are both also fabulous. I have also had the 2007 which is stunning. The 2011 is reviewed here by this blog.

Wine Society Vacqueyras 2010: A bargain of 2012 under £10

This Wine Society Vacqueyras 2010 is definitely one of the buys of 2012.

It's not surprising that the society has sold out of the 2010.

At £9.99 a bottle it's one of the bargains of the last twelve months.

Their description of it's "power, boldness and rustic red-berry charm" is right on the money.

2010 was of course an outstanding year for most Rhone wines. I've not had a bad one yet, and have reviewed a few others. 

Given it now seems to be hard to get at the price, this wine is probably a decent alternative. I had a case of it last year and it's wonderfully balanced. Not for the faint-hearted though.

Marquis de Pez 2008: A decent drop at under ten Euros

I picked up a bottle of Marquis de Pez 2008 at Carrefour in Bordeaux recently. This was along with quite a few other wines, most of them in the 20-30 Euro a bottle range. I'll be reviewing them in the next few months as they are drunk.

Amusingly, we came straight from visiting visiting Chateau Le Pin (where we tasted the 2012 harvest from the vat) to filling up the car at Carrefour. How mighty are the fallen.

Marquis de Pez 2008, at around ten Euros a bottle, is among the cheapest I bought. I assumed it was the second wine of Le Pez or Les Ormes De Pez but that appears not to be right.

In fact, it's very hard indeed on Google to find out any thing about it at all. How odd.

The excellent book "Bordeaux St Estephe" by David Copp has nothing about it, and there seems to be little on the web.

I found one place it can be purchased, at ten Euros a bottle, here.

I assume it's close to Le Pez and Ormes de Pez. Berry Brothers seem to like Ormes de Pez 2008, as you might expect. Read more about it here.

So how is the 2008 Marquis to drink? That surely is the most important question.

Bright fruit, with that typical Saint-Estephe dry middle and a finish where you note the tannins, but not unpleasantly.

Let it breathe and you pick up that classic slightly muddy, mineral characteristic of the region.

I can't tell you it's got much more than that about it, but at the price, it's a very decent drop, if of course, far too young. 

Two more great value quaffing wines: Clos d'Alzan 2010 and Jean-Paul Dubost Beaujolais Villages Tracot 2011

£58 plus VAT/Duty from: FromVineyardsDirect

Here's a couple of good value quaffing cases, as mentioned in the previous post.

First up: Clos d'Alzan 2010. From terroir very very close to Châteauneuf-du-Pape, so I am told, it's bargain drinking.

My case was around £80-90 all in, from those excellent chaps and chapesses at FromVineyardsDirect.com, my favourite online retailer.

Now it's a bit more (mine was fortunately En Primeur, bought on the spur of the moment some time ago) but it's still worth it.

At £120 a case, here's where you can get it. 

That's pretty good value at under a tenner. 

I can't see how you could do better in a supermarket or via Laithwaites etc. 

As far as I can tell, the only UK outfit that competes with FromVineyardsDirect.com for value wines is the Wine Society. 

But given they are non-profit, I'm not sure how fair the comparison is.

Anyhow, here's a bit more about the Clos. It's typically big, rich, broad and full of beans. Not literally. 

It's hard to drink without food, but it's an excellent accompaniment. As are most decent wines of course.

Here below is a shot of the Tracot I also bought recently, which you could drink with just a snack.

To be exact, it's Domaine Jean-Paul Dubost Beaujolais Villages Tracot 2011.

I picked up a case, on a whim, from Berry Brothers in London recently for around £110.

Here's a review of it from the BBR website:

"Fresh, natural, mineral and quite serious with a lively spiciness under the sapid black cherry fruit. Fresh acidity and a serious mineral component help to make this an alive wine. Just delicious, and one of the best sub-£10 reds I’ve ever had. 92/100
(Jamie Goode, The Wine Anorak, 21 November 2011)"

£110 a case from BBR

I wouldn't go as far as Jamie Goode does, but it's a lovely drop, and at the price, you can't go wrong.

I drank a glass, then drew the air out of the bottle over night and then let it breathe again the next day for 30 mins.

It really opened up the second time around.

What I like about the Northern Beaujolais wines I have tried is the finish on them. I find wine that disappears in taste/length as soon as you swallow, well, just annoying.

This Jean-Paul Dubost Beaujolais Villages Tracot really lingers considering it's a Pinot Noir grape. 

I've yet to discover much of Burgundy, so I'm sure it's not alone in nearby regions. For the price, it's definitely a gem.

An excellent value Central Otago Pinot Noir from Sainsbury's

Superb value

I was lucky enough to spend some time in New Zealand a couple of years ago.

Whilst there, I was introduced to Central Otago Pinot's by a friend, who runs this company that makes an excellent Marlborough Pino, called Tohu.

Tohu is NZ's first Maori-made/owned wine offered for export. It's hard to get in the UK, although you could try these guys and see if they have any.

In the meantime, I can highly recommend Sainsbury's Central Otago Pinot Noir, particularly given the price of under £10.

Usually the Central Otago Pinot's you see in wine retailers in the UK start at least at £15, and often more like £20-30.

So at this price it's a bargain. I've just bought half a case for summer drinking.

Decanter gives it 16.5 from 20, and I'd say that's about right. They describe it thus:

"A vibrant, accessible Pinot - at a good price too - based on a lovely mix of dried flowers and juicy cherry notes. Augmenting the fruit are further red berry flavours which display a good, crunchy character.

Domaine les Grands Bois Les Trois Soeurs Côtes du Rhône 2010

This 2010 Côtes du Rhône from the highly rated Domaine les Grand Bois is a little cracker of a wine and is less than £10 a bottle from here.

Here's what Parker says: "90 Points. ‘Outstanding. The Côtes du Rhône les Trois Soeurs offers a delicious mouthful of wine for a song. Its dense plum color is accompanied by notes of white chocolate, crushed berry fruit, earth and licorice...enormously satisfying.’ — Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate ‘It reveals a dark ruby/purple color, abundant notes of peppery sweet raspberries and cherries, medium body, excellent ripeness and plenty of provencal typicity’ — Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate" Hard to argue with that.

However for just a couple of pounds per bottle more the very similar Cairanne does compete very well. I've bought a case of each and I am just slightly leaning towards the Cairanne as my favourite.

It's ever so slightly more refined, perhaps with a little less minerality, which I usually prefer.

For less than £10 a bottle though, you can't beat the three sisters, as I believe it translates.

Best value wine at that price I have had in 2012, no doubt.

Northern Beaujolais: The Society's Exhibition Juliénas 2010

According to the Wine Society in the UK:

"Juliénas is one of the northernmost crus; some say this was where the first vines were planted in Beaujolais and the name harks back to Julius Caesar."

That's some history. I had a the privilege of sharing a bottle of this over Christmas, alonside some other northern Beaujolais wines.

This was one of the best I tasted and is a gem at the price (less than £9 a bottle)

Surprisingly robust, sappy, (a common and accurate term for wines of this area it seems) yet with a fragrant and complex nose, it went superbly with the leftover turkey and lashings of bubble and squeak. (Don't be fooled by the picture on Wikipedia: Done right, it's a superb dish)

Highly recommended. A subtle yet full tasting gem.

Claret Les Sources Fronsac 2005: An £8 gem of a wine

I'm not sure where you find this wine online, but Claret Les Sources Fronsac 2005 is worth noting.

Here's the 'closest' web link.

At just £8 a bottle in the UK it's a delicious, powerful tangy right bank bargain.

Being right bank merlot is clearly dominant.

At the price it's clearly a gem. The long, nearly-tannic-but-not finish follows a deceptively mellow and aromatic nose and some big smooth raspberry fruit in the middle.

I tried what you might call the big brother of this wine on Monday, Château la Rivière. I'll post separately on that.

Barons de Rothschild Lafite Collection 2011

This deal looks too good to pass up from Laithwaites UK.

3x Domaine d'Aussières 2008
3x Viña Los Vascos Cabernet Sauvignon 2007
3x Barons de Rothschild Lafite Réserve Spéciale 2007
3x Amancaya Gran Reserva Malbec Cabernet Sauvignon 2010
3x Barons de Rothschild Lafite Cuvée Spéciale Médoc 2006

All for less than £160. I've ordered a case, we'll see how it turns out.

I've had a case of the Los Vascos which is superb at the price (£8.99 a bottle). It's a lovely Cabernet/Syrah mix from old vines, with some Bordeaux similarities (although not as much as claimed)

The others look like excellent Christmas drinking. I'll report back in due course!