Read on for details of two great French buys – a well-crafted Loire Valley Vouvray and a star Syrah from Southern France. You’ll also find reminders of the supermarket offers ending this week plus my picks from new promotions at M&S and the Co-op.
2019 Specially Selected Vouvray (£6.49 at Aldi)
As this well-crafted Vouvray testifies, winemakers in France’s Loire Valley are brilliant at rounding out white wine with a bit of sweetness yet using zippy off-setting acidity to make it feel merely off-dry.
Floral but textured, this example is centred on melon and baked apple flavours embellished with marzipan and spicy influences but, as I say, with enough lime and pink grapefruit acidity to counterbalance any honey-based sweetness.
2019 Les Jamelles Syrah (Drops £1, to £6.25, until 19 October at the Co-op)
Another star from Southern France’s Les Jamelles operation – specialists in kindly priced, but admirable, examples of local, single grape variety wines.
Full and intense, this one contains mulberry and damson flavours supported by firm acidity, modest tannin plus black pepper, sage and liquorice components with gentle, contrasting sweetness too. Check your local store as prices and offers can differ.
Current offers and promotions
At M&S
A new promotion kicks off today at M&S. Look out for this nice example of Gascogne with a firm acidic bite:
- Gold Label Sauvignon (Drops to £6 until 1 November)
At Co-op
A new set of discounts also started last week at the Co-op. As usual, check your local store to see what’s included. This reliable red is a good value buy if it’s available:
- McGuigan Black Label Shiraz (Down to £6 until 19 October)
At Asda
The current promotion at Asda ends this week. This stylish white, which we recommended back in August, is among the discounts:
- Extra Special Rueda (Down to £5 until 6 October)
At Majestic
Today is the last day to save up to 25% off Chardonnay at Majestic. See their website for more details.
At other retailers
Promotions continue this week at Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Morrisons. See last week’s post for my picks and end dates.
Join us again on Thursday when we take a look behind the scenes at how prices may change.
4 responses
Hi Brian, two nice wines highlighted. The Jamelles in particular always delivers at a reasonable price (all in the range are good as well) The Syrah, is quite hefty and chewy, good fruit, but still has that fresh mouth-watering acidity with a touch of sweetness. When in France a few years back they had this on draught in the hotel bar, unusual to see but enjoyable enough.
Thanks for confirming just how impressive you also found that syrah. Jamelles on draft eh; that sounds more like having died and gone to heaven than just being a passing visitor.
Brian … I got the Vouvray and wow!!!!! What a lovely wine for £6.49. What a lovely wine if it was twice that price! But it isn’t and for that I’m grateful. If only there was an occasional deal that Aldi did like Lidl do their WOTW when a stock-bottle gets substantially cut in price and we can move in for at least half a dozen bottles of something we really enjoy and save some £s to go towards the gas bill! I used to repeatedly have Aldi’s Carcassonne, £4.49, every time I shopped but it has been gone now for half a year. I’ll be having more Vouvray but remaining restrained in the number of bottles I buy. Waiting on Lidl to again offer their Chianti Reserve as WOTW and spending the gas and electric money on that instead of keeping warm!!!!! Salute Brian …
I thought that Vouvray would appeal to Loire fans like you but, as you imply, it has much wider applicability both as a specific wine and as a style – wine that is just off-dry with compensating acidic thrust is ideal for anytime drinking, especially as it can often be lower in alcohol. Stand by, incidentally, for more details of wines at Aldi in this Thursday’s post.