Vina Maipo Reserva Shiraz 2009

With the Christmas season approaching the offers in supermarkets can often seem to good to be true. I enjoy Chilean wine so when I saw this bottle marked down from £8.49 to £3.99, I thought it was worth a try at the very least.

This Valle Central is described as blackberries, vanilla and chocolate on the label but like most Shiraz wine, it has a spicy and fruity flavour. It complements spicy food well and would enhance any similar food.
The wine has a good flavour but is a little thin. It might actually be a good wine to buy for the future.

At £3.99, its a glood price and certainly goes down well with a meal at home. At its full price, its vastly overpriced, but would still hold up as a reasonably good £4.99wine.
Over all, a 7/10 at the new price

Masterpeace Shiraz

This Australian wine looked good value at £3.99. Although a little thin in taste, there is a good flavour hiding within. It is slightly sweeter than you might expect from a red, but as its not a dry taste, is suitable for drinking with spicey food.

Not blown me away, but 5.5/10

Vergelegen 2006 Cabinet Sauvignon/Merlot

I couldn't believe my eyes when i spotted this bottle at only £3.99 in Morrisons and scooped as many as I could afford. This is a truely superb bottle of red given time to mature and bring out a rich, complex flavour.

It is one of the best wines you can get in a supermarket and this particular bottle is being priced at over £14 with many online vinters. You may be ab;le to get better reds, but for under a fiver? I doubt it 9.5/10

Namaqua shirav/Cabernet sauvignon

This is one of my favourite wines and my best find since Isla Negra was £2.99 and a fashionable drop of wine.

This spicy red is packed with flavour and warmth and goes with just about anything. At 14.5% it is strong, though, so bear that in mind if planning to drink lots of the stuff.

You may need to buy it under offer to get the bottle for under £5, but it regularly is at this price and offers excellent value 8.5/10

Lagunilla Rioja

A good example of a Rioja with a strong and robust flavour, fully of oaky berries and smooth flavour that lasts until the end without any bitter aftertaste.
I'll certainlybe buying this again. 7/10

First Cape Cabernet Sauvignon

This looked a proper bargin when I spied it on the shelves at "less than half price". At £3.99, though, it tastes overpriced and is best drunk straight out of the bottle. Leave it a day or to and the acid flavour strengthens.

Drunk straight from an unopened bottle, it slips down smoothly but the flavour is lacking with little complexity.

It's a thoroughly disappointing wine I will be avoiding like the plague. I have drunk worse, but it certainly isn't value for money 4/10

Welcome to my new blog

Welcome to the first post of wines under a fiver. Here I'll be sharing my view of the best buys in the supermarkets.

My first pick is McGuigan Estate Limestone Shiraz. On offer at Sainsbury's, it looked too good a price not to try.

Smooth warm and spicy, it seems the perfect to wash down a beef or pasta dish.

A good example of an Australian wine, I'll give this wine 7.5/10.