Montgravet - tremendous value

Quite definitely the best value red wine I've drunk all year. Not complex, just light, lovely blackcurrant and plum fruit flavours with a deliciously refreshing acidity that makes it shockingly moreish. Best of all, it costs just £4.99 in Waitrose. What a bargain.

Billiant Beaujolais

Every now and again along comes a wine that's what wine's all about. Wine for which there's never a good enough reason not to open another bottle. This is such a wine.

It's a screaming Roman orgy of fruity lushness and on offer in Waitrose for £6.99. I've 'sipped' a third of a bottle writing this far {*} and I'm cursing myself for not buying more.

Pour into a goldfish bowl size glass, or a goldfish bowl, and inhale intoxicating perfume as sweet red velvety fruit caresses the palette. Togas optional.

Louis Jadot Beaujolais-Villages 2009: On offer just now: Waitrose £6.99

Phwoar! Would you look at the legs on that.

Big, brash and leggy and I just can't get enough of this swirling, whirling Dervish of liquorice, smokey bacon and hedonistic fruit that just explodes in the mouth. This is an awful lot of wine for £6.49. A French red for people who think they don't like French reds.

Chateau Bois Pertuis 2009: Waitrose: on offer just now down from £9.99 to £6.49. An incredible bargain.

Do you come from a land down under?

This photograph is titled: "Stop going to Waitrose to buy dinner you arse".

It follows a distinctive pattern. Plan to stay in to save some money. Head to Waitrose intending only to buy 'reduced' items. It always starts off well, then with equal certainty, rapidly descends into farce. Half price monkfish, tick, 30% reduced wine, so cheap I'll buy two, a few accompaniments (the bill suddenly rockets as this includes unpasteurised cheeses and all other kinds of nonce nonsense) and then I spotted these chaps.

So alive they were moving their little sign around... "New Zealand Clams £10.99kg". I've been awaiting their appearance in Glasgow's malnourished Waitrose for some time. Yes, I am that sad. They caused a flood of mixed emotions when spotted in the Monmouth store last summer. Wonder that live clams, from the other side of the world, could be sold in Wales, a triumph of human ingenuity. Yet simultaneously a rush of profound disappointment that we were actually doing so. These shores are crawling with wonderful shellfish, why the hell are we flying clams first class across the globe? Then I tasted them. And that's why food love costs so dear.

Tonight they went with some half price Monkfish. A few years back a guy on the fish stall in another Waitrose told me they only ever keep fresh fish three days and the stuff they buy in the first place is spanking. So to this day it's the only place I'll buy reduced price fish.

Cooked with shallot, garlic, flat leaf parsley, olive oil, butter and white wine. The clams and the juices were immense. The monkfish dry with that odd watery texture fish gets when it's been badly frozen. First time I've been seriously disappointed with Waitrose fish.

Anyway, seemed appropriate to drink a Kiwi white with a Kiwi clam. The reduced price Wither Hills Sauvignon Blanc was tasty. Better as it warmed up too. Great value at £8.99 so a steal at £5.99. Drunk while playing the clams final request before getting steamed... they got a glass of it too. At least, I think this is the song they were asking for, clams are terrible mumblers.

Fastish Food: Crab Spaghetti with Beaujolais

Beaujolais is a beautiful, jolly name and nowadays one of the most reliable of all the French regions. They make wines here for most occasions and best of all they're delicious to drink with and without food.

Tonight's choice came from the region's latest 'best ever vintage', 2009. Hot on the heels of the many other 'vintages of the century' the region claims to have been blessed with of late. This time though, the hype maybe right because every wine I've tried from 2009 has been delicious. This was too and went unexpectedly well with my latest 'Fastish Food' invention... crab spaghetti.

While the spaghetti's boiling fry a clove of garlic and a chili in olive oil for a few minutes.

Loosen up a few tablespoons of tomato puree with water then pop it in the pan with the garlic and chili. Fry briefly then add in sliced asparagus tips. Cook a few minutes more pour in a small tub of double cream.

Boil till it thickens add a tub of mixed white and brown crab meat.

I spied some left over Russian vodka so popped a drop of that in too.

Heat through and season. By now the spaghetti should be cooked, drain and mix with the crab sauce. That's it. Ten minutes start to finish. Seriously tasty.

Beaujolais-Villages, Louis Jadot 2009. Currently on offer in Waitrose @ £6.99 a bottle. Bargain.

Jolly Nice Wine

It's not often that I do a 'here's a bottle of wine and it's very good' post. Couldn't resist this one though, because drinking it's so bloody enjoyable I could cry.

Stuffed to the gunnels with buttery lushness and it has a beautiful, mouth coating texture. Without doubt one of the most pleasurable wines I've drunk this summer.

Macon Aze from Louis Jadot will cost you £9.49 in Waitrose... I reckon it's worth every penny... sob, sob, sniff.

What I had for dinner

The Albarino is piercingly aromatic, pineapple cubed loveliness coated in icing sugar. Don't drink it too cold.

The Picholine olives are brilliant. Crunchy, fruity, almondy deliciousness. If you like olives and haven't tried these... you'd better. Come to think of it, if you like almonds and haven't tried these... you'd better.

Both came from Waitrose. The olives were just over £2, the wine just over £10.

Saturday

That got my attention. I was looking for some respite after my stroll through the park, fishmonger bound, turned into a bit of an obstacle course. The West End Festival was underway and, after narrowly avoiding being hugged by a smelly looking Buddhist Monk, I was subjected to the hilarious 'banter' of two DJs. They were the 'entertainment' for that most oxymoron of oxymorons... the Fun Run. They wouldn't shut up, I nearly started running just to get away. Unfortunately, it turned out the lobster rolls had been heading in the opposite direction just as fast. No wonder, so I got chatting to Lisa, who runs Coffee, Chocolate and Tea. She'd been reading about a new way with coffee...

Sparkling mineral water topped with a shot of espresso! "Shall we try it out?" She asked mischievously. How could I possibly refuse.

Well, how to describe this? It is totally, utterly.... erm... different. You get the full on flavour of the coffee then suddenly this fizzy, foamy coldness. As we decided these ones were too big and smaller might work better... WOOSH... the caffeine hit us. Must have been the bubbles. Wow, after gibbering on for quite some time I headed off to MacCallums fishmonger. All buoyed up I got a bit excited and bought...

A turbot. King of fish. This one cost £12 and weighed a kilo.

Made a stock from the bones, then used it as a base for a shellfish saffron risotto with some new season broad beans and chervil... my new favourite herb.

It was seriously good, honest, and what was left was even better a few hours later after coming back from The Halt Bar's mini festival.

Drank a bottle of rose from Provence, via Waitrose, for £6.49. It went exceptionally well... so well, most of it got drunk before I remembered to take a picture. Lovely wine for the money. Proper French dry stuff.

Glasgow International Festival of the Visual Arts

It's a funny title 'Festival of the Visual Arts', I mean, who'd visit a festival of the non-visual arts? A festival of the Dark Arts perhaps? There could be something in that, but it's probably not a grant.

Two of my favourites at this years G.I. Festival utilised abandoned industrial spaces.

At Vestiges Park you could have been forgiven for thinking you'd stumbled across an old props dump for Dr Who.

A motley but engaging collection of stuff saved from any temptation to ridicule by it's own sense of fun.

You had to be daring to reach the Glue Factory on foot...

Up St Georges Road till you're nearly in Possil and Possil's not the sort of place to be nearly in.

What wasn't 'works' really was the works... or what's left of them.

Boundaries were blurred.

There was something touching in the fatality of this exhibition. Referencing it's impending demise with a nod to the defunct utility of the surroundings.

As a person with too little patience, I'm always moved by perseverance in the face of futility.

Like the beautiful Mayfly, the G.I. appears fleetingly, only to those looking for it and all too soon it's gone. This was the best so far, hopefully that's the direction of travel, unfortunately we'll have to wait two years to find out.

After a hard days art I screwed the top on a bottle of this. Lovely. Off dry with flavours of tinned pear, mandarin and pineapple. On the nose, was I imagining it? A whiff of glue. £9.99 in Waitrose.

Click here for the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art website.