Couple of Crackers from the Co-op

The price of everything is hyper inflating these days, except interest rate linked mortgages. I should be rolling in it, the amount I pay out each month to pretend to own a flat has halved in recent years. Yet, I'm not. Somehow the cost of nice stuff- wine, food, travel, central heating- has rocketed. I'm not one for conspiracy theories but it seems remarkable that every penny I've saved on a mortgage has been divided up so thoroughly between utility companies and supermarkets. Here's a graph. Proof if proof be need be.

There's no point in switching supermarkets or utility companies. They're all charging more or less the same. There's just the illusion of choice camouflaging a modern day Zaibatsu. So all I can really do is trade down on the non-essentials, and sadly, mid-week wine falls into that category. On the plus side I've been discovering some remarkable value white and red wines. These two come from the Co-op and are widely stocked.

First up a Chilean Chardonnay for only £4.29. Fresh, buttery, no oak and a fascinatingly spicy palate. This works tremendously well with tomato sauces and spicy ones too. Particularly good with a quality kebab.

Next up a cracking Californian shiraz. This one's quite spicy on the nose has a lovely juicy mouth feel and a lick of liquorice on the tongue. Incredibly it's only £4.99. Remarkable value.

One for sipping while wondering... why, in every other branch of journalism we question why we're being told something, yet when it comes to financial markets, we just accept what we're told?