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?

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

Bargain White Soave from the Co-op

It costs four pounds and twenty five pence. A figure that seems ancient for something worthwhile. If time travel was an option, for the same money, you could splash out on the world's first car, your grandparent's house, a slap up meal in a Hovercraft (for two)... or... a drinkable wine from a decade ago.

Given the exchange rate, I have absolutely no idea how the Co-op sells this so cheap. It can't be easy 'co-operating' with grape farmers, wine makers and shippers at this price. This Soave is not sophisticated and smells of little, but it tastes of pears and grapefruit and goes down a treat. What an incredible bargain.

Soave 2010: The co-operative's own label: £4.25

Red Wine Bargain of the Year

This Marzemino is spectacularly good. Best drunk after 30 minutes in the fridge when pure luscious berry fruits come bursting from the glass. As the label says, plenty of cherry and violet flavours too. I bought it because I was skint, hoping for something wine like and not too nasty. What a shocker! Of course when I went back the next day there was none left.

Managing to overcome the initial suspicion of two Sainsbury's chaps in the wine aisle I put in a request for 6 bottles and left my phone number. The call came within 24 hours, just in time for the Bank Holiday.

The first bottle was consumed with a spaghetti carbonara. Another near an open window grabbing bursts of sunshine between torrential downpours. Both matches worked a treat.

This wine is normally sold for the bargainous price of £5.99. At the moment, incredibly, it's just £4.49. Fill your boots! And, if there isn't any left at your local store, risk a "Code 99" on the wine aisle and order some. Wine this good at this price is unique.

Marzemino della Venezie 2010: down from £5.99 to £4.49: Sainsbury's

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.

Let Them Drink Chablis

In my wine formative years Chablis was the height of pronounceable sophistication. A just about affordable treat that occasionally tasted sublime. I still love the stuff, although unfortunately it's still usually in the same price bracket. So imagine my surprise when I spotted this in Tesco last night.

The shock wasn't finding Chablis in Tesco... but the price.

Incredible, just incredible, Chablis for £4.49...!!!

I was convinced it was going to taste like battery acid but had to take a punt.

Well, I'm glad I did. It's a good, typical basic Chablis. Sharp, with a lick of butter and a hint of all those fossilised oyster shells lurking below the soil. A remarkable price.

Ultimate Bargain

God damn the internet. Without it's increasing accessibility, this wine has such a bizarre price, you could run sweepstakes trying to guess it.

In Asda, or Asdas as we used to call it in Wales, just now, this utterly delicious glass of springtime will set you back £4.83. Weirdly, as Jamie Goode pointed out on his blog, in the same supermarket, on the same shelf, the 'standard' Montana Sauvignon Blanc will cost you twice as much. The 'standard' is nice enough, the 'reserve' is a notch up.

So get down to Asdas before this pricing weirdness gets sorted. Because if you like New Zealand Sauvignons, you should fill the boot and spend the summer chuckling.