Towards the end of his life, my late father’s drinking habits graduated from a glass or two of cask lambrusco over to dinner to something out of a bottle, and I did a bit of research to see if I could help him get maximum benefit from minimal outlay, which accounts for my familiarity with the De Bortoli Sacred Hill range, for a start.
When the average consumer is faced with the array of wine on offer in even the smallest local liquor shop I guess it’s hardly surprising that there’s a tendency to go for something familiar, particularly when something familiar has a This Week’s Special tag in front of it.
At the same time, given the substantial discounts that are part of the industry’s standard operating practice you can quite possibly afford to try something different if it’s a consistent brand and it’s on special.
Better still, if there are a range of brands you’ve found to be reasonably consistent value, grab a bottle of something different from one of those brands at the start of the week or so the special offer lasts, try it when you get home and if you like it, grab a couple more next time you’re passing by the grog shop.
Brands to watch for?
As previously mentioned, De Bortoli’s Sacred Hill is a good starting point.
In the same sort of price range, there’s Angove’s Butterfly Ridge, particularly the white varieties. There was a Riesling a couple of years back that was truly exceptional. Further up the hierarchy they’ve also got the Long Row ($10) and Nine Vines ($15) ranges if you’re looking to go a bit up market.
And at the same price point as Sacred Hill and Butterfly Ridge you might want to have a look at McWilliam’s Inheritance range as well.
Also in the regularly discounted to the $8 - $10 bracket, you can also be pretty confident with Yalumba’s Oxford Landing range (particularly the Sauvignon Blanc) and McWilliam’s Hanwood Estate (from the reds try the Shiraz Viognier).
Bearing in mind that you can almost certainly be sure at least one of those lines will be on special in just about any liquor chain’s stores at any given time, the average price-conscious consumer should be able to do very nicely by making a selection from the current special early in the week and going back for a couple more before they jack the price back up if you’ve found one you like.
At least that’s what I’d be doing....
