Tesco Finest Vacqueyras 2007

Tonight another experiment - I going to liveblog this wine from start to finish over the course of the evening. This wine is one of Mary Dowey's 100 great wines under €12, I had it once before and liked it but had not seen it in any Tesco since.

This is the infuriating thing about Tesco, they produce some cracking Finest wines at decent prices but they are often hard to find. Bizarrely I found it in Tesco Upper Baggot St which has always had a shockingly poor selection of wines, catering mostly to the pile 'em high sell 'em cheap philosophy.

I'm not all that familiar with Vacqueyras, I know that's its in the Southern Rhone and its made from mostly Grenache. The blurb on the bottle says "A full and rich red with black cherry aromas coupled with a smooth, dark fruit and lightly spiced palate", we shall see.

7-30 pm

I'm opening the bottle, I'm not going to decant it as I would normally do as I reckon most people wouldn't decant it either and I'm aiming for some verisimilitude.

9-00 pm

First sip; cherries - check, spice - check, smooth dark fruit - not so much yet. All round though this is very tasty, nicely balanced and belying its 14% alcohol. Herself says "Lovely" and "Blackcurranty". Next up - we'll try it with Cambozola and Ardrahan cheeses.

10-00 pm

Firstly - Carr's Cheese Nibbles, delicious but deadly - you can't stop eating them. The wine has opened up a little in the glass, it's a little less spicey and a little more rounded and fruity, still very nice and a worthy foil to the cheeses.

Note: Tonight's TV is just awful, we have gone from Farah Fawcett's cancer to Jim Carrey and that's probably the best thing on! New episodes of South Park are also on but... (makes whipped sound). Roll on Jonathan Ross.

10-30 pm

About to finish this off - it's just getting better, the finish is getting longer and the balance really is remarkable, if you see this in Tesco, buy it - I think it was about €12. Perhaps that's why this is never in stock, cos it's so good?