Possible bargains from Tesco...[Updated]

It's a long and frankly uninteresting story but I had a half hour to kill today and was passing the Merrion centre so I popped into Tesco for some sausages and wine. Short story long, I knew we are due to have pasta tonight so I wanted something appropriate and Italian, hence the Chianti. The Syrah I thought I had tried and liked before so I took a punt on it.

Laurent Miquel Heritage Vineyards Syrah 2010 - €8. When I checked my records, I discovered I'd had this wine (albeit the 2008 vintage) a couple of times last year and liked it a lot, so kudos to my little grey cells for that one.

Update: This was very tasty, as expected. A classic French Syrah with bags of body and flavour, great value as priced.


Piccini Chianti Classico Riserva 2007 - €10. Tesco stock a sometimes bewildering array of Piccini wines, quite a few of which I have tried; and to date they have been pretty solid performers. I'm not an expert on Chianti but a Chianti Classico Riserva from 2007 for a tenner seems like a bargain to me. Also, I read somewhere that anything with a black cock on the label (see above) was a good indicator of quality, I just hopes this applies to Chiantis too...

Update: Cherries, cherries, so many cherries. Loads of bitter cherry flavour overpowered every attribute of this wine, unfortunately. There may be a decent wine lurking underneath but It's impossible to tell. Not recommended.