This is perhaps the best £4.99 wine I’ve ever had! I’m just amazed that Waitrose can list a wine of that quality, with a real sense of place, at a regular price of £4.99. whether it were £8.99, I’d still think that was a good value wine. Look, it sounds like I’m exaggerating, but I’m not. And I didn’t have just a sip at a big tasting (sometimes you can over- or underestimate a wine that way); I drank the bottle by two nights. I suspect that the excellent 2005 vintage is largely responsible for the over-delivery on quality.

Les Nivières 2005 Saumur, Loire
From Cave de Saumur. I love that wine. A varietal Cabernet Franc from a ripe vintage (13.5% alcohol), it has a nose of leafy, spicy, deep blackcurrant fruit with a distinctive minerality. The palate is quite dense, savoury and tannic with lovely fresh, pure, sappy raspberry and blackcurrant fruit, and a mouth-drying finish. It’s a really intense, food friendly sort of wine that captures the essence of Loire Valley reds brilliantly. that has so much character, it gets a surprisingly high rating from me for such an inexpensive wine. 90/100 (£4.99 Waitrose)