Grape Expectations

We want the finest wines available to humanity!” shouts Richard E. Grant across a Cumbrian tearoom in cult classic Withnail & I. All very well, Withnail, but what are the finest wines known to man? How many of us (18 years old and over, mind) are confident of picking the prestige cuvees from the plonk in the supermarket aisle? And can you find a decent tipple without being an oenophile, like Sideways’ Miles?

Amy Wislocki, editor of wine magazine Decanter, suggests we should be spending at least a tenner on our vino to take into account the costs of packaging, excise duty, VAT, logistics and margins. “So if you look at a £5.00 bottle of wine, the amount that goes on the wine is 31p. If you look at a bottle of £10 wine, that goes up to £2.70. And £20, it’s £7.03 -so you can see the advantage of trading up a little bit.”

And we shouldn’t be choosing our wine purely based on supermarket specials. “A lot of the good wine producers don’t participate in those kind of offers. So I would say: look beyond the end of the wine aisle. Go to your local independent wine merchants and ask their staff what you should try. They’re passionate about wine, really know their range backwards and will be able