Wine: make the most of the January sales

Think twice before loading up on cheap rosé or mixed cases


There are two main types of offer. One is a discount on a particular line, where the shop has plenty of stock and wants to clear it for the next vintage. Stores find it hard to shift rosés and inexpensive whites from anything other than the current vintage (2013 by spring), so need to offload it. But how likely are you to want to drink rosé until the weather warms up? And it's probably not going to improve from being stored in less than perfect conditions.

Wine: Chento Malbec

Reds are a better bet, particularly ones from the "new world" which are not generally perceived as having the potential to age. Great Western Wine, for example, has in its sale that starts today a 33% reduction on the Cuarto Dominio Chento Malbec Vineyard Selection 2010 (14.5% abv), from Argentina, bringing it down to £8.50 from £12.75. While there, I'd also pick up a bottle or two of Carrick Winery's spectacular 2010 Central Otago Pinot Noir (14% abv), down from £24.50 to £17.50; Erich Machherndl's Riesling Federspiel Kollmitz 2012 (12.5% abv), from Austria's Wachau region, down to £9.75 from £13.95; and Somerset Cider Company's Kingston Black aperitif (18% abv), down to £6.50 from £10 (spirits and liqueurs can offer rich pickings, too).

Wine: David Moreau

Department stores are worth checking out – Fortnum & Mason generally has some good deals on its own-label range. However, with some wine merchants, such as Berry Bros & Rudd, you have to buy a case to get the saving, so you need to be sure you can get through it while it's still drinking well. On the whole, I'd avoid mixed cases, into which merchants are prone to insert wines they particularly want to shift, though Berry Bros' £200 White Burgundy Collection of 2009 and 2010 vintages is unusually tempting, seeing as that's a £99.70 saving on regular prices.

The other type of deal is bin ends – that is, odd bottles that the retailer does not have enough of to make up a case or to create a presence on the shelf. They can be bargains, but you need to move swiftly, because they're generally snapped up by regulars who have bought them before. That's one more good reason to build up a friendly relationship with your local wine merchant. As with designer clothes, there's always the chance of finding a one-off of a wine that you couldn't normally afford, burgundy being an obvious candidate, especially with the shortfall in the last three vintages.