Offer of the Week - Saint Mont Les Cepages Preserves (Sainsburys - £7)

 The weeks after Christmas are unlikely to see the supermarkets bringing out their '25% off 6 bottles' wine offers again and in any case such promotions encouraged most of us to spend far too much on booze towards the end of last year.   But an overspend over the festive season does not mean you shouldn't keep an eye out for an interesting bottle and I think I have just wine for the bargain conscious yet curious drinker here.  It is a white wine from Saint Mont in the southwest of France, my go-to region for bargain everyday drinking wines.  Having been on sale in Sainsburys for £10, occasionally reduced to £8, for most of last year it is currently available for just £7.  Even that is 50p cheaper than you would have got it on a 25% off 6 deal!

This wine is made by Plaimont Producteurs, a large and significant cooperative in the department of Gers.  Large because the coop now encompasses 800 winegrower families cultivating 5300 hectares of vineyards and significant because for the past 40 years they have been instrumental in keeping alive and promoting near extinct grape varieties from the area.  The Cepages Preserves (trans. Preserved Vines) of the title is a reference to the fact that it is made from a combination of three ancestral grape varieties rediscovered by Plaimont: Gros Mansang, Petit Courbu and Arrufiac.

Do the unfamiliar grape varieties make you suspicious?  I hope not because, as white wines made from Gros Mansang, Colombard, Ugni Blanc etc in the Côtes de Gascogne in this same area of France repeatedly show, decent fruity, crisp white wine doesn't have to be made from Sauvignon Blanc.  To give you some idea what to expect the official tasting notes suggest ripe apricot, white peach, lemongrass, lime leaf and wild herbs on the nose, ripe white fruit and simultaneous fresh tang acidity on the palate, with a long and perfectly balanced finish. 

There is really no reason not to try it for £7.  My only concern is whether this latest reduction is a way to sell off remaining stock.  More optimistically, perhaps it's making way for the next vintage.