Deals, deals everywhere! It’s the run up to Christmas and wine sellers all across the land are offering Christmas Cases, Winter Cases, Party Cases and Lions and Tigers and Bears. Oh my!

But what to buy? You need quantity, you’d love quality and value is important too. Right? 

Well here’s my 3 tips on what not to do when buying wine by the case this Chrimbo followed by a short list of current deals for “every day drinkers” that are worth taking a punt on.

1 – Avoid falling for “£50 off when you buy 2 cases – Only to New Members”. DON’T DO IT! Chief culprit for this type of masterful 1990′s style marketing are Direct Wines (You’ll know them as Laithwaites, Sunday Times Wine Club etc)

These guys use Christmas to harvest new “recruits” in order to mail them relentlessly for the next 24 months. Some of you will give in and become “active” while others will rightly resist until next Christmas when they’ll seek to “re-activate” you. 

Of course this wouldn’t matter if the wine was any good. But, you’ll get offered a limited range of mixed cases where a few of the wines will be quite nice, a few OK and the remainder rubbish.

To paraphrase Patrick Mcgoohan in the Prison “We are not Numbers. We are free men”

2 – Supermarkets like to offer you a choice of three price points, or as Tesco likes to put it “Good, Better, Best”. A quick re-calibration of this will give you “Bad, Good, Better”. 

Always go for the middle option.

3 – It’s 2008 and Global Capitalism has started it’s long decline but it won’t go down without a fight, hell no. It’s gonna try to make some money while it still can. So, when you come across any marketing carrying the phrase “Credit Crunch Busting” ignore it. It’s sad and a tad pathetic.

Here are 6  deals from the High Street that are worth taking a punt on - 

Mixed Cases

Modern Classic Reds
12 x 75cl Bottle
£74.88
Save £15 = £59.88
www.majestic.co.uk 

Modern Classic Whites
12 x 75cl Bottle
£74.88
Save £15 = £59.88
www.majestic.co.uk 

Red

Concha Y Toro Casillero Del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon, Chilean 75cl
Save £2.00 was £6.99 now £4.99
www.sainsburys.com

Cono Sur Pinot Noir Reserve 75cl
Per case: £34.14
Case of 6 x 75 CL Bottles (equivalent to £5.69 per bottle)
www.tesco.com/winestore

White

The Ned Waihopai Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2007/08 Marlborough, New Zealand
Christmas Special Offer – Save 33%
Case of 12 £75.84 equivalent to £6.32 each 
www.waitrose.com

d’Arenberg ‘The Hermit Crab’ Marsanne Viognier
£8.99 each
Buy 12 for £7.19 each
www.oddbins.com 

Who cares about the research! – it’s still one of my favourite movies so lets take a trip down memory lane. If you’ve still not seen it then buy it here, if you need convincing then watch the trailer below and buy it anyway

The longstanding belief that the film Sideways sent Pinot Noir sales through the roof was confirmed today.

The effects of the film on Pinot Noir ‘were positive across all price points, with the largest impact being on the highest price point of US$20-$40 per bottle,’ a research paper published by Sonoma State University and Sonoma Research Associates says.

It goes on to show the negative effects of Merlot being confined ‘mostly to the lower priced segment, under US$10 per bottle.’ In the 2004 film – an unexpected hit – the main character famously waxed lyrical about the virtues of Pinot Noir whilst ridiculing Merlot.

Earlier data from ACNielsen had shown a dramatic initial surge in Pinot Noir purchasing just days after the film’s release – there was a 16% increase in sales compared with the same period a year earlier. In 2005, glass manufacturer Riedel reported an increase in US sales of 45%, partly because of more demand for its $12-$95 Pinot Noir glasses.

The research, released almost four years after the film’s release, concludes that ‘the positive impact on Pinot Noir appears greater than the negative impact on Merlot.’ The ‘Sideways Effect’ was only temporary, with sales of domestically produced Merlots up, according to data from IRI, by 6% in December 2007.

[youtube=http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=YS9ocP6FNvM]