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THE TRADITIONAL wine merchant provides a personal service which no supermarket can match. No argument. Look what happens when you take a duff bottle back, for instance. At a wine merchant you can talk over the problem, but who is there to talk anything over with at a supermarket? Yet that's also the beauty of a supermarket: I've had no quibble from any big chain to whom I have returned a bottle, and I've got my money back within seconds and without demur.
Take Asda. Earlier this year, a Guardian Weekend reader told me of his dismay upon pulling the cork on a particular French wine from Asda. I sampled it and agreed, and when the Asda chief wine buyer, Philip Clive, re-tasted the wine he also agreed it had declined dramatically - and every bottle was promptly removed from their shelves.
Asda's Spanish red, Leon, on the other hand, can only get better. This is a seriously gorgeous wine for the money (under pounds 3) and the 1985 vintage rates 17 points, with the 1986 not far behind and improving fast. The wine has beautifully developed dry spicy fruit, with a luscious hint of bitter chocolate.
At Budgen, things were looking up until Safeway snapped up their wine buyer, but now the new man, Tony Finnerty, is getting into his stride and has an interesting list. Many of their wines impressed me, like the New Zealand Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc, but none made more impact than the red Vin de Pays de la Drome 1991, called Le Hout Colombier; attractive black cherry flavour...