Not just any indigestion, but a Marks & Spencer’s indigestion. Brought on by the bitter pill of dire sales figures for the last quarter, it was tough news to have to swallow for the company that scooped last month’s supermarket of the year award in the UK’s two major wine competitions. Jittery about money in the run-up to Christmas, and with food bills up 15 per cent this year, credit crunch shoppers are increasingly looking to own-brand lines and discount stores for non-essential items. Let them drink wine, as Marie-Antoinette might have said.

With its claim to have won half a million customers from its rivals, Morrisons, along with Asda and no-frills discounters like Aldi (www.independent.co.uk/life-style/food-and-drink/features/wine-cheap-but-...), has been a major beneficiary of a squeeze likely to provoke substantial discount skirmishes in the run-up to Christmas. One of Britain’s Big Four, it certainly does well enough on its wine prices. It doesn’t have to work as hard as M&S and Waitrose, the latest recent victim of the credit squeeze, because, with a handful of worthy exceptions, its wine list is largely predicated on cheap prices in the first place. Typical examples include Concha y Toro’s soft, cherryish Frontera Red, £3.99, along with a grapey fresh dry Santerra Dry Muscat, £3.89, a crisp, nutty dry Orvieto Cardeto, £4.65 and a vivid, strawberryish and spicy 2005 Rio Riojo Tempranillo, £3.69, that does what it says on the tin.

Smartprice Asda has made a big effort under its experienced wine buyer Philippa Carr MW to bring focus to the range and her judgment has meant that good value doesn’t have to mean cheap price alone. The 2007 Cantina di Soave Asda Soave Classico, £3.62, is an attractively peardroppy dry white, worth the extra 64p over the basic soave and the 2007 Marques del Norte Rioja, £2.98, is remarkably fruity at this knockdown price. The same goes for the spicy, full-bodied 2006 Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, £2.98, the vibrant youthfully plummy 2007 Extra Special Côtes du Rhône Villages, £4.62, and the 2006 Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon a gluggy mouthful of blackcurrant fruit at £3.18.

Not wanting to be left out of the price downsizing game, Sainsbury’s has made much of its new range of its wines under £4. ‘I think customers will increasingly look to wine at this price point as purse strings get pulled in ever tighter’ says category manager Warren Anderson. My top two whites in the range are the soave and verdicchio, which at least have some flavour and resemblance to what they’re supposed to be and at £3.99, while the Australian chardonnay at £3.67 has those tropical bottle sunshine flavours associated with the land of Oz. And the reds? Red can be difficult at under £4, as witness the unlovely Don Simon at £2.99, but the 2007 Montepulciano gives a fair, gluggy mouthful of plummy fruit at £3.99, as do the juicy, damsony Sainsbury’s Portuguese Red NC, vinho de mesa, £3.29, and the 2007 Sainsbury’s Australian merlot, £3.59.

For all I know Mr. Anderson may genuinely care about Sainsbury’s customers, but I suspect he’s more concerned about those in search of cheaper thrills voting with their feet in the direction of Aldi, Asda and Morrisons. Tesco too has plans for a set of budget wines as part of its value range but it’s being coy about them other than telling us that they’re a Spanish red, white and rosé, in litre tetrapaks and hit the shelves in early November. Funny they didn’t mention price, which, to be Aldi-beaters, will have to be £2.99 or thereabouts. So is buying cheaper wine the answer to the growing problem of rising food costs and prices? It’s an answer, but no more the answer than the depressing trend towards the big M’s burgers with bacon. Whatever happened to drinking better but less?

Something For the Weekend 18 October 2008.

Under a Fiver

2007 Saint Mont, Marks & Spencer, £.4.99, down from £6.49, until 2nd November.

Boasting enticingly fresh aromas and crisp apple and pear fruit fruitiness, this south-western French dry white from the pioneering Plaimont Co-operative, a blend of the native gros manseng, arrufiac and petit courbu grapes, is appetisingly dry and good value at the M&S promotional price.

Under a Tenner

2005 Bellingham The Maverick Syrah, £9.99, Sainsbury’s

Not for faint hearts or palates, at 15 per cent alcohol, this powerful Cape red punches above its weight in all senses but despite the power, its smoky aromas and sweet, vanilla oak-tinged blackberry fruit makes this a good example of a modern New World syrah to keep you company as the autumn evenings close in.

Splash Out

2006 Maycas del Limarí Chardonnay, Concha y Toro, £12.49, Majestic

From the Limarí Valley in northern Chile, Concha y Toro’s stylish chardonnay is crafted in the burgundian style, with opulent, peachy fruit tempered by the nutty richness of barrel-fermentation and the natural fresh zip derived from the vineyard’s proximity to the Pacific ocean. Look out for the fine 2007 at Oddbins, £9.49.