Gran Lopez Tinto 2009

It's been a good couple of months for purchasing cheap plonk. This is another cheapie which has just blown me away. Needs about an hour to open up after pulling the cork. What you get is a modern but not 'supercharged' style of wine, very refined with flavours of raspberry ripple (though in a 'savoury' manner) and figs, a texture which tends towards the glycinery end of the scale but reigned in just at the right moment, all in balance, and a subtle but superb nose of camphor and black cherry. Brilliant winemaking here.

For the money, this is OK to drink on its own, but really comes into its own at the dinner table. Lovely purity, lovely finish, a fine wine, so yet another stunningly good wine for less than five quid, and that is the normal price without discount...

Gran Lopez Tinto Campo de Borja. In the right context, if you allow it to breathe, 8/10 £4.79 Waitrose.

(The La Piuma Montepulciano 2009 from Waitrose and the Asda Extra Special Barbera reviewed recently are two other terrific wines available at a similar price point recently, though these other two are on offer. All are surprisingly serious wines. Spain and Italy can be such treasure-troves...)