Last night Plumbing S was coming over. I didn't have any wine. I'm just popping out to Classic Wines, I said. Hang on, said M, *Plumbing S* is coming over and you're going to *Classic Wines*? (Plumbing S has a Diploma of Wine. Everything I know about wine, I learnt it from her. Classic Wines, and forgive me if you've heard this before, is the sort of off licence which smells of bleach and vomit.)
Shit, you're right, I said. Maybe I should go to Tesco.
But there wasn't time, and I headed for the compromise option: Wasim Regency Stores, where a wildly random selection of wine costs a consistent £4.99 a bottle. Who knows where they get it from, I have often thought to myself. It can be good, and it can be quite spectacularly bad. It's kind of a lottery, but this seemed more appropriate than the alternative of slightly gone off Ernest & Julio Gallo.
Scanning the shelves in a mild panic, I suddenly saw a familiar 'Finest' label. A Tesco Finest label. And then another one. So I emerged with a bottle of 2005 Aussie Chardonnay (Tesco price: £7.99) and another of 1999 Gran Reserva Rioja (Tesco price: £9.99) for the princely total of £9.98.
When I got home I discovered that plumbing S had brought a posh bottle of Manzanilla, just in case I'd resorted to Classic Wines. We drank some of that and most of the Rioja, which I thought was lovely but she judged to be low on tannin. She's undoubtedly right, but I am more curious about how it came to be there in the first place. I'm glad it was though: saved me a walk and eight quid. You don't get that in Middle England.
joella
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