Wine: The price is right

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 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.

With its claim to have won half a million customers from its rivals, Morrisons 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, Morrisons 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 Santerra Dry Muscat, £3.89, a crisp, nutty dry Orvieto Cardeto, £4.65, and a vivid, strawberryish and spicy 2005 Rio Rioja Tempranillo, £3.69.

Smartprice Asda has made a big effort under its experienced wine buyer Philippa Carr MW to bring focus to the range, and her judgement 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 peardrop-y 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, plummy 2007 Extra Special Côtes du Rhône Villages, £4.62, and the 2006 Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon, a mouthful of blackcurrant at £3.18.

Sainsbury's, too, is making much of its new range of wines at 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, at £3.99, while the Australian chardonnay at £3.67 has plenty of tropical flavour.

And the reds? Red can be difficult at under £4, but the 2007 Montepulciano gives a fair, gluggy mouthful of plummy fruit at £3.99, as do the damsony Sainsbury's Portuguese Red NC Vinho de Mesa, £3.29, and the 2007 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 to expect a Spanish red, white and rosé, in litre Tetrapaks, hitting 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 whatever happened to drinking better, but less?