Something For The Weekend:

Volcanica Aglianico - 2000 Plantagenet Omrah Shiraz - 2001 Inycon Grecanico

Saturday

2000 Snake Creek Semillon Sauvignon £4.99, Oddbins

Comes under Oddbins' very own Snake Creek banner because, true to its name, Oddbins has nabbed an 'odd bin' from the Pipers Brook winery in Tasmania. Bottling the wine in screwcap has helped keep the aromas fresh and lively and the Tazzie Graves-style blend rich in lipsmackingly ripe, gooseberryish fruit. Perfect with mild Thai curry.

2000 Volcanica Aglianico £4.49, down from £4.99, Waitrose, £4.99, Safeway

Textbooks will tell you that aglianico is a tannic, southern Italian grape. While there's certainly a degree of southern robustness in the powerful alcohol and gutsy tannins, they're more than adequately compensated by the seamlessly rounded black fruit flavours in this pasta- and pizza-friendly rosso from Basilicata.

Sunday

2000 Plantagenet Omrah Shiraz £6.39 down from £7.99 until Tuesday), Somerfield top 200 stores

From the relatively cool Western Australian region of Mount Barker, this is a typically peppery Aussie shiraz – the perfect foil for a traditional Sunday roast pork or beef. The fine, unoaked 2001 Omrah Chardonnay is also discounted, from £6.99 to £5.59.

Any day

2001 Inycon Grecanico £3.99, Tesco

Tesco has a limited parcel of this smartly packaged Italian dry white, which is made in Sicily by Carlo Corino, who cut his winemaking teeth in Australia. It's an aromatic dry white, made entirely from the native grecanico grape and is stainless steel fermented to retain maximum fresh fruit character. Goes down a treat with fish and chips.