Trick is knowing where to find the right treat..

The really scar y thing this Halloween is the price of decent vino. I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised given there’s not too many things getting cheaper these days.

I’ll not bore you with a rant about the cost of running shoes as I appreciate it’s a little niche. Suffice to say, the days of spending £70 max seem long gone.

With wine, the supermarkets still manage, with big buying power I presume, to get plenty on the shelves at around a tenner. It doesn’t seem that long ago, mind you, that a tenner was a treat bottle.

I still say the independents offer the best variety though, with wines you want to talk about as well as quaff.

I ’m currently eyeing a possible contender for Christmas, yes I did say Christmas, that’s north of a score. Am I insane?! Perhaps. But I’ve an oul car and, notwithstanding the rising price of shoes, a fairly inexpensive hobby.

So, with that in mind, I’d a pricey but interesting lesson in the different styles of Rioja the other night.

A right while back I ’d a belter Reserva called Covila. It was super modern, all brooding fruit and oak I’m pretty sure was French applied with the sort of touch you use to pick up a butterfly.

Fast forward a few months and I opened a bottle of 2014 Vina Alberdi Reserva which was unashamedly old school. Old American oak permeated a rich baked fruit, clovey, spicey Christmas (there it is again) cake extravaganza.

Where the Covila was polished,

the Alberdi was bold as brass. Both are fantastic wines and show us how there’s so much individuality out there.

Many complain, understandably, that wine is losing its regionality, the flavours and aromas that define it as being from what ever hillside facing what ever sea etc etc.

It’s still out there, if you care to look. Fear not, of course, if you just filled the oil tank and it’s a while yet until pay day.

As well as my Rioja odyssey I’d a few nice and cheap, and dirt cheap, Sauv Blancs over recent days which will keep you happy without putting too much of a dent in the bank balance.

Journey ’s End, a decent South African producer, now does a very nice Sauv Blanc at just £9.