£5.99 (on offer) Waitrose, £6.50 (on offer) Sainsbury's
This plush, generous Cape Shiraz is good value at its full price of £8.49 and a steal at the current offer price – and it's so well balanced and structured that, carefully stored, it'll keep for at least three or four years.
It ripples with perfumed plum and black fruit and a savoury side that takes in dark chocolate, black olive, baking spices and fresh damp earth and it’s framed by velvet-soft tannins and discreet, toasty French oak.
The man behind it and the rest of Boekenhoutskloof's portfolio of excellent wines, including the cult The Chocolate Block, is Marc Kent. This wine is from Swartland, where Shiraz (aka Syrah) thrives, but the winery is in Franschhoek and the Porcupine Ridge range takes its name from the porcupines who inhabit the forest and fynbos around the winery
It's an ideal red for baked lamb shanks with anchovies and herbs, other warming slow-cooked dishes – roasts, casseroles and tagines, whether meat, veg or pulse-based – and is good with grills and barbecued food, too. 14.7%.
Boekenhoutskloof Porcupine Ridge Shiraz 2021, Swartland, South Africa
£5.99, for delivery or collection until 14 February 2023, Waitrose;
£6.50 on offer, Sainsbury's (the website currently describes it as Cabernet Sauvignon but I'm assured that it is the Shiraz)