Berry's Good Ordinary Claret

Once upon a time, the British used to drink a lot blended non-vintage wine. Before we joined the EEC, "authentic" wines were regular doctored to the detriment of their authenticity, but perhaps to make them more drinkable. In champagne and port, it is still normal to blend different years to give a consistent flavour. For table wine, the practice seemed to die out as wine became more popular, as one of the easiest things to grasp was that wine without a date on the front was less fancy than "vintage".

Of course, I've no idea whether Berry's GOC is a blend from different years or vineyards. It just doesn't have a date on the front, and is reputedly very consistent. It's their best-selling wine.

We were very favourably impressed. For £5.50 a bottle, it has a reasonably rich nose, and good depth of flavour. It had a delicious, sensational start, but didn't seem to develop as we went through the bottle, not being particularly complex. You could see why they've recently brought out an Extraordinary Claret at £11, but that is for a different purpose.

We'll be getting through the remaining 2 bottles pretty quickly, and going back for more.