Majestic's prices are a minefield for a reporter like me. All the figures listed in the following pages were correct when this book was in preparation, but take them with a pinch of salt. The chances are that most of them are way above what you will actually be asked to pay. Majestic's perpetual discounts, based on the multibuy principle of buy two bottles get 20 per cent or more off, cover a large proportion of the list at any one time, and regularly operate on a region- or nation-of-origin basis - buy any two wines from the Languedoc, Australia or Spain or wherever and get 20 per cent off.
Given that there is a minimum purchase at Majestic, buying two bottles of the same wine is hardly a problem. And in case you haven't heard, that minimum is now six bottles rather than the dozen with which the company persisted for its first 30 years or so, bringing in the change in time for the recession-bruised Christmas of 2009. Majestic profits have continued to burgeon ever since.
Asked by The Sunday Times to account for the extraordinary success of his business, Majestic's managing director Steve Lewis replied that he likes to 'wake up every morning and work out what the boss of every big supermarket really doesn't want Majestic to do - then do it'.
I fully acknowledge that Majestic is not a supermarket, but in a guide like this, I cannot omit it. The range of wines is bigger than any of the supermarkets' and there is no padding with indifferent brands. There are fine wines, all the way up to classed growth clarets, of a kind unknown to supermarket lists. The advice from staff is generally excellent, and well qualified.
The network of branches now numbers 153 but to buy the wines you need not even stir. Three or four times a year there is a new, comprehensive price list which you can peruse at home, then simply phone your nearest branch and order for delivery at no extra charge for a dozen or more bottles. If you prefer to order online, www.majestic.co.uk is one of the most user-friendly websites of them all.
Red wines
Australia
9 Yalumba Bush Vine Grenache 2008 £9.49
Toasty, toffee-hinting, poised, yummy-fruit Barossa easy-drinker with long spiced flavours and 14.5% alcohol.
8 Jim Barry The Lodge Hill Shiraz 2007 £9.99
Deep maroon Clare Valley blackberry monster with 14.5% alcohol is very well balanced.
9 D'Arenberg Dead Arm Shiraz 2006 £25.00
Famous McLaren Vale wine is thrillingly long and lush with what I cannot resist calling a firm grip, and 15% alcohol. Is it worth the astronomical price? Yes.
Chile
8 Adobe Merlot 2008 £7.49
Well-focused chocolate-and-cherry organic tightly finishing balanced wine.
8 De Martino 347 Vineyards Carmenère Reserva 2008 £7.49
Blueberry fruit with a tangy edge forms the core of this tastebud-grabber - good sticky-pasta-matcher.
9 Novas Winemaker's Selection Syrah 2007 £12.49
Exciting, silky, bright-fruit green-edged style to an organic 14.5% alcohol wine I felt was what Crozes-Hermitage aspires to be, but rarely is. Really like this.
France
8 Alain Grignon Carignan Vieilles Vignes 2009 £6.99
Eager young Hérault picnic red is light in colour and weight, with endearing sunny fruitiness.
8 Domaine Sainte Rose La Garrigue Syrah Grenache 2007 £6.99
Spicy smooth black fruit middleweight (though with 14% alcohol) does have some of the thyme and rosemary flavour elements associated with the Garrigue.
10 La Grille Pinot Noir 2008 £6.99
Worthy successor to the 2007 top-scorer from St-Pourçain in the Loire, this is pale, cool and elegant with a leafy-green freshness highlighting the pure, poised raspberry silky fruit; a distinctive style that is such good value - try it cool with chicken dishes.
8 Vallée Blanche Malbec 2009 £6.99
Languedoc wine reminiscent of the leathery Argentine style turns out to have a lot of juicy cassis fruit. Friendly.
8 Plan de Dieu Côtes du Rhône Villages 2007 £7.99
Snap these 2007 CdRs up while they last - this one has a nice green-pepper note to the spicy red-fruit aroma and flavour, and 14% alcohol.
9 Beaujolais Villages Château de Terrière 2009 £8.99
There's hope for Beaujolais yet as this spiffing purple sparky rhubarb and raspberry bouncer from the vaunted 2009 harvest (best vintage since 1978, I've heard) amply demonstrates. Lovely juicy wine.
8 Morgon Château de Pizay 2009 £8.99
Remarkably dense purply-black and gripping, quite weighty but typically juicy Gamay fruit in this serious Beaujolais. It will evolve for a year or two.
9 Bourgueil Les Cent Boisselées Pierre-Jacques Druet 2003 £9.99
Where else would you find wine like this? A mature Loire classic with browning colour, delicious mellow coffee-and-prune Cabernet Franc fruit full of lipsmacking life.
8 Château du Haut-Plateau 2007 £9.99
Firm and robust Montagne-St-Emilion (Bordeaux) has hallmark cedar notes and long, slinky, Merlot-dominated black fruit. Good now and will develop.
9 Château St-Colombe 2004 £9.99
Nicely mature Côtes de Castillon (Bordeaux) has a very expensive aroma and long, sleek artful toasty-oak fruit flavours. Posh claret at a good price.
8 Saumur Champigny Château de Targé 2007 £9.99
Richly ripe and dark leafy-fresh Loire Cabernet Franc is substantial and delivers a real rush of purply flavours.
8 Château Grivière 2001 £11.99
A Médoc (Bordeaux) cru bourgeois with a proper enticing 'old claret' nose and poised, sleek fruit.
8 Volnay Labouré Roi 2006 £11.99
Bright, earthy, authentic red burgundy from a big negoçiant is a treat - you don't see much Volnay at this price.
8 Beaune 1er Cru Louis Jadot 2005 £19.99
Big-name, big-price burgundy from an exceptional vintage is still vigorously fruity and tannic with a lively citrus edge. Safe buy for a special occasion.
Italy
9 I Monili Primitivo del Tarantino 2009 £6.24
Easy-drinking Puglian juicy black fruit wine has refreshing new-squished fruit fl avours and artful balance, finishing ideally dry.
8 Polago Vallesanta 2008 £7.49
Intense briary umbrian red, largely from the Sangiovese grape of Chianti, is juicily fruity and balanced.
8 I Satiri Salice Salentino Riserva 2005 £8.49
Colour is browning in this splendid old dark, even burnt, heel-of-Italy brimstone red with roasty oak and a great dry nutskin finish.
9 La Casetta di Ettore Righetti Valpolicella Classico Superiore Ripasso 2006 £14.99
I have admired this sumptuous Verona rarity for years, progessively despairing at its escalting price, but it is superb - dark and silky, plumply supple and youthful even at this age, and no doubt immortal.
New Zealand
8 Craggy Range Te Kahu 2009 £13.74
Big minty Merlot-Cabernets blend from Gimblett Gravels, Hawke's Bay, is rich, slick and satisfying.
South Africa
8 Kanonkop Pinotage 2007 £16.99
Famed Stellenbosch indigenous wine has a typical tarmac whiff, rich new-oak smoothness, but well-defined hedgerow-fruit flavours and 14% alcohol; a worthy flag-flyer for the Cape.
Spain
8 Berberana Classico 1877 Reserva 2005 £7.99
From the DO of Mentrida near Madrid, this is a sweetly oaked, plausible (but not unconvincing) long-aged bargain in the Rioja style.
8 Priorat Mas de Subira 2006 £12.99
Emerging Catalan cult region is well represented by this dense ritzy red spiced with cloves, truffles and mint at what is a relatively modest price for Priorat. Reminds me of good Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and has 14.5% alcohol.
USA
8 Robert Mondavi Pinot Noir 2008 £14.99
Intense earthy-raspberry creamy-oaked slinky classic with scary but undetectable 15.5% alcohol needs to have the £5 discount that applied when I tasted it.
Pink wines
Chile
8 Viña Leyda Costero Pinot Noir Rosé 2009 £8.69
Colour is close to red, but it tastes convincingly pink, with ripe but fresh and dry raspberry fl avours edged with a distinct grapefruit acidity.
France
9 La Grille Pinot Noir Rosé 2009 £6.99
Salmon colour, whiff of summer pudding and fresh keen flavour in this delightful Loire pink.
8 Commanderie de Payrassol Rosé 2009 £9.99
Dry but not austere Côtes de Provence with firm strawberry element and a nice balance of fruit and freshness. Elegant.
Italy
7 Cavalchina Estate Bardolino Chiaretto 2009 £8.74
Coral-coloured, soft cherry-fruit pink is borderline sweet and rather expensive at full price.
Spain
8 Muga Rioja Rosado 2009 £8.99
Nice bold crunchy red fruit finishing dry, made with a mix of black Garnacha and Tempranillo and Viura.
White wines
Australia
8 Peter Lehmann Riesling 2008 £8.69
Don't let the naff nymphet label put you off this fine, bracing, limey food wine - rice dishes and fish.
8 Kangarilla Road Chardonnay 2009 £10.99
McLaren Vale perennial is reliably ripe, toasty and alive with sweet-apple fruit. Price is escalating, though.
Chile
10 Concha y Toro Late Harvest Sauvignon Blanc 2006 37.5cl £5.99
During these terrible economic times in Broken Britain, we all need to spend more time at home with a wine like this. It is a sublime honeyed pud wine to sip very chilled as an aid to contemplation of the resourcefulness of mankind and the marriage of agriculture and artistry that creates a wine like this at a price ordinary mortals can afford.
8 Adobe Chardonnay 2009 £7.49
Big crunchy apple organic wine with 14% alcohol.
8 Viña Leyda Costero Riesling 2009 £8.74
Nicely extracted limey dry Riesling in the Aussie manner (as distinct from German) has brisk apple fruit.
8 Winemaker's Lot Viognier Lo Ovalle Vineyard 2009 £9.49
Insinuating mellow apricot fruit is nicely balanced with a keen citrus acidity; 14% alcohol.
8 Errazuriz Wild Ferment Chardonnay 2008 £10.99
I suppose this wine is a bit obvious, with its rich peachy fruit, lush creamy texture and heady 14% alcohol, but I like it just the same, and admire the brave use of wild rather than cultured yeasts.
France
9 Domaine de la Tourmaline Muscadet de Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie 2009 £6.99
Top example of the briny Loire mussel-matcher is bone-dry but racing with grassy-lush fruit. Hearty and substantial.
8 Domaine Ste Rose Le Vent du Nord 2008 £6.99
Attractive mélange from Roussanne and Chardonnay in the vin de pays d'Oc has creamy oak and lemon tang - good food white.
8 La Grille Cool-Fermented Chenin Blanc 2009 £6.99
Sherbet, honey and tangy lime are all to be found in this charming Loire dry white with just 11% alcohol.
9 La Grille Touraine Sauvignon Blanc 2009 £6.99
Limey twang fi nishes this lovely vivid Loire refresher.
8 Sancerre Les Baudières 2009 £10.99
Meadow fruit and freshness in this pebble-dry but intriguingly complex classic Loire Sauvignon.
8 Mâcon-Milly-Lamartine Clos du Four 2009 £11.99
From Majestic's darling burgundy dealer Christophe Cordier, a yellow, buttery classic Chardonnay with nice citrus balance.
8 Beaune Blanc 1er Cru du Château, Bouchard Père et Fils, 2006 £19.99
Textbook white burgundy is lush with mineral Chardonnay fruit, rich with toasty, creamy oak contact and from a good, maturing vintage. Safe bet.
Germany
10 Kendermanns Roter Berg Riesling 2007 £5.99
From the people who make Black Tower, a simply fabulous stony, crisp and exuberantly ripe and stimulating dry wine of huge charm from the Rheinpfalz just across the border from Alsace. It stuck out a mile, and is terrific value. On the day it was on offer at £2 off for two bottles - £3.99 apiece.
Italy
8 Sistina Pecorino 2009 £8.74
From the Marches, Italy's Midlands, a characterful green-fruit, grassy and healthy dry white from the Pecorino grape. Deserves to be better known.
8 Falanghina Terredora 2009 £9.99
Bracing Campania dry wine with a crafty balance of blanched-almond richness and twangy lemon acidity - ideal match for creamy pasta dishes and risottos as well as fish and poultry.
New Zealand
8 Fairhall Cliffs Sauvignon Blanc 2009 £6.24
Bold green glittery Marlborough wine is cheap, at no cost to intensity or interest.
9 Waimea Estate Gewürztraminer 2009 £11.99
Whopping lychee-scented heavyweight with 14% alcohol is in the Alsace vendange tardive style at a fraction of the price, and the balance is perfect - trimmed with a super grapefruit acidity.
8 The Ned Noble Sauvignon Blanc 2009 37.5cl £12.49
In an unstable tall and narrow bottle, a gently sweet 'dessert' wine probably better treated as an aperitif, with a light touch, and an unbeatable name.
8 Saint Clair Pioneer Block 19 Bird Block Sauvignon Blanc 2009 £14.99
Premium single-vineyard Marlborough wine is worth paying for because it has arresting concentration and breadth of fruit.
9 Saint Clair Pioneer Block 10 Twin Hills Chardonnay 2008 £14.99
Love this plush but pebbly creamy-coconut oaked mineral balanced Marlborough Chardy with 14% alcohol. A Kiwi wine through and through, and there's nothing else like it.
8 Cape Crest Sauvignon Blanc 2008 £17.49
By Te Mata of Hawke's Bay, a lovely lush and long Sauvignon-Semillon blend in which new oak works its magic. An experience.
Spain
8 Marqués de Riscal Rueda Blanco 2009 £7.99
Famous Rioja name has branched out successfully with this seaside fresh and boldly fruity Verdejo.
9 Vega de la Reina Verdejo 2008 £7.99
Super-fresh green-grass Verdejo-Sauvignon blend from Rueda with full, assertive crisp orchard fruit. Makes a big impression.
Sparkling wines
Chile
8 Casillero del Diablo Brut Reserva Chardonnay 2008 £5.99
Overt Chardonnay fruit in this brightly flavoured party fizz.
New Zealand
8 Cloudy Bay Pelorus £19.99
Bracing prestige Kiwi fizz is 80/20 Chardonnay/Pinot Noir and a legitimate alternative to champagne, though with little price edge.