My Round: Richard Ehrlich hits the sales

It's always good to begin a column on a strong note, so I'll do what I'm best at: apologising. I am about to recommend a wine that's on promotion only till tomorrow. It isn't my fault, honest. Indeed, it really isn't anyone's fault. The wine forms part of a French promotion at Wine Rack which was organised before the wine was shipped, and shipping delays meant that it's arrived in stores only recently.

Anyway, I feel compelled to mention it now because it is simply too good to ignore. Les Quatre Cépages 2003, Domaine Tariquet, is a Vin de Pays des Côtes de Gascogne which won a trophy in last spring's Vins de Pays Top 100. Regular readers may remember that I wrote about the competition at the time, having done some judging for it, but lamented the difficulty of obtaining some of the best wines in the UK. Well, this one - a remarkable collection of startlingly unusual but well-knitted fruit flavours - was taken on by Wine Rack at £7.99, and that's a fair price. But if you go along there today or tomorrow, you will get a full 40 per cent off (£4.79). At this price, the wine is a no-brainer: buy a case of it.

Promotional prices are on my mind at the moment for another reason: Oddbins has announced that, from tomorrow, it will no longer be offering discounts on single bottles of wine. Promotional pricing is one of the linchpins of the UK wine market, giving a substantial number of customers their principal reason to buy one wine rather than another. No major retailer can make light of the decision to drop out.

To be sure, Oddbins isn't dropping out of promotional pricing altogether. It will still offer its excellent multi-buy deals on champagne, and it will also be giving a 20 per cent discount on six or more bottles of wines that are exclusive to Oddbins - and that accounts for around 80 per cent of its range.

But the most interesting aspect of this plan is that Oddbins will use the change to lower prices on many of its wines. Yes, lower prices. Oddbins can do this because it's not trimming margins on all those promoted wines, and it wants, as press spokeswoman Claudia Brown puts it, "to have a fair and honest pricing policy that truly reflects the value of the product that our customers are buying".

To take just one example from its current range: Los Cabos 2005, Cariñena, a Spanish Grenache-dominated blend of fine quality, was £5.49 under the old pricing. From tomorrow it's £4.99. And, if you buy six (which is worth doing), then the price per bottle comes down to a ludicrous £3.99.

It's well known that some producers give their wines an inflated price so they can offer them at discounts and thus seem to be offering "a bargain". The practice is loathsome, giving consumers a false view of the price/value ratio which means everything in wine. When the wines are good, and when retailers accept a lower profit margin - as in Threshers' regular three-for-the-price-of-two offers - it's a fair practice. But when a crappy Australian Chardonnay is sent out at £6.99 and then offered everywhere for £3.99, consumers are tricked.

Will Oddbins' move pay off? It's betting on it, expecting higher sales especially from that 20 per cent discount on bulk purchases. I wish it well - and hope that its initiative hammers a small nail into the coffin of the UK wine trade's promotional frenzy. Airborne porkers are more likely to be seen, but we live in hope.

Great aperitifs

La Gitana Manzanilla (£6.49-£6.99, Waitrose, Sainsbury's, Majestic) Classic nutty, tangy flavours.

Oudinot Champagne Vintage 2001 (£14.99 from £19.99, M&S) A Blanc de Blancs already showing hints of maturity.

Bethany Riesling 2004 (£6.49, Majestic) Rich citrus scent far better than the price would suggest.