Unless you're a bit of a wine connoisseur, it can be difficult to know how much to spend on a bottle of wine from the supermarket. Choose a bottle which has £2 off, I always think, and if you're taking wine to a friend's place, phone your parents for some advice.
However, one expert has now recommended an ideal amount to spend - and he reckons it's a straight tenner.
"A lot of the things you get in a bottle of wine are fixed prices. The tax you pay in the UK is the same on every bottle, no matter how expensive," former Waitrose executive Mark Price tells the Daily Mail. "The cost of the glass is roughly the same and the transport is probably the same. So if you buy a bottle of wine for £5, the value of the wine inside that bottle is just under 50p. It’s actually 47p."
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But if you spend £10 on a bottle of wine, Price says, the value of the wine inside rises to a shade under £3. Essentially, you're spending twice as much for a wine that's actually six times the quality.
Explaining why £10 is the perfect "sweet spot" to spend, Price also tells the Daily Mail: "If you go up to £20 a bottle, the quality of the wine is about seven or eight pounds. So it is better, but you're effectively doubled up."
So there we have it: it's probably better to spend a little more, but not too much more on your next bottle of wine. But if you do find yourself stuck with a bottle that tastes more Wetherspoons than Harvey Nicks wine bar, may we suggest this simple trick that might just save it?
Allow us, too, to recommend some of our favourite wines on a budget.