We are snobs. We are decadent. And we do look down upon you because you drink wine from Tesco or ASDA and you refuse to pay more than £3.50 for your wine.

Well, if you have this impression of the Wine Rambler then I am here to prove you wrong. Because we do also buy supermarket wine and we do not look down on others who do. The part about the us being snobs is right though.

So here it is, the new category supermarket wine. Under this label, we will focus on wines that you can get from the likes of Sainsbury, Tesco and ASDA, wine that is not necessary always super cheap, but certainly affordable.

Unexpected pleasures are the most enjoyable. We had confidently expected to spend the best part of this first day of the pentecostal holidays stuck in traffic jams. But no, for once we actually managed the early start we always try for and reached the half-stage of our usual drive to the black forest, lake Constance, in good time and in beautiful early-summer sunshine, and what's best: with extra time.

I had had Aufricht, the rising star winery of the region, and arguably the lake's best, in the back of my mind for some time, and clearly, it was now or never: Over bumpy vineyard roads and after some false turns, we reached their gates, and were lucky. They were open for tasting, even for unannounced and slightly car-dishevelled customers.

Looking for an alternative to lemon or vinegar as an acidic ingredient when wine is going to be served? An excellent option is Verjus, that is (literally) green juice from unripely harvested grapes. Compared to vinegar the acid is milder and 'rounder', the flavour is fruity and more complex than that of lemons. Being common in the middle ages it gradually fell into oblivion and gains increasing popularity in the culinary scene only recently. We were curious and tested Austrian Verjus today:

Some short and fairly random notes on wines carried by Mövenpick Weinkeller and offered today in a tasting in their south Munich shop (or rather, temple):

Schubertsche Schlossk. (whatever that stands for...), 07 Herrenberg Riesling Spätlese trocken: Green flavours, tight acidity, somewhat green and bitter.

Schubertsche Schlossk, 08 Riesling Abtsberg Alte Reben trocken: Very spicy smell, fresh green herbs, fairly ripe, fresh. Very good.

Schloss Lieser, 08 Riesling trocken: Typical, slatey smell, but very plush at the same time. Not too refined, but good, fairly priced.

Fritz Haag, 08 Brauneberger Riesling Kabinett trocken: slim, very fresh, great to drink, old school.

At a wedding this weekend a friend approached me with the questions "So what's with this wine thing?" It took me a second to realise that he was curious about the Wine Rambler. More than that he actually wanted to know if I was one of those people who can tell the vintage, vineyard and region of a wine just be sniffing it.

When I pointed out to him that I am most certainly not one of these people (even though I might manage to recognise a Riesling by Theo Haart, a theory that may need to be tested one day), he seemed very pleased. "Good!", he said with quite some emphasis, especially when I told him that our website project was all about the fun. Turns he almost distrusts wine experts and prefers to go for simple reds.