Yesterday, we bought 10 bottles of wine for 45¢. Felt a bit like shoplifting, really.

Safeway has a newish program called “Everyday Rewards”, where shoppers get an orange card, and we swipe it to get cents per litre off at the fuel pump. Apparently, every time we swiped it, we were also entered into a store-wide draw for a $150 voucher, redeemable anywhere owned by Woolworth’s (not just Safeway). We found out about this weekly draw when we won it, and got a letter in the mail with a $150 voucher in it. Very nice. Rather than spending it on dull, everyday, useful, grownup stuff like groceries or Diesel, we decided to go on a small shopping spree at Dan Murphy’s – owned by Woolworths.

Here’s what we got:

From left to right, in descending order of cost:

• Pepperjack 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon. We’ve had this one before, and Dan’s were nice enough to cellar these already, so it’s probably fine to drink right about now.
• 2x Chortle’s Edge 2006 Shiraz. This is the second label from Blackjack Wines, a Bendigo-based winery that can do no wrong. We’ve never tried this one, but being that it’s from Blackjack, it can’t be horrible.
• 9th Island 2007 Pinot Noir. We had the 2006 or maybe 2005 version of this a little while back, and enjoyed it.
• Penley Estate Phoenix 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon. Not really sure why we picked this one.
• Ingoldby 2003 Shiraz. Again, not sure why we picked this one, aside from the fact it was pre-cellared.
• Whitebox 2005 Shiraz. This was a total punt. Some guy walking past us at Dan’s recommended the one next to it, but it got us reading labels. We already opened it – not bad really.
• Grand Saint-André 2006 Rosé. Because we wanted a rosé.
• Paul Mas 2007 Sauvignon Blanc. Dan’s used to have a delightfully average French white (vin de pays d’ocs) as a cleanskin – we couldn’t find it. It’s handy to have some average white wine around, especially now that summer approacheth.
• Maddens Lane 2006 Sangiovese. We bought it because it was $5. Morbid curiosity, perhaps? It was horrible. Luckily, our cask of red cooking wine is almost empty, so we now have an understudy.

Add to this the case of Blackjack’s 2006 release that arrived a few days ago, and we’re set for a while now.