Until the end of the month, Oddbins has a pair of enticing clarets, a Graves Rouge 1995 (pounds 3.99) from the distinguished house of Cordier and Chateau La Mouleyre St-Emilion 1994 (pounds 4.99). Southern French in origin but a Really Useful alternative to Lord Lloyd Webber’s mortgage-busting Burgundies is Marks & Spencer’s Pinot Noir Vin de Pays d’Oc 1994 at pounds 4.99: punchy, good body, a taste of soft fruits, long in the mouth. Not good enough for his Lloydship, perhaps, but fine by me.For those whose great hopes are white, the Co-op has Peter Lehmann Chenin Barossa Valley Blanc 1996 (pounds 3.99), possessing the fresh, fruity zing you associate with this wine, plus a decent bit of acidity. It’s robust enough to stand up to salmon and other meaty fish, and very good at the price. Safeway’s Pinot Grigio Delle Venezie 1996 (pounds 4.29) is the exception (see page 59) to the rule that Italian wine fails to hit the spot below pounds 5 It has refreshingly clean flavours with real fruit punch. Drink it right now, as an aperitif, or with fish or shellfish.And perhaps the best bargain of them all is the Laroche Grande Cuvee Chardonnay 1995, from the Languedoc-Roussillon region of southern France. This was one of the Wines of the Year in the 1996 Wine Magazine International Wine Challenge.

I tasted it recently and can see why: it’s a bit like a lemon tart, lusciously sweet and crisply citric at the same time, and at pounds 5 or so a bottle (from Budgens and elsewhere), it can embarrass some white Burgundies costing twice as much. If Lord Whatsit’s next show turns out to be a flop, he’d do well to lay in a few cases of the stuff.. The news that Britain has ceased to be a nation of tea drinkers may come as a surprise to some, but for coffee aficionados – whose favourite beverage now accounts for the largest share of the hot drinks market – the burning issue is: where can you get a decent cup if you don’t make it yourself?

The Test
We concentrated on so-called gourmet coffee chains with at least three outlets in London and expansion plans. Readers outside the capital will probably notice outlets of most chains mentioned here in towns such as Oxford, Cambridge, Birmingham and Edinburgh within the next year, if not already.We restricted the test to the most popular takeaway coffee – cappuccino. Unfortunately, lack of understanding of the cappuccino’s traditional content (one third espresso coffee, one third steamed milk, one third foamed milk) means sub-standard versions are all too common.

We looked for flavour, texture, availability of variations such as skimmed milk or decaffeinated coffee, as well as pleasant service.The PanelThe expert on our panel James Hors-field, whose career in the sophisticated Australian coffee takeaway business credits him with having made more than 150,000 cups of coffee over two years, reported feeling “depressed” by the general standard with just one or two notable exceptions. Other tasters included keen coffee drinkers Nick Raffin, Philippa Yeoman, Shelley Grobler, myself and 10 other friends and colleagues, many of whom said they were fed up with the coffee they bought near their offices and were glad to be shaken out of their routine to try somewhere new.**Canadian Muffin Company60p for regular (8oz), 10 outlets nationwideBest known for their American-style muffins, the Canadian Muffin Com- pany was damned with faint praise by Mary Jellicoe, who said, “It’s worth going in for the frozen yoghurt.” Testers found the atmosphere “messy”, and the service “friendly, if a tad gormless”. This corresponded with tales of inconsistencies ranging from “so much froth, when the assistant put the lid-with- nipple on, it spurted out all over me” (Nick Raffin) to “so little froth, it looked like a regular coffee” (Philippa Yeo-man). James Horsfield praised the blend (San Marco) and said “it was just a pity there was almost no foamed milk”.***Patisserie Valeriepounds 1 for regular (8oz), 5 outlets in LondonThese French-style cafes major on gorgeous cakes and croissants, with most customers sitting down for a luxurious shopping break, so perhaps it was not surprising that Shelley Grobler noted that she “didn’t feel comfortable walking in and asking for just a takeaway cappuccino.” Other testers appreciated the view of cream confections while they waited, but described the atmosphere as “frenzied”, and were mostly unimpressed by the coffee. A third of the testers found the cappuccino “too weak”, while the others said it was “strong at least”, but “the cup was half full”. Made with Costa Italian Mocha blend, it comes in a cup with a domed lid which didn’t prevent “such a stingy serving of froth that it dissolved” before Philippa Yeoman got it back to her office. Although not the favourite of the panel Patisserie Valerie serves what could be described as genuine Italian coffee – possibly too harsh for the British palate?****Costa Coffeepounds 1 for regular (8oz), 55 outlets nationwideInstantly recognisable by their cartwheel-style tables full of coffee beans under glass, Costa Coffee Boutiques can be found in most mainline train stations and airports as well as the high street, and all the panellists had bought coffee there in the past.

Their assessments placed Costa firmly in the middle band, with generous understanding shown for “10 minute queues in the rush hour” (Janine Duwitzky) “OK, but nothing to shout about,” said James Horsfield. Nick Raffin claimed the longest use of Costa Coffee even though he claimed “the coffee is simply too weak for my taste, and the quality suffers during busy periods.” At other times the coffee was agreed to be very genuine and enjoyable.*****Coffee Republicpounds 1.20 for short (8oz), 3 outlets in LondonFor once, there was no dissension among the panel about which retailer should be the winner of our test. Coffee Republic has only three outlets (more are planned) but testers who walked 15 minutes to find one said “it was worth it – delicious” (Shelley Grobler). Based on the New York- style espresso bar, Coffee Republic outlets are “soothing, light and airy” (Nick Raffin) with wooden floors, hand picked snacks, classical music and more variations of coffee than you could shake a milk jug at. Here, as at Seattle Coffee Company outlets there is the possibility of flavoured cordials such as almond, caramel, hazelnut. The assistants, like our expert James Horsfield, are fully trained baristas – like cocktail barmen for coffee – and he praised their “sympathetic manner and earnest desire to give the customer what he wants.” Philippa Yeoman took “half the office there and they absolutely loved it”. Superlatives followed from other testers, commending the freshness, types of coffee.

Also popular both here and at the Seattle Coffee Company was the incentive scheme whereby loyalty is rewared by a free coffee after every ten cups.**Pret A Manger99p for regular (10oz), 51 outlets nationwideSeen as “innovative in the Eighties but now pretty much middle of the road, and I’m sick of all that stainless steel on the floor and walls – it’s like walking into a washing machine drum” (Janine Duwitzky), the Pret chain was liked for its quick service, positioning “on just about every street corner” and, irrelevantly, “variety of sandwiches, snacks and drinks”. “The one thing that could improve is their coffee,” wrote Nick Raffin. “The foam has the texture of congealed marine water on the beach,” complained Shelley Grobler. James Horsfield diagnosed the problem as being one of automation, “Wherever you go, all Pret coffee looks and tastes the same. This is because the staff press a button and out comes your coffee. It feels as if it has come from an office vending machine.” I was impressed by the boldness with which Pret’s MD, Julian Metcalf publishes his phone number on every bag. I phoned him up; unsurprisingly, he wasn’t there, but a conciliatory woman took note of my comments.