Yes, I’m cheap when it comes to wine. Very cheap. Because quite a few years before I discovered wine I discovered, thanks to grade two arithmetic, that you could have two $10 bottles for the same price as one $20 bottle.

Good $10 (U.S.) bottles of wine are scarcer than red kidney beans in San Miguel de Allende. But they do get a little easier to find in January. For that’s when San Miguel supermarket Soriano has their 2 for 1.5 specials or, according to my grade six arithmetic, 25% off every bottle sale.

Now good wines are slim pickings at Soriano but the January sale is on every bottle in the shop and, as everyone who’s ever attended a high school dance knows, there are always roses amongst the thorns. I found four reds that I really like (unfortunately, white lovers, I found nothing for you). Here are the reds:

Campo Viejo Rioja Tempranillo. 170 pesos less 25%.

Campo Viejo has been my “go to” Rioja for at least 20 years and I may have written about it more than any other wine. This vintage, the 2013, recently won a prestigious and very competitive World Wine Award.

There are wonderful flavors of plum, cherry and vanilla from this best selling Spaniard.

Montevina Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot. 114 pesos less 25%.

This is the wine I drink when I’m wearing the red, green and white on my heart. It’s made from grapes grown in the Valle de Parras about 200 miles west of Monterrey, in North/Central Mexico. There is documentation of wine being made there as early as the sixteenth century, making it the oldest winery in the Americas and many of the grapes grown today in California and Chile can be traced back to the Valle de Parras.

Montevina is 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot. A Bordeaux style blend like this would normally spend some time in oak barrels. Montevina is, however, fermented exclusively in stainless steel tanks resulting in flavors that have little depth, fewer intricacies, less elegance. What this wine does have, however, is bushels of fruit.

And 88 pesos is actually much closer to a fin than it is a sawbuck (love that currency slang I learned watching The Untouchables).

Las Moras Cabernet Sauvignon Syrah Reserva. 170 pesos less 25%.

The use of Syrah (or Shiraz) in combination with Cabernet Sauvignon are strange bedfellows but they really work here. The fruits and tannins, from time spent in French and American oak barrels, are nicely balanced. There are hints on the nose and palate of Mediterranean spices.

I’m not sure how long the Argentinean winery Finca Las Moras has been producing this blend but I only discovered it recently. It tastes even better at this price.

Ionos Red. 169 pesos less 25%.

It always amazes me to find Greek wines in Mexico but there’s a distributor called Vinos Griegos who is, obviously, very good at their job.

Ionos combines my favorite native Greek red grape Agiorgitiko with another native red, Mavro Kalabrytino, and the more well known Syrah.

The result is a low alcohol but nice and jammy red that makes me want to call Greece On Wheels and order a moussaka to pair it with.

After I did my major stock up today and arrived home from Soriano, I was so proud of all my savings that I woke up Don Day’s Wife from her afternoon nap.

“Look, Honey, I just saved 803 pesos on wine”, I said proudly as I showed her the bill.

“No, Honey”, said Don Day’s Wife, “you just spent 2400 pesos on wine. And did you remember to pick up the coffee?”

You can probably guess the answer to that last question.

Soriano Super is located at Centro Comercial Plaza La Luciernaga in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.