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As with days in a long weekend, toppings on a pizza Margherita and my favourite entrée, pork “three ways,” good things often come in trios. This accounts for the multiple bottle shots accompanying the column this week. Most weeks from now on, I will single out three choices instead of the previous one.

The urge had been building for a time. For better or worse, people pay undue attention to photos. I do, which is why I snagged a copy of the current GQ with January Jones on the cover despite its relatively weak (even for the new GQ) editorial content.

I'll feature an “affordable” bottle typically costing less than $15, a splurge-worthy selection that could set you back more than a business-class flight to the region where it was grown and a third choice highlighting a distinguished domestic product of the week.

While I'm unveiling this new visual concept, I'd like to clarify something. By saying a wine is “splurge-worthy,” I do not mean to encourage irrational spending on silly-money alcohol. You're wasting enough income as it is on dwindling pension plans. The no-price-ceiling feature is a place for me to highlight transcendent hedonistic hooch that, I hope, you won't be sorry you bought when the cork finally comes off. You alone must decide whether it fits your budget, social aspirations or plane of reality.

My splurge selection this week is an example of the restraint I hope to apply. I chose a $21.95 Vacqueyras, which some readers will consider a humble house-wine candidate. I toyed with featuring Sassicaia 2006, a superb vintage of the famous Italian cabernet, which is being released today in Ontario at $184.95. It's a fabulous wine (more on that later). But I couldn't pass up shining the flashbulb on the Vacqueyras, which represents an even better quality-price ratio. It's a luxury-wine value, if that makes any sense. More Lexus than Lamborghini.

Ontario Vintages stores today are brimming with selections from southern France. There are great values in the mix, many from the fine 2007 vintage in the southern Rhône Valley. These are medium-to-full-bodied, earthy, herbal reds with lots of character and only the slightest bit of oak influence. They are versatile wines that I believe you could serve without apology to virtually anyone, even connoisseurs accustomed to spending lots more.

The best buy is Les Vignerons du Castelas Côtes du Rhône 2007 ($13.95, product No. 142125). Showing good concentration, this blend of syrah and grenache teeters back and forth between dry and juicy, with a thin blanket of fine tannins and satisfying herbal notes on the finish.

A small notch up is Château de Fontenelles Cuvée Notre Dame Corbières 2007 ($16.95, No. 106518). A deep, opaque-purple colour presages big concentration in this syrah-grenache, with rich, almost sweet dark-fruit flavour tricked up by notes of licorice, new leather and herbs. Good now, it might be best after three to five years in the cellar.

Also very fine at the same price is Domaine de la Grande Bellane Côtes du Rhône Villages Valréas 2007 ($16.95, No. 100578). Lots happening in this little wine: cherry, notes of toasty, spicy old wood, even a vague hint of marijuana – the sweet stuff of 1970s rock concerts I attended, not hydroponic West Coast zombie tobacky.

The standout of the southern France offerings is Pierre Amadieu La Grangelière Vacqueyras 2007 ($21.95, No. 76398). Full-bodied, it's perfectly ripe and succulent, with a dense core of dark-skinned fruit, good structure and herbal-spice overtones.

And in this context I should mention a red released last month in Ontario and available more widely across the country, Coudoulet de Beaucastel 2007 ($29.95, No. 48884) from the famous Perrin family of Château de Beaucastel and la Vieille Ferme.

Exhibiting the fruit ripeness you'd expect from the sunny 2007 season, it's full-bodied, silky and brimming with herbal notes.

As for that Sassicaia 2006 , it's voluptuous and more accessible in its youth than typical vintages of this wine, creamy, with a satisfying cassis core, formidable but well-integrated tannins. Approachable now, it's got the elegance of structure and tannins to improve for perhaps 20 years.

My domestic standout this week is a Niagara white I recently poured for Gary Vaynerchuk, the YouTube wine superstar, who was visiting Toronto to publicize his motivational business book Crush It! Gary said very flattering things off-camera about Malivoire Moira Chardonnay 2007 ($39.95 through www.malivoire.com). He called it Chablis-like. I like its round, fleshy feel on the mouth, ample pear and citrus fruit, restrained buttery-toasty quality and balancing acidity. Excellent Canadian chardonnay. Excellent domestic pick of the week.

Picks of the week

The deal

A blend of syrah and grenache, Les Vignerons du Castelas Côtes du Rhône 2007 ($13.95, product No. 142125) shows good concentration, teetering back and forth between dry and juicy, with a thin blanket of fine tannins and satisfying herbal notes on the finish.

The splurge

Full-bodied, ripe and succulent, Pierre Amadieu La Grangelière Vacqueyras 2007 ($21.95, No. 76398) has a dense core of dark-skinned fruit, good structure and herbal-spice overtones.

The domestic

An excellent Canadian white, Malivoire Moira Chardonnay 2007 ($39.95 through www.malivoire.com) has a round, fleshy feel on the mouth, ample pear and citrus fruit, restrained buttery-toasty quality and balancing acidity.