There was a time when vignerons made wine, stores stocked it and customers bought it - or not, according to their tastes. Then along came Marketing and everything changed.

The Australians have had the greatest success, partly by that most effective ploy of making a very enjoyable product, supported by straightforward, attractive labelling in which the grape variety is easy to identify.

However, in the fight to make products stand out in a competitive market more ingenious gimmicks have been tried.

You may remember Great White, a very pleasant white wine with a label which reacted to temperature changes.

When the bottle had been in the fridge long enough a picture of a great white shark appeared to indicate that the wine was ready to drink.

The South Americans are not to be outdone and Lo Tengo Malbec from Argentina features a hologram-like label showing the legs of tango dancers which move as the bottle moves. The wine is enjoyable too.

Now the Californian producer, Fetzer, has come up with a gimmick which looks rather useful. In July Sainsburys will be selling the Valley Oaks Syrah ros in a Cool-Air tube. Although it makes attractive packaging it does more: it's supposed to provide sufficient insulation to keep the wine cool for "three to four times as long as conventional packaging".

I'm not sure exactly how long that is, but if you're going on a picnic or are barbecuing it should prove to be very handy. Even so, the most important fact is that the big fat fruity wine inside the bottle makes delicious summer drinking and is fairly priced at £5.99.

By far the most important marketing ploy is the special discount on prices. Recent market research has shown that only a small amount of the Australian wine bought in supermarkets is bought at full price. Shoppers find those buy one get one free offers and whopping reductions irresistible.

The snag is that the full price often seems wildly inflated. However, there are some definitely worthwhile offers out there. The Fetzer ros, for example, can be had for £4.49 at Morrisons until 10th July, and will be on offer at Tesco's from 6th July.

Another seductive discount at Morrisons is on the wines of leading Chilean producer, Montes Alpha. The golden, oaked Chardonnay is reduced from £9.99 to £6.99, but the star is the Cabernet Sauvignon with £4 off the £10.99 price tag.

The 2002 vintage is a dense, brooding wine which is capable of ageing, but its deep, ripe minty fruit and soft tannins hit all the taste buds in a way which makes it irresistible. More gimmicks of this quality, marketeers, please.