MidWeek Wines primary purpose could probably be described as “reviewing entry point supermarket wines”.
Consequently, almost all my efforts go into that segment of the market – to find stand out wines that punch well above their price points .
It is particular rewarding when one of those selections becomes a “gateway” wine.
That is when a High Street version resonates so well with a subscriber that they resolve to find examples of the variety or style further up the price (and, hopefully) quality ladder.
It takes them to what has been dubbed the “Sweet Spot” wine zone.
That is the point at which folk can move clear of most of the “non-stand out” lesser wines that, on price grounds alone, have secured a place in wine aisles.
In short, a place where you can be more confident about purchases yet not spend a king’s ransom.
So, I have assembled half a dozen of those sweet spot wines for you and, just for today, have moved away from High Street wines – although most supermarkets do sell wines in that category.
Since next week sees Scotland’s “Glorious Twelfth” – and, thus, the time when game goes on the menu – I start today with red wines.
As is normal here, pictures and hyperlinks are provided where possible to guide you straight to the right wine on shelf or web page.
So, onto those reds
2023 Cape Vintners Reserve Red (£12.99 at Virgin Wines and 13% abv):
Blending red wines is not just for European winemaking.
Here an accomplished producer (Franschhoek’s JD Rossouw) proves South Africa has similar abilities.
This is achieved by adding three other varieties to a pinotage foundation to get the balance exactly right.
Medium bodied with aromas of dark fruit, the finished article exhibits smooth raspberry, plum and cherry flavours.
These are accompanied by lively acidity, modest tannin and suggestions of vanilla, green herbs and baking spice.
Meanwhile back in Europe.
2024 Altos de Cascán Garnacha (£11.95 at Vintage Roots and 13.5%):
Coming back into Europe – and concentrating on single varietals – here is a garnacha (grenache) from organic wine specialists Vintage Roots.
Helping to optimise value for money, this is from a lesser known region (Aragon in Spain) but an area where garnacha is a dominant variety.
Dark and smooth, it features juicy raspberry, cherry and strawberry flavours enlivened by citrus edged acidity.
Mild tannin and hints of menthol and spice – alongside earthy, savoury elements – complete the picture.
Heading east to Italy
2023 Azienda Uggiano Chianti Roccialta (£11 at WoodWinters and 13%):
Recognising that classically dense red wines with overly chewy tannins are less popular these days, chianti producers are now creating many more medium bodied versions.
Here is one that not only illustrates the middle ground between traditional and lighter examples, but does so with aplomb.
Reasonably firm tannin does figure in this example but never dominates and works well with the good acidity and associated touches of espresso, vanilla, black pepper and thyme.
All those components serve to underpin the wine’s powerful nutty, cherry and mulberry flavours and the appealing black fruit aromas that accompany them.
Next, the whites.
2024 Toscana Bianco Sangiovese, Duca di Saragnano (£12.49 at House of Townend and 12.5%):
We stick with the same grape variety but this time it appears in a rarely encountered format – white sangiovese.
Minimal skin contact means that subtlety and delicate flavours replace the robust fruit and herbal characteristics red versions display.
Don’t be discouraged though because the result here is impressive with inviting aromas drawing you into the wine’s rich quince, apple and white currant flavour range.
There, they combine neatly with orange and tobacco based depth and with sharp grapefruit and lime acidity.
Staying in Italy.
2024 Vigne del Pareto Gavi (£10.99 at Laithwaites and 12%):
Next, we head for another Italian wine region area famed for its substantial red wines – think nebbiolo here.
However, north-west Italy is also home to the subtle and gentle white wines from the cortese grape of Gavi.
This example is a particularly good illustration of its charms, providing ripeness and a lingering finish to enhance its delicate pear, melon and apple flavours.
These are all ably supported by fresh lemon acidity together with suggestions of herbs and an underpinning sea shell savouriness.
Finally, back to the Southern Hemisphere.
2024 Veni Vidi Vici Pedro Ximénez (£11.99 at Virgin Wines and 12.8%):
Much confusion (even involving DNA specialists) surrounds the grape known as Pedro Ximénez or Pedro Jimenez in South America.
That need not detain us here, as we sip this light, dry version from San Juan in Argentina.
Bright with spicy fragrances, it is centred on a foundation of soft greengage, oregano and white pepper flavours.
These are built into a light, saline influenced, texture given verve by fresh orange peel acidity and other citrus hints.
Call in again on Monday when the spotlight falls on Top Tips that offer especially good value at a High Street store near you.
13 responses
Hi Brian,
Terrific choices today,some of which I will be following up.
I am finding that the qualities that I want in wine are increasingly found in the £8 to £12 price range and I am more likely to look beyond just supermarket offerings- great though they can be.
Occasionally as a WeekendWine treat I will nudge up even further.
How about a Decanter Platinum award winner and 97 points?
Valminor Albariño 2024 £13.99 on a discount of 15%.
A top choice Atlantic wine- salty,zingy,textured- all the boxes ticked.” Pristine and disarming”.Very good value.
From All about wine, an indie I have found to be reliable and with some great wines available.Delivery charges do apply.
Morning Brian … A comment piece if I may not a million miles away from today’s subject matter when speaking of that which is not entry level/bottom shelf but of the sweeter-spot variety.
Decanter magazine is we are advised, 50 years old! Enjoyable, informative reading, if not an absolute essential it is what many still crave in this digital world in the way of hard copy, glossy reading material with some terrific pictorials. The Decanter land-scape photographs at times are stunning.
But today without personal recrimination I now take that magazine online too, with Readly. My boy has Readly and shares a spare slot for me, as he is allowed. I can have The Guardian and all-else daily with newspapers, your Daily Record Saturday Supplement column Brian (changing location soon you say), and importantly, again, Decanter.
Problematic here it has to be said for me personally reading about so much wine from around the world I could never afford even if I could locate stuff from the many suppliers that are not on the high street.
But there are a few pages every month that I think many British subscribers, amateur hobbyists and wine stuff enthusiasts, do gravitate towards, probably first, called Weekday Wines. As with all recommendations it’s about subjective appraisal. Objectivity may better come into account when we know what are the prices. Usually there’s 3 pages of about 25 bottles of bubbles, rosé, white and red, that then extends to a page of Weekend wines where prices then soar.
All of this is not so far removed from the content and process of Mid Week Wines here. There’s a good list of bottles that are both approachable price-wise usually, readily available in almost all instances. I say usually. If folks don’t live in the north west of England Booths supermarkets may be an unknown quantity; a smaller supermarket chain that has a very good reputation.
Ordering online is easy now even without direct access to retail outlets as you allude to with many of your today’s recommended bottles..
Similarly Waitrose, who seem to think they cannot retail into the poverty stricken north east of England, and they’d be right in part. Only one city centre branch in Newcastle last I looked, 50 miles north, and then 50 miles south, Tadcaster is it? I like Waitrose but have to wait to being in the south at family and then I stock up as I shopped a couple of weeks ago.
But here is the thing that jumped out at me with the 50th Anniversary, August issue of Decanter this time, with the Weekday wine pages.
What a very good marker for the validity in this case of these Decanter calls when we see current proposals that WE have already had here from you Brian and other contributors along the way already on OUR Mid Week Wines. It provides confidence in provenance across the board with lots they propose when they speak so favourably about OUR fave’s here.
And what are some of these bottles?
Costellore Prosecco Dry Rose from Aldi, £6.49 and a mention too for the black label Valdobbiadene Superiore at £7.99.
Then the Waitrose Blueprint Dry Riesling £7.50 I just bought 2 weeks back. (And the Blueprint Romanian Pinot Noir.)
TWS White Rioja 2022 at £9.25,
Corte alle Mure Chianti Riserva 2021 from Lidl at £6.99 … what a call that one is.
Sainsbury’s TTD Bio Bio Pinot Noir £10.
Even the Best Block Series #002 NZ-SB …£14. I might point out re that Best Block stuff, although this Sauvignon IS available in my local store NONE OF THE REST ARE!!!
But here’s the killer, and we heard it HERE FIRST … nearly 2 years ago now. A star that rose! Their value bottle is none other than Eglise St-Jaques Bergerac, NV, from Tesco at £7.75 … simple it says but fantastic value Bordeaux style blend, 86% Merlot, charming and uncomplicated. Bring it on … again!! No argument here at all. LOL …
In the past I’ve noticed that when wines in Decanter get named-checked, often they will go off the shelves fast. That kind of tells its own story about that more likely Decanter subscriber. People who take this relatively exclusive and perhaps a little high-brow publication have no aversion to slumming-it in the lower price supermarket aisles every so often. Such is égalité I suppose and keeping prices down is something that even the well-heeled connoisseurs might indulge in at times as well, as long as what’s in the bottle is a more than decent sweeter spot drop!
I too am an avid reader of Decanter Eddie and, similar to you, my access to each month’s publication is online, in my case via the Libby app which is freely available for anyone registered with the local library. (I think I may have mentioned this before). I’m always keen to check out first what’s recommended in the Weekday Wines section and it’s noteworthy how frequently bottles already discussed on MWW get featured. I share your frustration that recommended wines are frequently not on the shelves when you go to search them out and my assumption is that, as Decanter is a monthly publication and press tastings having taken place some months earlier, avid wine drinkers have already snapped them up on the recommendation of earlier reviews in the press, online etc.
Neverthelss, even if most of the time one can only dream of being able to buy some of the pricey prestigious bottles recommended in the excellent features on different wine regions and styles across the rest of the publication I find I can still learn a lot. Take the panel tasting on Blaufränkisch on p.92 of this month’s 50th anniversary edition. We learn this is a widely planted grape variety in Austria and Central Europe, known by different names across the region – e.g. in Hungary, Kékfrankos and in Slovakia, Frankovka. Amongst the recommended bottles is Eszterbauer, Tanyamacska Kékfrankos, Szekszárd, Pannon, Hungary 2024 which scores a respectable 91 points. It’s just £9.95 from The Wine Society. Strikes me this could be a ‘sweet spot’ wine. It’s on the wishlist for my next WS order !
PS Although the wine above has Kékfrankos (aka Blaufränkisch) on the label, only Kadarka (another Hungarian black grape) is listed under the wine’s description on TWS website. I presume it’s a blend. And incidentally TWS has another exclusive Hungarian wine – Szekszárdi Cuvée, Sebestyen 2020 (£11.50) which is actually described as a “kekfrankos-led blend .. packed with red current fruit, light spice and fine tannins”. I fancy giving that a go too.
Hi Keith
Thanks very much for alerting me to the Wine Society’s Hungarian reds. I shall educate myself with a small order. Incidentally I think the Esterbauer Kékfrankos grape info on the website is a mistake – they also stock a 2023 vintage of an Esterbauer Kardaka and perhaps just carried over the grape entry?
Hi Brian Thanks for that. I however believe Virgin Wines overprice their wines as standard. I used to be a customer and their ‘winebank’ scheme gives about a 20% discount on all their wines. The customer banks a sum every month and VW add 20% to that sum. If I wanted to place an order, my customer advisor would top up my discount if I didn’t have enough in my ‘winebank’. The discounted price therefore generally reflects the actual retail value of any of their wines in my opinion.
Thanks Tim for talking about your experiences. Different retailers do have different systems and some do seem fiendishly complex but those particular wines did seem fair value to me at their list price.
Hello Eddie,
Are you aware that libraries such as Wrexham library have free access to Decanter through the free Press Reader app?
Truly egalitarian- you just need to be a public library member of a participating library.
Update:
The Valminor Albariño is still available at the discount price of £13.99 from All about wine but is for a limited period at a discount of 15%.The early bird catches the worm….
I go to my library close to where I live Paul Davies, to borrow books. I go home and read Decanter magazine at my leisure in the comfort of my own home on , enjoying a glass of wine at the same time. Sorted I think?
… on Readly …
For those wanting a summer rose at an attractive price …
In the Lidl leaflet for 14th – 20th August, they have a 2023 Monalie Cotes des de Provence for £6.99 with Lidl Plus, normally £9.99. This Miraval lookalike has a 90 score from Richard Bampfield, MW, and was reviewed in Decanter, June 2024, with a score of 88 – drinking window 2024-25. Don’t know whether it is in-store at the moment, but the discount is from next Thursday. I sometimes find that Lidl stores are a bit slow indicating a discount on the shelf, but are prompt in applying it at the checkout.
And just to mention more bottles next Thursday of reduced provenance in the shape of Deluxe range South African bottles, Shiraz and Chenin Blanc at £5.99 plus another 88 pointer rose , at £5.79 the Vinho Verde. Sweet spot quality at half that spot price maybe?
Interesting what we just stumble across as we shop, both in the way of general information and products on sale!
I deliberately called into an Aldi yesterday that I was passing to see if I could take advantage of a quite interesting olive oil I’ve had before these last several months of it being occasionally offered as a ”special buy”. They had just started to advertise on-line they had it again.
A store with a very limited range of wine comparatively speaking, it surprised me. Or did it. Located in a known-to-be-poorer housing area in the district their stock was multiple bottles of cheaper-end stuff to occupy what little shelf space they gave over to wine. Probably at least 50% less of their usual red range and no August Decanter recommended Buenas Vidas Cab. Franc! I’ll need to try my usual store for that.
But look here … and who knew because I’d heard not one word about this. The highly praised, much lauded by professionals, Austrian Gemischter Satz is now £6.99! Common sense rules with a much more reasonable price for any basic table wine and with that £2 reduction I had some.
Surprised really that is actually on-line and advertised at its new price. Aldi as poor as ever (maybe depending on where we click to go see the usual roster offered for sale on-line) with their website because you’d think they didn’t have what they do sell.
Pleased to report that the Bowler and Brolly Pinot Noir Rosé is a very affordable £5.99 now … for an English wine! Or is it? Is that an aberration? Again not appearing on-line so who knows what these people are up to. It’s certainly a tool employed to get us to go into stores to investigate in person because web site info’ is not to be trusted.