Hooray! A £5 wine to laud today.
Let’s not get too carried away, though; I have had to kiss an awful lot of frogs to find it.
I still worry about the dubious quality of those that did not make “the cut”.
Will we reach a tipping point among the public where, for many people, “that is what wine tastes like”?
And then the accountants will encourage producers to make more of it – because it successfully constrains costs.
Finally, we reach the pre-CAMRA point where a generation of drinkers became inured to lower quality.
So much so, in those days, that anything not tasting like Red Barrel was dismissed as defective.
Probably just being a curmudgeonly old git but I do get despondent about it – and, to be brutally honest, those frogs do not taste very special anyway!
Meanwhile enjoy what has been unearthed here.
Adopting my traditional format, images and, where possible, hyperlinks accompany the assessments of the wines.
Starting with a quality malbec though.
2022 Irresistible Bio Bio Valley Malbec (£7.50 – instead of £8.50 until 13 May – at the Co-op and 14% abv):
Bio Bio is one of the newer members of Chile’s expanding band of impressive and quite distinctive wine regions.
Being further south (i.e. further from the equator) its climate is cooler than other parts of Chile and the proximity of the Pacific Ocean tends to make it wetter too.
When compared to many Argentinean versions, Bio Bio malbec often has softer fruit characteristics and the slower ripening times there keep acidity levels higher.
This one is attractively dark with a soft texture to support its raspberry, plum and bramble flavours.
Its predictably bright acidity is supplemented by well structured tannin, hints of mint, mocha and baking spices with everything rounded out by vanilla influences.
Then the bargain wine I mentioned
2024 Vista Castelli Trebbiano D’Abruzzo (£5 at Tesco and 11%):
As I said in the intro., amid all the talk of rising prices, one or two bargain priced options surface – and this is one of them.
Courtesy – in part – of its mere 11% alcohol, Tesco manages to keep its price surprisingly low.
It is one of those easy-going, uncomplicated wines that could easily become your personal springtime House White.
Nothing too demanding here – just bright, light-bodied Italian wine imbued with appealing and refreshing apple, melon and peach flavours.
However, crisp grapefruit acidity keeps everything lively while gentle honeyed aromas and a subtle saline touch add extra interest
The next post (on Thursday) is the promised one about another aspect of the science of wine.
25 responses
A little pedantry,Bío Bío is pronounced beo beo.
The Co- op also do a previously recommended Irresistible Pais £8.50 from the same wine area which is well worth seeking out.
A little more pedantry , that Pais is matured in old oak,but a lot of Pais was put into Rauli barrels, a kind of redwood,as originally there was no oak in Chile.
Two very good value wines reviewed today – thanks-and I also share Brian’s misgivings about the future quality of affordable wines in the UK.Our excessive alcohol duty and tax regime is distorting the market and there is a risk we will end up with lower alcohol inferior manipulated wines ,which for many will be the new normal.
Brian it’s great that there are great value wines around , thank for unearthing them for us. With the ever increasing prices now.
Thanks Richard. As I say, it is am increasing challenge but I will keep plugging away.
Why do Diners continue to accept kissing those awful frogs of often expensive dire Wine when eating out ?
Sadly many younger folk I know reject all Wine as a drinking option given the dire offerings pushed onto them by relatives at earlier family meals out etc at so many mainstream Pubs and eateries. I usually reject the Wine option myself with occasional meals out and just have a likely safer known Lager or Beer.
When there are so many very decent offerings at £5 to £8 a bottle retail and they seek £20 + at eateries it’s clear the buyers never actually bother tasting any of this seasons Wine List prior from their wholesalers. I don’t knock a £20+ price point asked just the awful frogs usually offered up and the terrible lack of staff knowledge displayed.
? ? Time someone with a Public Platform started to name & shame the worst of Eatery Wine offerings / price point and condemned them to the ‘all inclusive’ package holiday market abroad.
Couldn’t agree more – and if bought by the glass they are often oxidised as well!
Unless the wine list looks like it is written by an enthusiast, I opt for Adnams Ghost Ship zero alcohol, or just water. I drink wine (in moderation) most nights, so abstaining is definitely better for me.
Spot on Richard with the oxidise, also (Regarding wine by the glass) how can you be sure, how long the bottle has been opened for. I have watched for the dregs of a bottle being poured, then ask for a glass when they open a fresh bottle, but that is not always possible.
Regarding the wines Brian highlights, the Bio Bio is a solid enough Malbec despite being softer and fruitier.
The whole buying by a glass, having worked in the industry when I was a lot younger. Managing bars in many different outlets.
When I first started in the industry, it hit me very early on how many glasses of wine were returned as un-drinkerable.
Obviously, when I started to try different wines, I quickly got it. It didn’t matter what the price point was; if it’s not moved at a pace, then it goes off.
Hence, if I buy a bottle of wine out at an eatery or a bar, I always purchase the bottle, as I know that it will be as fresh as possible, and always the house wine as quite often that is not a bad glass in comparison with some of the more expensive wines on offer.
Good point about “House Wine”, Richard – often the bar owner (or Som) devotes more time to selecting that than some of the more expensive wines on the list.
Your pre CAMRA beer analogy is spot on. As good wine becomes too expensive for younger drinkers entering the market, they will become attuned to poor quality and regard it as “the norm.”
Producers will follow the money. I guess they have to. Bulk wine will be produced to indifferent standards whilst really good wine is left to craft producers who have to reflect higher labour and growing costs in retail prices.
The party’s over!
Let’s hope not completely over but price expectations may need to ease upwards a little.
Hi Brian,
I also enjoyed the Vista Castelli Trebbiano D’Abruzzo. I got this as a “re-purposed cooking wine”. That is when my wife asks me for a bottle of cooking white or red – which gives me the scope to try something on the bottom shelf. This one I bought as I find its red stable mate, the 2022 Vista Castelli Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, a £5.50 bargain. These wines come from the well regarded Citra co-op.
I also hear good reports of the red so will give that a try in the future.
I have been told by a winemaker I know in South Africa that a UK supermarket has asked him to reduce the alcohol in his wine to keep the price lower. He declined, as he said it would alter the taste of the wine negatively, but he said he knows of others doing this. Sad state of affairs brought about by stupid rules!
Hi Lisa,
To keep Cape Chenin Blanc at what they deem to be “competitive” prices, two British supermarkets have asked producers to reduce the alcohol level of their wines. This involves manipulation – the use of spinning cones, the addition of gum Arabic, water or sugar – as well as extra cost. “We’re being asked to spend money to make a product that’s less good,” says Pieter Carstens of Leeuwenkuil Family Vineyards, “just so that retailers can avoid paying tax”.
Published by Tim Atkin in his recent newsletter from SA.
On the point of fine dining which I do very occasionally ,a very reliable source tells me that some fancy London restaurants have a 800% mark up on wines.I stick to tap water or beer.
Oooooo Brian right up my street today without prejudice against ”bog standard fare” … I better like ”straightforward” as a descriptor here anyway, or the need to ”go bonkers” on spending. Matters today are entirely prescient where my recent purchases of both TWS and Lidl bottles are concerned as well as a call to Aldi and Tesco too.
TWS emailed with an end of season deal on a 2.25l wine box, of all things, Laborie Languedoc/Rousillon (enjoyed your Languedoc’s transition posting last week btw), at £16.50 that even without a calculator can be deduced as £5.50 for a usual 75cl bottle. Remember please, this is TWS so we do hope the provenance is sound and indeed my purchase of the last of the batch has had me drinking and cooking with glasses taken as needs be from the box these last couple of weeks. Hoorah for cheap and more than just cheerful.
OK the new vintage, new cuvée too, is £22 or £7.33 a bottle and that can’t compete price wise with Aldi’s Toro Loco reds or Grapevine, Castellore, Estevez etc that I heard recently get a shout at around £4 to £5, give or take without being pedantic. Wonders out loud … will it feature tonight Monday April 21st on Denise Van Outen’s 8pm, C4 prog’ on supermarket buyers and Aldi v Lidl v M&S v Waitrose?
I haven’t had any Toro Loco anything for years. But bottles spoken about here, yes a bit more money, from Tesco the Prima Luna Frascati at £6.75, I loved that , as well as the Co op Orvieto, just over £7. This Trebbiano D’Abruzzo today, has got to be one for me to try if only to redress a balance of going bonkers at TWS and paying a lot of money for several disappointing bottles of late. No-names-no-packdrill… maybe …. if only because I was reminded reading my tome called Wines of The World there are hundreds of thousands of different bottles out there and getting bogged down in a few while trawling the card of local British supermarkets does in fact make no sense to me. I just follow my own nose and yours too Brian to try things I can afford to have. In fact I am embarrassed to say that a bottle more usually unaffordable to me at £16.50, TWS Knipster Blauer Spätburgunder turned out to be a dud. Silly billy for ever thinking that money here was the arbiter of quality. Fingers burned!
And don’t get me started on the quality of wine on offer away from home when involved with the hospitality trade in Britain. I don’t drink in pubs any more. Haven’t since 2020 but if I go to one for a family meal once a year I stick to mineral water and offer to be the driver.
Apart from disliking almost every glass of wine I’ve been offered in a pub since my pal Mike who ran the Cross Keys in Upton Notts. left 30 years ago, who readily offered a bottle of Cloudy Bay at £16.50, it’s not just poor quality but the fact they want £6.75 a glass for the stuff without impunity. My regular, repeated eating out these days to a North Yorkshire fish restaurant involves a pot of tea and lovely is THAT, as well as the food. I’m not as hard to please as I sound.
I don’t fully subscribe to always buying cheap wine either, except with judicious purchasing of better wine we can have on deals. Lots of favourite bottles at £8 to £9 bottles at Sainsbury’s on a double dip can often come in at under £6. Whether there is any redemption for the likes of Toro Loco or Castellore who can say without tasting all the stuff. But it’s there readily available without getting all esoteric for obscure stuff few ever will both to source.
My wife and I love to eat in Fish & Chip restaurants, the more “traditional” the better. I remember one in Westcliff-on-sea, which we couldn’t decide whether it was retro-chic, or just hadn’t changed since the 50s! Last year we found another such a place in Clacton, and their drinks list listed wine: “white, red or rose – served in mini bottles”. The vibe of the place was good, and feeling extravagant and curious, I ordered all three (we were using buses to get around). The waitress, with great ceremony, placed 3 wine glasses between us, with the 187ml bottles – having removed the screw top caps at table! Well, all were served at the correct temperature, were good wines, and very reasonably priced. For me that was a perfect, and appropriate, wine list.
Have no concept whatsoever how red wine works with traditional battered fish and chips. So will continue to pass on that and stick with a pot of Yorkshire tea!!
Not often have the chance to order a complete restaurant wine list – so we had the red as an aperitif !
Hello Richard,
I can highly recommend Trenchers fish and chip restaurant in Spanish City ,Whitely Bay near the wonderful Tynemouth sea side classy resort.Traditional spot on silver service.
The Tynemouth Saturday market which takes place on the railway station platforms is a wonder.
Agree with the choice of the Bio Bio Malbec – lovely wine that overdelivers for the price. For a thoroughly enjoyable white around a fiver, Lidl’s Botte de Conti Pecorino, Terre di Chieti is worth checking out (also recommended by Helen McGinn on Saturday Kitchen as a match for carbonara): https://medium.com/p/d560948c9357
I often like a fresh, uncomplicated Italian white but wouldn’t normally have the confidence to pick a £5 wine due to the risk of it not being any good, so it’s very helpful to have the Tesco Trebbiano recommendation, thank you.
Brian, hi again … Rebecca … all …
We might speak about evocation where an actual wine is concerned but today my wife came home after a call to Poundland bringing a box of 6 by 16.5cl balloon glasses, that cost £3! These are about the smallest, neatest glasses for wine we see in pubs and the like.
The evocation here is driven by remembering back in the late 80s being given such a glass in the bus station in Bergamo in northern Italy as I drank a small glass of vino bianco for 900 lira before catching my service up the Val di Serio to Gandino, to stay with a friend. They were the quintessential glass of almost every train of bus station buffet throughout Europe back then and now I’ve poured a measure of the white Trebbiano D’Abruzzo that my wife too brought in, from Tesco.
It is well chilled. It’s very drinkable with little compromise. It’s fruity, dry, gently citric and has a little length and (although I don’t particularly like the expression) it’s a no-brainer at £fiver when it comes to affordable and straightforward wine from the bottom shelf.
Personally although I’d have it again without question, I’d probably also spend an extra £1.75 and take a Tesco Prima Luna Frascati as well, that has just that bit more varietal character. Both are terrific Italian whites that are so enjoyable just to drink without overthinking it too much! Thank you for the recommendations.
I think I am with you, Eddie., in that the Frascati does justify digging a modicum deeper but both remain pretty good value at their respective price points.
That Tesco Italian White for a £5.
Here in Scotland it’s £5.37 a bottle!
Don’t know why, but I guess it’s something to do with Minimum Pricing Laws.
Yes there are variations – not sure why – but this only has a modest ABV so should not be caught by minimum unit pricing.