Supermarket Sweeps - Six for £60 - Tesco Part 2

Hello All,

 

 

Welcome to the second installment of my look at the supermarket shelves for value wines, this time Tesco Part 2. Last time we looked at two whites and a Rosé, this time, three Reds and a lovely Port! Total spend was only about £55 for seven bottles. So, let's see if the reds can do a bit better...

Oh and don't forget to follow me on Twitter for further little nuggets of wine-related stuff.

Kleine Zalze, Shiraz-Mourvedre-Viognier, 2010

£6.99. I remember seeing this a while back in Decanter, and as far as I can remember it had a good review so caught my eye. Made in a cool climate region a few miles from Stellenbosch it was keenly priced too! 14.5%

The Look: Intensely dark, opaque black-plum, almost no rim just a slight fade to violet.

The Smell: Awesome smells of blackberries, sweetness, think dark berry cheesecake or a blackberry and apple Nutrigrain bar!

The Taste: Pow! Intense blackberry hit, violets, good fresh acidity, slightly chewy tannins and a great long finish. Some peppery spice and warming but not overly alcoholic - handled well.

The Score: Delicious, punching well above its weight. 8/10. Highly Recommended

VFM: At £6.99 this is a serious bargain. Great flavour intensity for the price. VFM = 1.14

Tesco Finest Crozes Hermitage, 2008

£8.29. Crozes Hermitage is a region in the Northern Rhone in France famous for Syrah (Shiraz) based wines. Normally up to 15% of the white grapes Roussanne or Marsanne can be added but this didn't specify so I'm assuming 100% Syrah. Normally dark fruits and a peppery spice are evident. High hopes for this... 12.5%

The Look: Purple core with a ruby rim and completely translucent.

The Smell: Nose is reticent, faint whiff of berries and slight oak but not much else.

The Taste: Disappointing. Light bodied, limp, insipid and tasteless. Slight spice but mainly very mild hints of red fruit, none of the dark fruit and black pepper I was expecting. Smooth tannins but bitter.

The Score: Not worth the IWSC Bronze sticker on the bottle in my opinion. 5.5/10.

VFM: At £8.29 this is overpriced in my opinion. VFM = 0.66

Tesco Finest Valpolicella Ripasso, 2009

£6.99. Valpolicella Ripasso is Valpolicella passed over the leftover lees from making Amarone (strong flavoured wine made from dried grapes) to give it extra flavour and colour. Interesting and it caught my eye at this price. 13.5%

The Look: Dark purple/ruby.

The Smell: Sweet cherries, oaky and leesy with some mild spice too.

The Taste: Very bright cherryade taste, plenty of acidity, refreshing for a red, some vanilla hints. Good accompaniment to a tomato based pasta sauce, but thin tannins and sadly became a bit of a chore to drink. After the second glass it was all acidity and no fruit.

The Score: Started well but soon became undrinkable.  5.5/10.

VFM:   Better value than the Syrah at  VFM = 0.66 but one I would not purchase again.

 

Tesco Special Reserve Port, NV

£7.82. I hadn't spent my total of £60 and was looking for something else when this caught my eye. A great price even if it turned out a bit nasty, but I doubted that with this being made by the famous Port conglomerate; Symington Family Estates. 20%

The Look: Deep dark opaque purple, slight violet rim. Much like Port surprisingly!

The Smell: Sweet, raisiny/curranty berries with mild woody spice. Lovely smell.

The Taste: Deliciously full of sweet, raisiny, warm fruit. Very nicely integrated, not overly sweet or alcoholic. Dangerously drinkable - we had sore heads to prove it the next day! 

The Score: Cracking NV Port and a bargain to boot! 8/10. Highly Recommended

VFM:   Superb value Port. VFM = 1.10

So, in summary, Tesco didn't quite do as well as Co-Op, but then again the majority were own-brand wines and on the whole a fair bit cheaper. Still, the Riesling was great, as was the South African blend and the port. Not too bad.

Next time, the fantastic wine section of Waitrose!

As always, speak to you soon!

Cheers

WBFTF

Naked Again!

Hello all,

We return to Naked Wines this week, with the recent news that they are bringing the winemakers to meet the customers in a series of UK tasting tours.  They're coming to London, Brighton, Norwich, Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Edinburgh so if you're nearby, pop along to sample the wines for yourselves. You'll get to meet the winemakers themselves and sample their latest offerings.

Naked kindly provided some wines as a preview (remembering that "Angels" get 33% cashback off the marked price in return for £20 a month regular payment into your Angels account). We had the first three this week and the next three will follow next week. Enjoy!

Castillo de Tafalla Angels Selection Rosé, Navarra, 2010

Winemaker Benoit Dreyer returns with his "pick of the crop" rosé made from Garnacha (Grenache) grapes grown in Navarra. We've had the standard 2009 rosé before and found it to be very good. 14%

The Look: As you can hopefully tell from the photo, this is probably the most striking-coloured wine; bright lipstick-red with orange and cerise hues. Almost fluorescent in its brightness!

The Smell: Apples, some caramel, strawberry, hints of tropical fruit and some cedary/oaky wood.

The Taste: Again, very apply, like a sweet gala apple, some caramel sweetness but balanced by nice crisp acidity, some tropical hints and decent length. Certainly better on the second glass but a bitterness on the finish let it down slightly.

The Score: A decent rosé but didn't wow as much as the 2009 7/10.

VFM: At £7.99 this is pretty good value, giving VFM = 0.88, but I'm not sure the cream of the crop is worth the extra £1 over the standard Rosé at £6.99?

Borgo dei Sassi, Prosecco DOC, NV

Winemaker Alessandro Botter crafts this fizz in the winery his grandfather set up. Extra dry in style, from about 40 miles North of Venice in the Veneto region. Non-vintage and 11%.

The Look: Pale watery-white with a slight lemon tinge.

The Smell: Very aromatic, grape-juice and peaches are evident.

The Taste: Fine bubbles and lots of them! Very fresh acidity, white fruit like grapes, peaches and apricots. Lots of fruit. Slight hint of biscuit but not a great deal of complexity.

The Score: A fresh, fruity, fragrant and accessible Prosecco. Not bad at all 7/10.

VFM: At £10.49 I would suggest that this is about 20% overpriced, it lacks the minerality and elegance that you start can find in £10+ Proseccos. VFM@ 0.67 isn't terrible and with the Angel's 33% cashback it's more in line with what you'd expect to pay.

Montaria, Vinho Regional Alentejano, 2010

From the hot region of Alentejano in the south of Portugal by winemaker Antonio Ventura. This is a blend of indigenous varieties; Trincadeira, Aragonez and Alicante Bouschet. And no, I've never heard of them either! 13%.

The Look: Dark red with purple and violet hues running through. Not quite opaque but nearly.

The Smell: Really great smells, especially after an hour open. Redcurrants, blackcurrants, blackberries and oaky spice.

The Taste: Lots of fruit, a hit of dark cherry, blackberry and brighter more acidic red fruit like redcurrants. Cedary notes as well. Good balance between fruit, acidity and tannin. Not infinitely long but a decent length. Ever-so-slight hotness on the finish. Good, solid, but generic fruity red.

The Score:  At £7.99 it places itself in a tough competitive environment. There's gallons of good wines to be had and this doesn't really stand out. It is, however, an unusual blend and it's worth a try. 7/10.

VFM: The VFM pops out at a pretty respectable 0.88. Portuguese wines are neglected by the majority of the wine-drinking public (I'm guilty) but not deservedly so. Next time I'll probably go for the Reserva 2009 @ £9.99 as I'm sure that would offer a step-up in taste.

So there we have it. Three solid performers this time around. All good value and even more so if you're prepared to stump-up the £20 a month Angels fee. I'll review the remaining three next week, maybe there'll be a breath-taker amongst those...?

As always, speak to you soon.

Cheers

WBFTF

Virgin Wines - Part 1

Right, so we ordered a case from Virgin Wines, handpicked following my rules, and using the £40 off voucher. I've posted previously what we bought (here:). I must say, my first impressions were not great! Eight days went by between ordering and delivery (which apparently isn't their norm). Then I find out that the Ridgeview 2006 was substituted for the 2007 without notice and one of the "single vineyard" wines was actually "single valley" i.e. a regional wine on the bottle. Hmmmm. However, one email later and they were quick to redeem themselves with a refund for the Ridgeview and free delivery next time.

Anyway, regardless, we tucked in...

Chateau du Seuil, Bordeaux Rosé, 2008

A Welsh connection here - this Chateau was bought by a Welsh couple in the 80s and is now run by their daughter and her husband. The bottle is adorned with a beautiful Welsh Dragon. 13.5%

The Look: Lovely colour on this one, a deep raspberry red and ruby.

The Smell: Smells great - strawberry jam, spun sugar, toffe apples and caramel.

The Taste: The first thing you get is sweet, honeyed fruit and then and then the hit of the alcohol. There's an odd sweet/acid balance - the sweetness gives way to a dry acidity. Alcohol is too noticeable.

The Score: Not bad, not superb. Quite run of the mill Rosé. 6.5/10

VFM: This was £7.57 (based on the average bottle price of the case after discount) giving pretty good VFM = 0.86. £8.99 separately so use your discounts wisely.

 

Vinzelo, Vinho Tinto, Douro DOC, Portugal, 2008

From the "up and coming" appellation of Douro in Portugal. Not sure what grapes are in this exactly but it's more than likely a blend of Touriga Nacional and Tinta Roriz among others.  13%

The Look: This is a dark opaque purple turing to violet at the rim.

The Smell: Smoky blackcurrant and cherry. A bit of leather. Like left bank Bordeaux. Slight smell of cork taint initially but it was clean.

The Taste: Plenty of fruit, acidity and tannin. Alcohol is a little "hot". Long finish. Tastes of cassis/blackcurrant, some black cherry and mellowed to a plummy taste after an hour or so. Acidity was a little off balance and a little overdone the same as the alcohol. This might be better with food.

The Score: A bit off-balance. Too much acidity, too much alcohol. Might mellow in a few years or might turn really nasty. Hard to say.  6.5/10

VFM: Again, based on the average bottle price (£7.57) VFM = 0.86. Good value, but not really a recommendation. Actually cheaper on its own at £6.99.

Ridgeview Cuveé Merret, Grosvenor, Blanc de Blancs, 2007

English "Champagne" in all but name. Blanc de Blancs using 100% Chardonnay grapes from their Surrey vineyard and done in the Traditional Method (i.e. the way Champagne is made). 12%

The Look: A pale mid-yellow. Aggressive bubbles.

The Smell: Smells of orchard fruit, apples and pears. Some baked bread smells as well.

The Taste: Very similar to the smell, orchard fruit with some tropical hints and maybe something citrusy like grapefruit. A "fine mousse" as they say, lots of bubbles. Super-dry. Probably not to everyones' liking.

The Score: Dissapointingly, the 2007 turned up instead of the recent Decanter International Trophy winning 2006, but still, not bad at all at 7/10. Recommended, purely because it is from Britain and needs to be tried. Try and get hold of the '06 though, it's supposed to be superb!

VFM: Well at the case price of £7.57 it gets a very good value for money of VFM = 0.92, but it is £18.99 normally so use your discounts wisely, or one for special occasions only!

San Felice, Chianti Classico, Italy, 2006

The blurb says "A cut above the rest". I beg to differ... 12.5%

The Look: Brick-red with some brown tinges and an almost blood-red rim.

The Smell: A bit like a Rioja. Spicy, oaky, red fruit and cherry. Slight smell of oxidation but clean.

The Taste: At first a hit of red fruit but then an overpowering acidity followed by tannin. The bright red fruit is nice for a milli-second but then spoilt by overly harsh, horrible sourness. "Refreshing acidity" my arse - badly made wine more like.

The Score: Not good. I didn't want to finish the bottle. I even left it open for 24hrs to see if it had cooled down the following day. Still too harsh and less fruit. A poor  4/10

VFM: At the case-average price of £7.57 it gets a mediocre VFM = 0.59 but here's the joke; this is £11.99 a bottle normally. I've had better wine from a box! Total crap. Avoid. In their defence, Virgin Wines did also refund me for this bottle. The money-back guarantee says that any bottle not enjoyed will be refunded.

So, there's the first four. Distinctly average I guess. I hope the other 8 are better. We'll find out soon enough...

Speak to you soon.

Cheers

WBFTF