Tesco Finest Tingleup Riesling, Western Australia 2017 (£8.50)
It’s been a while since I’ve covered Tesco here, mostly because there hasn’t been all that much to write home about. But a recent tasting of 130 or so of the retailer’s own-labels suggests the company is emerging from a period of retrenchment. Not everything impressed: as with so many supermarket wines these days, too many relied on generous doses of sugar to cover up their flaws. That wasn’t a problem with my favourite wine of the tasting, the Tingleup Riesling, however. Made by the well-regarded Howard Park, it has been on the Tesco list for as long as I can remember, and has more than enough limey zing to balance its 4g/litre dose of the sweet stuff, and match a mildly spicy stir-fry.
Tesco Finest Saint-Chinian, Languedoc 2016 (£7.50)
As the UK’s biggest wine retailer, Tesco has been under attack from all sides. On the one hand Lidl and Aldi have been eating into its mammoth market share in the £5 battleground; on the other, the burgeoning array of specialist and online merchants do a much better job at catering to serious wine-lovers. The best Tesco bottles actually fit into neither category. The £7 to £10 is the happiest hunting ground. It’s home to southern French favourites, such as the soft green apple and gently spritzy Gaillac Perlé, 2016 (£7) the supple, liquorice and black-fruited Saint-Chinian, and to Australian newcomer McLaren Vale GSM, 2015 (£8), a typically plush and exuberant Rhône-style red blend from the ever-reliable firm, d’Arenberg.
Tesco Finest Aglianico, Campania, Italy 2015 (£9)
The sheer scale of the Tesco operation means the kind of small family-run producers behind so many of the world’s best wines don’t really get a look-in. Still, at least Tesco has roped in some of the world’s best-run large and medium-sized producers for its Finest offerings. Australia’s De Bortoli and New Zealand’s Villa Maria, for example, have contributed two delightful, fluent pinot noirs (Central Otago Pinot Noir, 2016, £12.50; and Yarra Valley Pinot Noir 2016, £11), while Feudi di San Gregorio is responsible for two excellent wines from Campania in Italy: the racy but fleshy mandarin-scented dry white Falanghina 2016 (£9), and the darkly fragrant, smoky, red Aglianico.
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