Discover top Co-op wines: Best buys for autumn and winter revealed
Stock up on 94-pointer vintage Champagne, bargain 2019 Bordeaux and hearty Ports without breaking the bank this winter – here are our top Co-op picks for the upcoming festive season.
The Co-op’s wine range may not be as big as other supermarkets, and its press tastings are always correspondingly compact (75 wines this time). But what the retailer lacks in scale, it more than makes up for in clever buying: there’s imagination and flair at work in a selection that for the most part finds consistent good value in and around the £10 mark but still somehow manages to be full of surprises, not least in the judiciously selected handful of more expensive bottlings.
In what has been a difficult year for the retailer – after a cyberattack caused havoc and an estimated £80 million hit to profits – it’s heartening to see the wine team carrying on regardless. Around 50 new lines have been added over the past year. Among the newcomers are fashionable lighter, chillable reds such as Albert Glas Pinot Noir from the Pfalz and Être Affamé Cinsault from the Languedoc, alongside benchmark examples of classic styles like the unusually elegant Palazzo Maffei Conte di Valle Valpolicella Ripasso Superiore and the stylish Domäne Wachau Grüner Veltliner.
Many of the retailer’s best-value wines are own-label, and the Co-op is well served in its efforts to offer something ‘Irresistible’ by reliable partners. These include Jean-Claude Mas in the Languedoc, with a brilliant new Grenache Blanc, Chile’s Viña Indómita – offering a vivid Maule Carignan among others – the Douro’s Fladgate Partnership for Port, and Tenuta Vicchiomaggio in Tuscany. The most celebrated partnership of all remains the longstanding relationship with Piper Heidsieck Champagne, the house behind the Co-op’s perennially excellent, best-in-class Les Pionniers Champagne, represented at this tasting by the 2013 Vintage.
And if The Co-op’s Champagne game is strong, so too is its Bordeaux offering, with both the red Château Beau Site St-Estèphe 2019 and the white G de Guiraud 2023 being appealing options for the Christmas dinner table.
Best Co-op wines: Our top buys for autumn and winter
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Piper-Heidsieck, Co-op Les Pionniers Vintage Champagne, Champagne, Champagne, France, 2013
94
Made for Co-op by Piper Heidsieck, the Les Pionniers Champagnes (there is also a Non-Vintage) have long been a standout of both the retailer’s range and supermarket own-label Champagnes, and the latest mature Vintage bottling remains a considerable class apart – combining gorgeous, yeasty-patisserie richness with a still-electrifying swish and cut of fine acidity and detailed pointillist mousse.
2013
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Château Guiraud, G de Château Guiraud, Bordeaux Blanc, Bordeaux, France, 2023
93
Sémillon leads the blend with Sauvignon Blanc in this very fine dry white from the celebrated Sauternes producer, with a nose of lemongrass, cut grass and lime, and a palate that combines energy and creamy depths – with pithy grapefruit, coconut cream and a long, tapering, star-bright finish.
2023
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Domaine Masse, Pierre Ponnelle Montagny 1er Cru, Montagny, 1er Cru, Burgundy, France, 2023
With a drizzle of honey and apple pie patisserie, this barrel-aged Côte Chalonnaise Chardonnay is full of warm-season ripeness and charm while retaining a graceful...
2023
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Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt, Riesling Kabinett, Mosel, Germany, 2023
This typically graceful yet lively Kabinett from Kesselstatt is finely detailed and expressive, opening with ripe tropical fruit and lime-skin tones, before settling into a...
2023
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Domäne Wachau, Grüner Veltliner, Wachau, Niederösterreich, Austria, 2024
A delectably juicy, rounded mouthful of ripe stone fruits (white peach and apricot) with pear enlivened by green apple, a touch of leafy herb and...
2024
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Balfour Winery, Co-op Irresistible English Bacchus, Kent, England, United Kingdom, 2023
Another persuasive case for the proposition that Bacchus is England’s answer to Sauvignon Blanc, this mouthwatering Kentish dry white has a super-pungent nose of gooseberry...
2023
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VERCOOPE, Co-op Irresistible Alvarinho, Vinho Verde, Portugal, 2024
A modern-day Vinho Verde made entirely from Alvarinho (aka Albariño), this is great value for a dry style – it hits with powerful peachy tones...
2024
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Jean-Claude Mas, Co-op Irresistible Limited Edition Grenache Blanc, IGP Pays d'Oc, Languedoc-Roussillon, France, 2024
Long-term Co-op supplier Jean Claude Mas delivers great-value wines again with his delightful latest addition to the range – a 100% Grenache Blanc in a...
2024
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Miraval, Studio Rosé, Provence, France, 2024
91
<p>Red apple and peach on the nose. Fresh from the 2024 vintage, it's lightly effervescent on the tip of the tongue, with a touch of white pepper spice. Savoury and elegant, it exudes white peach and fennel, lifted by a crunchy green fruit note. Grapefruit and yuzu lead to a zingy finish. This is the entry-level wine from Miraval, a Provence estate purchased by Hollywood stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in 2011.</p>
2024
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Mirabeau, Nude Pink, Côtes de Provence, Provence, France, 2024
<p>Floral on the nose with a pinch of Mediterranean herbs, this is a blend of 10 white and red grapes, mainly Merlot, Marselan, Caladoc and...
2024
MirabeauCôtes de Provence
Co-op, Orange Groove, Languedoc-Roussillon, France, 2024
<p>Bright golden colour. A generous display of yellow apple, ripe apricot, and citrus blossom on the nose. The palate shows more dried apricot, mango, and...
2024
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Château Beau-Site, St-Estèphe, St-Estèphe, Bordeaux, France, 2019
The Co-op may not be most wine lovers’ first port of call for fine wine, but the retailer has always been good at sourcing a...
2019
Château Beau-SiteSt-Estèphe
Domaine Jean-Jacques Girard, Chorey-Les-Beaune, Burgundy, France, 2022
<p>Dark roses and blueberry purée on the nose, with a juicy, elegant palate layered with scented florals and fleshy red and dark berries. Subtle gamey...
2022
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Chateau Bel Air Gloria, Haut-Médoc Cru Bourgeouis Supérieur, Haut-Médoc, Cru Bourgeois Supérieur, Bordeaux, France, 2019
One of a pair of clarets from the excellent 2019 vintage in the current Co-op line-up, this Cru Bourgeois doesn’t have quite the same class...
2019
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Agricola Cottini, Palazzo Maffei Conte di Valle Valpolicella Ripasso Superiore, Valpolicella, Ripasso Superiore, Veneto, Italy, 2021
An exceptionally swish, suave and elegant take on the Ripasso style – the dried fruit component brings depth and darker, chocolatey tones, yet the abiding...
2021
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Château Capitoul, Languedoc, Languedoc-Roussillon, France, 2022
A briary, brambly red of nicely modulated ripeness, this Languedoc blend of Grenache, Syrah and Carignan offers liquorice and cinnamon seasonal spicing to complement its...
2022
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Castello Vicchiomaggio, Co-op Irresistible Chianti, Chianti, Tuscany, Italy, 2023
A typically elegant, polished take on classic Chianti from John Matta at Tenuta Vicchiomaggio, this is relatively slim in frame, with fine, polished tannins, bright...
2023
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Jean-Claude Mas, Co-op Irresistible Languedoc Red, Languedoc, Languedoc-Roussillon, France, 2024
The latest vintage of winemaker Jean-Claude Mas’s reliably excellent red blend is on particularly attractive form, with layers of blackberry, liquorice and pepper spice, a...
2024
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Robert Oatley, Semaphore Cabernet Sauvignon, Western Australia, Australia, 2023
89
This Western Australian Cabernet offers quite a lot of class for the cash, with a delightful freshening streak of blackcurrant leaf framing the classic cassis and subtly toasty oak, while the palate is succulent with black fruit and fine-grained tannins.
2023
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Albert Glas, Pinot Noir, Pfalz, Germany, 2023
Sourcing decent, varietally true Pinot Noir for under a tenner is one of wine retailing’s most difficult missions, but this German bottling shows it is...
2023
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Bodegas Muriel, Hidden Vines Red, Rioja, Rioja, Spain, 2024
88
The titular 'Hidden Vines' are Maturana Tinta, the rare indigenous Rioja variety that provides more than half the blend here, alongside the increasingly popular Garnacha. Unoaked, it makes for an intriguing, fruit-driven style, with some wild herbal character alongside juicy red fruits and very supple tannins.
2024
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Indomita, Co-op Irresistible Carmenère, Maipo Valley, Chile, 2023
88
Spicy and rich, with paprika-seasoned plum and blackcurrant, this wine offers a savoury combination of tomato leaf and oak spice alongside plentiful black fruit on the palate – a well-made red that will happily partner a roast or rich, meaty stew.
2023
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Real Companhia Velha, Co-op Irresistible Douro, Douro, Douro Superior, Portugal, 2023
While there are certainly more complex, structured and serious wines from the Douro, this unoaked blend of the Valley’s traditional varieties offers plenty of enjoyment...
2023
Real Companhia VelhaDouro
Indomita, Co-op Irresistible Carignan, Maule Valley, Chile, 2023
Once considered a high-yielding workhorse, growers in southern Chile’s Maule Valley have found that Carignan can thrive as a source of deeply flavoured, robustly textured...
2023
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Boutinot, Être Affamé Cinsault, Languedoc, Languedoc-Roussillon, France, 2024
A chillable and very gluggable expression of southern French Cinsault, this light, bright, unoaked red combines strawberry fleshiness with cranberry sourness in a lightly tannic,...
2024
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Quinta de São Sebastião, 1000 Paths Lisbon Red, Lisboa, Portugal, 2023
Avoiding the super-sweet trap that so many sub-£10 Portuguese supermarket wines seem drawn to at the moment, this is a youthful, easy-drinking red – with...
2023
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Maison Sichel, Sauternes, Sauternes, Bordeaux, France, 2022
Pure in fruit and tangy on the finish, this blue cheese- and fruit-dessert-ready golden sweet wine is filled with fresh mango, crystallised citrus peel and...
2022
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Fladgate Partnership, Co-op 10 Year Old Tawny Port, Douro, Douro Valley, Portugal
Made for Co-op by the Fladgate Partnership, the group behind Taylor’s, Fonseca and Croft, this is excellent value for a fully complex, rich and engaging...
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Fladgate Partnership, Co-op Ruby Port, Douro, Douro Valley, Portugal
If you like your Port bright and primary in fruit, this is an excellent – and excellent-value – option from the Fladgate Partnership, bristling with...
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