Exploring Majestic wine: Top recommendations and scores for the festive season
How is the line-up at Majestic faring this season? Decanter identifies the top picks that should be making an appearance on your shopping list in the coming months.
As the last wine specialist chain of any scale left on the UK high street (or edge-of-town retail park), Majestic has a distinctive niche in UK wine retail.
We may not go there for the very finest wines in the world – although from time to time we may encounter one or two at often very reasonable prices – but we do expect Majestic to offer a step up on the supermarkets in quality and diversity of range, while still providing plenty in the way of good value.
Scroll down to see notes and scores for recommendations from Majestic
Maintaining form and tradition
On the strength of this tasting of around 100 wines, the current iteration of this 44-year-old business is doing just fine, with plenty of very good to excellent buys ranging from competitively priced everyday bottles to candidates for special occasions and the cellar.
As ever, in the run-up to Christmas, one of the retailer’s strengths is ready-to-drink Bordeaux, with a trio of cleverly sourced wines –an outstanding white and two delightful clarets – from the very good 2018 vintage among our favourite and highest-scoring bottles featured here.
Another traditional festive favourite, Rioja, was also well served, with a pair of contrasting reds – one a quintessential traditional style, the other very much in a modern idiom – from what was an excellent vintage in Spain’s leading region, 2021.
South Africa had a strong showing with a trio of very different white wines showing off the country’s range and its often astonishing quality-to-price ratio.
Other highlights included a couple of exciting new wines from two of Majestic’s most trusted and long-serving suppliers, Alain Grignon in the Languedoc, and Galicia’s Martín Códax, while other reliable names such as Trimbach, Devaux, Pasqua, Taylor’s and Henriques & Henriques all help ensure that Majestic’s portfolio remains true to its mission.
See notes and scores for the finest from Majestic’s new season
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Devaux, Blanc de Blanc Brut, Champagne, France
91
Both the Côte des Bar and the high-performing local cooperative Devaux may be better known for Pinot Noir, but this blanc de blancs shows how good Chardonnay can be in this Chablis-adjacent corner of Champagne. It's graceful, with a soft, lemon-inflected mousse, juicy red apples and a racy, lithe finish.
Devaux
Bouvet-Ladubay, Instinct Extra Brut, Saumur, Loire, France, 2021
From one of the most reliable names in Loire sparkling wine, this is a satisfyingly dry, food-friendly and blisteringly green apple-crunchy style, in which Chenin...
2021
Bouvet-LadubaySaumur
Balfour, 1503 Rosé, Kent, England, United Kingdom
From Kent’s increasingly prolific Hush Heath Estate, this is good value on the mixed-six price of £22 for a well-made, classically English pink fizz in...
BalfourKent
Château de Fieuzal, Abeille de Fieuzal Blanc, Pessac-Léognan, Bordeaux, France, 2018
A brilliant bit of sourcing from the Majestic team, this mature dry white is still full of vim and vigour and leafy youthfulness. It's a...
2018
Château de FieuzalPessac-Léognan
Martín Códax, Anxo Martín, Ribera del Duero, Castilla y Léon, Spain, 2023
92
The reliable Martín Codax cooperative has been meeting Majestic’s Rías Baixas Albariño needs for years now, but this new addition from fellow Galician DO Ribeiro is a real standout. The Treixadura grape is the main player in a wine in which fragrant white flowers and dill-like herbiness mixes with succulently fleshy stone-fruited richness.
2023
Martín CódaxRibera del Duero
Klein Constantia, Sauvignon Blanc, Constantia, South Africa, 2023
Fruit from 36 different vineyard plots goes into the making of this unusually complex, unoaked Cape Sauvignon, with the wild fermentation also playing its part...
2023
Klein Constantia
Royal Tokaji, Dry Furmint, Tokaj, Hungary, 2021
91
A wine of real character, charm and presence for the money, this fully dry style from these regal masters of sweet Tokaji gets its electric charge and compulsive drinkability from the almost febrile acidity, which contrasts pleasingly with ripe apples, pears and apricots. Roast chicken beckons.
2021
Royal Tokaji
Roberto Sarotto, Meera, Gavi di Gavi, Piedmont, Italy, 2024
There’s a lot of rather interchangeable Gavi around on the high street, but this Cortese is a cut above in its fluency, drive and richer,...
2024
Roberto SarottoGavi di Gavi
Trimbach, Pinot Blanc, Alsace, France, 2023
The never-less-than-stylish Alsace house of Trimbach comes up trumps again with a soft, silky, apple-mousse-scented and properly dry white in which the fleshier Auxerrois leads...
2023
Trimbach
Pasqua, Passione e Sentimento Passimento Bianco, Veneto, Italy, 2024
Most Veneto wines made using partially dried grapes are red, but this example uses Soave’s Garganega to make something pleasingly different; a round, ripe, richly...
2024
Pasqua
Pringle Bay, Chenin Blanc, Swartland, South Africa, 2025
The price has crept up a little since I last tasted this Swartland Chenin by star winemakers Duncan Savage and Thys Louw; then again, which...
2025
Pringle Bay
Alain Grignon, Grande Réserve Vielles Vignes Carignan, IGP Pays d'Oc, Languedoc-Roussillon, France, 2024
Alain Grignon is something of a specialist in the underrated but, in the right hands, darkly glorious southern French grape variety Carignan, and this is...
2024
Alain GrignonIGP Pays d'Oc
Château Poujeaux, La Salle de Poujeaux, Moulis-en-Médoc, Bordeaux, France, 2018
This is a supremely classy second wine from the high-performing Moulis-en-Médoc estate Château Poujeaux. At eight years old, it has settled into a highly drinkable...
2018
Château PoujeauxMoulis-en-Médoc
La Rioja Alta, Definition by Majestic Viña Majestica Reserva, Rioja, Alta, Castilla y Léon, Spain, 2021
93
Consistently one of the high street’s biggest bargains, and particularly good in the fine 2021 vintage, this is a failsafe Rioja for fans of the traditional style from one of Rioja Alta's finest estates; expect a suave-textured wine by turns ripely dark fruited and softly oak-savoury.
2021
La Rioja AltaRioja
Bideona, Viña Ecay Organic Crianza, Rioja, Castilla y Léon, Spain, 2021
A new addition to the Majestic Rioja ranks, and it’s a delightfully vibrant expression of the region’s more fruit-forward style, aged in French rather than...
2021
BideonaRioja
Château de Francs, Francs Côtes de Bordeaux, Bordeaux, France, 2018
<p>A ripely accessible and still – at eight years old – fruit-driven, Merlot-led claret that is generous with its high-toned blueberry and black cherry fruit...
2018
Château de FrancsFrancs Côtes de Bordeaux
Maison Les Alexandrins, Terrasses de l’Eridan, Côtes du Rhône, Rhône, France, 2023
Syrah leads the way in this authentic, unforced, sausage casserole-ready Côtes du Rhône, bringing that pleasingly dark and sinewy pepper-seasoned meaty character that is fleshed...
2023
Maison Les AlexandrinsCôtes du Rhône
Wynns, The Gables Cabernet Sauvignon, Coonawarra, South Australia, Australia, 2022
A typically well-balanced and classically styled Coonawarra Cabernet from top winemaker Sue Hodder and team at Wynns, this is full of ripe cassis and black...
2022
WynnsCoonawarra
Bodega Volcanes de Chile, Carmenère, Central Valley, Chile, 2024
Like all the wines from this producer, this good-value red is sourced from vineyards grown on volcanic soils. What that means for the style here,...
2024
Bodega Volcanes de Chile
Château de Pizay, Beaujolais, Régnié, Burgundy, France, 2023
From the warm and generous 2023 vintage, this is a boldly ripe, fruit-driven, unoaked take on Gamay from the Régnié cru, with an attractive core...
2023
Château de PizayBeaujolais
Torre Mora, Cauru, Etna, Sicily, Italy, 2023
From the Etna project of Chianti big guns Piccini, this is a bright, energetic and fairly priced introduction to the Nerello Mascalese wines made on...
2023
Torre MoraEtna
Araldica, Moscato d'Asti, Asti, Piedmont, Italy, 2024
Just the ticket as a lighter – 5% alcohol – way to conclude a meal with a flash of sweetness, this is a good-value take...
2024
AraldicaAsti
Henriques & Henriques, 15 Year Old Bual, Madeira, Portugal
94
The Madeira trademark of sweet richness and dried fruit-and-nut complexity matched with scintillating acidity is in full, exhilarating effect in this luxuriously textured but compellingly drinkable Bual, with its complex array of butterscotch, plump sultanas and dried citrus peel.
Henriques & Henriques
Taylor's, Historical Limited Edition The Globe Reserve Tawny Port, Douro Valley, Portugal
Taylor's 10-year-old is always one of the benchmarks of this style of wood-aged Port, and this special selection, which sits happily and seamlessly on the...
Taylor's
