What does a wine editor buy on the Tesco 25% off wine promotion?

Happily for us wine shoppers, the supermarket 25% off wine promotions come along with increasing regularity. It used to be that you’d only see them in advance of national holidays – Easter and Christmas, for instance – but now they seem to be running as often as they’re not running! And 25% is a significant saving, so it makes sense to take advantage and pick out six bottles to enjoy.

You might imagine that a Decanter editor would have no need to buy wine, but in fact I regularly pick up a few bottles while I’m grocery shopping. Not at the Express outlets, where the wine selection is extremely limited and invariably uninspiring – and the prices inflated – but at the larger branches where there’s room to stock more than lowest common denominator wines.

Spoiled for choice

The choice on offer at my local Tesco Extra is impressive – and probably overwhelming to some. So how do I, as the editor of a wine magazine for the last 25 years, whittle down my choice to six wines? How do I bring my expert knowledge to bear?

The last time I took advantage of the promotion was in mid-May. I was specifically looking for whites and / or rosés to enjoy during the warmer weather that I knew was on the way. (And indeed temperatures rose to 35˚C.)

I was looking for everyday-drinking wines, at the lower end price wise, but wines that would offer maximum bang for buck – let’s say at around the £10 to £15-a-bottle mark. You’re not going to find any great complexity at this level, but I wanted to avoid the kind of commodity wines that are typically found on the lower shelves, often with noticeable residual sugar, and lacking in any kind of regional character.

Scroll down for tasting notes and scores for Amy's six picks

Supermarket wine guides on Decanter.com

The first step – a step that any Tesco shopper can take – was to consult Decanter.com, naturally. Decanter’s in-house tasting team reviews the UK supermarket wine ranges at least twice yearly, and it’s a great shortcut to some interesting bottles, if you’re in a hurry.

Even with my expert knowledge, it’s useful to see the wines that my colleague Natalie Earl picked out for her regular ‘best of Tesco’ round-up. Any wine rated at 89 or 90 points and above would warrant my consideration. You’ll only be able read full tasting notes if you’re a Decanter Premium subscriber (great value at only £99/yr!), but even non-subscribers can see the wine names and scores.

Three of my six purchases were recommended by Natalie in her current selection: the Nepenthe Gruner Veltliner, the 2 banks winery Assyrtiko/Malagousia blend (singled out as her value white of the bunch) and the Finest Viñas del Rey Albariño.

I have tasted the Albariño before and we regularly recommend it on Decanter.com. Tesco’s Finest range is typically a safe bet if you’re looking for well-made and good-value wines, and this particular wine is a consistent performer from vintage to vintage – so a safe choice. Plus a strong 91-point score.

Nepenthe is a well-respected Aussie name, and I liked the idea of trying a cool-climate (Adelaide Hills) New World Gruner. A screwcap closure on this style of wine is another plus point for me, not so much because I fear faults with wines under cork – cork is a far more reliable closure these days than it used to be – but because it helps to keep youthful, aromatic styles of wine vibrant and singing.

Lastly, I adore Greek wine (hence two in my final selection) and so the Assyrtiko/Malagousia blend, again under screwcap, was an easy pick. It’s smartly packaged and the blend of those two grapes can work very well, the Malagousia being all about fruit and aromatics, while Asssyrtiko adds more weight, structure and sometimes minerality.

Sauvignon Blanc decisions

Moving on to the wines I chose beyond Natalie’s recommendations, the first wine I looked for was a New World Sauvignon Blanc. I went through a long phase of never buying or choosing to drink Sauvignon Blanc, but have recently come back to it from time to time, especially in warmer seasons when I’m often not looking for rich and buttery whites. Tesco has some very good Marlborough Sauvignon Blancs at higher price points – the Smith & Sheth Cru, for instance, but I wasn’t looking to spend £20 on a single bottle.

At the value price point, I often turn to cooler-climate Chile over Marlborough. It’s a generalisation, but Marlborough Sauvignons are often more pungent and tropical in style (with the exception of wines from Awatere, maybe), and more inclined to have noticeable residual sugar at lower price points, which is exactly what I don’t want from this crisp and refreshing style. I always avoid Sauvignon Blanc from Chile’s Central Valley, as it’s a warmer region and I’d rather go for a marginal, cooler-climate area. So my attention naturally turns to Aconcagua, in the north of Chile, the centre of cool-climate Sauvignon Blanc.

Chile's cool side

There’s a good choice at Tesco. Its own Finest Valle de Leyda Sauvignon Blanc is a good buy at £9, and the Luis Felipe Edwards (LFE) Gran Reserva Sauvignon Blanc (£10) is another well-made pick from Leyda (a sub-region of Aconcagua). In fact Luis Felipe Edwards makes the Tesco Finest wine, so there’s not much to choose between them.

In the end though, I plumped for Errazuriz’s Reserva Estate Sauvignon Blanc, also from Aconcagua. It was on offer when I bought it, and offer prices apply in addition to the 25% off, taking this wine down to around £7.50 – a steal at that price. I visited Errazuriz many years ago, and walked among its cool-climate vineyards. Its president and owner Eduardo Chadwick won Decanter’s Hall of Fame Award back in 2018, and it is a quality-driven operation, at all price levels.

Next I wanted to pick up a bottle of rosé. So what am I looking for in a value rosé? Not necessarily the palest colour – paler doesn’t equal better, and actually I often really enjoy rosés of a deeper hue with exuberant and juicy fruit flavours (like some of the Navarra rosés, for instance).

The Arbousset Tavel rosé (£13) is one of its darkest in the Tesco line-up, and is always a good buy, but I wanted to try something new. So I couldn’t resist picking out the Dianthos rosé, made from one of my all-time favourite grape varieties, Xinomavro. It’s a grape that displays delicious strawberry character and often a hint of tomato in red wines, so I was curious to discover this rosé expression.

Viognier dilemma

So we’re up to five bottles. One left to qualify for the 25% off. I reached for a Paul Mas Viognier from the south of France, as I’ve enjoyed Paul Mas whites in the past – the Grenache Blanc-based whites in particular. But then I spotted next to it a wine I wasn’t familiar with, the Tesco Finest Viognier – £1 cheaper, also French. Which to go for? I stood there for at least five minutes examining the labels, trying to make my mind up.

The Finest wines are usually good, and this one was made by a talented winemaker, Julie Rouffignac (she also makes the Tavel rosé mentioned above). Not much in the price difference, both from the south of France, and both the same alcohol, 13%. It was the Paul Mas that ended up in my trolley, primarily because it is a single-vineyard wine, which usually indicates a level of quality.

Out of curiosity, I later requested a sample of the Finest Viognier from Tesco’s PR company and tasted the two wines side by side. Both are decent wines, but I felt satisfied that I had made the right choice – the Paul Mas was riper and slightly richer, with more of the textural weight that I look for in Viognier.

The final selection

I hope it’s reassuring that even those of us with wine knowledge still take their time in the wine aisles – and that it’s possible to buy six perfectly enjoyable bottles for everyday drinking for just over £50.

Lastly, a note on vintages: in general, when shopping for crisp, fresh whites and rosés at the value end for immediate consumption, I’ll look for the youngest possible vintage. All these wines, with the exception of the Greek white, were from 2025. Sometimes these styles will gain in interest over a couple of years, but these are not wines designed for cellaring and will often lose some of their vibrancy as they age.

The six picks: five whites and a rosé for summer

Tasting notes and scores from Amy Wislocki and other Decanter Editors. Prices shown are full RRPs, before any discount is applied

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