’TIS the season to be merry – so crack open one of these bottles and pour yourself a glass or two.
There are plenty of great- value vinos in the supermarkets, with something delicious for every occasion.
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Wine expert Jilly Goolden checks out whites and reds for under a tenner and fizz for under £20, and talks you through her top 25 . . .
CHAMPAGNE / ENGLISH SPARKLING UNDER £20
Morrisons The Best Cremant de Limoux – £12.50, reduced to £10 in Scottish stores only until January 1
A FRILLY and fresh sparkling wine.
Light, buzzy stuff with flower-petal and lemon- curd notes creeping in on the flavour.
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Made according to the traditional method, this is an excellent party wine to enjoy, all the evening through.
Lidl Carpentier Champagne Brut – £13.99
SEDUCTIVE baking- bread aromas with inviting, sweet counter- fruitiness.
Lingering apple and shortbread biscuit elements to the flavour.
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Round and complete, classy and a great price too.
Sainsbury’s Taste The Difference Blanc de Noirs Champagne – £19.99
MADE entirely of black grapes, which makes it a little chunkier and fuller-bodied.
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The bouquet calls to mind crumbled digestive biscuits and there’s a hint of blackcurrant leaf if you look for it.
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A little clumsy overall.
Aldi Winemaster’s Lot English Sparkling Wine – £19.50, reduced from £21.50 until January 1
CREAMY and delicate crème patisserie notes.
Soft and inviting.
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Made to a traditional method, with not a single harsh note.
Tesco Gartissier Champagne – £15
GREEN apple carries into the flavour, coupled together with a hint of royal icing.
Crisp and dry, with slightly challenging acidity.
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Co-op Les Pionniers NV Brut Champagne – £19.50
APPLEY – but almost overwhelmingly so, unfortunately, and a little sour.
Doesn’t quite spread the joy – more of a challenge than a treat.
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M&S Balfour Classic Cuvée Brut (English) – £19, reduced from £22 until January 2
SMELLS like hay in a barn, with an unusual “foxy” flavour – leafy with a little pine-resin note.
Definitely unusual.
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Waitrose Champagne Charles Lecouvey Brut NV – £17.99, reduced from £26.99 until January 1
HAS a slight blush to it, and coincidentally is scented like rose petals.
Classic champagne with tiny bubbles (shows class) plus peaches and cream notes.
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Very easy to enjoy.
Asda Asquith Gardens English Sparkling Wine – £18
MATURE (a good sign) English sparkling wine with notes of croissant and green-skinned apples.
Toasty and fruity, with a little hint of fudge.
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WHITE WINE UNDER £10
Morrisons The Best Alvarinho Vinho Verde – £7.50
SCENTS of grapefruit and trifle.
Off-dry, slightly honeyed, citrus-inspired flavour combo with a little prickle of liveliness on the tongue.
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Very attractive.
Lidl Cimarosa New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc 2022 – £5.99
CLASSIC “cat’s pee” scent then zippy and refreshing with a wallop of grass-green flavours.
A little astringent and shockingly tart.
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Fine with food, or perhaps if your tastebuds need to be woken up a bit.
Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Austrian Riesling – £9.50
INSPIRED by flowers, pretty with a slight sweetness coating the tongue and a hint of marshmallows.
Zippy and lively on the tongue, which is attractive.
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But too bland to have the wow factor.
Tesco Finest Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc – £8.50 – reduced to £7.50 for Clubcard Members till January 1
SCENTED a little like room-freshener, seemily rather unnatural.
To the taste, copybook Sauvignon blanc with suggestions of nettles, cut grass and crunchy green peppers, all finished off with lemony acidity.
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Aldi Specially Selected Portuguese Encruzado – £6.99
A WHOOSH of artificial flower-petal aroma, and it tastes like pot pourri.
There are scents and flavours associated with cosmetics rather than wine.
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A hint of Victoria sponge to the rescue.
Co-op Irresistible Gavi Broglia – £8.50
UNEXPECTEDLY soapy on the nose, but the flavour has a lively lemon marmalade character, of both fruit and peel.
Silky like sugared almonds.
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But with a jab of refreshing acidity.
M&S D’Arenberg The Shepherd’s Clock Chardonnay – £9 reduced from £10 until January 2
A GOOD reason to fall back in love with Aussie chardonnay.
Scents of peaches and cream lead to generous tropical fruit flavours filling the mouth.
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Creamy, with big flavours, but not overbearing.
Asda Extra Special Touraine Sauvignon Blanc – £7 reduced from £8 until January 1
ATTRACTIVE lawn-mowing scent with a slight hint of elderflower cordial.
Big mouth-feel for Sauvignon blanc, flavours such as preserved lemons and kiwi fruit.
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An unusual show-off wine for France.
RED WINE UNDER £10
Morrisons The Best Dao Red – £9, reduced to £7 in Scottish stores only until January 1
SLIGHTLY unfocussed flavour spectrum – leafy and earthy elements combined with vivid fruit salad flavours.
There’s also an old-fashioned toughness, though.
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Lidl Deluxe South African Shiraz 2021 – £5.49
THERE is a slight aroma of fermenting fruit juice about this wine.
The flavour starts well, like melted fruit-pastille jelly with whole raspberries.
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But it ends disappointingly with a tarry tongue-coating quality.
Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Cotes de Ventoux Rouge – £8.50 reduced from £10 until January 1
OPULENT and spicy.
Classy red Rhone recalling a powerful medley of dark berries, with a dash of pepper and spice.
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Comfortingly wintery.
Tesco Finest Monte-pulciano d’ Abruzzo – £7, reduced to £6 for Clubcard Members until January 1
LIVELY and zingy on the tongue.
Fleshy sloe and blackberry fruit with a slight suggestion of leather.
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An easy-drinking “session” red.
Good for glugging with a group of your friends.
Aldi Médoc Bordeaux – £7.99
UNDERSTATED, with classy label.
Serious stuff, a savoury red but softens after opening (let it breathe for a couple of hours) and becomes attractively seductive in a stand-offish, Bordeaux sort of way.
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Co-op Irresistible Casablanca Valley Pinot Noir – £7.50, reduced from £8 until January 3
INTENSE fresh blackberry scent.
On the palate it is voluptuously fruity, with just-picked blackberry notes.
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Soft and velvety in texture, with a hint of sweetness rounding off the flavour.
M&S Baracca & Fassoldi Chianti Riserva – £8.33, reduced from £12.50 until January 2
TYPICAL scent of strong tea, then leathery with drying tannin elements combined with the flavour of ripe cherries and violets.
Classy Chianti.
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But maybe not quite the right match for your Christmas dinner, this bottle.
Asda Extra Special Chateauneuf-du-Pape – £9.99, reduced from £16 until January 1
THRUSTINGLY fruity.
Dazzling black berries and Victoria plums pegged down by a serious seam of alcohol at 14.5 per cent.
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Surprisingly soft and approachable, nevertheless, like a comforting port.
Top pick – if you’re man or woman enough for it.
