A Map Reading Exercise for Asda’s Wine Atlas

Asda’s Wine Atlas Collection is back and here are its highlights.

Good to see that Asda has now revived its Wine Atlas range.

The initiative was originally launched 11 years ago but gradually faded away once its main pioneer, Philippa Carr, left the business.

Happily, the original concept has been preserved – providing parcels of (often unfamiliar) wines that are nevertheless tasty and, above all, affordably priced.

The current group all weigh in at £7 or under.      

This initial batch of the resurrected range seem to be clustered around Mediterranean regions but more reds, and heartier fare, are expected to join as winter approaches.

Indeed, the precise range is expected to change quite often with wines joining and leaving as the respective seasons dictate.

This current batch is led by a blend between an indigenous Greek grape and sauvignon blanc with a carricante from Sicily keeping it company.

Red wine is represented by Jaen from Portugal’s Dao region.

And there are two rosés – one using monastrell from Jumilla and the other a Corsican option in a Provencal style.

It is pleasing to see that the baby has not been thrown out with the bathwater, as the ever-popular fetească regală from Romania has been retained.

This has been a big seller for Asda and is the sole survivor from the original collection.

I have sampled most of the range and set out here the ones I enjoyed most.

Once again, pictures and hyperlinks are included where possible to make it easier to track down the wine in question.

Starting with my top choice

2023 Wine Atlas Greek Rhoditis Sauvignon Blanc (£7 at Asda and 11.5% abv):

MidWeeker Eddie has been enthusing about this white wine for several weeks now – and he is quite right; it is the pick of the selection.

Rhoditis is often used for retsina but is especially noted for its firm acidity especially when grown in cool, undulating vineyards.

Almost clear in colour but nicely perfumed, this blend (15% is sauvignon) delivers red apple, white currant and melon flavours.

These are partnered by zingy lemon acidity and suggestions of dill and other herbs to provide bright and light summer drinking.

And here is the link … https://groceries.asda.com/product/sauvignon-blanc/the-wine-atlas-greece-roditis-sauvignon-blanc-75-cl/1000383221422

Moving to Romania

2023 Wine Atlas Feteasca Regala (£6 at Asda and 11.5%):

Reports suggest that, every year, Asda sells almost half a million bottles of this muscat-like white wine.

The variety was developed about a century ago and is capable of producing classy, sweet wines, but this one is dry.

Pale in colour with apple peel aromas, it exhibits white peach and ripe apple flavours supported by good grapefruit acidity and a nicely rounded texture.

And here is the link … https://groceries.asda.com/product/all-other-grapes/the-wine-atlas-feteasca-regala/910001814119

And for a red.

2021 Wine Atlas Jaen Dao (£7 at Asda and 13%):

Known elsewhere as mencia, Jaen brings us high acidity and low tannin red wines that work brilliantly for summer.

It is very common in Portugal’s Dao region and is prized for its young, juicy wines – although this 2021 version has lost none of its verve.

Dark in colour and light in texture, it contains soft raspberry, red plum and bramble flavours accompanied by firm acidity (but negligible tannin) with traces of basil and of chocolate

And here is the link …https://groceries.asda.com/product/all-other-grapes/the-wine-atlas-jaen-dao-75-cl/1000383221559

What about the others?

I have not tried the Corsican rosé yet – and would welcome reports (Later: see Comment Section) – but the Spanish one has rather too much sweetness for my taste.

Initially, the carricante seemed to lack the depth and liveliness of its rivals, but tasting its coconut influences later I felt I may have been a bit harsh.

And to make things even more tempting.

As an additional incentive, when members of the Asda Rewards scheme buy any two Wine Atlas bottles, then £2 goes into their Cashpot – and that is so for the rest of July.

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22 responses

  1. Hi Brian

    And as an additional incentive, until Sunday Asda are on a “buy 6 save 25%” offer, so all these wines are reduced in price! Get in there quick

  2. Just a heads up, Sainsburys currently has a buy 6 get 25% off on almost all wine, (ie not just specially selected etc.,) and other reductions too. Eg Trivento Golden Reserve 2021 is reduced from £16 to £13, less 25% = £9.75/bottle ..

    1. Really helpful stuff Dave and Jerry. Many thanks for the update. Incidentally, MidWeeker Aileen has provided this response on that Wine Atlas Rosé I asked for reports on:
      The Corsican Rose wine from Asda’s wine atlas range is a great buy
      Not a true connoisseur but a lover of a fancy label I gave this a try some weeks ago
      This is a Rose of choice now and enjoyed as an aperitif [from which] I definitely get a very subtle pink grapefruit taste .. a bit sweet and tangy but all in one it’s delightful

  3. Well I am still going to stick up for the Carricante.93 points IWC Silver Award.Described as soft on the palate .Here is what Club Oenologique thinks about it : Good intensity on the nose with aromas of honeyed stone fruit and a kiss of minerality. Round and intense on the palate with pleasing character and dimension. Balanced and flavoursome on the finish.
    David Williams Observer very rarely gets a wine wrong and the great Fiona Beckett of the Guardian in her last ever article recommends it and says”Sicily’s deliciously crisp carricante .A real bargain at this price”.
    The bottle the wife and I shared was great.Perhaps understudied ,but not getting whacked in the chops with fruit bomb,is to be welcomed?

    1. Quite right too, Paul – always stick with your first impressions. I did hint at a suspicion that I have undescored it but be good to hear what others found.

    2. Hi Paul,

      I was at a tasting last year, at which Fiona was present, and was aware that she had just celebrated her 75th birthday. I had not spoken to her before, although had been a subscriber to her newsletters, and exchanged comments. Just before I left I took the liberty of saying to her “congratulations on your recent birthday – how do we both manage to look so young?”.

      She looked at me, smiled, and replied “because we drink lots of really good wine!”. Lovely lady, and wish her well in the next phase of her life.

  4. Interesting to note that all the supermarkets have begun to seek out more indigenous varietals and from less well known regions. These from Asda are keenly priced.

    At a slightly higher price – £9 – I can highly recommend M&S Found Verdil from Valencia. White/orange having a little skin contact, with flavours of baked fruits, cinnamon and ginger.

    1. Yes, you are right Howard. Sainsbury’s Discovery and the Waitrose equivalent ranges illustrate the point further. It is probably the way to go to get value for money and to provide a few shock waves to anyone being overly complacent.

  5. Hi Brian,
    Greetings. We’re the UK office of the Spanish rosé (Monastrell) that you mention as being too sweet for your liking. You are right to spot that it is not BONE dry, but it comes in at just 4 g/l of residual sugar by analysis which is still ‘dry’ Give it another shot. We like the peppery spiciness of it.

  6. Morning Brian and as ever thank you for insightful comments …

    A lot of 25% off buy 6 around just now! That Dino Trebiano at Tesco, from last Monday’s MWW, can be £4.50! And I was going for it until I spotted Asda have their deal up and running.

    Out to click and collect shortly I’m in for the Wine Atlas Carricante; must see what all this press fuss is about. It has cost me £4.87. The Roditis too of course that I know is terrific. That cost me a whopping £5.25!!! And I get another £2 off multiple Wine Atlas bottles as I buy in 2s using my app! Asda are giving this quality this stuff away … slop it in the glass …

    This frugal buying leaves me money to spend elsewhere so I’m having the Baron Augustin Bordeaux at £4.32. All cheap and cheerful stuff I know but mid-week in the summer the ”lighter end” of all things perhaps including less alcohol, is appreciated.

    However it is the weekend and after my own ”campaign” for the floral, subtle Roditis I can offer a cracker of a big, big, white wine that costs a lot more money.

    At Asda too, NZ-SB, Villa Maria Taylors Pass is normally £16, but is down to £13 right now, so it will be £9.75 on the 6 bottle deal. There’s plenty of these NZ whites around but a promo bottle revealed this to me and wow! is all I can say. The exact wine I want in every respect in this particular category.

    Typical Marlborough qualities here for a Sauvignon Blanc, but this one just kicks in double time at every level. Subtle like a Cloudy Bay it isn’t when everything gets so magnified, super explosive if you enjoy a good belt of minerality, exotic fruit, gum-hugging citrus grip and all else, this is quite the bottle.

    Because there is little restraint I can see how there might be detractors. For me though quality stuff of what I’m happy with as an aperitif and especially a saving of over £6 a bottle just now, I’ll take this and the Wine Atlas bottles and hold back on a TWS order I might otherwise have made.
    Cheers …

  7. Hi Brian,

    I tasted 5 of the 6 Wine Atlas wines in May – I missed the Jaen by mistake!

    Thought they were all good value, and great to see the Wine Atlas revival. But specifically picked out the SB/Rhoditis, Carricante and Feteasca Regala as having particular interest and character.

    Asda is the supermarket furthest away from me, so rarely visit, but was very pleasantly surprised by the quality of their range.

  8. ps … in all the excitement of the 25% off deals around currently, Lidl quietly sneak in with their August Wine Tour of mainly French fayre. There’s a Confidence de Gascogne Gascony normally £6.99 but for the next week £5.99 with the Plus app. There’s also a rather good looking Côtes-du-Rhône Villages from Séguret at £7.49. Look forward Brian to your take on these bottles soon.

  9. The Asda spend … no competitions here!

    Have to say if it’s value for money we are after this was a tidy collection of very cheap to a bit more pricey. Cheap and cheerful some of course, for the lowest prices we shouldn’t expect much more, but across the board it has been hard over the years to fault a lot of these repeats and then enjoy the new-to-me bottles.

    I’ll quote prices I just paid in their latest 25% off buy 6 offer that may include a double-dip. Safe to say it’s all very, very good value. Deal this time finishes on Sunday night!

    Wine Atlas Carricante I’d say well deserves it’s bebs of late. It is a very enjoyable wine that has some characteristics that cross borders but something there original as well we don’t get every day, Mount Etna and cheap, so if those characteristics particularly float your boat you will no doubt go back and repeat, (as I’m sure many do already with their Feteasca Regala). Astonishingly good at £4.87. I’ll have some more.

    But I’ll punt the extra 37p at £5.25 for the Wine Atlas Roditis-Sauvignon Blanc for two particular reasons. It is Greek and will inevitably attract comparisons with any Asyrrtiko, a grape/wine that’s getting lots of attention of late, and as such at the cheaper price here comes in at almost the same level of distinction and quality and therefore scores at least evenly.

    But it has significant enough quality character with it’s light perfume, a dry elegance and that citrus sparkle to set it above most anything else I can think of for this money. As ever this is a personal thing I so enjoy and will always do repeats on this as I do with the following.

    Bodacious Red from Tejo was £5.62 and at that price for such terrific drinking there can be few other Portuguese reds that get close. And although probably not everyone’s choice of Puglian red Via Vincini Gran Rosso has always been a favourite to have on the shelf, at £6, to go with hearty spicy food that the tannins can handle.

    New to me is the claret,Baron Augustin Bordeaux , that I took on trust at £4.31 to try. It seems to float the boat of Asda customer base according to reviews but I imagine that’s because it will never offend being ”smooth” and fruity. At that price perfect to wash down whatever, I think after tasting a half glass it will work. Not amazing but the quintessential cheap and cheerful enough.

    Saving money on that I threw £9.75 at Villa Maria Taylors Pass, a Marlborough £16 Sauvignon Blanc I said earlier is what we’d expect in the way of New Zealand at that price. Amazing it is, but just out of my usual max price range, so if I can’t get this deal again I need to make these two bottles last.

  10. Well Eddie finally got around to tasting your Asda Greek fantasy.Cracking wine and cracking value.Pleased you found the Carricante to your liking, they are different beasts, but we need variety.
    A few weeks back I suggested that Asda and indeed sometimes Morrisons were competing with and occasionally beating Aldi and Lidl on price/ quality, but the latest Asda offer blows them out of the water.

    1. Good points Paul. I know we have to wait for the 25% off deals … everywhere … to maximise purchasing potential, but when it happens at Asda price per price it scores so very high across its whole range.

      I think perhaps Aldi are getting the message about making some more of its bottles more attractive price-wise with more reductions week on week and that is to be commended for customers. I took advantage of this earlier in the week by having their almost unidentifiable Castellore pink fizz with £4 off. Could be a none DOC prosecco, that they say is #1 dry but in fact a touch sweet edge on the finish, and as ever immediately preferential to my wife like that when I would still prefer a Mateus rose at this level. Biggest disappointment was to find a very limited supply of the English Pinot Noir Rose that should have been down from £9.99 to £5.99 but wasn’t!!! So could only afford one bottle rather than more of such a lovely drop. Supply of enough and irregularities in pricing are two negatives about Aldi. It’s all so arbitrary.

      I have had the Asda Wine Atlas Dao and the Spanish offering too and was not so taken with the latter especially. But the Sicillian and Greek whites are remarkable both for the money even at full price and just quality drinking of the kind we might find discovering this preferential stuff when holidaying abroad, and frustrating not being able to replicate it when we get home! Often the case that local grapes/wines in situ give this buzz but hard to find that same buzz and evocation of an enjoyable recreational experiences. The WA series seems to go a long way to redressing that. Bring on the winter reds!!

  11. It took me ages to find these in my local-ish Asda as they really did just disappear into the wine wall, but got there eventually and am looking forward to trying them. I’m probably pronouncing it totally wrong, but Rhoditis sounds like some ghastly disease! Was really pleased to get these at a reasonable price to begin with, but the additional 25% off is definitely a bonus. Note to Asda: Display these more prominently so folk can find them quicker. Cheers

    1. Hi Rhiannon, try
      Roe -DEE-Tees.
      Itis usually denote an inflammatory condition and does sound awful!

    2. So pleased you have them Rhiannon. However they are pronounced or spelled , the Roditis comes with or without the ‘h’, they are both lovely whites and at a crazy price against quality if you got the 25% off the shelf price!! Just goes to show the power of press promotion where the Carricante is concerned. I thought to have more but none left at my local store. So back to the Feteasca and Roditis and more of the Sicilian eventually.

  12. Thought I’d just update you, as I went to Asda to specifically pick up the Corsican rosé and the Carricante whilst I still got £2 in my cash pot!
    The Corsican rosé is absolutely delicious, refreshing with red fruits, peach, pink grapefruit and steely minerality, long finish too. A lot of wine for £7.50
    I also tried the Carricante and it is very typical of the style with more subdued fruit and savoury/mineral notes. Not quite so impressive as the rosé for me, but for £6.50 I would definitely buy again

    1. Thanks for adding to the positive reports on the Corsican Rosé, Lisa; it does seem a winner. One or two subscribers felt I was being too faint hearted about the Carricante so I am rather pleased that you also put it behind other parts of the Atlas range. Possibly not quite such a blind spot for me as I was beginning to fear.

    2. Hi Lisa,
      I am increasingly impressed by Asda wines recently.
      Have you tried the Famille Perrin Arc du Soleil Camargue Rosé which is down from £10 to £8.?Expensive looking bottle.Very nice wine.

      1. Hi Paul
        No I haven’t, but I shall drop a bottle in my shopping this week, definitely sounds like one to try. Thank you!

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