As last Thursday’s post underlined, increases in wine prices are roughly double the headline rate of inflation.
Consequently, making the most of your pennies on wine purchases is a continuing challenge.
Indeed, finding great value in wine is even trickier since there are so many options out there.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when browsing wine aisles.
This can lead to frustrated shoppers buying a wine simply because it has a flashy label or a big discount.
Sadly, this often results in disappointment.
And that’s why this site was created—to offer a guiding hand through all that confusion.
It provides regular, independent recommendations of wine that’s been critically tasted, and best of all, its findings are currently completely free!
Today’s recommendations embrace a great value rioja and a tasty rosé that has a few welcome surprises within the bottle.
Enjoy them both
Once again, pictures and hyperlinks are included where possible to make it easier to track down the wine in question.
First, then, the rosé
2023 McGuigan Single Batch Dry Rosé (£7.50 instead of £8.50 until 18 February – at the Co-op and 12% abv):
This rosé is deceptive – it can seem almost off-dry (and, consequently, helpfully versatile) but it actually only has 5gms of residual sugar.
That is, I fancy, the effect of ripeness (which concentrates the flavours) and the aromas of sweet herbs with which it opens.
Whatever the reason, the wine is attractively pale in colour and delivers a delicate red apple, cherry and strawberry base.
These are partnered by a trace of vanilla and crisp acidity to accompany that ripeness.
Now for that Rioja
2019 Baron Amarillo Rioja Reserva (£5.99 at Aldi and 13.5%):
Both Lidl and Aldi have good ranges of Rioja that are all very competitively priced.
Given that Reserva is the second top level of the region’s maturity hierarchy, this offering is especially good value at £6.
Dark with Cherry Tunes aromatics, it is centred on intense but smooth cherry and plum flavours.
Additional support comes in the form of an acidic prickle and suggestions of aniseed, rosemary and vanilla to mellow its relatively firm tannin.
Join me again on Thursday when the latest Lidl Wine Tour is put under the spotlight.
15 responses
One thing is certain,if you are a regular reader of MidWeek Wines- better still a subscriber for free- you will end up in the pleasant state of being Wine Confident.
I shall return later and give the latest update of my local community wine club tasting with the tale of a bad ass Aussie Cabernet which caused people to shout at me.And I am such a sensitive soul!
Two nice wines that are always in our rack.
Obviously people of discernment David.
Hi Brian
I am a big fan of the ‘Baron Amarillo’ range, this Rioja is actually quite authentic in taste, I find a lot of cheaper Rioja’s just seem bland with nothing to suggest it’s a Spanish wine, could be any generic wine.
Hi Dave,
Do you know who is Baron Amarillo?
Is he the chap travelling to Texas to meet up with Marie?
Or was he on the treadmill with Peter Kay,Parky and the tumbling Ronnie Corbett?
Ha ha, Could well be Paul , but joking aside, it’s a pretty good Rioja for little money
Continued from above.February 5th 2025.Theme- The Best of Asda.Presenter- me. Decided that members’ palates also needed educating- particularly the anti-Riesling brigade.So I came up with a standard easy to understand system of tasting.
Here is what I told them to use:
Sniffing and tasting wines
Smell is much more powerful and far more informative than taste.
We only have 5 basic tastes- sweet, sour ,bitter, salty and umami.
How many odours can a human detect?
Answer :One trillion.We have hundreds of olfactory sensors in our nose.
Sniffing wine
First don’t swirl, just take a sniff and try to identify the primary aroma.
Then swirl, take a deeper sniff and try to find the secondary aroma.
Tasting
Let the wine go around all your teeth, gums, top and under your tongue and then swallow.Try to pick out different elements.
Then after tasting, when the glass is empty, have another sniff and try for the third aroma/ flavour.
So tonight’s challenge is for you to try to identify three aromas/flavours for each of the six wines and then write them down.
They were in pairs or threes and there was much good natured debate and conversation, even attempts at cheating.Success! Two thirds reluctantly agreed that the Riesling was a good wine.
At the end of each wine I gave my considered three tastes.I thought there was booing at one point,but the wife assured me it was gentle jossing. Emboldened, I carried on to the last wine, a Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon.
I told them it was unfashionable,unpopular and they probably would not
Ike it,but it was complex and multi layered and they needed to up their game as I wanted six not three.
Then the shouting started- usually preceded by “I don’t like…..”
Leather treated with dubbin.
Dark chocolate, I only like milk chocolate.
Horrible- Tobacco smoke etc.
They did not like the last wine,but I felt it was a job well done.
Hi Brian,
Perhaps I could lay out my romantic (and liking a bargain) nature …
I’m a sucker for the supermarket Valentines’ Dine-In meals. You get a choice of starters, mains, sides, puddings plus a drink, for an all in price.
Looking into the current offerings, my wine picks would be …
Asda @ £11.97. This can include the Famille Perrin Les Cardinaux red. (Never had their meals before, but this must be a real bargain?)
Morrisons @ £15. Can include a DOC Prosecco, or their Best Organic Montepulciano D’Abruzzo. (I’ve had decent meals before from them, and they are great value)
Tesco @£18. Finest Prosecco DOCG, or a SA Sauv Blanc.
Sainsburys @ £18. TtD Rioja Rosado
Waitrose @ £20. Ara NZ SB or La Gioisa Asolo Prosecco.
M&S @ £25. M&S Found Refosco. (Of interest as I hadn’t got around to trying the Refosco – a previous MWW recommendation)
I’ve gone for the M&S deal, and hope to pick up a Morrisons one tomorrow. We usually have 2 of the meals in the week – and my wife enjoys having a break from food preparation!
Thank you, Richard – I’m going for the Wsitrose I think. Good value idea to get two different deals for the week as well!
Good to hear from you Michelle on what, I believe, is your first contribution to the Comments section. I know Richard will be pleased that his suggestions have proved helpful, and I hope that your 14 February event meets all the food, drink and social criteria.
Inspired by Richard’s Bill and Coo,I have started on my next romantic novel.I already have the opening line:
“Emboldened by the claret he pressed his knee against hers”.
What a hook!
I think it could rival Jilly Cooper.
…… He leant across, and she felt his warm breath as he whispered in her ear. “This has 50% whole bunch fermentation, and 25% new American oak …”
Dispelling your mood, my next line would be…
“Startled, she leapt up declaring “To be Franc, I am not that sort of girl. You must be mistaking Saint Emilion for Saint Amour and I shall Blanc you next time I see you; I am so put out I need a prescription from me Doc!”
Hello Brian
An endorsement for Aldi today ….
When I first read your proposal of the Aldi Reserva Rioja here I’d responded to that same suggestion in your Daily Record column a couple of weekends previous and picked-up a bottle already. Ever present on the shelf at all my local Aldi branches it’s hard not to see that Baron Amarillo Reserva’s bold orange label, but resistant I’ve always been to its come-on.
Not particularly knowledgeable on Rioja nor a great fan of tempranillo in general I tend to pass on that Spanish signature red but when I have indulged it’s been a crianza in style that has best satisfied my palate, so the entire genre isn’t entirely impenetrable to me, and garnachas I particularly enjoy, buying a few bottles of the locally produced Catalan Sangre de Toro at Carrefour in Tarragona always on the agenda when we’ve been on the Costa Dorada.
What I would say most pointedly here about Aldi is that in the area of money that the typical MWW remit has worked so well thus far, is picking bottles that were always great value set against the content. This rioja currently £5.99. We know this is gradually changing for many different reasons but nevertheless your recommendation once again was worth its bebs and both myself and my wife enjoyed it, though she more than me. I would not be averse at having it again.
But later I will shop at an Aldi for its incredibly decent and well priced beef steaks in a wide range that is more provenance as to the quality of much of what it sells. The bottle of red I will choose while I’m in there will be their Castellore Primitivo Puglia, IGT, 2022 also at £5.99. I mean, there’s so much to go at in that store it’s always a struggle to show restraint. I could spend a fortune every time stocking-up. But this Italian to me says it all about drinkability, affordability and just plain old value for money and in a belief it punches way above a price point like £5.99. Truly the embodiment of best supermarket mid week wines we can have.
I tried that rioja a few years ago. Good for its price but I can’t say I was blown away by it. For only £1.48 more you can buy Asda’s excellent silver medal winning Marques del Norte reserva 2019, now £7.47 reduced from £9. If you can find any left on the shelves, however… (I grabbed three when I had the chance :).