Top Ten Tesco Finest wines
Grabbing the UK’s largest share of our supermarket spending, Tesco is a name where “every little helps” when it comes to finding the best own-brand wines. With over 180 wines to choose from in their Finest and Tesco ranges, their wine aisle is overflowing with great value choices.
But it all started with packets of tea back in 1924 when founder Jack Cohen branded his market stall after the initials of a partner in his firm of tea suppliers, TE Stockwell, and part of his own surname. Tesco was born. But had Jack decided to use letters from his first name instead then Tesco could so easily have been Jates supermarket. History is a fickle beast.
Tesco’s grocery lines have expanded somewhat since then but customer loyalty has always been at the forefront of how they operate.
In the 1960s it was Green Shield Stamps, but technology replaced the licking and sticking of hundreds of stamps in a booklet with the customer Clubcard in 1995. And five years later you could start using these to reduce the final bill of your shop at Tesco.com – online grocery shopping was born but not without a few hiccups at the start with tales of customers buying 10kg of carrots rather than 10 individual ones and out-of-stock item replacements being somewhat whacky (I recall early deliveries coming replete with jars of pickled onions rather than the kind you chop and fry).
But times have changed. And so have the customers. 1998 saw the Tesco Finest brand
added to the existing Value line (1993) which aimed at filling the gap in the market for their more affluent customers.
Now there are almost 90 wines labelled as Tesco Finest. But are they actually all that great? Here is the WineUncorked list of Top Ten Tesco Wines.
Top Ten Tesco Finest Wines rated by WineUncorked.co.uk
Tesco Finest PX Pedro Ximenez Sherry
£6 Tesco (Half bottle)
5*
This is the sweetest form of sherry so if you are looking for subtle flavours then this one is not for you. It’s the colour of liquid Marmite but has the aroma of sweet raisins. The flavour is rich and smooth and tastes of fruit cake with some black treacle and cough mixture added in.
Tesco Finest Champagne Premier Cru Brut
£20 Tesco
4*
A tasty champagne with flavours of apple sandwich on toasted bread with a drizzle of runny honey and a few rose petals scattered around.
Tesco Finest Pinot Grigio Blush 2020
£7 Tesco
4*
Aromas of pear and hazelnut tart with an added bubblegum sweetness are matched on the flavour with a dash of redcurrant. A flavourful Pinot Grigio.
Tesco Finest Ribero del Duero Ebeia 2018£12 Tesco
3*
An aromatic mix of blueberry and creamy plum with a dollop of spice and a good bite of acidity. This wine needs food to balance out the robust flavours – perhaps a Txistorra? A pork sausage wrapped in a tortilla eaten like a hotdog.
Tesco Finest 1531 Blanquette de Limoux 2018
£9.50 Tesco
3*
Made from the local aromatic white grape variety Mauzac, with the more familiar Chardonnay and Chenin (which pops up in South African wines) the result is a lightly sparkling wine with flavours of peach cobbler and unripe plum. Try matching it to Asian dishes or fiery chilli meals.
Tesco Finest Semillon Dessert 2017 half bottle
£6 Tesco
3*
Gooey brown sugar and Seville orange marmalade flavours. Even though it’s high in sugar it is low in alcohol – just 11.5%.
Tesco Finest Valle de Leyda Chilean Chardonnay 2019
£8 Tesco
3*
Fruity and slightly buttery. The background butteriness comes through on the aroma and flavour along with some baked pineapple and balancing astringent celery and sharp apple. Nicely balanced.
Tesco Finest English Sparkling Brut
£21 Tesco
3*
It tastes like champagne with its apple, lemon and creamy white bread flavours so why wouldn’t you want to buy it?
Tesco Finest English Sparkling Rosé Brut
£21 Tesco
3*
This pinky-orange lightly sparkling rosé tastes of fresh from the oven apple cake with a grating of lemon zest on top. There’s a backdrop of sweetness coming through as melon and pear flavours.
Tesco Finest Colchagua Valley Chilean Merlot 2019
£8 Tesco
3*
This is not your usually mild and plum tasting Merlot. Instead expect a strongly aromatic wine with plenty of tannins. Green sappy stem, rather like blackcurrant leaf, aroma and flavour is there initially but these gradually mellow with opening and decanting into a jug into juicy blackberry.
The wineuncorked.co.uk wine rating system uses a maximum of 5 stars:
5* outstanding – the top rating given by wineuncorked.co.uk
4* very good wine
3* good wine but over priced
2* a disappointing wine
1* little to offer
0* avoid – pour down the drain
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Tweet me a wine question @wineuncorkeduk or email paula@wineuncorked.co.uk
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© Paula Goddard 2021 www.wineuncorked.co.uk
