Tesco takes its wine seriously. It is the current holder of the International Wine Challenge’s Own Label range of the year – a highly coveted award in the competitive world of supermarket own label wine.
It will come as no surprise then to learn that Tesco takes great pride in its own label range of wine and continues to extend and improve the range of wines available according to feedback from regular customer research. Its red wine range is highly decorated with medals and awards of various colours from the major international wine competitions. Despite the awards, the own label red wine range is generally affordable and good value, even more so when a selection of own label red wines go on special offer.
If there is one difficulty with Tesco’s own label red wine range it is that not all the wines are readily available. Due to Tesco’s supermarket hierarchy ranging from the smallest Express and Metro stores to the out of town superstore and the enormous Extra superstores, not all of the own label red wine range is available in every store.
However, many of the own label red wines are available via Tesco’s online groceries site and most of the own label red wine range is included on the Tesco wine website where bottles can be bought in half and full cases with quick and efficient delivery. There is no need to despair if you like the sound of a Tesco own label red wine and can’t find it in your local store.
Tesco has listened to customer feedback and divides its own label red wines into three different ranges. As well as its competitively priced standard range which showcases many popular red wine styles such as Red Burgundy, Fleurie, Valpolicella, Chilean Merlot and Australian Shiraz, customers will find a growing range of red wine styles sold under the Tesco Simply and Tesco Finest labels.
Tesco says the Simply range is in direct response to customer feedback. The range appeared on the supermarket’s shelves in August 2011 after research showed that many customers found buying wine intimidating. The aim of the range is to present customers with a relatively small selection of wines featuring some of the most popular varietals with simple, easy-to-understand labels and sold at an affordable price.
The red wine Simply range includes a Chianti, Claret and Australian Shiraz with new additions such as a Malbec and a New Zealand Pinot Noir. The wines are all priced between £3.49 and £5.99 and should be easy to find on the shelves as the whole range is grouped together in the wine aisle as well as appearing amongst the individual countries. To make life even easier for customers, some of the red wines are available in 3ltr boxes or 18.75cl bottles.
Tesco’s flagship own label red wines feature in its Finest range. This premium range is extensive and impressive, including both well known and popular red wine varietals and regional styles and some lesser known gems which add interest to the range. Whilst generally more expensive than Tesco’s Simply and standard red wine ranges, the Finest red wines are still competitively priced against equivalent branded wines.
It is well worth suspending any brand loyalty or snobbery to try some of the red wines in the Finest range. When you consider that 94% of the Finest range of wines won awards at one or more of the top three international wine competitions it becomes plain that these red wines deserve their shelf space next to the well known and respected wine brands, particularly as some of these brand producers and wine makers may well have been involved in the production of some of the Finest red wines.
If you want to seek out some award winning Tesco red wines, four of the Finest reds won silver awards at the International Wine and Spirits Competition (IWSC): the Nuits Saint Georges; the Crozes Hermitage; the Chateauneuf-du-Pape and the Chianti Reserva. The Finest Valpolicella Ripasso was awarded a silver medal at the International Wine Challenge (IWC). Three more Finest reds won IWSC bronze medals: the Montepulciano d’Abruzzo; the Cotes Catalane Grenache and the Hautes Cotes de Nuits. Decanter bronze awards went to the Finest Mundulla Vineyard Shiraz, from South Australia’s Limestone Coast and the Altos de Tamaron Ribera del Duero Tempranillo, whilst the Chateau le Barrail Medoc won an IWC bronze medal.
Not wanting to be left out, Tesco’s standard and Simply red wines scooped a couple of bronze awards. Tesco’s Beaujolais-Villages and the Simply Malbec both won International Wine Challenge bronze medals.
Unsurprisingly, Tesco’s Finest red wines feature large in Ned Halley‘s supermarket wine bible, “The Best Wines in the Supermarkets 2012“. Halley picks out his personal favourites from both the own label and branded wines available in many of our supermarkets so the own label wines have tough competition to make it into his book. However, Halley points out that half of the 70 wines available in Tesco that he has chosen to feature come from the Finest range and three of the Finest red wines are amongst just 26 wines in total which earn a 10 out of 10 rating from Halley.
