Wines of the week: Nine own label brands worth trying

As with many things in life, including wine consumption, you generally get what you pay for. But behind dull labelling you’ll find a conventional, reliable everyday type of wine – and at a good price, too

Most supermarkets and some online retailers now have their own label wine ranges, but do these wines deliver quality and value for money?

Well, yes and no. As with much of wine consumption, you mostly get what you pay for and cutting down on cost only rarely pays dividends.

What you do get with most own label wines is a certain assurance of reliability and quality at the price point, which may be a good bit cheaper than a similar wine from a named vineyard or producer. What you also get is often a pretty dull and generic labelling, telling you the wine is malbec or sauvignon blanc or whatever and the name of the retailer; the vineyard and producer might only appear somewhere in the small print, if at all.

But since the majority of these wines are destined for general everyday consumption, rather than showing off to your wine-savvy friends around the dinner table, that’s probably not going to matter much.

It is also true that you are unlikely to find niche boutique wineries making own label wines for the high street because they simply cannot handle the volume required. Neither are you going to get too many unusual grapes or leftfield natural wines: own labels tend to concentrate on the conventional and well-known style and grapes.

But… the good news is that if you hunt around a bit and read those labels carefully, the best own label wines can represent real quality and value for money and are often sourced from excellent producers. Majestic’s Definition Chardonnay (£11.99 a bottle; £9.99 as part of mixed six purchase, majestic.co.uk) from its own label range a good example: made in the Limoux area of southern France by the excellent Domaine Paul Mas, it is a classic chardonnay from the region, full bodied and rich, slightly creamy cut through with citric freshness. You would be pushed to get better quality for the price – certainly not from Burgundy – and given that the label is not entirely naff, it could happily be served with substantial fish dishes or roast chicken or pork at the dinner table.

The Definition range, launched only in 2015, is small, carefully sourced and the wines are well worth exploring. Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference range by contrast is massive, covering a wide variety of styles, regions and grapes. So they have everything from everyday fridge door whites such as the Taste the Difference Albarino (£7.50, sainsburys.co.uk), a sprightly, tangy, cleanly refreshing white from northwest Spain – do not expect amazing varietal character at this price and you won’t be disappointed – to the Taste the Difference Sauternes (£12 for 37.5cl, sainsbury’s.co.uk), which is fabulous value for this definitive sweet dessert wine considering it is made for them by the highly regarded premier cru-designated Chateau Guirard in Bordeaux, next door neighbours of the illustrious Chateau d’Yquem and definitely a find to brag about at the dinner table.

Own label delights from South Africa, Spain, Argentina and France

There are similar discoveries in Tesco’s equally extensive Finest range, including two award winners: the fully bodied and meaty Finest Barolo 2014 (£16, tesco.com) made from the nebbiolo grape in Piedmont in northern Italy is an excellent example of the style – the ideal wine to be decanted in advance and drunk with a big casserole or arrosti misti after a long walk on a winter’s day – which earned an International Wine Challenge Gold Award 2018. And another IWC Gold was also given last year to Tesco’s Finest Premier Cru Champagne (£20, tesco.com), a rich, bready, creamy, full bodied champagne, which continues the tradition of high quality of most supermarket own label champagnes and is made for them by the large Union Champagne co-operative in Avize, which also produces the well regarded De Gall brand.

Away from the high street, some online retailers also have their usually smallish own label ranges. I’ve previously recommended the own label claret and Douro red wines from Tanners but here I’m looking ahead to warmer weather and recommending their Saint Mont Rose 2017 (£8.50 or £7.65 each for case of 12, tanners-wines.co.uk) wonderfully crisp and refreshing and packed with red fruits. It’s made from the local tannat and pinenc grapes, plus some cabernet sauvignon, by the remarkably consistent Plaimont Co-operative in Gascony, southwest France, and the kind of wine to bulk buy for summer drinking and to keep a bottle on standby in the fridge.

Adnams, the Southwold-based company that has moved into wines as well as being a renowned brewery, has a good own label range, which includes the truly excellent Malbec El Dominio 2017 (£9.99, cellarandkitchen.adnams.co.uk) made in Mendoza at an estate owned by Susana Balbo, one of the key figures in Argentine wine. A lovely, juicy, approachable wine, with vibrant flavours of blackberries and blueberries, with some spice, oak and chocolate in the mix. One for red meats and robust vegetable dishes.

But undoubtedly the most impressive and extensive own label ranges online are those of the Wine Society, which offers the basic Society range and the slightly pricier Exhibition range, which aims to showcase wines which are benchmark examples of the style, grapes or region and are mostly sourced from highly regarded winemakers and producers from specific areas.

From the former, I’ve chosen The Society’s Vin D’Alsace 2017 (£9.50, thewinesociety.com) for which I didn’t have space in my column on Alsatian wines a couple of weeks back. Made for the Society by the house of Hugel, one of the big names in Alsace, from a blend of the local, so-called “noble” grapes – gewürztraminer, pinot gris, muscat, sylvaner and riesling – it is a refreshing and food-friendly combination of apple, pear and lychee flavours and a fab introduction to this often overlooked area of France.

The Exhibition range is where you come to find, for instance, what a proper Chablis Premier Cru or a Central Otago pinot noir should taste like, without paying silly prices. So, if you want to explore the South African pinotage grape, but are unsure where to start, try the Society’s Exhibition Pinotage 2016, (£10.50, thewinesociety.com) sourced from the Kanonkop estate in Stellenbosch, one of the pioneering producers of the grape and discover its distinctive, smoky, earthy, spicy red fruit flavours. And you might consider the label as something to show off about, rather than hide.