To come up with these 36 recommended wines, and the 38 in last week’s selection of sparkling and white wines, I picked out and then tasted what I thought were the 214 most likely recommendations from the total of 482 wines shown to wine writers this spring by the UK retailers mentioned below.
It is now widely recognised that glass-bottle production and transport make the biggest contribution to wine’s carbon emissions, and manufacturers have responded by producing much more attractive lightweight bottles. Britain’s biggest supermarket Tesco, responsible for selling at least a quarter of all wine sold in the UK, has recently agreed to follow both Waitrose and The Wine Society in joining the Sustainable Wine Roundtable accord, agreeing to reduce bottle weights to an average of 420 g (14.8 oz) from 550 g (19.4 oz) by 2026. Like Waitrose, they usefully published bottle weights for each wine in their tasting booklets.
Pink wine features increasingly, even in France at the expense of red wine; it seems extraordinary that Tesco’s cheapest red-wine bargain is a perfectly respectable claret at just £5.49. As a result there’s an ocean of very pale Provençal rosé in clear, non-recycled glass around at the moment – some at eye-opening prices – but below I concentrate on pink wines with character, of which The Wine Society has a particularly good range.
Reds are increasingly served cool in summer and those that are particularly suitable tend to be fruity and relatively light-bodied, often with a hit of refreshing acidity. The reds I recommend below come from 13 countries, illustrating the wealth of choice available to wine drinkers today.
Pink wines
Señorío de Sarría, Rosado Garnacha 2023 Navarra 14%
Fairly deep Grenache rosé was the traditional speciality of this northern Spanish region and this interesting dry wine has lots of strawberry character.
£7.95 The Wine Society
Bougrier 2023 Rosé d’Anjou 11%
Perfumed with excellent lively fruit and usefully low alcohol. Very clean aperitif. The acidity nicely disguises the residual sugar.
£8.25 The Wine Society
Kintonis, G & L Rosé 2023 PGI Peloponnese 12.5%
Blend of grapey Moschofilero with Roditis and Agiorgitiko. Fruit jumps out of the glass and then the wine has a dry, refreshing finish.
£8.95 The Wine Society
Kintonis, Agapi Greek Rosé 2023 PGI Peloponnese (12.5%)
Chock full of strawberry fruit on the nose – almost brazen! Lots of fun here. A rosé with character.
£12.99 Majestic
Bonny Doon, Le Cigare Orange 2023 Central Coast 11.5%
Not technically a rosé but an orange wine thanks to two weeks’ skin contact for the mostly white grapes (mainly Grenache Blanc plus Pinot Gris, Orange Muscat and Chenin Blanc with just 14% Grenache). Lots of chewiness but also lots of fun to taste and look at. Nicely judged balance between fruit and astringency. Good price for California.
£15 Tesco
Pur Azur Rosé 2022 Côtes de Provence 13%
Pale orange colour! With lots of round fruit and interest, this has aged well.
£17.50 Amathus
Red wines
Claret des Tourelles 2022 Bordeaux 13.5%
Ridiculously inexpensive. Impressive deep crimson. The light, fruity nose ushers in a chewy finish, so the Bordelais character has not been lost, though no oak was involved. Colour is arguably its chief attribute but if you poured this into an antique decanter you could almost convince your guest it was a cru bourgeois. Just a little lack of fruit on the mid palate.
£5.49 Tesco
Shallow Bay Cabernet Sauvignon 2022 Western Cape 14%
Made by Boland. Not much nose but some varietal character on the palate. A fairly good buy for someone on a tight budget. Nice label.
£6.75 Tesco
Casa Santos Lima, LB7 Red 2021 Lisboa 13.5%
Interesting, juicy, fruity nose. Low tannin – but sufficient freshness and character. Lots of delivery for the money, as so often from Portugal.
£8.99 Majestic
Kleine Zalze, Reserve Shiraz 2021 Stellenbosch 14.5%
Great value for a sweet, mulberry-flavoured wine that spent 20 months in French oak barrels (70% new). How do they make money at this price while paying for new oak?
£9.50 Tesco
Incanta Pinot Noir 2022 Romania 12.5%
Slightly sweaty but sweet Pinot nose; made by Cramele Recaş. Good freshness on the end with just the merest hint of oak. A bargain for dedicated Pinot (but not burgundy) lovers.
£9.99 Majestic
Lentsch Zweigelt 2021 Neusiedlersee 13%
Exuberantly fruity, perfumed, mature wine from Austria’s most-planted dark-skinned grape grown not far from Lake Neusiedl in Burgenland. A good buy.
£9.99 Waitrose
Pringle Bay Pinot Noir 2022 Western Cape 13.5%
Not for keeping but a lovely light-bodied Pinot from celebrated South African winemaker Duncan Savage. 25p goes to the admirable Pebbles Project for farmworkers’ children.
£9.99 Majestic
Rémy Ferbras 2022 Ventoux 14.5%
Youthful, unoaked blend of southern Rhône grapes with energy and potential to age.
£9.99 Waitrose
Castello Colle Massari, Riserva 2019 Montecucco 14.5%
Sister property to the famous Grattamacco of Bolgheri. Satisfying certified-organic blend of Tuscany’s Sangiovese with a little Cabernet Sauvignon and Ciliegiolo. Ideally to be drunk with food but you could, at a pinch, sip it without. It also has a future!
Reduced from £15.99 to £9.99 Waitrose until 2 July
De Martino, Organic Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 Maipo 14%
Mellow, well balanced, ripe-but-not-too-ripe Chilean Cabernet. Really pure flavours. Stronger on fruit than oak, which is as it should be. Great value.
£10.99 Waitrose Cellar (online only)
Tomàs Cusiné, Vilosell 2021 Costers del Segre 14.5%
Sui generis. No obvious grape variety, just a well-judged, bright-fruited Catalan blend from a fine winemaker at a great price. Needs food. Grilled meat?
£11.95 The Wine Society
La Combe de Vallière 2022 Minervois 13.5%
Good to see Languedoc value recognised. Warm, appetising nose with emphatic Grenache sweetness underneath and still a bit of tannin for future development. Lots of country pleasure.
£11.99 Majestic
d’Arenberg, The Innocent Weed Organic Grenache/Shiraz/Mourvèdre 2021 McLaren Vale 14.5%
This South Australian family have for years made some of the country’s most reliable bargains. Handmade, French-barrique-aged dry wine with freshness and potential.
£12.50 Tesco
Domaine des Coteaux de Font Curé 2022 Brouilly 13%
Good Beaujolais is the perfect summer red that can be enjoyed with or without food and at virtually any temperature. This is that wine. And it should still be delicious for a few years to come.
£12.95 The Wine Society
Peter Lehmann, Portrait Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 Barossa 14%
American-oak-aged smooth South Australian red that’s slightly minty with cassis fruit and an admirably long finish.
£14 Tesco
Zuccardi, Serie A Malbec 2023 Uco Valley 14.5%
Grown at 900–1,100 m and made at Sebastián Z’s new winery high up in the Andes. Bone dry and youthfully tense. Mineral finish is presumably due to his beloved concrete – and no bad thing.
£14 Tesco
Domaine Pardon, Cuvée Tim 2023 Régnié 13.5%
Full of fruit and very vibrant. Pure Gamay! This superior Beaujolais is really singing.
£14.99 Waitrose
Mayu, Titon Vineyard Syrah Gran Reserva 2018 Elqui 14.5%
A sturdy, fully mature leathery example of a grape that Chile does rather well, from a northern desert-like wine region.
£14.99 Majestic
Marqués de Riscal, Reserva 2019 Rioja 14.5%
Still very deep crimson considering its 21 months in American oak. Pure, soaring, vanilla nose and already approachable but with lots of potential for further complexity. Wish I’d tasted this before writing my Iberian cellar article!
£15 Tesco
Kershaw, The Smuggler’s Boot Pinot Noir 2022 Elgin 13%
Master of Wine Richard Kershaw has forged a reputation for his cool-climate Pinot on South Africa’s southern coast. Lots of cool South Atlantic-influenced freshness in this wine made specially for Majestic. Verging on lean but with lots of fruit. 25p goes to the Pebbles Project.
£17.99 Majestic
Bonny Doon, Le Cigare Volant 2021 Central Coast 14.5%
Famous California answer to the southern Rhône, picked as late as 3 November, more than two months later than in France. No oak but lees ageing for 10 months. Engaging, smooth, with attractive herbal notes and a fairly complex palate.
£19 Tesco
La Magia 2021 Rosso di Montalcino 15%
A baby Brunello from the estate’s younger vines. The wine spent nine months in old oak and fashionable (and local) terracotta amphorae. A tangy Tuscan that’s a bit lighter than a Brunello would be and none the worse for it.
£19.95 Berry Bros & Rudd
Hans Rebholz, Bodensee Bohlinger vom Vulkan Spätburgunder 2020 Baden 13%
Southern Germany’s well-priced answer to red burgundy. The oak is a little too prominent on the nose for me, but it’s certainly a good-value alternative with excellent Pinot fruit.
£23 The Wine Society
Franz Künstler, Assmannshäuser Rotschiefer Spätburgunder 2020 Rheingau 13.5%
Purer fruit than The Wine Society’s other German Pinot. Should age well, too.
£24 The Wine Society
Catena, Angelica Zapata Malbec 2018 Mendoza 13.5%
From a leading Argentine producer. Ripe, macerated blackberry flavours. Impressive persistence.
£29 Tesco
Penfolds, Bin 28 Shiraz 2021 South Australia 14.5%
The oldest of Penfolds’ Bin wines with a medicinal hint of the most famous, Grange, minus the need to wait for it to mature – though this one will continue to evolve for many a long year. Aged for a year in American oak.
£31 Tesco
Alma de Cattleya Pinot Noir 2021 Sonoma County 14%
Made with a delicate hand in northern California by Colombian Bibiana González. No excess sweetness nor obvious oak and a little bit of fine tannin, too. For California, this is brilliantly priced.
£32 The Wine Society
Kelly Washington Syrah 2022 Waiheke Island 14%
Excellent answer to the northern Rhône from New Zealand’s popular holiday island. Really beautiful winemaking! So appetising, with a dry finish. Drink with a good meal.
£35 The Wine Society
Joel Gott Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 Napa Valley 14.5%
How come the 2017 is still available…? Because Tesco have listed it for two years but it’s their most expensive wine so it doesn’t sell fast. Whereas in a Napa Cab context – and this really does taste as glamorous as a fully ripe but not overdone example – it’s an absolute steal!
£37 Tesco
Members of JancisRobinson.com have access to full tasting notes, scores and suggested drinking dates in our tasting notes database. For international stockists, see Wine-Searcher.com.
Image credit skynesher via Getty Images. Wrong glasses, of course.
