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I didn’t want anyone to think I was elitist and only wrote about wines at £5 and above, so I requested samples of wines under £3. The samples flooded in.
Now, if we’d had this tasting 15 to 20 years ago and, allowing for inflation probably tasted wines under £2, a significant number of the wines would have been technically faulty and most of the rest would have been undrinkably vile. Obviously, we’re not expecting any complexity or length of flavour but really, they were pretty reasonable. Some of these wines are probably loss leaders. For convenience, let’s say the wines were all £2.99 unless specified.
Our favourite wine was the Co-op’s own Soave 2006. The smell was lightly floral, quite pleasant and reminded us of sniffing granny smith skins. The taste was grapefruity, fresh and not at all nasty. Budavar Chardonnay 2005, from Hungary is £2.79 from Aldi. There was an initial smell of wet dog, but this lifted to be pleasantly fruity. The taste was sweeter than others and it had some body. The packaging makes it look very cheap, but that’s to be expected. Sainsbury’s Muscadet La Régate 2005 smelt of very little, but the majority of Muscadet we have over here has been aged on its lees, for extra flavour, called sur lie, without which it is astonishingly neutral. The taste was just off dry with good, fresh acidity. Not great, but perfectly reasonable.
Fourth (out of 10) was Alto Picco Irsai Oliver, from Hungary, via Morrisons. It was aromatic and floral, with a Germanic taste and fresh acidity. Girls’ wine, I thought, but for this girl it would need to be served freezing cold. Aldi’s Collezione Italiana Soave 2006 is £2.79. Lorraine thought it smelt of peardrops in a cardboard box, which was freakishly accurate. The taste was very, very dry indeed. We all like dry wine, but don’t want it to make us pull faces, which this one did.
Aldi’s Budavar also make a Pinot Grigio, also £2.79. It smelt of glued cardboard and was off dry, with a saccharine aftertaste which was flabby and flat. In my opinion, a fair tasting note for many a Pinot Grigio – I just don’t understand what you lot see in it. Sales of it are rocketing across the world and it is almost always absolutely dire.
Vieille Fontaine is a French Vin de Pays from Tesco and is sold in the shortest, cheapest bottle available. I doubt if all the packaging costs more than 12p. It smelt catty and sweaty and tasted off dry and neutral. Somerfield’s Piesporter lost points because it stank. I was reminded of the rind on Chaumes cheese. It was really fizzy. German wines often have a prickle, but this was one bubble too far. It was very sweet, which is not a fault, but we didn’t like it.
Valencia Macabeo from M&S smelt of vinegar initially and even when that faded it was pretty grim. Serrana Chardonnay from Majestic was really, really bad. It smelt of struck match and tasted burnt.