For the best quality wine this Christmas, you might be looking in the wrong place by heading to an expensive off-license, according to a gathered group of wine experts, who found that supermarket own-brand wine was, in fact, some of the best on shelves.
Best of all, the own-brand wines tend to be fairly cheap, with some of the best wine winners costing as little as £5 per bottle.
The International Wine Challenge saw wines from all over the world get judged by experts, and awarded medals. 222 own-brand wines won a medal in a competition which gave out just 21 gold medals, showing how highly they dominated the top ranks.
“British shoppers really are spoiled for choice when it comes to picking up fantastic wines in their local supermarkets,” said the co-chairman of the International Wine Challenge, Charles Metcalfe.
Aldi and Morrisons picked up a series of gold medals for their wines, whereas Waitrose saw itself at the bottom of the table compared to other supermarkets, a surprising role reversal, as people would likely expect the premium store to have better wines than the German discounters.
Marks and Spencer, however, won among the British supermarkets, with its Very Rare range winning 58 medals, 10 of which were gold. These wines cost just £8.00 a bottle.
Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons and Asda all won gold medals for their own-brand bottles, showing that quality does not necessarily come with a high price tag.
You can search and find the wines that were involved in the challenge online at the International Wine Challenge website.
