The recent dismal trading figures from Sainsbury’s and Tesco show just how tough the established supermarkets are finding it to fend off the challenge from discounters Aldi and Lidl. So how does this affect the wines you buy?
Asda and Morrisons currently appear to have more of a “we try harder” attitude, making sure they have plenty to offer in their basic lines but also seeking to demonstrate that they have a much broader range than the German-owned parvenus.
Asda, for instance, has introduced a new Wine Atlas range, targeted at younger, more adventurous drinkers, which ticks all the boxes: great value, appealingly colourful labels, intriguing off-the-beaten-track drinking. Two of the best are the Wine Atlas Cigales Tempranillo 2011 (£5.97; 14% abv), a deliciously vibrant, youthful, Rioja-style red from north-west Spain, and the even more sharply priced Grillo 2014 (£4.97; 12.5% abv), an attractively smooth white from Sicilian cooperative Cantine Settesoli which tastes a bit like an unoaked chardonnay (though don’t let that put you off, chardonnay-phobes). They’re available in only around 260 stores, though.
Morrisons hasn’t come up with anything quite as clever but still has a much wider selection of wines than either Aldi or Lidl, ranging from its upmarket Signature range (try the crisp Verdicchio, at just £5.49; 12.5% abv) to more esoteric listings such as Villa Maria’s fragrant Private Bin Arneis 2013 (£9.99 online from morrisons.com; 13% abv), from New Zealand, which bears favourable comparison to those from the grape’s original home of Piedmont.
Morrisons has also done a good job of picking up on trends such as the current malbec craze, stocking not only wines from Argentina but malbecs from the south of France, Australia and South Africa. I’d personally go for one of the Argentinians, the Alzar Malbec 2014 (£7.49; 13% abv), which is not as high in alcohol as some but still has plenty of grunt, as the Aussies nicely put it.
Sainsbury’s, meanwhile, is sticking to the knitting – concentrating on the classic wines it tends to do well. As one of the buyers admitted to me the other day, “We don’t want to lose customers by changing things too much.” With the odd exception, their Taste the Difference range is pretty hard to fault on quality or price – witness the 2014 Taste the Difference Sancerre (£13; 12.5% abv) which is as good a supermarket Sancerre as I’ve tasted: elegant and precise, with lovely delicate, summery gooseberry fruit. Beat that, Lidl!
