Tesco Finest Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2011

Marketed as part of Tesco’s Finest range, this sits at the upper end of what I’ve seen on the supermarket shelves here in the UK. The embossed bottle certainly looks the part, although for some (no doubt parochial on my part) reason it remains disconcerting to see supermarket own-brand wines. This was in fact produced by Les Vins Skalli.

The nose is quite pretty, showing clean red fruits, edging towards but not becoming confected in character, along with a bit of darker spice and even a hint of meatiness. It is very fresh smelling and well balanced, but lacks the sort of richness one might expect.

The palate highlights this wine’s lack of stuffing. There are more clean red fruits, a bit simple, surrounded by a framework of spice and vegetation. Palate weight is light to medium bodied, and the wine seems to lack texture, gliding across the tongue and not seeing fit to leave much of a trace either in mouthfeel or indeed persistence of flavour. What’s here is clean and correct, there’s just not enough of it.

Tesco Finest (but really Les Vins Skalli)
Price: £14.99
Closure: Cork
Source: Retail

4 thoughts on “Tesco Finest Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2011

    • Indeed. I have spent quality time in both Lidl and Asda while here. The branches of Lidl I have visited had very small ranges of inexpensive wine. About half the size (or less) of comparably sized ALDI stores. Asda seems to have more wine but I have not found any sufficiently tempting to prompt a purchase. Sainsbury and Tesco seem to have more compelling selections. Of course, that’s a fairly shallow analysis.

  1. I once got lost in a big ASDA store somewhere in Cornwall. I hadn’t taken any notice of what town we were in and realised I wasn’t listening when we were talking about pickup arrangements. Despite my slight panic at the prospect of being stranded at ASDA, I do remember there being aisles and aisles of wine, though no specific recollections as to the quality of the range. I think Tesco and Sainsbury both have some (relatively) decent buyers on staff. Surely Waitrose would have a good range too?

    • The supermarkets here are so big! I completely understand a slight panic reaction 🙂 I believe Waitrose has a great range but I have not been there this visit (yet). M&S not too shabby either.

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