An Expert Picks 11 Best Supermarket Red Wines Under £20
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Best For A Midweek Glass
Lisbon Red Wine 75cl, £5.99 | Mimo Moutinho
This affordable option from Aldi is a great introduction to Portuguese wine from a region that continues to go from strength to strength. It has all the classic notes of cherries and plums with a light swoosh of cherry blossom and cedar on the finish. This is both easy to drink, easy to pair with food and very easy on the pocket at under £7 a bottle. Perfect for a midweek drink, enjoy it with dishes like buffalo mozzarella and basil pizza or roasted herby chicken.
Available at Aldi.co.uk
Best With A Roast
Edition Limitée, £15.99 | Rasteau Cru des Côtes du Rhône
I’m a sucker for syrah grapes which add a tasty freshness to reds that could otherwise err towards feeling heavy or flabby with too much fruit. This is a proper full-bodied, very French red in a handsome bottle, with a mix of grenache, syrah and mourvèdre grapes from plots on sustainable vineyards in the southern Côtes du Rhône. It’s rich and ripe with a lingering taste of liquorice. Let it bloom in the glass and serve with your Sunday roast and plenty of rich gravy.
Available at WaitroseCellar.com
Best With Cheese
St Nicolas Cabernet Franc 75cl, £11 | Les Terrasses
This plush, purplish-red, 100% cab franc from France is brimming with fruit,tempered with a bite of pepper and herby elements, making it perfect on colder, autumn nights. It’s only 12.5% alcohol, and the kind of red that can be slightly chilled on warmer days, too. I’d pair this with a cheeseboard complete with aged Mimolette (a hard cheese from Lille), as well as pork dishes, like a good quality butcher’s pie.
Available at Tesco.com
Best With Steak
Susana Balbo Malbec 75cl, £12.50 | M&S Collection
Susana Balbo is the grand dame of the Argentinian wine scene and the country’s first female oenologist. This luxuriant, exceptionally well-balanced malbec is a steal at £12 a bottle from M&S. Made from 18-year-old vineyards grown high up at 1,250m, it’s full of rich and ripe hedgerow flavours of berries and damsons, and mature spice from generous barrel ageing. Best enjoyed with a good book and a roaring fire – or a marinated steak cooked over the grill.
Available at Ocado.com
Best For Girl Dinner
Amy's Blend, £17.99 | Moss Wood
Don’t let the unassuming bottle fool you, this is a complex, multi-faceted wine and, if you’re not typically a fan of Australian reds, it could win you over. It’s a wine that keeps on giving with every sip – complex with layers of plummy, cassis fruit and a rich vein of spice, all without being too big or too heavy. Grown at Glennore vineyard in the Margaret River region, it’s a balanced blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, malbec and petit verdot. It’s great now but will get even more interesting in a couple of years’ time. Pair it with a ‘girl dinner’ – think salami, prosciutto, mozzarella and tomato salad, or a bowl of gnocchi.
Available at Waitrose.com
Best With Rich Meats
Extra Special Uco Valley Malbec, £12 | ASDA
This bottle from Asda is made with Argentina’s signature grape grown in the high-altitude Uco Valley, where the cooler temperatures create a more refined, elegant malbec rather than the chunky versions found elsewhere. It’s soft with violet, blueberries and plums with a rich, earthy vein and a hit of spice and chocolate. This is a Decanter World Wine Awards Bronze Winner 2023 and is perfect to drink right now with meaty dishes like peppery steak, spicy beef empanadas or a good chilli con carne.
Available at Asda.com
Best With Veggie Dishes
I’m a big fan of the Nero D’Avola grape. Originally from Sicily, it’s thriving under the care of the Bosman family in South Africa’s sun-soaked, often rain-scarce Western Cape. It’s a refreshing medium red with a touch of oak and warm spice to round out the raspberries, strawberries and redcurrants. An elegant bottle with a mouth-watering freshness to finish. It’s a beautiful match for rich vegetable dishes like herby roasted aubergine, salty olives or veggie lasagne.
Available at Sainsburys.co.uk
Best With Tapas
Rioja Gran Reserva El Duque de Miralta 75cl, £17 | M&S Collection
This has all the characteristics of a grown-up rioja – spice, vanilla, a hint of leather, dried raisins and red berries. A gran reserva is the most elevated a rioja can be, made from outstanding vintages and with strict ageing criteria: this red is aged for 24 months in seasoned American oak barrels and then in bottle for a further three years. All that long, slow, considered ageing gives you a smooth-as-silk red that’s made to be enjoyed right now, but will get even more interesting after being stored for the next three to five years. It’s perfect with tapas dishes like charred chorizo, jamón, albondigas (meatballs in sauce) and Manchego cheese.
Available at Ocado.com
Best With Greek Food
Atma Xinomavro 75cl, £12.49 | Thymiopoulos
Xinomavro might translate as ‘sour black' but there are no sour grapes in this Greek wine. Xinomavro is an exuberant red, managing to be both fresh, smooth and juicy all at once. Made by Apostolos Thymiopoulos, who won Decanter's Rising Star Award in 2022, this is a must-sip for anyone who likes pinot noir but wants to try something different. Pair it with Greek dishes like stuffed vine leaves, or mature hard cheeses like an aged goat’s cheese or Ossau Iraty.
Available at WaitroseCellar.com
Best For An Everyday Red
Gran Reserve Pinot Noir 75Cl, £10.50 | Luis Felipe Edwards
This red is from an award-winning family producer in Chile’s Leyda valley, where the cool ocean wind means the pinot noir grapes grow slow and intense in flavour. The result is a berry-heavy red with a hint of smoke and a surprisingly fresh edge that saves it from being too juicy or flabby. It’s an easy-drinking wine made for midweek meals like grilled salmon or a plate of Parma ham as the fruit and smoke will smooth out the sweetness and saltiness of the cured meats.
Available at Tesco.com
Best With A Pie
Although this wine comes all the way from Argentina’s Uco Valley, which consistently produces award-winning reds, this medium-bodied red has a nostalgic hint of English hedgerows in autumn. It’s packed with currants and plums with ripe, deep cherries and a swish of chocolatey spice. The tannins on this are smooth as butter, making it an unctuous, rich option for lazy Sundays spent inside savouring the last of the weekend. It's a limited-edition wine, so snap it up before it’s gone, and serve with your go-to pie or something adventurous like roast venison with savoury chocolate sauce.
Available instore at Aldi
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