Grand after grind
Christine Austin delves into Morrisons’ wine cellars to put the store chain’s ‘Best’ range to the taste test.
All supermarkets have their premium ranges with rather grand names. Tesco has “Finest”, Sainsbury’s “Taste the Difference” and Aldi has its “Specially Selected”. These descriptions mean that the wines are own blends, put together with a particular emphasis on quality, rather than price.
Flavour for money is always an overriding consideration for supermarket buyers, but these premium ranges usually offer some terrific tastes, capturing the nuances of grapes and regions, while still keeping prices at “weekend drinking” levels.
Morrisons has had its “The Best” range for years, and I do sometimes have to rearrange words on a page so that it is clear that “The Best” refers to the range, rather than my opinion. According to
Mark Jarman, head of wine buying at the Bradford-based supermarket chain, sales of “The Best” have been very successful during lockdown as customers have spent a little more on home-drinking wines while they have not been able to go out.
This has encouraged the team to expand the range, moving towards even more specific regions, to really bring out their quality and flavours.
“We look on The Best range as stepping stones to encourage our customers to try different wines. They definitely trust the quality of this range and so we have expanded it to 95 wines, each one reflecting a different personality and regional character while still offering value for money,” said Mark.
Here is my selection of the best of “The Best”.