Wednesday Wines – Episode 309 – 20 Tesco Picks for Spring / Summer 2026
It was the most exciting Tesco Press Tasting I have attended in the last 27 years! Of course, I am biased, but my own alcohol-free creation, Believe By Jukes (£9), goes live this week in select Tesco stores, so it was overwhelmingly emotional to see my bottle on tasting in the collection. It was also a buzz to see Believe picked out as one of buyer Beth Kelly MW’s highlights. But I am not here to review my own drink. You can track it down and see for yourself why it has just won a medal in the World Alcohol-Free Awards 2026!
As always, here are my favourite twenty wines from the event!
Sparkling
NV Tesco Finest Valdobbiadene Prosecco DOCG Brut, Veneto, Italy (£10.00)
Like the Graham Beck below, this is a best-in-class Prosecco, and it aces the brief with ease and a fair amount of élan!
NV Graham Beck, Vintner’s Selection Brut, Western Cape, South Africa (£14.00)
Year in, year out, this wine always kicks goals. It’s classically shaped, even, balanced and clean as a whistle. It’s hard to think of a party-style, traditional-method, sparkling wine to compete at this price.
White
2025 Tesco Finest Pecorino, Terre d’Abruzzo, Italy (£8.25)
Just brilliant! This is as surprising a find as it is a delicious and varietally accurate wine. Tangy, lemony, crisp and herbal, this is a fabulous white wine, and all you have to do is ignore Dolly the Sheep on the label and find the biggest glass you have!
2025 Tesco Finest Terre di Monteforte Pinot Grigio, Veneto, Italy (£9.50)
This is the best sub-tenner Italian PG on the shelves. Silky, sultry and pin-sharp in the finish, why spend any more if you are looking for an everyday Pinot Grigio!
2024 Viognier, Paul Jaboulet Aîné, Rhône, France (£12.00)
This is a snip of a price for a perfectly balanced, supremely accurate Viognier, and it casts a slender shadow unlike the chubby / Body Shop versions of this variety found up and down the High Street. Look nowhere else for a honed wine with a refreshing mineral-soaked finish.
2024 Concha y Toro, The Wine Sauvignon Blanc, Colchagua Valley, Chile (£12.00)
I must admit to rarely writing up South American wines, as there is always something a little out of balance, or indeed too concentrated, in the flavours. This means that when I find a wine I like, it is something of a rarity and has impressed me greatly. This superb Sauvignon eclipsed all others at the tasting with its gorgeous jasmine florals and bracing minerality. It is lean and not tropical, with far more elegance and composure than the price suggests. Roll the dice here!
2025 Pikes, Riesling, Clare Valley, South Australia £13
No change here! The 2024 was a superstar, and it made the grade for my 100 Best Australian Wines Report 2026 and promptly sold out. This 2025 is every inch as delicious, offering crazy value for a stellar dry Riesling from one of Clare’s greatest names. I cannot believe the value here. This is the must-buy of must-buys, and it is undoubtedly the finest value dry Riesling on the High Street!
2024 Tesco Finest Napa Valley Chardonnay, California (£15.50)
While the price has crept up £1.50 since I wrote this very wine up six months ago, the Carneros-sourced fruit in this wine is sublime, and the oak is, again, balanced, and it cradles with fruit without stepping on its toes. Classy, bold and yet refined, this is not a Californian caricature Chardy, but a surprisingly elegant wine with a compelling price.
2023 The Long Road, Viognier, Cape South Coast, South Africa (£18.50)
Made by superstar winemaker Sam O’Keefe of Lismore fame, this is not only an elite Viognier, with a bold palate and a swashbuckling air, but it is also a wine of extraordinary balance and refinement. It sees a fair amount of oak in its production, but this carpentry only serves to heighten the drama and majesty of the fruit. Who’d have thought there would be two sensational Viogs in this collection? If you start at Jaboulet and love it, this wine is a gimme for posh dinner parties.
Rosé
2025 Dianthos, Xinomavro Rosé, Imanthia, Greece (£10.50)
I am a long way out of my comfort zone here, having never written up a Greek rosé in 40 years in the wine trade, but I must say, this wine is astonishingly good. Clean, bright, teasing and with a halo of pomegranates and cherries and sea spray freshness, this is one of the most unlikely hero rosés of the year!
2025 Tavel Rosé, Famille Lafont, Southern Rhône, France (£13.00)
Chunky, deep, rewarding, and foodie, this is an amusing wine that covers a lot of ground, food-wise, after you have tired of the lighter rosé styles. The structure and fruit impact are easily enough to handle barbecue fare, so be sure to keep a few bottles handy!
2025 Roseblood d’Estoublon, Rosé, Coteaux Varois en Provence, France (£16.50)
Funnily enough, this wine is my Wine of the Week in MoneyWeek this Friday – so I obviously love it!! Log onto my website on Friday for a detailed write-up!
Red
2024 Malbec, Comté Tolosan, Caves des Roches, France (£5.25)
I have written this wine up under many guises over the years, and it never fails to put a smile on my face. No, the price listed is not a typo. No, this is not a big, sweaty, oaky Malbec. Instead, it reminds me of the beautiful ‘Vin du Patron’ style house wines I tasted in French countryside restaurants while I was growing up. Honest, fruit-packed, crunchily refreshing and most likely precisely what powered the Three Musketeers back in the day. Oh, and it is a fiver. DO NOT MISS OUT!
2022 Tesco Finest Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, Italy (£8.50)
The price is laughably low for this quality, and with three years under its belt, this wine has mellowed into a suave, authentic, well-balanced individual. Don’t expect fireworks, but equally, if you like Chianti, Valpolicella and any of the southern Italian red styles, none hold a candle to this wine at £8.50!
2024 All (good) things, Shiraz, Western Australia (£10)
I know the entire backstory surrounding this wine, so the expectation was high. But with a mere ten-pound price, how on earth could it live up to its billing? The answer is that the fruit found under this sleekly designed label is tip-top quality, and it has been very carefully placed in the bottle by the brilliant winemaker Glen Harding. Nothing is lost and nothing is unwanted. It is sleek, ripe, seamless, blackberry-soaked, enchanting, and if All (good) things has set its sights on commanding respect in the £10 space, this wine will guarantee it a thirsty and faithful audience! It is extremely exciting to welcome a forward-thinking, top-quality, innovative newcomer to the Aussie wine landscape.
2024 Penfolds, Koonunga Hill Shiraz, South Australia (£12)
And for a more urgent, heavier and more muscular Aussie Shiraz experience, you cannot do better than Koonunga Hill. As always, this wine hits the nail on the head, making this trio of Aussie reds a seriously good reason to head to Tesco now!
2023 Xanadu, Point Break Cabernet Sauvignon, Western Australia (£13.50)
This Cabernet (with a dribble of 4% Merlot and 1% Shiraz) is a perfect claret-bashing hero. It is direct, cassis-soaked, lithe and drinking perfectly. It is also blessed with judicious oak handling, which further elevates its appeal. There is no other Cabernet that comes close to this wine’s exquisite balance at this price! Made by an elite team led by Glenn Goodall, this is a slice of Margaret River-styled Cabernet at a give-away price.
2024 El Esteco Estate, Malbec, Salta, Argentina (£14.50)
And here you have another very rare beast! An Argentinian Malbec with stunning balance and, importantly, controlled oak. The fruit/spice/oak/tannin mix here is superb, and it is a worthy wine to sit alongside the Napa Cab (below), such is its velvetiness and allure. Hats off! I love surprises.
2023 Tesco Finest Napa Valley Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon, California (£16.50)
This is another wine that appeared in my Tesco round-up last year, and it’s the red sibling to the Chardonnay above, albeit with only a 50p hike on the 2025 price. It is a bonfire night-tinged blackcurrant bomb, and yet it doesn’t overstep the mark in terms of oak or alcohol, making it beautifully luxurious and hedonistic Napa Cab. It represents staggering value for money, too, considering the nosebleed prices of many competitors.
Fortified
NV Tesco Finest Fion Sherry, Jerez, Spain (£7.75, half bottle)
Made by the imperious Gonzalez Byass, this dinky half should find a permanent slot in your fridge door this summer, as it electrocutes the palate with its brittle, saline, citrus notes, rearranging your senses ahead of a serious feast. A half glass is all that’s needed, so a half bottle will do six guests with ease!