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Links to the left feature an archive of previous round-ups.

week beginning 20/08/2007

the Times - Jane MacQuitty

lively, lemony, steely, citrussy fruit

juicy, unoaked red bursts with plump, plummy, creosote-spiked fruit

spicy, peppery, violet-scented red enthrals

delicious, fat, full, waxy, buttercup gold sticky

all mouthwatering bold, grassy, green pepper fruit

superb, ripe, velvety, plum and summer red fruits-laden red

the Sunday Times - Joanna Simon

Very sweet, but zingy, apricoty and gingery. A bargain

Opulent, spiced-raspberry-flavoured red. Great with chocolate

Dried fruit, coffee and toffee richness

the Independent - Anthony Rose

soft Chilean red displays a raspberryish character

spritz fresh and intense Alsace-like pinot gris

A grand reserve worthy of the title; ultra-stylish red

the Observer - Tim Atkin

taut, limey, super fresh

a touch of petrol and juicy, appley fruit; organic

intense, sappy, grapefruity

peppery, complex, award-winning

the Telegraph - Jonathan Ray

pure, vibrant blackberry and mulberry fruit; fine-grained tannins

clean, crisp, pure; more than a match for Chablis twice the price

wonderfully deep, concentrated, intense spicy red

fresh, ripe, juicy strawberries; elusive whiffs of rose petals

the Guardian - Victoria Moore

This week Tesco added to its shelves 370 gleaming new wines, increasing the total number in its range by 300 to around 1,100. This constitutes something of an event in supermarket wine terms, not least because, judging by the calibre of some of the producers, a large number of them are decent - so anyone who buys their wine along with their food at Tesco can look forward to a greater choice of better wines. So what's behind the revamp? Tesco has also noticed that "some customers are not buying wine from us - they're going to a wine merchant or one of our competitors" and decided it had better buck up its ideas. After all, there is money to be made: at the time of writing, the monthly figure for the average spend on a bottle of wine (including the pricier sparklers) at Tesco was £4.24. "This range is designed to put on an additional 25p a bottle," Godley says. It is certainly more alluring, though personally I'd prefer it if Tesco simply persuaded people to increase the amount they spend on wine (we should all spend more on wine) as opposed to siphoning customers in from elsewhere. Among those bottles that promise to raise the tone are a typically cobweb-light prosecco from the excellent Bisol, packaged under a Tesco Finest label; a merlot from Casa Lapostolle in Chile, famed for the stuff; several wines from the solidly good Chilean outfit Cono Sur; and the four I've picked.