Good wine, conveniently close to home

Not posh like M&S and Waitrose, not cheap like Aldi and Lidl, and not even attempting the all-things-to-all-people approach of Tesco and Sainsbury’s, the Co-op is not what retail analysts would call a destination store. Indeed, even the Co-op’s own staff would have to concede that the reason most people end up shopping there is simply because it’s there, open, when all other alternatives are just that bit too far away.

It’s hard to imagine that many of us would turn to one of the Co-op’s 2,400 or so branches for the weekly “big shop”, or take the bus across town for the pleasure of bargain-hunting in an Aldi middle-aisle style. But if, like me, you spend more time than is healthy scowling at the Co-op’s scanty bread range and ambitiously priced oat milk during a geographically convenient top-up shop, you will also know that the retailer does do some things very well. Quite apart from its laudable commitment to organic, Fairtrade and local sourcing, I can think of no better salt and vinegar crisps, in terms of hitting the absolute sweet spot of eye-watering intensity and crunch, than the Co-op Irresistible Hand Cooked Sea Salt & Chardonnay Wine Vinegar Crisps, for example. I also relish the upmarket vegan Nutella-in-a-bar that is the Co-op’s Irresistible Gianduja Chocolate Bar. More pertinently for this column, though, is how good – in a quiet, unshowy but surprisingly inventive and often exceptionally good-value way – the Co-op’s wine selection is.

You can get some pretty smart stuff at the Co-op, including what is consistently the best supermarket own-label vintage and non-vintage champagnes (the Les Pionniers wines, made by the same team as Piper-Heidsieck, are £22 for the Brut NV and £35.20 for the 2013 Vintage); a deeply comforting, top-flight Rioja Reserva red in the shape of CVNE Imperial Rioja Reserva 2019 (£22.50); and some very classy Bordeaux, both red (Château Beau-Site St-Estèphe, Bordeaux; £26.50 for the 2014, if you can’t get your hands on the immaculately polished 2019 for £25) and white (the toasty richness and rippling grapefruit of G de Château Giraud 2023, for £18).

There is also a parade of excellent wines in the just-above-a-tenner category that is so often responsible for the best quality-to-value ratios in any wine range: wines such as the poised, orchard-fruited example of Austria’s distinctively white-peppery white grape variety Domäne Wachau Grüner Veltliner 2024 (£12); the luminously bright, ripe and sunny but clean-lined Robert Oatley Signature Series Chardonnay 2023 from Margaret River in Western Australia (£13); the satisfyingly savoury Villa Nardelli Cuvée Carolina 2024 (£11.25); and the silky Palazzo Maffei Conte di Valle Valpolicella Ripasso Superiore (£12.75).

But perhaps the Co-op wine buying team’s greatest strength is in sourcing interesting, honest and very drinkable wines from reputable suppliers for about £8. On the red side, that means wines such as the vivid, mulberry-juicy Co-op Irresistible Petit Verdot 2024 (£8), made, unusually, from the lesser-spotted Bordeaux variety petit verdot in Jumilla, southeastern Spain; the refreshing, chillable, strawberry-scented southern French red Être Affamé Cinsault 2024 (£8); and, intense with blueberry and liquorice, Co-op Irresistible Carignan 2023 from the Maule Valley in southern Chile.

White picks, meanwhile, include the nectarine-fleshy, creamy textured but fresh Co-op Irresistible Limited Edition Grenache Blanc, IGP Pays d’Oc 2024 (£8.15) and the lively, zesty Co-op Irresistible Alvarinho Vinho Verde 2024 (£8.50). These are wines that at this time of year, when those post-Christmas credit-card bills start making their bitter demands, may well make the Co-op’s wine range worth a diversion.