It was one of those “have you noticed the police are getting younger?” moments. A sudden realisation of time’s passing akin to my my teenage kids looking back at Blur and Oasis through the same grainy, sepia-coloured lens, and from the same distance in time, as I looked back at the Beatles and Rolling Stones when I was their age. On this occasion, the trigger was a pair of news stories from the business pages about how two of the world’s biggest drinks companies, Pernod Ricard and Treasury Wine Estates, had decided to sell their most famous commercial wine brands.
The sale of, among others, Jacob’s Creek, Brancott Estate, Campo Viejo, Lindeman’s, Wolf Blass and the, for me, somewhat less affectionately regarded Blossom Hill sent an uncomfortable message to wine drinkers over the age of 40. Familiar names that provided us with our first wine-drinking experiences in the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s were about as relevant today as Blue Nun, Black Tower and Lutomer Laski Rizling were when the great New World-led boom was in full swing.
It shouldn’t really have come as a surprise. The truth is the bigger drinks companies have been struggling to make a go of branded “commercial” wine (by which they mean sub-£10 a bottle) for some time. Diageo, home of such giant brands as Guinness, Smirnoff and Johnnie Walker, got shot of its UK and US wine divisions some 10 years ago. In announcing its planned sell-off of Lindeman’s, Wolf Blass and Blossom Hill in August, Treasury Wine Estates said its commercial brands accounted for less than 5% of its profits; Pernod Ricard’s entire wine division, meanwhile, accounted for just 4% of its £10bn sales and £2.8bn profits, a meagre share that itself was 2% down on the previous year.
Neither Treasury nor Pernod has left the wine market entirely. Both have retained their upmarket brands such as Australia’s Penfolds (Treasury), the champagnes Perrier-Jouët and Mumm and Provence rosé Château Sainte Marguerite (Pernod Ricard). It’s lower down the market where a combination of, among other things, economic uncertainty, high inflation and uneven harvests caused by climate change mean profits have been squeezed. This is where, as the wine business journalist Chris Losh says in trade magazine Meininger’s International, “businesses need to be finely tuned and laser-focused on the logistics and economies of scale to have any chance of success”.
Such businesses do still exist. There are brands, such as those in my featured wines this month, who make reliable, easy to find, consistently good wines at non-luxury prices, but they are fewer and farther between. And it’s hard to imagine any of them having quite the same cultural clout and potential for future nostalgia for the current generation of wine drinkers as the likes of Jacob’s Creek had for mine.
Six brands that won’t break your budgetTrivento Malbec Reserve,
Mendoza, Argentina 2022 (from £7.50, Morrisons, Asda, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Tesco)
Concha y Toro’s Argentine operation Trivento has shown itself equally adept at making large volumes of well-made, well-priced wine as the mother ship on the other side of the Andes. This is a typically plummy, soft malbec with a subtle kiss of oak.
La Vieille Ferme Blanc
Côtes du Rhône, France 2022 (£8.50, Co-op, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose)
The Perrin family’s familiar Rhône brand has been doing its dependable thing for 40 years now, with fantastic value across a range that includes a red, a rosé and this delightful white blend with its floral-edge and juicy stone fruit.
Errazuriz Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
Maipo, Chile 2022 (from £8.99, Waitrose; Tesco)
Like their rivals Concha y Toro, Errazuriz’s enormous portfolio is remarkably consistentand this classic Chilean cabernet sauvignon, with its perfectly ripe cassis flavours, embodies all that’s good about the style.
Boekenhoutskloof The Wolftrap Shiraz
Western Cape, South Africa 2023 (£9.99, or £8.99 as part of a mixed case of six, majestic.co.uk)
I’ve been drinking the Wolftrap wines from Boekenhoutskloof’s Marc Kent, one of the most significant figures in modern South African wine, for years now, and they’ve never let me down: this red is plump, pepper-spicy, but fresh.
Yalumba Y Series Shiraz
South Australia, Australia 2022 (£11.29, or £8.99 as part of a mixed case of six, majestic.co.uk)
A historic family-run firm that is celebrating its 175th anniversary this year, Yalumba has managed to stay relevant where other Aussie brands have faltered. This classy, richly dark fruited shiraz is as good as ever.
Ramón Bilbao Viñedos de Altura
Rioja, Spain 2020 (£17.75, or £15.97 as part of a mixed case of 12, greatwine.co.uk)
One of the most reliable names in Rioja makes some excellent wines at all price points, from this very pure, pretty and succulent red from higher-altitude vines, to their juicy, drinkable, youthful tempranillo, a bargain £8.75 at Tesco.
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