These off-the-beaten-track supermarket wines from Italy, Greece and beyond are well worth a try FOUND NERELLO CAPPUCCIO, SICILY, ITALY 2020 (£7, MARKS & SPENCER) When we describe something as obscure or unusual, we’re making a guess about the average person’s knowledge of the field in question. Some of these judgment calls are easier to make than others. The two best national supermarket wine departments, M&S and Waitrose, have had to make judgment calls about their own area of specialism since both launched wine ranges (respectively Found and Loved & Found) based on the idea of introducing their customers to new wines. There’s a fair bit of overlap in what the two departments think customers are unfamiliar with. Both have lively young reds made from native Sicilian varieties: Waitrose’s Loved & Found Perricone 2020 (£7.99) and (my slight preference) M&S’s Beaujolais-esque Nerello Cappuccio. WAITROSE LOVED & FOUND ROERO ARNEIS, ITALY 2020 (£7.99, WAITROSE) Also in both ranges: excellent examples from southern Chile (M&S’s Found País 2019 from the Itata Valley at £9 just pips Waitrose Loved & Found País 2020 from the Maule Valley); a pair of equally good South African whites (Loved & Found Bukketraube 2020, £8.99; and Found Grenache Blanc 2020, £8); and a wine apiece made from one of France’s manseng grape varieties (Loved & Found Petit Manseng 2019 at £9.99 and Found Gros Manseng 2020 at £9). Both ranges also do a nice line in supporting-cast grape varieties in famous regions: elbling rather than riesling in the Mosel (Waitrose), mazuelo rather than tempranillo in Rioja (M&S), and the apple and pear freshness of white arneis rather than better-known red nebbiolo, barbera or dolcetto of Piedmont. Continue reading...
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