The best affordable supermarket wines - more wins for Aldi

The International Wine Challenge is widely respected as the Oscars of the wine world, so it's a big day for the supermarkets today - as they have picked up 317 medals for their own-brand wines - including 28 gold medals.

Marks & Spencer picked up the most of these - 13 in all, but there were also gold medals for Aldi, Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, Tesco, The Co-Operative and Waitrose.

Despite being own-brand wines, some of them are still pretty expensive - including the non-vintage Marks & Spencer Oudinot Rosé, at £27, or the Marks & Spencer Oudinot Brut Vintage 2007 for £31.

Affordable winners

There were, however, more affordable gold winners from the supermarkets - including six for under £10. The ten most affordable (excluding those sold in smaller bottles) were:

Aldi Exquisite Collection Hunter Valley Semillon 2013 (£6.99)
Co-operative Truly Irresistible Fiano 2014 (£6.99)
Aldi Exquisite Collection Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2015 (£7.99)
Asda Extra Special El Meson Gran Reserva 2010 (£9.98)
Aldi Lot 08 Colchagua Carmenere 2012 (£9.99)
Aldi Lot 14 Minervois La Livinière 2014 (£9.99)
Marks & Spencer Mineralstein Riesling (£10.00)
Marks & Spencer Stonedance Roussanne (£10.00)
Tesco finest* Sancerre 2014, from the Loire Valley (£11.00)
South African Marks & Spencer Graham Beck The Rhona Blanc de Blancs 2010 (£13.00)

Charles Metcalfe, Co-Chairman of the IWC commented: "We are so fortunate in the quality of the wines selected for UK supermarkets. Not all are winners, but if you stick to wines that have won IWC medals, you will find so many great wines, of all colours and styles. And even the gold medals don't have to cost you a fortune. There are great wines in UK supermarkets to suit every occasion and every budget."

The bad news

Unfortunately, despite some of these wines coming in at less than £7, there's every chance that this is still too pricey for most people. Research from drinks specialists Harpers found that although the experts tend to suggest buying bottles that start around £10 each, more than half of us are unwilling to spend more than £6 on a bottle of wine.

This means that the vast majority of what we are paying for in each bottle is not the wine - but everything else instead. The average duty on a bottle of wine has now reached £2.05 - with VAT on top. When you add in logistics, the cost of the bottle, and the retailer's margin, in a £5 bottle, you get just 45p worth of wine. If you can stretch to a £10 bottle of wine, you'll get £2.90 worth of wine.

It may, therefore, be worth at least trying one of the £6.99 bottles - and testing whether you can taste the difference.