Wine Champions Winners Case

Pure blackberry and raspberry-fruit driven, soft, balanced Sicilian red that is perfect with or without food. The estate works to conserve the local flora and has catalogued rare species of orchids on their land. As a further move to improve biodiversity, Feudo Arancio has planted a lemon grove inside the stone quarries on the estate and thus rehabilitated previously damaged land.

A Wine Champion in our 2024 blind tastings, this is a succulent, juicy and generous red with charming, upfront fruit flavours. The nose shows aromas of red berries and blueberries with a tell-tale twist of Aussie eucalyptus and cracked black pepper. The palate is full but silky, with generous notes of cherries, plums, cranberries and blackcurrants. It's a wine that demonstrates the best of both cabernet sauvignon and merlot, with the former providing backbone and structure, while the latter brings juicy fruit and a floral character. For a video message from the winemaker, and for more on the story of this wine, please scroll down.

'Charming, honest wine – I could drink it any day.` So said one of our panel of tasters who voted this a 2024 Wine Champion. In this warm vintage, the Vinets have crafted a wine that keeps the freshness and minerality that marks out good Muscadet, just with a little more generosity and fullness. A delicious combination.

‘So full of character!` A dry, bracing, supremely refreshing and unoaked southern Italian wine, showing the charms of the greco grape at a fantastic price. Peachy, limey and with a bitter orange flavour that put one 2024 Wine Champions taster in mind of ‘vinous negroni`, it is the perfect aperitif for sunny weather .

A gem of a wine and a worthy 2024 Wine Champion. As one taster put it, ‘this tasted like the south of France. Characterful, easy to like, cracking value.` So many members turn to this happy union of zingy Gascon sauvignon blanc and fragrant peachy Languedoc viognier for summer refreshment, and it was easy to see why during our blind tastings.

Uncomplicated charm doesn`t get more charming than this. A popular southern French red and a Wine Champion in 2024, Laborie was given a makeover in 2023 to include some especially good, crunchy syrah fruit. Tasted blind among its peers, it was a resounding hit: ‘So much fruit, juicy and user friendly. Incredible value.`

Can you still find good under-£10 pinot noir that reflects the character of the prized but famously finickety variety that some call ‘the heartbreak grape`? This cherry-scented southern French favourite proved you can and it was duly voted a Wine Champion for 2024. A ‘sweetly fruited, delicate and very honest` expression, and a marvel for the money.

Another year, another Wine Champion vintage of this summery, fresh and sophisticated Vinho Verde, showing ‘lovely, fresh, crisp purity with plenty of yellow fruit.` Summer sipping par excellence from a Portuguese standard-bearer .

Ripe, opulent, stone-fruited and food-friendly white with a pepper-pot twist of complexity. This year`s ‘standout, textbook` example of Austria`s great white grape in our Wine Champions tastings, courtesy of one of its leading wineries, Bründlmayer.

A 2024 Wine Championship winning combination of plump red and black fruits, juicy refreshment and a price described as ‘madness for this quality` when the winning bottle bag was undone. In a line-up of Portuguese reds that ‘showed what incredible value they are`, this member favourite really stood out.

Bordeaux is offering brilliant value, and a number of clarets soared to success in this year`s Wine Champions tastings. This delicious wine earned enthusiastic praise for its richness, freshness, fleshy texture and hint of spicy complexity, and all for less than £8. As one taster pointed out, ‘there`s nothing not to like`.

The under-£10 star of our Wine Champions chardonnay line-up, this ‘stood out like a beacon.` The Loire might not be the spot you`d think of for great-value chardonnay, but this showed that it can give the region`s more famous sauvignon blanc a run for its money! Delightful, fresh, appley and with a food-friendly buttery hint on the finish.