The Buyer | The 100 best value wines in UK as voted by 100 wine educators

You can access the list of 100 AWEsome wines by clicking here.

What is the Association of Wine Educators?

We are a group of just under 100 qualified wine educators, mostly based in the UK, but with members in France, the US, Italy, France and beyond. All our full members have the WSET Diploma. Associate members need to have passed WSET Level 3, but all our members have to pass a rigorous assessment of their ability to educate. We are looking for people who don’t just know their stuff, but who can hold and engage an audience.

How long has it been going, how big is it and what is its aim?

We celebrated our 30th anniversary last year with a two day trip to Burgundy, along with two of the original founding members (Wink Lorch and Keith Grainger). One of the aims of AWE is to promote wine education as a profession and provide a way for both consumers and the trade to contact qualified educators. Many of our members teach WSET qualifications, but plenty (including me) don’t. As many of our members are self-employed, we also act as colleagues to each other, offering support, friendship and advice.

Talk us through the AWEsome wines list – how is it chosen and who is it intended for?

Each year a wine educator will interact with many people, often engaged wine consumers, and will be asked to recommend good wines. And of course during the course of our work, we taste many thousands of wines between us. We decided to bring these things together in a single consumer buying guide, based on recommendations from our members. We are usually known as the AWE, hence the name, AWEsome wines – see what we did there?

So at the end of each year, we ask our members to nominate up to three wines that have impressed them. We like to focus on quality and value for money, not unicorn wines. We could all suggest a prestige Champagne cuvée or a venerable and rare old wine – but that isn’t going to be helpful to most wine drinkers. So we put an upper limit of £25 per bottle for still wines, £35 for sparkling wines – and they should all be available to buy retail.

We list the wine, its price, a link to the retailer website and a few words from the member who nominated the wine to give a flavour of what to expect. Our members recommend a wide range of wines, from varieties or places that people may not have come across before, to good quality examples of the classics.

With so many 1000s of wines released each year – how often do the same wines come up?

Actually it’s surprisingly rare that members recommend the same wine. I think this speaks to the breadth of wines that we all taste as well as the diversity of wines that are available here in the UK.

Do you sometimes get wines getting on the list with just one vote?

Because we are asking each member to nominate wines, there isn’t a vote as such. We take their suggestions and build our top 100 from there.

Are there wines that make an appearance every year?

Yes! There are certainly wines that have been recommended (not by the same member) year after year. One that springs to mind is Graham Beck Brut NV, which has been recommended again this year. I think they probably deserve a special award for consistency. It’s certainly a wine that I tend to have in the cupboard.

Generally speaking, is it a good time for wine consumers to find value for money?

It’s certainly getting harder. We used to have a selection for wines under £10, but have had to move that up to under £12, as it was getting ever harder to find wines in that price range. The cheapest wine recommended this year is £5.89, though – from one of the discounters. The likes of Lidl and Aldi have helped to keep the pressure on wine prices to stay lower.

If so – why? If not – why not?

In the wine trade we are all painfully aware of the upward pressure on prices, which will only continue, especially if the Treasury push forward with their planned implementation of all those extra duty bands next year. And we are certainly not in the business of recommending wines just because they are cheap.

However, we can point consumers to areas which can provide value and quality, which might involve trying grape varieties or wines from countries that are less well known. An example from this year’s list is a Viorica made by Châeau Vartely in Moldova. It’s a brilliant aperitif wine and just £7.25.

Over the 10 years you have been doing the list, what trends have you noticed?

I would say the rise of South Africa in the list has been striking – it’s a country that really over delivers on quality at under £25 a bottle. The arrival of wines from Greece and Georgia on the list has been building over the years.

Which countries are hot for VFM right now? And which are not?

Well France is probably the answer to both those questions now. Don’t go looking for red Burgundy or wines from the Jura in the list – but Beaujolais is a better bet. Overall France still offers great quality and value in places like Languedoc, Roussillon and the southern Rhône. Italy was a bit of a surprise source of bargains this year, with five wines in the list under £12 (more than any other country).

If you had to take just three of these wines to a desert island, which would they be and why?

Got to have some bubbles! I’d probably go for the longer-than-usual aged Champagne Castelnau Brut NV (£33.81 from The Wine Society). It would be nice to see that evolve over time (though not too long I hope, as I hope to be rescued). A rich red that acts as a comfort blanket to soothe the nerves as the creatures of the desert island start their nighttime howls – Old Vine Roble from Bodegas Mazas (£13.95 from Spanish Wines Online) fits the bill. Then an enlivening white to sip in the shade of a palm tree – Simpson’s Roman Road Chardonnay from Kent (£24.10 from VINVM) would suit me nicely.

To access AWE’s list of 100 AWEsome wines click here.

To get in contact with the Association of Wine Educators contact Heather Dougherty on heather@redwhiteandrose.co.uk.