Co-op success in best wine guide

The Co-operative has come top of the UK food retailers in a new wine guide – The Best Wines in the Supermarkets 2010.

Five of the store’s wines scored perfect marks in the guide written by wine journalist Ned Halley – more than any other major.

Halley features his favourite wine choices from every major food retailer in the UK, marking wines out of 10.

In the guide, Hadley praised the Co-operative for its increasingly upmarket range of products and for its commitment to listing Fairtrade wine.

In total, 32 Co-operative wines featured in the guide. The five with top scores were:

The Co-operative Fairtrade Argentine Malbec Reserve
The Co-operative Explorers Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc
Finca La Solana Monastrell
River 216 Gewurztraminer/Riesling
Château Roumieu Sauternes

Last week, the Co-operative Group announced record 2009 annual financial results, with sales up 31%. In 2009, the group acquired supermarket chain Somerfield to become the fifth largest retailer in the UK, with each of its 3,000 food stores in every postcode in the UK bar one, serving a total of 21 million customers.

Jane Parkinson, 22.03.2010