Cheapest supermarket for branded wine revealed

Which? research has revealed Tesco is the cheapest supermarket for popular branded wine – but only if you have a Clubcard. 

When we analysed major supermarkets' wine prices, we found Tesco offered several Clubcard discounts to members of its loyalty scheme, making it cheaper for our basket of 15 branded bottles than any other retailer. However, its 'regular', non-member prices were higher than at any other supermarket.

Our research also unearthed some questionable pricing practices at two supermarkets.

Read on to find out whether you’re spending over the odds on your wine, plus why you should never pay full price for some bottles.

From Barefoot to Brancott – where can you get the cheapest wine?

We tracked the prices of 15 widely available branded wines at Asda, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose from 1 February to 30 April 2024 using an independent price comparison website. 

For Clubcard holders, Tesco was the cheapest on average for 13 out of the 15 bottles we compared. It was also the cheapest supermarket overall, with our 15 bottles costing an average £108.43 in total with a Clubcard.

But it was a very different story for shoppers who aren’t members of the scheme (or simply left their card at home), who would have paid more at Tesco (£120.67) than any other store. This begs the question of whether non-members are paying over the odds when they shop at Tesco.

Cheapest and priciest supermarkets for 15 branded wines

Asda was the second-cheapest supermarket in our analysis, at just £2.73 more than Tesco’s Clubcard total. It offered the lowest prices on Yellow Tail Pinot Grigio and Brancott Estate Sauvignon Blanc and was second-cheapest for eight of our 15 bottles. 

None of Asda’s prices are exclusive to loyalty-scheme members. 

Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose also run member-only discounts. Sainsbury's didn't offer any nationwide Nectar discounts on these branded wines during the three-month period we looked at. We couldn't include loyalty promotions for Morrisons and Waitrose as the pricing data wasn't available. However, we do know their member-only promotions are very limited in comparison to Sainsbury's and Tesco's. 

Aldi and Lidl don't sell these wine brands, so we couldn't include the discount supermarkets in our analysis.

• Find out more: cheapest supermarkets 2024

Questionable discounts

We tracked how many times our 15 branded bottles were discounted over a 12-month period and found three were 'discounted' more than 50% of the time for Tesco Clubcard members. This was also true for one bottle at Asda.

Trading Standards guidelines state that discounts lasting for ‘a materially longer period than the higher price was offered’ are 'less likely' to be compliant – leading Which? to question whether these offers were quite as good as they appeared.

When we put this to Tesco, it disagreed and said it complied with all the rules governing promotions. Asda didn't provide a comment.

Overall, four-fifths of the bottles we looked at were on promotion for at least 40% of the year at Asda, Sainsbury’s and Tesco.

• Find out more: Which? uncovers dodgy-looking supermarket loyalty discounts

Steep differences between retailers

The table below reveals the cheapest and priciest supermarket for each of the 15 branded wines we looked at.

Fans of Barefoot White Zinfandel Rosé should avoid buying it at Waitrose, which charged a punchy 24% more on average than Tesco’s Clubcard price.

Elsewhere, some of the biggest price differences were found within Tesco's own walls, where shoppers paid as much as 16% more if they didn’t use a Clubcard.

So, if you are a member of the scheme, it pays to carry your card with you – or install the app on your phone so you always have a scannable Clubcard QR code available.

• Find out more: loyalty schemes compared

Six wines you should never pay full price for

The branded wines below were discounted for at least a third of the year at Asda, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose – we've listed where each one was on offer for the highest proportion of time. It's worth waiting until there’s a promotion on these wines to stock up – chances are you won’t have to hang around for long.

• Brancott Estate Sauvignon Blanc – on offer 47% of the time at Sainsbury's
• Campo Viejo Tempranillo Rioja – on offer 50% of the time at Tesco
• McGuigan Black Label Red – on offer 50% of the time at Asda
• Yellow Tail Chardonnay – on offer 47% of the time at Waitrose
• Yellow Tail Pinot Grigio – on offer 44% of the time at Asda
• Yellow Tail Shiraz – on offer 47% of the time at Waitrose

None of our 15 bottles were on offer more than 33% of the time at Morrisons, which suggests its prices fluctuate less throughout the year.

• Find out more: how to save money at the supermarket

Wine price rises on the horizon 

Annual wine inflation was 6.2% in May 2024, according to the Office of National Statistics. But 11 of the 15 bottles in our analysis had risen by 9% or more at supermarkets when we compared average prices in February to April 2024 to the same three-month period last year.

The average price of Brancott Estate’s Sauvignon Blanc was up by 14%. At Morrisons, it increased from £7.89 to £10.31 – a whopping 31% jump.

Wine inflation peaked at 9% last October, partly due to alcohol tax changes. Duty went up by 20% for wines with an alcohol volume (ABV) between 11.5% and 14.5% in August 2023 – an increase of 44p per bottle. 

And there are more price rises to come. The stronger the wine, the higher the alcohol duty will be from February 2025. This means the tax on an 11.6% ABV wine will be higher than on an 11.5% ABV bottle. 

The Wine and Spirit Trade Association has warned the new tax system will be complicated and costly for businesses because there are 100,000 different wines on the UK market, and different vintages can vary in strength.

• Find out more: Which? food and drink inflation tracker