Vigneron Jonathan Hesford gives his advice on finding good value bottles and bag-in-box, plus why Lidl can offer some of France’s best budget buys
The average price paid for a bottle of wine in France is around €7 – compared to £6.50 in the UK
Eddie Jordan Photos / Shutterstock
Regular readers will notice that I generally encourage people to avoid buying cheap wines and to explore the offerings of small, quality producers who sell either via cavistes or direct to the public. However, the vast majority of consumers buy cheap, mass produced wine. So let us have a look at that sector of the market (for once).
What is cheap wine in France?
Consumer surveys report that French people spend between €3 for cheap everyday wine to about €12 for weekends or special occasions. The average price paid for a bottle of wine in France is around €7.
Compared to the UK or Netherlands, €7 is actually quite high. In the UK the average price paid is about £6.50. However £4.14 of that is tax, which means people are only paying the retailer £2.36, equivalent to €2.71 a bottle in France.
There are not many decent bottles of wine available below €2.71 on French supermarket shelves. One could conclude that the Brits are bigger cheapskates when it comes to wine than the French.
However, that €7 average bottle price is skewed by the fact that many French consumers buy bag-in-box (BIB), not bottles, for everyday drinking. The average price for BIB is €3.70 a litre, equivalent to €2.78 a bottle.
This compares very closely with the average price of a bottle in the UK. BIB isn’t popular in the UK because duty outweighs the packaging-cost saving. A five-litre BIB in the UK would cost at least £30 so people are not attracted to it.
Does low price mean low quality?
Does cheap mean bad? Clearly not because over half the wine sold in France is cheap. We have also all paid more than the average €7 (sometimes a lot more) for a bottle and been very disappointed with what was in it.
The best-selling BIBs offer good quality, perfectly acceptable wine for everyday drinking. I often wonder why people choose cheap bottles instead of a BIB. Perhaps a bit of snobbery?
What influences the price of wine in France? The single biggest driver is the yield and production cost. That’s actually very satisfying to hear because in most other countries it is not.
Wines from low-yielding areas, produced organically and hand-picked do sell for higher prices than high-yielding, mechanically harvested, conventionally farmed wine.
The next reason consumers are prepared to pay more is a bit contentious. It’s the name of the appellation. French consumers are far more conscious of the source of the grapes in the bottle than any other people on earth.
They will happily spend over €10 if the wine comes from Burgundy, a named Rhône village or, of course, Champagne.
Conversely, they are reluctant to buy expensive wines from “lesser” regions like the Languedoc, Loire or the South West, even if they represent better value for money.
Knowledge is power
In third place comes the reputation of the producer. This is quite odd because when it comes to cars, clothes or other drinks, the name of the producer is the number one consideration.
Few people would expect to pay more to drive any Italian car, wear New York clothing or drink whisky from Scotland. They do, however, place a premium on Ferrari, Ralph Lauren and Macallan.
Production is the main cost driver of wine prices in France
Shutterstock/Jack Frog
How do we find wine that is cheap and enjoyable? In my opinion it takes quite a lot of knowledge and experience.
People will say that you don’t need to know much about wine to find great bargains but they ignore all their dismal failures.
Knowledge provides the ability to see through the marketing and spot wines that have a high probability of being enjoyable.
I have said before that most French supermarkets don’t buy wines because of their taste, they buy them because they are heavily advertised, found in restaurants and easy for them to order.
Lidl and Aldi are exceptions to those rules because they buy their wines centrally and have very few well-known brands.
I have found more rewarding wines in the sub-€5 category at Lidl than I have in other supermarkets. They often have interesting wines in their Foire aux Vins or special selections than their regular range. I generally don’t recommend individual wines in this column but here are some wines from Lidl’s regular range that I think are worth trying:
White: Alsace Riesling, Vielles Vignes 2024, Camille Meyer around €5.50; Bourgogne Chardonnay Tradition, Bonot Père et Fils – note this producer has a range of white wines from Burgundy but this basic Bourgogne blanc offers the best value for money, although their Chardonnay Vin de Pays is cheaper and still decent.
Red: Les Aumoniers, Séguret, Côtes-du-Rhône Villages 2024
I have two final points to make. Some cheap wines are unpleasant, at least to those who normally drink higher quality wines.
This is probably due to being made from rotten or over-cropped grapes, “cleaned up” in the winery by adding high levels of sulphites and other products.
The second is that it is rare to find a cheap wine that resembles a fine wine. While they may be perfectly pleasant to drink, they don’t have that wow factor that has made France the pinnacle of the wine world.
Don’t kid yourself that your favourite BIB or Lidl bargain is really better than the top cuvées of the most respected producers in the most sought-after appellations.
Jonathan Hesford has a Postgraduate Diploma in Viticulture and Oenology from Lincoln University, New Zealand and is the owner, vigneron and winemaker of Domaine Treloar in the Roussillon. If you have questions on this wine column, email info@domainetreloar.com.
Dining and Cooking