The best wines to buy from M&S this summer

Telegraph

9 hours ago

Between the cyber attacks and fashion editors eulogising about the summer collections, M&S has barely been out of the headlines this year. Food sales are strong, but what is going on with M&S wine?
Earlier this spring, I went to the retailer's head office in Paddington to taste some 90 samples from its current drinks range and came out with mixed impressions.
Here's what I thought.
The first point to make is that the bottles you're inexorably bowled towards by in-store displays, especially in travel hubs, aren't the wines that M&S does best, even if it does sell a lot of them.
I'm not a fan of the somewhat sickly Bellante Prosecco and not just because the name reminds me of an unprintable insult rather than a character in Handel's opera Almira. The M&S Garganega Pinot Grigio 2024, Italy (£7), which apparently sells by the bucketload, is made by the very good Cantina di Monteforte and is perfectly fine, though rather sweet (it has more than 6g/litre of residual sugar). My tip? If you like pinot grigio, go to Morrisons and buy Gordon Ramsay Pinot Grigio 2024, Italy (11%, Morrisons, £7.50; also Tesco, £8.75 and still worth that price), which is also made by Cantina di Monteforte but which is dry, peachy and delicious.
Back at M&S, other classical styles, such as the Corsican Rosé at £8.50 or the Classics No 14 Spanish Albariño (£13), err on the side of anodyne, which is often my experience of wines at M&S tastings.
Strangely, perhaps, for a retailer with a reputation for excelling at basics such as plain cotton knickers and men's crew-neck sweaters, the wines that shine at M&S aren't the ones I might usually look for, they're the ones I didn't know I wanted in my life.
A new star to look out for is a beautiful white from the Dão and Lafões regions of Portugal with a slightly textured feel, like pear juice mingled with woody herbs and run through with a salty charge of preserved lemon. That's M&S Found Encruzado 2024, Portugal (12.5%, M&S, £8.50), which is due in stores on June 11. It's fresh enough to drink as an aperitif but it does have good backbone and will sit well with food. Snackwise, I'm matching this with paprika Pringles. Dinnerwise, its combination of texture and tang would be good with the fatty succulence of pulled pork, while its citrus and herbal notes work well with rosemary-and-lemon chicken kebabs.
The encruzado is part of an M&S range called Found, dedicated to unusual and little-known grapes, and it's under this label that you will find many of the retailer's best wine buys – and I say this as someone extremely wary of novelty for novelty's sake. Among the Found wines I'd recommend are Feteasca Alba (£7.50) from Romania (also due in stores on June 11), orange Verdil from Spain, and Found Kratosija 2024, Macedonia (13%, M&S, £8.50), a vivid, berry-scented unoaked red that is a cracking buy.
My theory is that the apparently cautious approach that leaves me wanting more from some M&S wines is a blessing when it comes to grapes that might otherwise be too challenging. Many Found wines take unfamiliar flavours and wrap them into a wine that is interesting enough but, crucially, approachable and good value – the same approach the food hall has taken for many years.
That's not to say Found represents the only wines I'd buy from M&S: other star buys include a cava, an English bacchus and a smoky red from South Africa, all of which you'll find recommended below.
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How we tested
Victoria Moore tasted 91 wines at M&S's spring/summer press tasting in April 2025.
Why you can trust us
Victoria Moore is the author of the best-selling The Wine Dine Dictionary and an award-winning journalist who writes The Telegraph Magazine 's drinks column. With a postgraduate diploma in psychology, she also runs workshops on wine and smell. Her impressive list of awards includes Louis Roederer Wine Columnist of the Year, Louis Roederer Online Communicator of the Year and Fortnum & Mason Drinks Writer of the Year. The Wine Dine Dictionary won the André Simon Special Commendation Award and was also Fortnum & Mason Drink Book of the Year 2018. Follow Victoria on Instagram @how_to_drink.