Membership of our Wine Club is open to all members and friends of Holy Name, as well as their guests. You will be most welcome to join us.
Wine Tastings take place in the Church hall on Towers Avenue usually on a Friday evening at 7pm.
You must book a place if you wish to attend. There is a charge of £10 per person and members take their own food/accompaniments to pair with the selected wines – examples are shared before the tasting so that you know what to choose. Usually there is a raffle for charity.
If you would like to reserve a ticket for any tasting when advertised in the Newsletter, please contact Barbara Cooper at the parish office or by email: welcome@holynamejesmond.co.uk before making payment.
Quality Wines From £15 by Jane McQuitty in The Times 24 July 2026
Enjoying good, ordinary wine is one of summer’s greatest pleasures, but sometimes you want to splash out on something special. Perhaps there’s a graduation to celebrate or a stonking set of exam results. Maybe you’re about to go on holiday — or you’ve just got back and need cheering up. The good news is that you can treat yourself without spending a fortune. I’ve found some cracking supermarket steals here:
2025 Queen Côtes de Provence, France, 13 per cent, Sainsbury’s, £15, down from £18 to Aug 11
Very occasionally a celebrity rosé crops up that is worth the money and Roger Taylor, Queen’s drummer, working with the Provençal winery Les Caves du Commandeur, has made one of them. It’s a thirst-quenching, bold, ripe, red berry-licked grenache-led pink, topped up with cinsault.
2023 Catena Appellation Agrelo Cabernet Sauvignon, Argentina, 13.5 per cent, Tesco, £16
Agrelo is one of the Mendoza sub region Lujan de Cuyo’s top spots and the extra polish from the site, plus part fermentation and ageing in French oak barrels, makes for a magical cabernet sauvignon. With fine tannins and stylishly integrated oak, it’s a juicy, spiced red plum mouthful.
2022 Exceptional Côte de Beaune Villages, France 13 per cent, Asda, £18
Asda is the last place you’d expect to find a tip-top red burgundy that put the other £18 offerings here to shame. Anyone tucking into this handsome, bright, leafy, gamey pinot noir with lovely balance and vibrant fruit will have a wonderful time.
2024 Nanny Goat Pinot Noir, New Zealand, 13.5 per cent, Waitrose, £17, down from £20 until Aug 18
Remote and achingly beautiful Central Otago way down south in New Zealand’s south island is one of the world’s top spots for the pinot noir grape. See for yourself with this small French oak barrel aged and fermented, smoky, tangy, cranberry-fruited 2024.
2023 Josh Cellars Merlot, US, 13.5 per cent, Majestic, £17.50 or 6 for £14.50 each
The film Sideways gave plump, plummy, easy-drinking merlot a bad name. Too bad because Josh Cellars’ ripe, juicy, damson plum-packed edition, finished off with almost two years in French oak, is proof positive that California merlot can and does make a wonderfully summery swig.
Best ‘Pinks’ for Summer (Jane McQuitty, The Times)
The pink wine tsunami continues, with rocketing year-round sales and all the world and his wife jumping on the bandwagon. The latest arrivals include the Queen drummer Roger Taylor’s surprisingly tasty, bold, ripe, red berry-licked, grenache-led 2025 Cuvée Rock’n’Roll, Côtes de Provence Rosé (Waitrose, £15, down from £18.50), and yet another nauseatingly sweet Kylie Minogue terror: a 7 per cent Petit Rosé with a whopping 20.5g of residual sugar per litre (Tesco, £8).
Thank the Lord for the Perrin family from the Rhône and their consistently good pink “chicken wine”. La Vieille Ferme Rosé is still my favourite light, herby, fruity French bargain buy, and as the bestselling wine of any colour in the UK it’s clearly yours too (available in most supermarkets). Check out the pale blush pink 2025 vintage, which is just £8 from ocado.com. If a good, ordinary, rounded yet still peppy Italian is what’s wanted, the 2025 Le Preare Chiaretto di Bardolino Rosé (Tesco, £9.50) should fit the bill.
Other recommendations are 2024 Ramon Bilbao Rosado, Spain 12.5 per cent, Co-op, £8, down from £9 –
An old unoaked but still big food-loving, garnacha-led friend, with terrific meaty, umami and citrus fruit.
2025 Taste the Difference Fronton Négrette, France 12.5 per cent, Sainsbury’s, £7.25, down from £8.75
An unusual, dry, punchy, orchard-fruited négrette grape rosé from southwest France, with bold, broad-shouldered orchard fruit.
Here are some recommendations from Will Lyons in The Times for Summer 2026 drinking :
Not every wine has to blast us with fruit. These are wines that drink best in partnership with food. Their ability to sit quietly alongside an honest bowl of pasta or a spring salad, and not overwhelm the simple flavours of the dish, shouldn’t be dismissed. This goes to the heart of Italian white wine. As we slip into summer, these subtle, delicious wines, with their pale colour, citrus kick and beautifully dry finish, are just the thing for our fridge doors. ~ James Lyons in The Times and here are three of his recommendations –
2025 Taste the Difference Pinot Grigio Trentino (12%) Sainsbury’s, £8.75 – Whistle-clean and dry, this has crisp acidity and pure notes of white apple flesh and stone fruit.
2024 Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi (12%) Waitrose, £10 – Produced on the east coast of Italy in the Marche, this is fresh and zesty, with floral aromas —a great choice for aperitifs.
2024 Exceptional Gavi di Gavi (12%) Asda, £12 – A white that’s chablis-like in style and packed with crisp, tangy flavours, this has a weighty, peachy flavour on the finish.
Love it or loathe it, New Zealand sauvignon blanc has become as much a part of our gastronomic life as takeaway lattes and chicken tikka masala. Since it burst onto our wine aisles more than 40 years ago, this pungent, grassy, springlike white has consistently topped the charts and shows no sign of abating. Last year we drank nearly 100 million bottles, more than enough for every Briton. Ask any supermarket wine buyer what their bestselling wine is and, almost ashamedly, they will invariably reply: “Still sauvignon.” I’ve never understood the embarrassment over this style because, at its best, it is zesty and vibrant with a scent of the season we’re in — ripe green fruit, cut grass and sliced green pepper. While its most famous estate, Cloudy Bay, tops £30 a bottle at Majestic, it is remarkable how many good examples can still be found at a fifth of the price. (Will Lyons, The Times). Here are two of his recommendations:
2025 Fern Bay (11%) Tesco, £5.95 – A great price for this easy-drinking sauvignon, which has springlike aromas of cut grass, gooseberry and an enjoyable lemony tang.
2024 Stich Jackson Estate (13.5%) Waitrose, £11 (down from £15) – This is a steal, with plenty of gooseberry and lime, juicy stone fruit and a crisp, satisfying saline finish.