A taste of reality

I would wager that many visitors to this site have never tasted wines by First Cape, Viña Albali or La Gioiosa. I would wager further that many have never heard of them – I certainly hadn't. Yet they are all in the top 50 best-selling wines in UK retail. In fact, First Cape was the fourth best seller in 2010.

It is a corroboration of how polarised the British wine trade is that the wines most often discussed bear little resemblance to those most consumed. The big brands evidently sell perfectly well without press attention, while wine fans would understandably...