Is it possible to find a bottle of good wine in a Supermarket in Amsterdam?

Imagine the situation, it is Saturday night, and you forget you host a dinner in 2 hours. The main problem is that you are running out of wine, Impossible to find a bottle in the house. Worst your favorite wine shop is close and other dealers are also closed. What can be your option in such a nightmare situation? Could you find a bottle of natural wine in a supermarket?

Short answer NO!

But not exactly; if you are lucky enough to live not too far away from De Clercqstraat in Amsterdam West, you can go to Sterk Amsterdam (De Clercqstraat 7, 1053 AA), and you will find a lot of beers, food, bread, champagnes, wines, and a small selection of natural wine, mostly Italian. And it’s open until 1:00 AM.

But if you are far away or do not have time to go to Amsterdam is possible to get nature wines in a Supermarket? No, it is almost impossible, most wines sold in supermarkets are just technical wines, sold by groups. The wine is often a blend of different winemakers, and additives were often added to enhance the taste and to ensure that the taste of the bottle is the same year after year. Far away from the Natural Wine concept. But it doesn’t mean that you can’t find some good bottles.

There is a strategy, it is based on who produced the wine, the winemaker. If most in supermarkets cames groups and companies. Some Independent winemakers are present. Independent winemakers tend to work differently, additives, are still present but generally in less quantity. You will still find sulfite. The wine should have its personality. How to recognize an independent winemaker by only peeking at a bootle in your local supermarket? You can look for the label (yes, another one) “Vignerons indépendants”, it is a trade association, where members are independent (not affiliated why another company) and follow the same charter (work, harvest, make and bottle wine on their vineyard). We can say that they follow a traditional way of winemaking. To find a bottle you will need to find the logo either on the wine cape (easy to find) or on the label (less easy). In my experience, in Amsterdam, you can expect between 0 and 5 wines with this label in supermarkets.

There are also two other ways to find an independent winemaker. You can check the bottle capsule, and look for the letter R or “Récoltant”. This doesn’t a warranty of a good process, but just proof that the winemaker grows, harvests, and makes the wine. But not all bottles have this fiscal mark. There is another trick, most independent winemakers do not have the tool to create bare code connected to supermarkets’ databases. They just label their wines without a bare code. It’s not a problem for wine shops, but for supermarkets, it is. So they will add a new label with the bare code.

So if you find a bottle with an extra label for bare code, it may come from an independent winemaker. And this trick works for French and other wines.

Off course, even if we can find some good wine in a supermarket, it is always better to go to a wine shop. You can have a discussion, you can tell your preferences and your tastes. My last piece of advice, start your cave at home, so you will never find yourself in such a situation where your only option is to go to the supermarket.