Marks and Spencer scooped this year’s prestigious International Wine Challenge Supermarket of the Year Award with Tesco collecting the prize for the best Own Label Range.

But Sainsbury’s must have run Tesco close – netting dozens of  IWC awards for its Taste the Difference and House own-label wines. The supermarket giant earned numerous golds and silvers – particularly for its sparkling and fortified offerings – but I decided to pop the cork on a handful of still wines in my final look at entries that wowed the judges at the world’s most influential wine competition.

I start with Austria’s top white variety, grüner veltliner, which was rarely seen on UK supermarket shelves until recently but accounts for around a third of Austria’s vineyards.

The country’s 4,000-year-old wine industry suffered an image catastrophe of Gerald Ratner proportions in 1985 when it was discovered a handful of brokers had been adding a constituent of anti-freeze to their wines.

The amount of chemical used – which sweetened the wine – wasn’t dangerous but the effect on nation’s wine reputation was disastrous.

Jokes about the scandal, which was only discovered when a broker submitted a tax receipt for the chemical, endure but it forced the country to tighten its wine laws and concentrate on raising quality.

Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Grüner Veltliner 2012, made by Markus Huber in the Niederösterreich region, is a top-value tipple that gained an IWC silver. He is the 10th generation of his family to make wine and all that experience has paid off with a rich and beautifully balanced white that’s selling for £7.49 a bottle. Offering an aromatic nose of peach, citrus and apple, the wine is dominated by lush peach and lemon flavours with a hint of pineapple. There’s also a touch of  white pepper on the finish – a characteristic flavour of this grape.

Taste the Difference Hunter Valley Bottle Aged Semillon 2006 is made by top producer McWilliams who are responsible for one of New South Wales’ iconic whites – the Mount Pleasant Elizabeth Semillon . Coming in at £9.99, the gold-medal wine is classic top-end Aussie semillon with a nose bursting with lemon and lime amid some toasty complexity. The taste is similar with an intense lemon flavour.

Taste the Difference Valle de Casablanca Pinot Noir Gran Reserva 2012 is excellent value at £7.99. There was a time, not that long ago, when it was difficult to find a quality pinot noir for less than a tenner. But some New Zealand and Chilean producers have changed all that – with the best mastering the art of how to handle this fickle but wonderful grape to produce good wines that won’t break the bank.

Made by Chile’s Viña Saint Helena, it scooped an IWC silver with its superb nose of jammy strawberry and cherry with hints of vanilla. Savoury red fruits, supported by vanilla, fill the mouth with a spicy finish and fine tannins.

Finally, to another Sainsbury’s IWC silver medallist – its Taste the Difference Old Vine Grenache 2010 , from Australia’s McLaren Vale. It is made by one of South Australia’s top producers, d’Arenberg, whose Dead Arm Shiraz is legendary and who are also responsible for Tesco’s excellent silver medal-winning Block 13 red and white wines.

The Old Vine Grenache has a hot nose of red fruit and spice. It reaches a different level in the mouth with red fruit and plum flavours underpinned by eucalyptus and herbs and a spicy finish. Priced at £10.79, it’s a big rich wine that would pair excellently with rich red meat dishes and will please lovers of southern Rhone-style spicy reds.

As a footnote, it’s worth mentioning two Tesco Finest IWC gold medal wines that will be on offer from September 4-October 1.

Vina Mara Rioja Reserva 2008 will be reduced by £2 to £7.99 and the Tesco Finest Pouilly Fume 2010, which won a great value award at £11.99, will be  discounted to just £8.99.

Also Piccini’s wonderful Super-Turscan Sasso al Poggio 2008 is reduced by £3 to £9.99 in Morrisons until Sunday.