Gransnet wine club?

Naked Wines are good . The idea is that you pay in £20 a month and buy a case when you've got enough stashed away. They use your money in the meantime to invest in new or small winemakers. You can withdraw your money or stop paying at any time if you change your mind. There's a free bottle thrown in with every case and I've never had a bad wine from them.

Make sure you use one of their vouchers - they're only available for new customers, so don't miss out! There's no commitment. They pop up a lot in magazines or Amazon deliveries, but here's a link to what should be a valid one:

www.hotukdeals.com/vouchers/nakedwines.com

You are right about those so called big name reductions. Can remember watching a tv special about it and often you get a far better wine by choosing one of the well respected 'own' labels. I've seriously never had a duff one from Waitrose or M&S.
However, I have made a decision about wine after a particularly nasty occasion at a so called Book Club where we were plied with wine (someone kept filling the glasses and when you are have a good argument/discussion you tend not to notice). I realised that I needed to be more selective and reduce the sulphites as this is what actually makes you poorly. I now buy half the amount of wine I used to but choose well respected organic ones. I am aware each bottle costs me near to £10 so I savour it and only open one at the weekend or if entertaining (not that often).
So far I've stuck to the Waitrose ones as their delivery service is very useful out here in the wilds of Herefordshire.

I don't buy it now but for a long time we had wine from Laithwaites and never had a bottle we didn't like.
You get tasting notes and recommendations as to pairing with food.
We drink less now and as Hilda says M&S are very reliable and again we haven't had a bad one yet.

Tastes vary so much though. One I like might be pure vinegar to you. Also wines themselves vary so much from year to year. DS is a qualified sommelier and sometimes shakes his head over my choices but they are just that -the ones I actually like. Someone else's idea of a good one might not be mine.

Wine is a hobby of ours and it is very much a matter of personal taste. Our group never agrees on which are good and which not. It is not always a matter of price either.

Take a look at www.themistressofwine.com and sign up for the email. She will send you recommendations (you will not be inundated)

For a sweet treat I love the Chocolate Ruby from M&S

Wine is a hobby of ours, making it that is. we have just started drinking last years blackberry and it is delicious

minimo you can't really have a favourite that you keep on buying, because they vary from year to year. And as others have said, it's a matter of personal taste.
I agree with Ann that Laithwaites are good, and you get a lot of information to help you make an informed choice.
One thing to bear in mind is that something like £3.70 (I think) of the cost of a bottle of wine is duty, so if you buy a bottle for £4.5O it is going to be very cheap wine. If you pay more the quality is going to be much better.
On the strength of an article in the Telegraph I decided to investigate Lidl and have been very pleasantly surprised and impressed. They have some unusual wines and they have a grading system (80 = good 90 =excellent) and the score of each wine is clearly displayed along with a booklet telling you more about each wine.
In fact we have just been enjoying a white Burgundy Saint-Bris ('a rare find for wine anoraks as this is the only example of a white Burgundy made from the Sauvignon grape') with a score of 88(very good) for £8.99.
If you only drink one glass at a time it's worth investing in one of those vacuum thingies which will keep the wine drinkable for several days.
Enjoy experimenting

I also use Naked Wines and, like Maggiemaybe, have never had a duff one from them. However, I also go to a U3A wine appreciation group and a lot of the wines we try are from Lidl and Sainsbury and are excellent too - usually around the £7-£8 price per bottle - but often with special offers.
btw, Waitrose have a very good booklet about different sorts of wine

I agree about the quality of Lidl wines, and a couple I've tried from Aldi have been good too. Tesco Finest range is worth trying, their Sauvignon Blanc is my current favourite and only £4.79.

As to those wines that disappoint, I've found they often improve by the second glass

Two tips .
One . Go for own-bottled , e.g. "Produced for M&S " on the bottom of the label .
Two . Aldi !!

From Waitrose
Chianti about £6.49
From Waitrose or Sainsburys
Chardonnay Bin 65 £5.49 -£7.99
Are my 2 favourites

Coincidence - just been cleaning out a drawer and found an article from a newspaper dated sometime in 2014 entitled "Lidl licks the lot for the best value in wine" tested by Wotwine, a team made up of expert tasters and Masters of wine, (one was the wine buyer for Waitrose} saying that 2 in 3 of their bottles are worth more thanthe price on the shelf. They also wrote that Lidl were fractionally ahead of Aldi in terms of good wine and good value. Usually buy our wine from Aldi and no complaints.

Yep.....the Vacu vin thingies are excellent, I only have a glass at a time and DH is a non drinker, bless him he never got past drinking Coke as a young man as he has such a sweet tooth.

Pittcity

The Mistress of Wine is a brilliant suggestion & she has lots of interesting stuff on her site. I cannot rate her too highly & the fact that she is my daughter has nothing to do with it!

I have also found Laithwaites good and a friend who is a wine expert agrees. However they are rather persistent in phoning regularly and as DH may not drink alcohol any more, I do not need to buy that often. Sadly I keep forgetting to cancel the boxes on my wine plan with them, so am building up quite a stock.
You must be very proud Garygran! Bet no plonk gets drunk in your house

Wine is such a personal thing. My favourite white is Picpoul de Pinet at the moment and I raved about it to a friend - she bought some and didn't like it at all! Majestic have a few bottles open so you can taste what they are selling so that can be helpful. It is wiser to spend a little more and buy from a source you trust. We use Waitrose and Majestic and find them very reliable. By the way, you don't have to stick with the red with meat and white with fish anymore, it's just a guide - If you have a light red it can be delicious with fish or seafood!

I took advantage of the M&S dine in for £10 yesterday which came with a rather nice looking red wine (normally retailed at £7) we sat down to dinner last night and my DH poured the wine which looked very pale. Taking a sip it was clear it was virtually water. I couldn't believe it. Not sure what to do. My first thought was to take it back today but it's a good hour round trip. I'm furious.

We were at a friends house for lunch a couple of years ago and two were drinking white and four of us red. The first one to sip the white was shocked to find it was in fact water.It did not appear to have been opened.I can't remember if he told us the outcome.It is very difficult to prove after all.

Yes that's the problem annsixty. How do I prove that this was the way the wine was when we opened it? Not sure what to do.

BTW have you ever noticed that you try a wine, love it, buy it again & it fails to please? Is it the food, maybe not! There is a nifty little book on Amazon "When Wine Tastes Best: A Biodynamic Calendar for Wine Drinkers 2016 Paperback – 17 Sep 2015". You may well think it's a load of baloney but if a couple of major supermarkets structure their press tastings around it then maybe there's something in it!

Thanks Purpledaffodil, since you mention it I am! I must admit no real plonk gets drunk in my house as for better or worse I have been educated in the fixed costs are just that, so the more you spend the better the wine. Having said that I seldom spend more than £8 a bottle.

I always ask for Picpoul de Pinet when I'm out. I just like saying out loud! I tried a bottle of it at home but didn't like it half as much.
SiL kindly gave me a nice bottle of Spice Route Chenin blanc. I usually like Chenin but all I can taste in this one is the alcohol. Its just swamped the usual lovely soft fruity flavour. Its 13.5% proof. Too strong for me.

Nobilo Limited Release Sauvignon Blanc is lovely! Usually £10 a bottle, but very occasionally available on half price offer at Morrisons

Pittcity I had the problem with Laithwaites ringing up all the time.
In the end I asked them not to ring any more.
A week later they rang again so I said in a firm tone that I had already asked them not to, and said I was quite happy to get emails and occasional catalogues, but I really did not want them to phone.
That was about six weeks ago and so far, so good.
Gilly I'm afraid there's no such thing as a free lunch, and there's no such thing as dining in for £10 for two, if the menu includes ready meals and a bottle of half decent wine - something has to give.
If you don't want you to go back to the store, you could try emailing customer services or shaming them on FB or Twitter.
You don't need to prove anything - they will know they are selling rubbish wine.

Cloudy Bay is a big treat for me phoenix!