This about wine, not food

yes, she may as well keep her wine in the co-op

It depends how many bottles she likes to keep in for friends and have ready to give as gifts as she said!

Grüner Veltliner from Austria is a fail safe white, not sweet. They occasionally have one in Aldi or Lidl and I always buy a few if I see them. Usually about £8, or £11 in Waitrose. One of my very favourite whites is Laguna from Lake Garda in Italy. They sell in Waitrose for about £10. They once had a few in Aldi for £7 - we filled our trolley. They haven’t had it back since.

Yellow tail , Jammy Red Roo is a smooth red.

Great now we're talking ... white, red ..... can I please add Chateau de Berne rosé, perfect on a hot summer's day with flavours of Provence.

timetogo2016

I bought a red wine from Sainsburys called Penguin,only cost £385 and i really do like it and it sells out very quickly,it`s around 13-14% proof.
Also available in a white.
You can only get it in Sainsburys too.

timetogo2016. We have discovered this wine from Argentina and have been supping it regularly. Brilliant value for the money and really enjoyable.

Exactly Lovetopaint037.
And i noticed today that they do a rose too.
But i stick to the 3 red options,all top notch imo.

I think that the thing about Aldi & Lidl is not that their wines are universally good value. It is that they have some that are excellent value.
Basically, you have to have a good idea of what you are looking for, buy a bottle to try (I have friends who have done this in the car park!) then go back and get the specific wine before it has all gone!
I think that if you don't have good knowledge, and you don't have a good wine merchant (by which I mean someone who caters to all pockets) then the good supermarkets are a better bet.
I can't speak for all of the wine merchants listed here (!) but my own local is there, and we have really good wines for under £10 from them, and I know any of their staff would have been a lot nicer to OP:

harpers.co.uk/news/fullstory.php/aid/27738/50_Best_Indies_2020.html

I am certainly not a wine expert, but have friends that enjoy a nice glass. But I am a reader, so I follow the wine column in a major newspaper and purchase some of the less expensive recommendations.

When invited, I can pull out a few bottles and let them choose. I have been praised on my good selections without having any expertise (or nose for good wine) at all.

It all depends on your taste or palate but most supermarket wine is good quality, experts have selected it, for £7 a bottle it’s reasonable quality, below £5 it gets rather “thin” although I’m sure Lidl and other discounters has good wine for that.

Interesting reading.
I have a friend who's a bit of an expert cook who loves to have dinner parties (yea I know, very '80s) and expects to be asked back (its been a relief to get out of this during covid), and we usually take wine.
She once thanked me profusely for the 'high quality' bottle of white we'd taken, its a long time ago and i've forgotten what it was, only for another (rather spiteful friend) to tell me she'd said I drank 'crap cheap plonk'.
Yes, time I put those two on my not-to-visit list.
I usually spend between £7 and £10 a bottle. I like Isla Negra and McGuigans chardonnay, and have been told that the bottle and tax account for 75% of the cost, and to always make sure I got a bottle with a dimple in the bottom because those bottles cost more and a wine producer wouldn't put a cheap wine in an expensive bottle.
There ends my knowledge of wine.
(I don't think I'll accept invitations to any more dinner parties.)

We tried to book on Naked Wines zoom wine tasting course next month where they send you 6 pouches of different wines to try and talk about them as you go.
All places sold out.

Wow, I hadn't heard of that! Sounds amazing!

Yes, it sounded like a great idea ExD and only £16.50.

On the night, Christian will take you on a journey through his famous Appassimento, Primitivo Puglia, Montepulciano, Pecorino, Grecanico and Salice Salentino Riserva. As you swirl, sniff and sip your way through each sample, he’ll tell you the stories, secrets, and expert techniques behind each wine.

We tend to stick to NZ Sauv. Blanc and Chilean Merlots, and usually find that any bottle from a large supermarket, costing £8+, will be pretty good. The supermarkets employ expert qualified buyers (a friend of a dd went on to be a s’market buyer after qualifying in France) and their economies of scale usually mean they can get good deals.

Yes, Cloudy Bay is lovely, but Oyster Bay is also nice and more affordable.
My cousin has shares in a couple of NZ vineyards and we visited a few in Blenheim.

If you’re interested in wine tasting, ExD, it’s worth looking out for M & S events at your local store. They’re free, and they even throw in some very nice nibbles to go with the wines. We’ve been to a couple, and they’re great fun.

Not quite as much fun as the Naked Wines real life tastings though. DD1 and I went to one and like most other people there, started off very earnestly swirling, sipping and spitting and filling in our tasting notes sheets. I’ll spare my own blushes by not going into details of how it progressed, but we both had to ring up next day to cancel the huge orders we’d signed up for at the venue. According to the call centre, the lines had been red hot that morning.

If you don’t drink wine very often your tastes are generally going to be very different to those of someone who is into wine. Like a number of posters we buy from Naked Wines and have never been disappointed. If you are buying at the supermarket don’t go for the cheapest stuff as it will be like paint stripper, pick white rather than red as it’s easier on the palate and something like pinot grigio, Picpoul de Pinet or Gruner Veltliner will usually be pretty drinkable for everyone.

This thread is why I love GN. You have introduced me to Naked Wines. Thanks . Look forward to trying them. It’s worthwhile remembering when you go for a cheap bottle of wine, for a £5 bottle you are paying mainly tax and overheads and about 30pence worth of wine. You get more than 4 times more value in a £7.50 bottle! Still only about £1. 30 worth before overheads.

If you're not sure I think go for a lighter wine. We generally stick with Hardys or McGuigans.
Now and again we pay a little more but I can't say it tastes better. (We're not connoisseurs.)

kittylester

Dh says that everything tastes nice by the 2nd glass!!

Villa Maria Sauvignon or The Ned Blanc and in fact Tesco Finest Sav Blanc are all acceptable.
For a cheapie red, Yellowtail Shiraz is good; Mcguigan's is ok.

I like Yalumba wines.
I find Waitrose offers better wines than some other supermarkets.

timetogo2016

I bought a red wine from Sainsburys called Penguin,only cost £385 and i really do like it and it sells out very quickly,it`s around 13-14% proof.
Also available in a white.
You can only get it in Sainsburys too.

You've got expensive tastes, timetogo!

(Yes I did see your subsequent post )

Aldi have been doing a nice Chianti for around a fiver and a white wine from the Veneto (possibly a pinot grigio) for about the same price. If you want to pay a bit more they sometimes have a very good Ripasso.

I really should be a bit more adventurous.

Callistemon

I really should be a bit more adventurous.

Me too.