This about wine, not food

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 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.

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.

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.

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, 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.

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

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.

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.)

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

Yellow tail , Jammy Red Roo is a smooth red.

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.

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

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

Well yes. We pay in £30 a month and buy a case of wine when we've enough in the kitty. Or top it up if need be - you need to spend at least £100 for free delivery. What I'm saying is that it doesn't seem very useful to ExD, who just wants an occasional bottle.

Ellianne

With Naked Wines it's not quite like a subscription in the old fashioned way. You get the amount off your next order of wines and if you want to cancel they give it all back.

and you pick the wines you actually want to drink!

With Naked Wines it's not quite like a subscription in the old fashioned way. You get the amount off your next order of wines and if you want to cancel they give it all back.

From 16th June 2021 until and including 24th June 2021 *Excludes bottles under £5 in England or £7 in Wales. Minimum unit pricing applies in Wales. Excludes bottles 200ml and under, all Sainsbury’s House wine, all fortified wine, boxed wine and gift sets.

Ah yes, sorry. Sainsburys house wine is excluded as well.

It's not any 6 - it's from selected wines. I found out to my cost!!

It's mainly down to personal taste of course, but it's interesting to see that there are others who don't buy into the Aldi wine story. I'd heard so much about their fabulous wines that I ordered a few bottles online during lockdown, and we didn't get one that I would buy again.

I'd agree that Naked Wines are good, but I don't think you can just buy wine from them without signing up to their membership, which involves a monthly subscription.

Sainsburys have a 25% off deal this week on any six bottles over £5, and the customer reviews on their website are generally helpful.