10 top wine buys from Aldi

Aldi held their (socially distanced) autumn wine tasting in London the other week. As usual there were some really good buys, mostly under £7 with a couple of more expensive ones that are well worth the money. These were my standout buys.

Note not all may be available in your local branch and some are unavailable online. Check the vintages are the same as the ones I'm recommending.

Pierre Jaurant French viognier 2019 13.5% £4.49

One of the best under £5 whites out there at the moment. Drink with chicken salad or a korma.

My favourite food pairings with viognier

Specially Selected Gavi 2019 12.5% £6.69

This smooth Italian white has been a consistently good buy over the years from Aldi. Ideal for creamy pasta sauces and risottos.

Specially Selected Italian Greco 2019 13% £6.99

Fresh, crisp and perfect for anything fishy. You’ll love it if you like albarino

Ferdinand Mayr Austrian Gruner Veltliner 2019 12.5% £6.99

A great example of Austria’s trademark grape variety. Dry, slightly nutty with a beguiling touch of pepper. Goes well with light veggie dishes and Vietnamese food

The best food pairings for grüner veltliner

Caves Road Margaret River Chardonnay 2018 13% £8.49

The Margaret River region of Western Australia produces a more elegant, Burgundian style of chardonnay than the rest of the country. If you’re a chardonnay fan, snap it up and drink with a fish pie. simply grilled fish or scallops. (If it isn't available I also like the Specially Selected Stellenbosch Chardonnay 2020 at £6.99.

Animus Portuguese Red 2019 £3.99

If you’re looking for a winter red to cook with, mull or, frankly, drink (it’s decent enough) this is the bottle.

Baron Amarillo Rioja 2018 12.5% £4.49

Incredible to find rioja this good for under a fiver. Snap it up and drink with virtually anything meaty

The best food pairings for rioja

Specially Selected Costières de Nïmes 2019 14% £5.99

Sandwiched between the Languedoc and the Rhône, the underrated Costières de Nîmes, offers warm spicy reds that are a bit of a bargain. Good with sausage and mash and autumnal stews

Specially Selected Chilean Gran Reserva Pinot Noir 2019 14% £6.99

A generous ripe sweet-fruited pinot - great value for this price. Drink with crispy duck pancakes- or any duck in fact.

Specially Selected French Rasteau 2019 14.5% £8.99

A rich characterful red that would do duty for a Châteauneuf-du-Pape. One to lay in for Christmas.

Apologies for the rubbish photo. Not my best! 😉

Cramele Recas Orange Wine

If you thought orange wine was the exclusive province of hipster natural wine bars, think again - one has just gone on sale in Aldi. And while most cost nearer £20 than £10 this one is on sale at a very affordable £5.99.

Just to make sure they tick every conceivable box and underline the message that this is bang on trend the label also points out that it’s a natural wine and vegan wine with no added sugar, yeasts or sulphur (more accurately, sulphites) and is ‘made naturally in 2017’ (There is however a pretty helpful description of what orange wine actually is on the back label.)

Will you like it? Should you buy it? Depends if you’ve ever tried an orange wine before.

If you haven’t - and I guess most won’t - it’s an fairly unscary introduction to the style - quite light, despite its 13% ABV - not overly fruity (the taste is of dried apricot rather than the orange you might expect), basically a medium-bodied, very dry white wine. (I’d suggest something simple with it like grilled aubergines and hummus rather than the recommended Thai green curry).

If you’re already an orange wine fan you may find it a bit underwhelming though you can’t quarrel with the price. M & S does a better job with their Georgian Tblvino Qvevris though this is now £10 a bottle. (Aldi’s comes from Romania)

Anyway at this price it’s certainly worth a punt if you can find it in your local store. Try it and let me know what you think.

Drink of the week: Sawanotsuru sake

Always on the ball Aldi announced this week that it had added a sake to its drinks range. Not quite the bargain it first appears when you discover the bottle is £3.99 for just 300ml but that’s enough for two and interesting nonetheless.

It’s sweeter than I would ideally like with that characteristic creamy, earthy, slightly nutty flavour that’s typical of the drink which, as you may know is brewed from rice. Think a dry(ish) pale cream sherry - it’s roughly sherry strength at 14.5%

It’s maybe slightly too sweet for sushi - certainly sashimi - but would go with, say, salmon teriyaki, miso glazed quail or a sesame noodle salad.

It may not be the best example out there (if you’re in London there are better options at the Japan Centre) but they’ve probably pitched the sweetness right for a new audience and if it gets people into sake all to the good. (Watch other supermarkets now leap on the sake bandwagon!)

Oh, and it comes in a rather lovely decorative box.

Aldi Specially Selected Creme de Cassis

You may not remember but back in the '70s kir was ‘a thing’ - the drink you invariably got offered in a cod French bistro or poured for your friends as a sophisticated aperitif back home.

With more glamourous cocktails and the rise and rise of prosecco it’s somewhat fallen from favour but it’s still a lovely summery drink and perfect for this time of year.

All you need is a bottle of crème de cassis (blackcurrant liqueur) and one or two bottles of dry white or sparkling wine - nothing with too much flavour of its own. The traditional go to was aligoté which at that time was uncomfortably sharp - you could use something like a petit Chablis these days or, cheaper, still, a pinot grigio.

If you’re making a kir royale use a fresh-tasting rather than a toasty champagne or a cheap French crémant sparkling wine like Aldi's Cremant du Jura. (Most prosecco is in my view too sweet).

How to make a kir

A small splash in the bottom of the glass - not too much or it will taste of Ribena, top up with wine or fizz - et voilà! Robert is indeed your oncle.

The reason I’m revisiting this is that Aldi is stocking a Crème de Cassis liqueur which has just won a gold medal in the International Wine and Spirits Challenge beating off competition from much more expensive bottles. I haven’t done a comparative tasting but can definitely vouch that it’s deliciously blackcurranty.

Cassis is also useful for adding extra oomph to a summer pudding or a blackcurrant sorbet which is a good idea as it needs drinking up relatively quickly. I suggest within a couple of weeks which shouldn’t be too hard . . .