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! 😉

Terrenal Garnacha

Marks & Spencer might not be the first place you think of looking for a wine bargain but their Terrenal garnacha from the Cariñena region of Spain is an absolute steal.

Garnacha is the same grape - and the Spanish word for - grenache so you’d expect a big generous lipsmacking red and you certainly get one. It’s the sort of wine to crack open with a pizza or a hearty spag bol. Or a burger - it’s pretty versatile.

The best food pairings for grenache

My only thing against it is that it doesn’t come from a specific vintage - my concern being you might get a bottle that’s a bit tired - but at that price I doubt it will hang around long enough to deteriorate

At the moment it’s only available in store though you can apparently order it from Ocado with whom M & S has a new partnership (though that has apparently made getting a delivery slot even harder!)

Asda has a very similar Old Vine Garnacha Cariñena from the same region at the same price in its Extra Special range. I don’t think it’s quite as good as the M & S blend but hard to complain at the price.

Heston’s Lazy Sunshine Gin

What to make of Heston’s Lazy Sunshine Gin, his latest collaboration with Waitrose?

Looks straightforward enough - a guy in a cricket sweater and a Panama sitting in a deckchair. Oh wait, it’s not a man it’s a BULLDOG. 'Course it is!

The 40% ABV gin is aromatised with juniper (has to be) and herbs (sweet basil, rosemary, thyme and lavender) so it's not *that* unusual but there’s a recommendation on the bottle to serve it with a drizzle of olive oil. OLIVE OIL. for goodness sake. Maybe this time Heston has finally gone too far.

Anyway I make it up as a G & T, using plenty of ice, Fevertree Mediterranean tonic as instructed and trickle over a little olive oil (the very posh Chianti Classico EVOO they sent with the bottle), drop in a nocellara olive and gingerly sip.

And you know what - it’s amazing. Really citrussy and herby (the botanicals miraculously accentuated by the oil which gives the whole drink a luscious viscosity without tasting remotely oily. As someone who’s got really bored with flavoured gins, especially fruit flavoured ones it’s a revelation. Not bad value either at £25 in store and from waitrosecellar.com. Many less interesting gins are more expensive than that.

Heston apparently says he was inspired to make the gin by the flavours of Provence so I'm thinking you could serve some Provencal snacks with it like tapenade, anchoiade (anchovy dip) and pissaladière.

The only problem is where’s the sunshine? Even though the weather forecast looks more promising over the next few days there’s already a bit of a chill in the air. You kind of feel they’ve missed the perfect moment to launch it (maybe the timetable slipped due to COVID) but it is delicous and a great bottle to show off to friends. Just drink it up before autumn sets in which really shouldn't be too hard.

See also Six food pairings for gin that might surprise you.

I was sent the bottle as a press sample.

Le Malbec d’Hervé, Pays d’Oc 2019

The Languedoc probably isn’t the first place you think to look for malbec and if you’re in love with the seductively, lush Argentinian style you may even be a touch disappointed but as someone who sometimes finds new world malbec a bit too full on this Malbec d'Hervé is right up my street.

It’s a totally smashable bright, breezy red made from 30 year old vines in the Vallée de l’Orb, the kind you instinctively want to reach for on a wet weekend like this - or, come to think of it, with a barbecue on a much more summery day. And it’s currently under £10 (£9.99 to be exact) if you buy any 12 bottles from Averys or Laithwaites.

They say it would be ‘a fine choice' with marinaded pork chops, roast chicken or veggie kebabs. It would but frankly it would go with practically anything. (Well, not EVERYTHING, but you know what I mean. More than just steak.)