BS: Cheaper UK supermarket own brand spirits

Subject: BS: Cheaper UK supermarket own brand spirits
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 01 Dec 16 - 02:31 AM

Ok.. nearly xmas.. a lot of us are skint..

So recommendations please foe acceptable to not too bad cheap supermarket booze..

I've just sofa tested a Sainsburys half bottle of 37% rum and that wasn't so distasteful...

Subject: RE: BS: Cheaper UK supermarket own brand spirits
From: BobL
Date: 01 Dec 16 - 03:53 AM

"Which?" own-label best buys last year: Gin - Aldi Castelgy, Morrisons London Dry, Waitrose London Dry. Scotch - Aldi Highland Black. No mention of rum.

Champagne, this year - Aldi.

Subject: RE: BS: Cheaper UK supermarket own brand spirits
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Dec 16 - 04:30 AM

The £9.99 Aldi champagne isn't half bad. But it isn't as good as Sainsbury's Blanc de Noir, which you can get for £12 at the moment as long as you buy at least six bottles of any wine, The aforementioned Morrisons London gin is pretty good. I saw a sophisticated-looking woman in Waitrose yesterday stashing a cartload of their London gin into her wagon so it must be good.

Subject: RE: BS: Cheaper UK supermarket own brand spirits
From: DMcG
Date: 01 Dec 16 - 09:56 AM

I went on a wine course some time ago and the lecturer made a point that is obvious but easily missed: Aldi, M&S and all the rest do not make wines or spirits. Nor do they go to the effort of blending their own. So you can easily get a very good wine from Aldi or Lidl for example, which would be more expensive from M&S and even more from a specialist. It is also worth looking at Alsace in those discounters because the DOC rules require them to be in tall bottles which often don't fit the supermarket shelves - the region has been trying to change the bottle shape for that reason. So they often end up selling it more cheaply than a comparable wine in a more conventional bottle.

Subject: RE: BS: Cheaper UK supermarket own brand spirits
From: DMcG
Date: 01 Dec 16 - 10:04 AM

It was an interesting 8 week course, by the way. Around 90% of the wines were under £8. The most expensive was one at £15 which, when she had been a sommelier at a well known London hotel, sold for £170.

As for champagne: look for the unknown names. You can get a top quality one for around a third of the price of the bottom end of the well known brands.

Subject: RE: BS: Cheaper UK supermarket own brand spirits
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Dec 16 - 11:44 AM

Yebbut you don't know whether to drink those Alsace wines or wear them as perfume.

Subject: RE: BS: Cheaper UK supermarket own brand spirits
From: DMcG
Date: 01 Dec 16 - 01:16 PM

Ha ha. Well, I admit they are not my favourite, but you can get Grande and premier Cru which are excellent.   It did have a bad reputation a while ago because it was reminiscent of the Blue Nun period, but there are good Reislings, you know.

But it is worth reminding people personal taste (no pun intended) is at the heart of this. Some prefer red, some white. Some dry, some sweet. Some very light tannins, some tannic enough to shrink your mouth. Saying "a good wine" (or whisky or whatever) isn't really meaningful. I was in a restaurant recently where they had every year of a particular brandy from the last 70 years. Few of us are really on a level to tell them apart. And it is the same with wine. Unless you are a very serious enthusiast you quickly come to a level where you cannot really appreciate whether one is better than another. Buying above that level is either wasting money or training yourself to see the difference; anything else is pointless.

Finally, the best wine in the world is wasted if all you do is pick up the glass and glug. There is much rubbish talked about grasses and berries and so on, but the heart of it is true: if you are looking at colour and asking what fruit it reminds you of and assessing the scent and the tannins and all the rest you are really only doing one thing - paying attention. And that is what makes the difference, really.

Subject: RE: BS: Cheaper UK supermarket own brand spirits
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Dec 16 - 01:23 PM

Pretty well invariably own brands are better value, and just as good value. That goes for everything.

If you're saving money, forget Sainsburys and head over to Aldi and Lidl, and buy their own brands.

Subject: RE: BS: Cheaper UK supermarket own brand spirits
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 01 Dec 16 - 02:08 PM

To tell the truth sainsburys is too far out on the bus route to bother with..
That small bottle of rum was given to the wife as a birthday present from one of her co workers..

She prefers the spicy rums, so I was considerate enough to save her the discomfort..
and drink it on her behalf... 😜


The only local big supermarket within practical walking distance is tesco..

Sadly lidl and aldi [my favourites for a decade] moved out to the new trading estate miles from town...

Lidl used to do palatable apple schnapps..

Subject: RE: BS: Cheaper UK supermarket own brand spirits
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 01 Dec 16 - 02:18 PM

..though we have an asda, and possibly still a waitrose on the old trading estate
which was only a brisk cycle ride away when my knees were still up to it..
Not too bad by bus I guess...

Subject: RE: BS: Cheaper UK supermarket own brand spirits
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Dec 16 - 02:41 PM

The golden rule in our house is to never pay the proper price for any booze (among many other things). There've been a lot of 25% off for six deals this autumn. That's the time to stock up. In fact, I wouldn't buy from M&S at any other time as their wine is generally overpriced. Don't like paying over a fiver a bottle on average either. If you strike at the right time, you can get good prosecco cheap at Sainsbury's.

I do think that there is an objective difference between sound wine and poor wine. A decent red has good, fresh fruit (not "overcooked" or overripe or shagged out - some of those Aussie reds taste like Ribena with bollocks) and plenty of it with enough acid to balance it, and a touch of tannin, some but not too much, and spice. The oak is up to you. I think that any wine that has been "oak-aged" by dangling staves or wood chips in the cask is crap. And gimme a screw cap any day.

Subject: RE: BS: Cheaper UK supermarket own brand spirits
From: MikeL2
Date: 01 Dec 16 - 02:46 PM

Hi PFR

<" She prefers the spicy rums, so I was considerate enough to save her the discomfort..
and drink it on her behalf... 😜 ">

Ha ha.....

My wife tends to drink Bacardi and Coke when she has a drink.

A couple of years ago we hired a woman dog sitter when we went to a funeral and stayed overnight.

When we got back the next day the sitter appear hung over but we paid her and off she went.

A couple of weeks later my wife went to have a Bacardi and as she started to drink it and she pulled a face. She said it tasted strange.
We thought maybe the Coke was off but in fact it was the Bacardi.

We found out that our sitter had drunk my wife's Bacardi and substituted it for one bought at a cheaper supermarket.

Never found out where she bought it but it looked like the real thing.

Cheers

Mike

Subject: RE: BS: Cheaper UK supermarket own brand spirits
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 01 Dec 16 - 04:17 PM

I have to say that Morrisons is best for everything. It is in my contract. But happens to be true a lot of the the time. Particularly with my staff discount being 20% this week :-)

DtG

Subject: RE: BS: Cheaper UK supermarket own brand spirits
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Dec 16 - 04:44 PM

Er, Morrisons is Yorkshire, Dave...

Subject: RE: BS: Cheaper UK supermarket own brand spirits
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 01 Dec 16 - 08:01 PM

Morrisons is certainly not Yorkshire these days. They've expanded all over the place. There's one just up the road from me in Hertford.

Subject: RE: BS: Cheaper UK supermarket own brand spirits
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Dec 16 - 08:18 PM

Aye, Kevin, there's one here in Bude too. But you know what they say: you can take the man from Yorkshire, but you can't take Yorkshire from the miserable, tight-fisted tyke...

Subject: RE: BS: Cheaper UK supermarket own brand spirits
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 02 Dec 16 - 03:21 AM

You can always tell a Yorkshireman.

But you can't tell him much.

:D tG

Subject: RE: BS: Cheaper UK supermarket own brand spirits
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 02 Dec 16 - 05:18 AM

You can always tell a Yorkshireman by his opening remark: "Does it cost owt?"

Subject: RE: BS: Cheaper UK supermarket own brand spirits
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 02 Dec 16 - 06:44 AM

Sainsbury's used to do a gorgeous Irish single malt called Eire (I think) for twenty quid. Haven't seen it for several years though.

Subject: RE: BS: Cheaper UK supermarket own brand spirits
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 02 Dec 16 - 06:47 AM

Do they call 'em "malts" in Ireland?? The barley isn't malted, is it? Excuse the ignoramusitudinousness...