Were round my (very middle class) parents for Crimbo dinner, and I’ve offered to supply wine. I think were having beef from the local posh butchers.

Now, I like a drop of vino, but my taste (and wallet) doesn’t stretch much beyond the Under Five Pounds stack at Morrison’s.

What would be a suitable accompaniment? Preferably something I can pick up from M&S for £10-£15 that won’t socially ostracise me.

I think red with Christmas dinner works best. Something like a Cote du Rhone would work well or an Aussie Shiraz if you prefer something a little fruitier.

I enjoy wine, and I especially enjoy an expensive one on a “special occasion”. However, I refuse to accept that Christmas dinner is an appropriate occasion for an expensive bottle.

You should all be having such a good time that you don’t have the bandwidth to appreciate what you’re drinking so it only has to be good enough to not spoil the meal.

I’m currently very keen on South African Pinotage. Lovely and big and goes well with roast beef. You should be able to get a good one for under a tenner in Tesco.

I’m getting Pinotage in to go with the Sirloin I’m roasting for 10 on Christmas day, and our usual price range for everyday drinking is £4.99 to £6.49.

If you like a drop of wine yourself & hence don’t mind buying a few extra, you could look at the current Tesco deal on their Finest range.

If you buy 2 cases you get 20% off.
Spend £150 and you can use code xxply7 to get £30 off the total.

I just bought 6 bottles of Cotes du Rhone, 6 decent Chablis and 6 Finest Champagne (I plan to take 2 of each to my in-laws on Xmas day) and it worked out at £5-something a bottle.

Also got another £6-odd back by going through Quidco.

Bargain!

Just take a box of chilean merlot for a laugh!

If they’re middle class, blue nun will be their choice.

Blue Nun with beef!!!???
Or anything for that matter.

I wouldn’t go for cheapish French. I would say Spanish or Italian is much better value. Probably a Rioja or Navarra.

Toro Loco Tempranillo from Aldi. £3.79 a bottle, tastes much better than its price would suggest

La Rioja Alta 890 or 904.
Well that’s what I’m having 🙂

If you can get to Sainsburys they have a great red called crozes hermitage. It is a north rhone wine and was recommended in the guardian recently. Mrs jp said it is on offer at £7.50 at the moment. We are having it with our christmas day pizza.

The petite chablis aside m&s doesn’t do great value wine imo of course

Er, not sure there’s a dilemma here and I’m rather worried that you might be a bit late if you turn up for dinner – surely the middle class thing to do is have a hefty lunch and sleep through the queen’s speech.

Go to a decent wine shop with your budget (no more than £20) and ask them to recommend. Or do as I do and take one of each (because I don’t particularly care for red wine).

If its real “Middle Class” the smart money goes to Aldi

The amount of Big BMW’s Audi’s, Merc’s & even the odd Bentley at our local Aldi is testament to the rise of quality & value

If it’s red then why not some buckfast, the nice sweet flavour will really bring out the flavour of the meat for them.

Buy Tesco own speciality version of their St Emillion when is on sale at £7.99 instead of £11.99 it blows several £15-20 St Emillions out of the water. Nice fruity full bodied blend without being overly heavy.

The same Tesco Cotes de Rhone “finest” that’s £39 for half a case less 20% online(when you buy two) is actually only £5 quid a bottle in my local mini Tesco’s.
Their the masters of the non offer offer.

It’s actually not bad wine though and I don’t usually like Tesco stuff cos it always seems to be bottled in Wolverhampton.

Lots of places doing ST blitzes in quality wine – even aldi and lidl

Try a Chablis to start – plenty on decent stuff in that range
Beef not turkey – you can go for more ballsy stuff in that case. Try some spanish Navarra or new world cab or Shiraz. Some nice valipollicella Ripasso around too in that price range But let them all breathe well before hand
Then go for a nice desert wine to wrap it all up.

Blue Nun with beef!!!???
Or anything for that matter.

A very apt username!. 😀

Toro Loco Tempranillo from Aldi. £3.79 a bottle, tastes much better than its price would suggest

I second that. As far as I am aware, when they introduced it wine buffs (is that the correct word) were comparing it to wines up to £30. IT REALY IS GOOD 😉

In my local sainsburys they have campo viejo gran reserva for a tenner. That’s really decent for not much.