Wondering which wines to serve this Christmas and New Year? Want to impress guests without busting the budget? As the price and variety of supermarket wines soar, working out what to buy and how to drink it can feel like an impossible challenge. Our advice? Turn to social media where a new breed of “vinfluencers” prowl the supermarket booze aisles night and day to pluck out brilliant bargains for wine lovers everywhere.
We’ve tracked down three of the top viral wine experts, who share their advice on Instagram and TikTok to hundreds of thousands of followers. This gang spends most of its time sipping, gargling and spitting to translate the grapes and the labels into the very best bargain bottles for the rest of us.
They also regularly reveal insider secrets such as why to avoid big name brands or famous grapes, and whether the supermarket copycat wines are a match for the real thing. Here they share some of their top tips and sought-after industry knowledge.
LUCY HITCHCOCK, @partnerinwine: Supermarket dupes are big business, whether we’re talking caterpillar cakes or chicken wine. Step forward Lucy Hitchcock, a wine influencer who rates the fakes for her many fans – 90,000 on Instagram and 60,000 on TikTok. Her clip comparing Aldi’s Sainte Victoire Côtes de Provence Rosé with the infamous – but very expensive at over £20 – Whispering Angel immediately went viral, with eager wine lovers desperate to find out whether to buy the £10.99 Aldi version. Hitchcock’s verdict? It’s a big hit.
“My posts sell out wines from the supermarket, and I have a community of over 150,000 wine lovers who will buy whatever I tell them is worth drinking,” she says. “I think people like watching my videos because I’m learning as I go, which means I don’t have too much knowledge, which can make things unrelatable to the average wine drinker. It’s all down to what you like, and I will never judge anyone for what they enjoy drinking!”
Hitchcock launched her own wine business, Partner in Wine, just after lockdown, when a socially-distanced drink was spoiled by glasses of warm white. Her solution was to design an insulated wine bottle and tumblers so we can all enjoy wine at the right temperature, wherever we are. If you start to get serious, buy her journal to take notes as you journey further into wine country.
Her Christmas fizz suggestion, sure to impress guests, is a South African wine, Krone, produced to a traditional method, and costing £15 or £11 in a mix six case from Majestic. “It’s the perfect Champagne alternative,” says Hitchcock. “I drank buckets of it last December and I’m still loving it.”
LIAM D’ARCY, @thewinewally: With nearly 80,000 followers on Instagram and 24,000 on TikTok, Liam D’Arcy, aka The Wine Wally, is on a mission to decode the supermarket wine wall for budget-conscious drinkers. “Even though I’ve been doing this for four years, I still get bamboozled by the choice and the labels,” admits D’Arcy, who has a day job running his own recruitment firm so gives great wine advice from a punter’s perspective.
“What used to be a budget banger at under £5 is now pushing £7–8,” he says. “But you can find really good wine under £10, and that’s where I get my kicks from. The key is to move away from the well-known brands and styles, pick supermarket own-label wines, and get to know the regions, grapes or countries you might not normally think of.”
His top picks for unusual wines include the Saperavi grape from Georgia, whites from Greece like Assyrtiko, and Crémant over Champagne – though if you do want to splurge this season, go for the Aldi Veuve Monsigny Premier Cru Brut (£21.99). D’Arcy points out that while you can definitely get a better bottle by spending a few extra pounds, your expectations will also go up. “The more you spend doesn’t mean the experience keeps getting better and better.”
He enjoys shopping in all the supermarkets, especially the own-brand labels, but recommends Aldi and Lidl in particular because of how regularly they change their range. “It gives people a chance to explore different wines, which I love,” he says. “It makes it fun to talk about.”
Just like with fashion, food and art, social media plays a huge part in bringing great wine to good people. “It’s helped to make wine feel more accessible,” explains D’Arcy. “The retailers now work with us to help engage people and talk about wine. The best feeling is when someone tries a new wine style because of something I posted and comes back to tell me in the comments or drops me a DM with a picture. The whole point is to give people the excitement and confidence to pick up a wine they wouldn’t have tried otherwise. If I do that, then job done!”
ANDY PINCOTT. @affordablewinehunter: Affordable Wine Hunter Andy Pincott scours the supermarkets for his over 100,000 wine-mad followers. Let him take you on a tour of his local vino aisles, and you’ll be in for a few surprises – secret marks to spot on bottles for example, which reveal the high-end producers bottling wine for supermarket own brands.
Brexit pushed Pincott to spend more time exploring UK supermarkets instead of stocking up in France, and he soon realised how much the quality of wine sold in the big retailers has improved in the past two decades. You can even find some great bottles on the bottom shelf at Aldi and Lidl he says, but spending a few pounds more will bring great results.
“There is obviously a relation between price and quality,” he points out. “But my account focuses on wines where the quality exceeds the price and you get great value.” Pincott first got into wine to explore its endless possibilities of flavours and food pairings, and has taken the WSET wine exams, the industry standard, to improve his knowledge. Is wine still snobby? “Not as much as it used to be. I think social media has helped a lot with that.”
Though a fan of English wine, on the whole Pincott believes it’s too expensive for what it is, and his budget death row bottle would be a Macon Village Chardonnay. Check out Affordable Wine Hunter on Instagram for his top Christmas picks as the big shops reveal their ranges and discounts. Like the Wine Wally, his top tip for a big bold winter red this year is a Saperavi, such as Lidl’s Ukrainian and Georgian options.
