‘I stopped buying wine at Asda after finding way to get better ones even cheaper’

Working out at under £6 per bottle with the introduction deal this is even better value than the supermarket – including the best pinot grigio I’ve tasted

I have three wine qualifications, which took a lot of studying, maps, exams and of course over 100 tastings along the way. As a result, I tend to have a pretty good idea of what I like, and whenever I go to my local Asda, I find myself wishing for a better selection.

There are some wines on the supermarket shelves that are decent enough, but when I’m spending over £10 a bottle, I feel like I’d probably find both better value and quality elsewhere. I’d heard great things about Naked Wines, and was lucky enough to trial their wine advent calendar years ago, but I’d never actually tried a case before.

That is until last week. I looked through the selection of cases that were available and while I do love a smooth red and crisp white, I didn’t pick that box. Instead I compared the wines inside with the Adventurer’s Mixed Selection Case and decided it was worth the gamble.

How Naked Wines works is subscribers pay £25 a month in credit they can spend on their choice of wine – with options to use their experts to pick for them if wanted. However, new subscribers can grab a £144.99 case for £69.99 by claiming a voucher, which brings the price down to £5.83 a bottle – way cheaper than the supermarket for worse quality wine. This is because Naked Wines cuts out the middle-person to get wine straight to the consumer from the winemakers.

Now, it was only ordered last week and showed up on my doorstep in time for the weekend. Three days later, the wines listed as included in the box on the website have changed, with the Tempranillo rosé and Pinot Grigio I took to my book club swapped out.

I love that the wines change frequently – for those looking to try new wines, it seems to be a safe bet that there will always be a variety available in the cases. However, Angels – the name of subscribers to Naked Wines – can rate their wines and add them to future orders as long as they’re still available, so there’s still an opportunity to get favoured wines back.

There is also a free bottle of wine whenever they order a case of 12. As long as someone has the storage space for the wine I think this is a great way to do it, I can see 12 bottles lasting me months. I went through two of the bottles at the weekend with my book club and I’m eyeing up the pinotage for a nice dinner when my best friend comes to visit.

I love that on the back of the bottles there’s a QR code that leads to a more detailed description of what’s in the bottle. There’s also a brief description of the wine and a guide for what food it’s best paired with. This makes it so much easier to grab a bottle after dinner is already served or to even plan a meal around the bottle.

The bottles I’ve tried so far were delicious. I opted for a bottle of white and a bottle of rose that we sipped on between bites of hummus and tortilla chips as we got into the nitty gritty of our latest read. The wine went down such a hit that my aunt even asked where she could get her hands on it.

The Tempranillo rose is a fresh and ‘ready to party’ rose which absolutely fit the bill. It has typical notes of strawberries, cherries and a dash of grapefruit. While it can be paired with fish, vegetables and spicy food we opted against pairing it with a hot meal and instead shared it as we gabbed.

The Giano Pinot Grigio DOC was so easy to drink. With notes of peach and green apple alongside a zingy lemon note it paired well with hummus but would be an even better fit with a light pasta dish. This is the best pinot grigio I think I’ve ever tried. These are by no means the most complex wines I’ve ever had (that title has to sit with some very old bottles of reds that I actually don’t want to drink again) but they are so easy to drink. It’s important to always remember to drink responsibly, but I think with a good bottle of wine that can be savoured that’s easy to do.

I have tried and loved other wine subscription boxes, with Virgin Wines (which has cases starting at £122.88) actually introducing me to some of my favourites like Gruner Veltliner and Good Pair Days notably having incredible wine accessories that are ideal for a picnic or when hosting guests. The prices are quite comparable.

One things for sure, I definitely see the pros in ordering wine online rather than winging it in the supermarket. The quality is massively superior.