The best affordable wines for your next dinner party
Contents:
- Good cheap supermarket wine (red and white)
- Bin end offers (red, white, and rose)
- Affordable sparkling wine
- Affordable dessert wine
- Yasmeen's favourite supermarket wine
Dinner parties are a quintessential part of winter get-togethers and rainy summers. For those of us trying to keep in touch with friends without footing expensive restaurant bills or forking out for a childminder, creativity is key when socialising on a budget.
But the food bill no longer comes cheap, and if that wasn’t expensive enough, keeping glasses topped up with quality tipple certainly is!
Keeping your guests hydrated on a budget doesn’t have to be mission impossible.
You can keep the glasses full and the drinks flowing without breaking the bank or resorting to BYOB. Over the course of tens of dinner parties, my friends and I have found what I think are the best affordable wines that taste expensive, and I’m delighted to be able to share these with our discount code users. Read on to discover where you can find quality low-cost wines, and which is my personal favourite label for budget dinner party wine.
Best of the Supermarket Wines
Did you know? Lidl has long been budget wine lovers’ best-kept secret! Not only does it offer extraordinary prices on groceries, but the supermarket chain is also a haven for cheap wine. Their secret weapon for ensuring high-quality wine? Richard Bampfield, Master of Wine, is the independent lead taster of Lidl wines. As of summer 2024, there are only 460 Masters of Wine in the world as the prestigious qualification takes years to undertake.
What I love about Lidl’s Richard Bampfield wine:
- ☺ It tastes great: having done my WSET training, it has all the markers I’d expect from wine at a higher price point.
- ☺ It makes a great dinner party wine because the pounds don’t stack up as quickly when purchasing in large quantities.
- ☺ The bottle is unbranded, meaning I don’t feel the need to decant the wine if I don’t want my guests to know where the wine is from.
At the time of publication, the most affordable red wine I identified was a red ‘87 at just £6.99 for 75cl. Even better for those seeking a budget wine, the most affordable white wine was an ‘88 at just £5.99 (also 75cl). These offers are available in-store only, but as they’re hand-tasted and chosen by Bampfield for their quality and good value, they couldn’t be more worth a visit to your local Lidl store before your next dinner party! Bampfield’s selection of Lidl wines changes monthly, so if this month is not to your liking, it won’t be long before new options are available.
25% Off Wine Offers
The supermarket shelves are the first places most people looking for wine on a budget will search, but do you know how the most common supermarket wine deal in the UK works? You’ll often see a 25% discount on purchases of six bottles of wine or more, and this offer alternates among all major supermarkets due to UK laws. If you don't find this deal at your local or preferred supermarket, you can likely find it elsewhere either online or by visiting a supermarket in another area! The main supermarkets that take part in this offer are ASDA, Morrison’s, Sainsbury’s, and Tesco. By searching for a supermarket near your place of work or child’s school, you can combine trips to save money on public transport or fuel, too! Alternatively, if you can score free delivery (delivery saving tips are available on our supermarket pages), you could choose to buy your supermarket wine online.
What is a Bin End offer?
“Bin end offer" is certainly not an appetising term for a consumable, but it’s not as bad as it sounds! A bin end offer is equivalent to the discounts you get on food right before the sell-by or best-before date. The wine is still very drinkable and of the same quality, but with the stipulation the wine be drunk shortly after purchase. That makes bin end offers ideal for stocking up right before big occasions such as Christmas.
Savoo Tip: Bin End Wines
I always purchase cheap bin end wine before a big get-together. I know there will be none left over so all I need to do is ensure my event happens before the suggested finish-by date. With a normal bottle of wine, you should finish it within two days, but with bin end wine, reaching the bottom of the bottle is the sooner the better, which guests love! I favour bin end wine deals from long-term Savoo partner, Laithwaites, due to both the quality and discounts available on wine cases. While I prefer supermarket wine offers for single bottles, I enjoy shopping online for my dinner party wine: less heavy lifting! Laithwaites stocks one of the best affordable red wine cases, in my opinion. A great benefit of Laithwaites is the free delivery offer available on 24 or more bottles.
Example Bin End Wine Deals from Laithwaites:
| Wine | Original Price | Discounted Price | Total Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red wine clearance mix | £188.38 | £95.88 | £92.50 |
| White wine clearance mix | £130.88 | £95.88 | £35.00 |
| Rose wine clearance mix | £153.88 | £95.88 | £58.00 |
Prices correct at time of publication.
If you’re hosting a smaller group, offers on single wine bottles ranged from £1.50 - £4 per 75cl bottle.
Savoo Tip: Laithwaites Discounts
You can apply a discount code to your Laithwaites wine bin ends case to get an even bigger discount per bottle. Do note that standard delivery from Laithwaites will arrive in two to three days so place your order in plenty of time. This delivery service will cost you £7.99, so we also recommend checking that your bin end savings are £8 or more to ensure you’re saving overall. For those huge family or friends occasions, Laithwaites wine delivery is free on orders of 24 bottles or more: guaranteed to save at least £7.99 (and a lot of heavy lifting!)
Champagne Alternatives and Cheap Sparkling Wines
Champagne is the classically classy dinner party wine, whether you’re serving it in flutes or as a bubble base for a sleek cocktail.
Champagne is well-known as one of the most expensive wines, and must adhere to strict criteria in order to be labelled as Champagne. In order to source the best affordable version of Champagne, look out for sparking wines that come from a similar region in France. Two of those taste-alike options I prefer are Cava and Cremant de Limoux. The former is Spanish and the latter is the French alternative.
Affordable Sweet Wine
Rounding up the evening with the classic cheese board and dessert wine? Swap out the popular but pricey Sauternes for the cheap dessert wine alternative Tokaji. Just as delicious at a fraction of the price point! Made from different grapes in regions roughly 1,486km apart (Tokaji originates in northeastern Hungary, while Sauternes is of French origin, south Bordeaux), the similar climates provide the perfect conditions for these grapes to mature into the sweetness required for a quality dessert wine.
Savoo’s deal experts compared prices from the UK’s most searched for supermarket wine offers:
| Supermarket | Tokaji Price | Sauternes Price |
|---|---|---|
| Tesco | £28.50 (75cl) | £27.00 (75cl) |
| Morrisons | - | £11.00 (37.5cl) |
| Sainsbury's | - | £24.00 (75cl) |
| Waitrose | £10.99 (75cl) | £29.98 (75cl) |
A third option for sweet tooths looking for the best cheap wine to serve at a low-budget dinner party is Moscato. Moscato is a cheap sweet wine made from Muscat grapes. Found in most supermarkets, many supermarket wine brands have created their own interpretation of Moscato. Barefoot is known to be an affordable wine brand and has both white and rose Moscato in their repertoire. Wine brands Gallo and Yellow Tail are also commonly found on the shelves in supermarkets and boast a Moscato as part of their offering.
My favourite supermarket wine
My favourite supermarket wine is definitely the 2022 Pinot Gris from Waitrose. Made with grapes grown in the Alsace region in France, this wine is totally budget-friendly and has the sort of palette you'd expect from a pricier wine. I served the bottle (pictured above) chilled, with a summer salad, but this wine works equally well with a seafood dish, or a vegetarian risotto. In the winter months I will probably serve the wine with cheese and a little charcuterie. I am very particular about my wines so to say I'd recommend this to anyone is an endorsement you can trust!
Remember, good wine doesn't have to be expensive. With a little know-how and savvy shopping, you can serve your guests delicious wines without breaking the bank. Cheers to your next dinner party!