Please help me choose some wine!

[thehouseofmirth]

Firstly, don't you think it's odd, given how much wine Mumsnetters seem to drink, that there is no dedicated wine/booze section on here?!

I need to buy some wine for a party. I am on a very tight budget and have £16.50 in Tesco clubcard vouchers which I thought I would put towards it. As far as I can tell from their site I can double their value ( if I do it by 30 Sep) so that seems like a good way of using them.

I don't buy wine very often and am a bit lost. Firstly, I can't decide whether to buy red & white wine for general drinking & champagne for toasting or to just buy lots of sparkling wine. They seem to have a lot on special offer but I don't want to buy something just because it's cheap and then find it's horrid.

Does anyone have the patience/time to help me please?!

I'd go for some decent Prosecco - sparkling wine is good for everything. You can get a decent bottle of that for around £10 and then spend the rest on a Malbec.

Right first of all a few questions.

How many bottles are you thinking of?

And secondly what kind of people are coming to your party i.e. will there be people who are into wine or is it mostly people who won't really care as long as it's alcoholic??

I'd say you need a few bottles of red, more white and plenty of Rose as that seems to be the most popular at the minute (I don't know why as it tastes like ribena to me). Plus a few bottles of fizz.

Answer my questions and we'll take it from there!

Ok, it's a daytime party for my 40th birthday near Christmas. Will be on a Sunday from 2pm until people drift away. Am having it then as most of us have children who I would also like to come (though obviously don't need to count them into the wine equation, most of them drink Scotch . Don't think there are any serious wine snobs amongst my friends nor are they all likely to get riotously drunk.

Will be inviting about 30-ish adults and about a half to third of them will probably be driving.

So you need booze for, say, 20 people (I always err on the side of generous!)

So going on the Tesco grocery site (on the wine site you have to buy it by the case?) I would go for.....

The Calloway Crossing Chardonnay on this page. Wno't let me do links to the exact wine grr. It's a lovely easy drinking, not oaky chardonnay

The Campo Viejo or the Yellow Tail Shiraz from this page.

The Blossom Hill White Zinfandel from this page which is 2 bottles for £3!!! No point buying an expensive rosé imo.

And lastly I would go for

The Freixenet Vintage Especial (first bottle) on this page. Imo Cava is better than champagne and this one's lovely - I've had it before

Hope this helps!

Thanks! I was looking at the Freixenet but hadn't tried it so wasn't sure. That's really helpful.

I'd personally go for French rather than New World, but that's jusdt a personal preference

Sparkling wine is fine for initial toasting etc. if they ase not wine snobs.