Price Points: Supermarket Prosecco

Supermarket prosecco | H is for Home

In 2016, it was reported that the UK consumed 35% of all the Prosecco produced in Italy that year. The country exports 70% of its total yield – so that means half of what leaves the country comes to these shores.

When it comes to celebrating that special event with a bit of fizz, many people immediately turn to champagne. On some occasions, that can be great, of course. However, a really good Prosecco, Cava or English sparkling white wine certainly beats a mediocre champagne in our book. And it’s usually far more affordable, too.

In recent years, the British public has become much more comfortable shopping in discount high street shops – the likes of Primark, TK Maxx and the different pound shop chains. The same can be said of doing the weekly food shop – and two of these Proseccos are from Aldi & Lidl, whose reputations for an interesting range of products and value for money are now well established.

We can personally vouch for all three of these bottles of supermarket prosecco – sampled, of course, entirely in the name of public service!

Of the trio, we enjoyed the Morrisons bottle the most; crisp and dry with a lovely pear flavour. In fact, it came top in this year’s Good Housekeeping ‘Best Prosecco’ review.

  1. Allini Prosecco Spumante, extra dry: £5.99, Lidl

    An easy-drinking prosecco with lovely fresh pear aromas and full of fizz.

  2. Organic Prosecco: £7.99, Aldi (Sweetness: 1)

    Pear and green apple are followed by aromas of acacia flowers and honeycomb.

    Grown with no pesticides or herbicides used in the vineyard, the grapes are predominately hand picked and gently pressed to ensure only the highest quality of juice is used. The winery is also committed to using renewable energy wherever possible.

  3. The Best Valdobbiadene Prosecco, 75cl: £8.00, Morrisons (Sweetness: 2)

    Apple blossom aromas with vibrant green apple and pear flavours.

shop supermarket-prosecco

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Prices & links correct at time of publication.

The Best Valdobbiadene Prosecco 75cl
The Best Valdobbiadene Prosecco 75cl
£8.00
Organic Prosecco
Organic Prosecco
£7.99
Allini Prosecco Spumante, extra dry
Allini Prosecco Spumante, extra dry
£5.99
The Best Valdobbiadene Prosecco 75cl
The Best Valdobbiadene Prosecco 75cl
£8.00
Organic Prosecco
Organic Prosecco
£7.99
Allini Prosecco Spumante, extra dry
Allini Prosecco Spumante, extra dry
£5.99
The Best Valdobbiadene Prosecco 75cl
The Best Valdobbiadene Prosecco 75cl
£8.00
Organic Prosecco
Organic Prosecco
£7.99
Allini Prosecco Spumante, extra dry
Allini Prosecco Spumante, extra dry
£5.99
The Best Valdobbiadene Prosecco 75cl
The Best Valdobbiadene Prosecco 75cl
£8.00
Organic Prosecco
Organic Prosecco
£7.99
Allini Prosecco Spumante, extra dry
Allini Prosecco Spumante, extra dry
£5.99
The Best Valdobbiadene Prosecco 75cl
The Best Valdobbiadene Prosecco 75cl
£8.00
Organic Prosecco
Organic Prosecco
£7.99
Allini Prosecco Spumante, extra dry
Allini Prosecco Spumante, extra dry
£5.99

Simple sloe gin recipe

Bottles of sloe gin

The first frosts hit this part of the country this week, I’ve been eagerly awaiting them. No, I’m not a great fan of chilly weather, I’ve just had my eye on a few little blackthorn bushes that grow along our lane.

Blackthorn berries (prunus spinosa) – better known as sloes – are the important ingredient in that Christmastime favourite, sloe gin. Back to those frosts… it’s recommended that you pick them after a spell of freezing temperatures, as this swells the berries and makes their skin split. If you don’t want to wait, you’ll need to prick each berry with a pin or skewer before steeping them in the gin. Letting the cold weather do the hard work is my preferred method!

Blackthorn berries aka sloes on a branch | H is for Home

Conveniently, for this post, we had half a bottle of Hortus gin left over from those almost forgotten summer gin & tonics. That’s just the right amount for the number of sloes I was able to forage – about 150 grams.

You add half the weight of sloes in sugar; i.e. 75 grams of sugar to 150 grams of berries. The amount of gin you add is much more flexible. Countryfile Magazine recommends 500 grams of sloes to a 70cl bottle of gin, River Cottage say around 325 grams per bottle and The Guardian 350 grams. The ratio that I used was about 300 grams to a bottle.

Pouring sugar into bottle | H is for Home Pouring gin into bottle | H is for Home

My sloe gin may just about be ready to crack open at Christmas. Next Christmas – or even the Christmas after that – is optimal time for the fruit to infuse with the alcohol.

Click here to save this sloe gin recipe to Pinterest

Simple sloe gin recipe | H is for Home

Bottles of sloe gin

Simple sloe gin

Course Drinks
Cuisine British

Ingredients
  

  • 150 g sloes
  • 75 g caster sugar
  • 35 cl half a bottle London dry gin

Instructions
 

  • Sterilise a bottle or Kilner/Le Parfait preserving jar
  • Rinse, drain and pat dry the sloes
  • Add the sloes, sugar and gin. Seal the cork/cap/lid and swirl the contents together for 30 seconds or so. Set aside in a cool, dry, dark spot
  • Each day for about a week, swirl the contents together for 10 seconds or so. Once all the sugar has completely dissolved, you can strain to remove the fruit and store the sloe gin (for years... if you can resist the urge to crack it open!)
Simple sloe gin ingredients
Keyword alcohol, forage, gin, sloes

Price Points: Wine racks

Selection of wine racks

If you’re anything like us, wine doesn’t last long enough in the house to warrant a wine rack! Besides, we’ve previously always lived very close to shops – and usually only bought a bottle or two as and when we’re going to drink it. Perhaps with our new, more rural location, this item might become more essential for us.

However, what I do use wine racks for is my annual summer batch of elderflower cordial. Each late May/early June, I pick the wild, fragrant blooms to make cordial and occasionally champagne. So long as the cordial contains added citric acid and is stored in properly sterilised bottles, it will last until the following summer, when production happens all over again.

These are 3 of my favourite wine racks; I like each for different reasons. Starting with the IKEA model – it’s really cheap, yet is made of solid wood, so can be stained or painted to match your décor. In addition, it’s stackable, so it can be built to suit your space and/or bottle collection.

Number 2 is unobtrusive and minimalist; it’s made of thin black wire with hexagonal slots (a shape that gives a structure maximum strength in minimum space – think honeycomb). It gives the appearance of the bottles hovering in mid-air.

The final example has been designed to resemble a wooden wine box and can hold more bottles than the previous two.  If this is your favourite of the trio, it would be a match made in heaven if your name also happens to be Chloé!

  1. HUTTEN 9-bottle wine rack, solid wood: £8.00, IKEA
  2. Black metal bottle rack: £33.00, Maison du Monde
  3. Vinothek 12-bottle wine rack: £39.99, Wayfair

shop wine racks

Some of the links on our blog are affiliate links. We may receive a small commission - at no cost to you - if you click through and make a purchase.
Prices & links correct at time of publication.

Vinothek 12-bottle wine rack
Vinothek 12-bottle wine rack
£39.99
Black metal bottle rack
Black metal bottle rack
£33.00
HUTTEN 9-bottle wine rack, solid wood
HUTTEN 9-bottle wine rack, solid wood
£8.00
Vinothek 12-bottle wine rack
Vinothek 12-bottle wine rack
£39.99
Black metal bottle rack
Black metal bottle rack
£33.00
HUTTEN 9-bottle wine rack, solid wood
HUTTEN 9-bottle wine rack, solid wood
£8.00
Vinothek 12-bottle wine rack
Vinothek 12-bottle wine rack
£39.99
Black metal bottle rack
Black metal bottle rack
£33.00
HUTTEN 9-bottle wine rack, solid wood
HUTTEN 9-bottle wine rack, solid wood
£8.00
Vinothek 12-bottle wine rack
Vinothek 12-bottle wine rack
£39.99
Black metal bottle rack
Black metal bottle rack
£33.00
HUTTEN 9-bottle wine rack, solid wood
HUTTEN 9-bottle wine rack, solid wood
£8.00
Vinothek 12-bottle wine rack
Vinothek 12-bottle wine rack
£39.99
Black metal bottle rack
Black metal bottle rack
£33.00
HUTTEN 9-bottle wine rack, solid wood
HUTTEN 9-bottle wine rack, solid wood
£8.00

Why a wine cellar adds value to your house

Why a wine cellar adds value to your house | H is for Home

Wine has become the beverage of choice for the people who love their liquor and one of the most favourite drinks internationally. Wine collecting is a hobby for many individuals around the world and one of the primary reasons why some home-buyers prefer houses with wine cellars, there are also accolades associated with wine such as the ‘Master of Wine’ award. People who love wine, want to store their wines correctly and also display their wines in areas in their homes, which is why, if you have the space you should consider a wine cellar.

Things change from time to time and, if you decide to sell your home some time in the future, a beautiful and well-constructed wine cellar will undoubtedly add financial worth to your home.

Home-buyers who are already in the market for new homes with wine cellars will make a beeline for your property when it comes on the market. You’ll be able to call the shots in terms of pricing since you’re sure that your home is exactly what these home-buyers need at that point. A dedicated wine storage room can add anywhere from £10-20,000 to the value of a house, depending on how it’s been constructed and its size. This makes financial sense when thinking about installing a wine cellar as it will more than pay for itself since you also have the opportunity to store hundreds, if not thousands, of wine bottles until you move house.

Rows of bottles on shelves in a wine cellar

To build or install a wine cellar in your home isn’t rocket science; in fact, it’s not even as complicated as you’ve been made to believe. Several options are open to you when it comes to building the wine cellar that will boost the resale value of your home in years to come. You also have lots of wine rack choices, stain choices, wine accessories, add-ons etc. available for you to choose from at any time.

So, all you need to do is to pick yourself up and visit any of the numerous DIY shops as well as hardware stores that sell ready-made kits that you can use for building your wine cellar. This is an excellent option for you if you’re a DIY fan and you have a pretty low budget.

However, the best thing to do when you’ve made up your mind to add a wine cellar to your beautiful home is to seek the help of certified wine cellar construction company. There’s nothing more heart-warming that sitting back and relaxing while a team of building professionals goes to work in your house.

Rows and shelves of wine bottles stored in a room

Not only is this incredibly convenient, but you’ll also be able to chip in your thoughts or plans about the design of the wine cellar while these professionals – with years of building wine cellars under their belts – can advise you accordingly; it’s just like designing a new kitchen!

Nevertheless, whether you choose to build the wine cellar yourself or hire the services of professional wine-cellar builders to do it for you, you’ve made an excellent decision by making up your mind to add a room or two in your house for your priceless wine collection.

Of course, although your primary intent for constructing a wine cellar may be for your personal enjoyment, the resale value of your house will increase significantly, thanks to the existence of the wine vault.

There are lots of options to think about when designing a wine cellar, for examples the racking, humidity and temperature equipment as its critical the wines are stored correctly to make this project viable.  One of the most common additions to a wine cellar, which may seem odd, is a wine cooler or wine cabinet.  These are used primarily to bring a small selection of wines that are ready to drink to their optimum service temperature.  If you’re going to invest in a wine cooler, its best to buy a high quality unit like the range from Elite Wine Refrigeration, as not only will this help save the planet but it will also ensure your wines are stored correctly with less of a chance of a break down which may sour the wines.

Once the wine cellar is constructed, allow the room to run at its set temperature correctly for a period of time to ensure there aren’t any unforeseen breakdowns which may damage your wines.

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