Hello everyone! I know it has been awhile since I’ve posted here… and well… do you blame me? It’s so hard with the present world to be motivated to share fun and happy things. In May when quarantine was still new Kevin and I were trying to get creative with at-home date nights we decided to do an at-home wine night for as cheap as possible. Although quarantine and restrictions have been lifting, I know many who are still trying to keep their public exposure to a minimum. Plus… quarantine or not, everybody loves a good, cheap, at-home date night.
I had heard a lot of good things about ALDI, more specifically their wine selection. Then when I saw the prices… I HAD TO HAVE THEM. Under $5 for a bottle of wine?! Some under $3?! If I tried them and it wasn’t good… oh well! THEY ARE FIVE DOLLARS. I love a good winery visit with a little charcuterie action so I figured why not create our own while at home.
I was able to pick a variety of items for our snacks and wine all for $60. Honestly, you could make it even cheaper with less wines and less variety of cheeses, meats, crackers, and chocolate. The items I ended up purchasing from ALDI for this date night were:
Wines
Winking Owl White Zinfandel $2.49
Winking Owl Chardonnay $2.49
Flirty Bird Sauvignon Blanc $3.99
Flirty Bird Red Blend $3.99
Moiselle Sweet Red $4.95
Cheese
Imported Brie $3.49
Mozzarella $1.65
Mild Cheddar $1.65
Gouda Cracker Cuts $3.49
Meats
Beef Snack Sticks $3.49
Dry Cured Ham $$3.49
Sliced Salami $5.99
Snacks
Mini Pretzel Sticks $1.95
Buttery Round Crackers $1.95
Savoritz Veggie Crackers $1.99
Roasted Peanuts $1.79
Spinach and Tomato Pizza $3.29
Green Grapes $3.10
Red Grapes $2.15
White Chocolate $1.99
Dark Chocolate with Almonds $1.49
Subtotal: $60.86
Total: $62.11
I created a charcuterie board with the cheeses, meats, fruits, and crackers. I warmed the brie in the oven at 375 degrees for 15 minutes. The desserts and pretzels were placed on a separate dish.
Instead of just trying the wines and snacks, we decided to rank each wine out of 5 in three categories and decide what each wine paired the best with. Here’s what we came up with:
Winking Owl White Zinfandel
Overall Taste: 4
Fruitiness: 3
Drinkability: 5
Overall Score: 4
Paired Best With: Cheddar and Mozzarella
Winking Owl Chardonnay
Overall Taste: 3
Fruitiness: 2
Drinkability: 3
Overall Score: 2.66
Paired Best With: Red Grapes & Gouda Cheese
Flirty Bird Red Blend
Overall Taste: 0
Fruitiness: 0
Drinkability: 0
Overall Score: ZERO (this one was SO bad!)
Paired Best With: White Chocolate and Regular Crackers made this slightly bearable
Flirty Bird Sauvignon Blanc
Overall Taste: 2
Fruitiness: 2
Drinkability: 2
Overall Score: 2
Paired Best With: Green Grape
Moiselle Sweet Red
Overall Taste: 4
Fruitiness: 4
Drinkability: 5
Overall Score: 4.33
Paired Best With: Red Grapes & Mozzarella
***This one was the BEST! Would absolutely purchase this one again!
Once we finished ranking each wine, I looked up fun couple questions and “would you rather” questions for us to answer. Even though we’ve known each other for almost six years, it’s always fun to ask new questions and learn new things about each other or trying to guess what the other person’s answer may be to a question.
I highly recommend an at-home date night like this! We had a blast. Not every wine turned out to be good, but it was even fun tying the bad ones together 🙂 We will DEFINITELY be doing this again… we want to try it next with craft beer. If you and your significant other try out any of the other wines ALDI has to offer and there is a winner… I would love to hear about it! We can add it to our next date night.
XO, Have fun wine-ing!
