7 Aldi Alcohol Items To Buy And 7 To Skip

Aldi is one of the best places to shop if you're looking for seriously affordably priced groceries. But you may not realize that it's also a great spot to pick out cost-effective beer, wine, and seltzer as well (if you live in one of the states where Aldi is allowed to sell alcohol, that is). Whether you're looking to stock up on some wine so you always have some on hand when guests stop by unexpectedly, or you're hosting a party and want to ensure that you don't run out of beer and hard seltzer, Aldi's alcohol selection is worth checking out.

However, that doesn't mean that every single alcohol product at Aldi is particularly good. We've highlighted seven Aldi alcohol products we think you should try and seven that are best to avoid. We've consulted online reviews and done some taste-testing of our own to deliver these recommendations, and we hope they can help make your booze shopping at Aldi a bit easier.

When you don't feel like drinking beer or wine, hard cider is an excellent third option. If you ask us, it basically tastes like apple juice, which makes it appealing to a wide range of drinkers. Although some hard apple ciders are overly sweet or don't taste very good, that's not a problem when you try Aldi's Wicked Grove Crisp Apple Hard Cider. It comes in a pack of six bottles for a surprisingly affordable price point.

Redditors are big fans of this alcoholic beverage. Some claim that it's an excellent deal or that it's a solid replacement for beer, while others say that it's a dupe for Angry Orchard, another popular hard cider brand. If you're looking for something a bit different than what you might typically buy at a liquor store, give this Aldi hard cider a try.

At Tasting Table, we tried every Aldi Winking Owl wine to create a ranking of the brand's offerings. Unfortunately, the very worst of the bunch was the Winking Owl Moscato. Some types of Moscato are light and delicious, with a slight effervescence, or bubbliness. Some also have low ABV that makes it easy to sip on several glasses without feeling bad the next day. However, this ultra-cheap bottle misses the mark on all of those fronts.

First of all, at 9% ABV, the alcohol content is higher than it typically is. It's also lacking those subtle bubbles that make sipping on this wine so much fun. But the real crime is how sweet this stuff is. Some dessert wines are well-balanced enough that their sweetness is pleasant, but this wine tastes overly sugary. Unless you like a wine that tastes flat and almost syrupy from so much sugar, you can easily pass on Winking Owl's Moscato.

Aldi is a German-founded company, so it shouldn't come as a big surprise that the grocery chain's German beer game is pretty solid. One of the best of Aldi's beer offerings, if you ask us, is the Wernesgruner Dark Lager. This isn't the cheapest beer the chain sells, considering that it only comes in a four-pack, but we think that it's worth splurging on since Aldi's alcohol prices are already so affordable.

Redditors love this beer and urge customers to give it a try the next time they shop at Aldi. It's rich and full-bodied, which means that it pairs exceptionally well with heavier meals, like beef stew, steak, and even charcuterie. Take a sip of this beer, and you'll likely notice strong malty flavors with a complexity that's somewhat surprising for a grocery store beer. Although you could technically drink this beer at any time of the year, it really shines during the winter months.

While hard seltzer was once an afterthought in the alcoholic beverage space, it's now one of the most popular drinks on the market, largely thanks to people who are looking for a relatively lower-calorie drinking option. But some hard seltzer brands are better than others, and unfortunately, Vista Bay Hard Seltzer from Aldi doesn't stack up well next to the competition.

What people think of these seltzers really depends on the specific flavor you're talking about, but overall, the reviews on Reddit tend not to be great. One poster says that they don't love the black cherry flavor, while another claims that the grapefruit variety — a flavor that should be a safe bet regardless of which brand you're buying from — is so-so. Two Redditors even say that the lime flavor (another safe bet) has a strange aftertaste. You're probably better off choosing a different brand of hard seltzer.

When you're looking for a white wine that everyone will love, sauvignon blanc is often a solid choice. Its bold acidity and bright flavor make it massively appealing to wine lovers and occasional wine drinkers alike, and a lot of sauvignon blanc is affordable. That's certainly true when it comes to Winking Owl's sauvignon blanc, which took the No. 2 spot in our ranking of Winking Owl wines.

At 13.5% ABV, it has the highest alcohol percentage of the Winking Owl wines we tested, but you can't really tell when you take a sip, especially if you make sure to chill it well before drinking. This dry wine is fresh and fruity, with hints of citrus and apple. It's not as acidic as, say, New Zealand sauvignon blanc, but it has just enough brightness to pair well with lighter foods where it can help clean the palate.

Compared to wine made with other types of grapes, pinot noir tends to be expensive. This is largely thanks to the fact that pinot noir grapes are finicky because they have thin skins, can be susceptible to disease, and only grow well in certain parts of the world. Therefore, most bottles of pinot noir you see at your favorite wine shop aren't the cheapest option around. When you do see inexpensive pinot noir, you might want to consider it a red flag. That's definitely true when it comes to California Heritage Pinot Noir at Aldi.

This wine is jammy and somewhat unbalanced, making it one of the worst California Heritage wines you'll find at the grocery chain. A good pinot noir should have a leanness and an elegance — this bottle tastes heavy and overly fruity, which generally isn't a good sign when it comes to this grape varietal. Luckily, there are plenty of better bottles to choose from at Aldi.

You may have heard people complaining that riesling tends to be too sweet. However, that's not always the case — a lot of riesling is actually bone dry. Others have a more elegant sweetness that's balanced by bold acidity, which is a mark of a quality bottle. And you'll get that when you choose Landkastel Mosel Riesling at Aldi.

Yes, this wine has some sweetness, according to a reviewer, but it's not cloying. Rather, that sweetness shines through in subtle notes of peach and melon, making for an interestingly fruity wine, if not overly complex. It comes in at 8.5% ABV, which means that it's super sippable over a long meal. Even if you've considered yourself a riesling hater in the past, this affordable bottle from Aldi might make you change your mind and become a true riesling lover (or at least a riesling tolerator).

Merlot is one of those wines that everyone around the table can enjoy. Oftentimes, it's not too big or bold, but it still has the weight of red wine when you want something more substantial than your average bottle of white. There's a lot of merlot that's boring and subpar, and that's what you get when you choose Winking Owl's Merlot. This is the second-worst-ranked wine Tasting Table tried from this wine line, and for good reason.

Our reviewer found that this wine was watery and even mentioned that it was less concentrated than some non-alcoholic wines that they'd tried — yikes. Without the bold acidity that can create balance with the weight of merlot, the wine ultimately tastes flabby and somewhat bland. At the low price point Winking Owl wines are sold at, this shouldn't be too surprising, but there are still better bottles you can seek out from the brand.

Just because we highlighted another pinot noir from Aldi that we didn't particularly like doesn't mean that you have to skip this grape varietal entirely when you're looking for a bottle to take home from the grocery chain. A better option is Aldi's Specially Selected Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, which one Tasting Table sommelier says is the best wine at Aldi. Of course, that's a pretty subjective claim, but we still think that this bottle is worth trying for yourself.

It hails from Willamette Valley, Oregon, one of the best American regions for pinot noir. It features notes of red fruits like strawberry and cherry, with a lightness and acidity that make this wine taste elegant. Although it's not quite as cheap as some of Aldi's wines, it is available at a much lower price point than you'd usually find a good pinot noir for. For pinot lovers on a budget, it's a must-try bottle.

Tasting Table conducted a tasting and ranking of nine different Aldi beers, and unfortunately, Locken's Tropical Pineapple Kolsch Beer took the lowest-ranked spot on the list. Sure, tropical pineapple-flavored anything sounds delicious, but this beer was a disappointment to our reviewer. They found that this beer had an artificial pineapple flavor — not the subtle fruitiness you might expect from a beer seemingly designed with summer in mind. In fact, they even mentioned that the beer had some sweetness, which, when combined with that overly pronounced pineapple flavor, was overpowering.

When you're drinking a fruit beer, you probably want the flavors to be pretty subtle and well-integrated into the beverage, and that's not what you're getting here. You're better off seeking out some of Aldi's other, more fruit-forward beers for a beer that tastes less like cheap candy and more like, well, beer.

Sometimes, you need a light, refreshing white wine that will go with nearly anything. That's what you'll get when you snag yourself a bottle of Aldi's Elementalist Pinot Grigio. On the nose and the palate, you'll find notes of green apple and citrus — two simple, fruit-forward flavors in wine that signal versatility. Its ABV is 12.5%, so you're not getting a wine that's too intense on the alcohol front. It's definitely not the cheapest wine that's stocked at Aldi, but at under $10, it's still a great deal when you want a slightly nicer wine than, say, Winking Owl, but you still don't want to spend too much money.

Reddit users also love this wine. One poster says that it's their favorite wine to buy at Aldi. Another mentions that it's a great everyday white. Is this the most interesting, complex wine you've ever tasted? Probably not. But when you're looking for crisp freshness at an affordable price, it's hard to beat this bottle.

If you ask us, flavored wine beverages generally aren't very good. It shouldn't come as a surprise, then, that we recommend you skip Aldi's Zarita Lemon Drop Wine. This stuff isn't really wine at all — it's a "cocktail" made with agave wine. Therefore, you can regard it as belonging to the same category as a bottled cocktail, although it doesn't contain liquor. Unsurprisingly, it's extremely sweet — cloyingly so. Sure, there's a hint of lemon-like acidity there, but it isn't well-balanced with that overpowering sweetness.

We're not huge fans of lemon drops anyway, but this beverage doesn't even particularly taste like a lemon drop, either. You're probably better off sticking with an actual bottle of wine or simply heading to the liquor store so you can make an actual lemon drop from scratch. And if you don't consider yourself a great bartender, you can even opt for a store-bought canned cocktail instead of succumbing to this "wine."

If you're a chocolate lover, look no further than the State of Brewing Chocolate Lava Cake Stout at Aldi. Admittedly, this beer isn't for everyone — it actually tastes like a chocolate lava cake, which is a bold, strong flavor that may not be ideal if you're in the mood for a lighter, simpler beer. But during the colder months of the year, when you're on the hunt for a drink that feels cozy and decadent, then this is an excellent Aldi selection to try.

Reddit reviewers say that the aroma of chocolate is strong, but claim that the flavor isn't as bold as the aroma. One poster says that it's ideal for those who like stouts and porters, which are generally pretty heavy and rich. It also comes in at 8% ABV, making this beer stronger than most, so keep that in mind as you're sipping away.

Sweet red wine is another really niche product. If you tend to like red wines that have a pronounced sweetness, then Winking Owl Sweet Red Wine may be right up your alley. But if you're used to drinking drier reds, then there's an excellent chance you're not going to particularly like this stuff. This is another one of the lowest-ranked bottles in Tasting Table's ranking of Winking Owl wines, thanks to its lack of acidity, which is needed for balancing out all that sugar present in the wine. Unsurprisingly, it doesn't have much tannin to it either, which means the wine is seriously lacking structure.

For those who just want a red wine that tastes like sweet cherries and strawberries, it's not a terrible pick. But compared to the other affordable red wines available at Aldi, we don't think this bottle is worth it despite its low price point.

To build this list of must-try and skippable Aldi alcohol products, we did some tasting ourselves, sourcing reviews from Tasting Table writers; we also relied on online reviews from other publications and Reddit from Aldi shoppers who have tried the products. We looked for products that had generally positive and negative reviews, respectively, especially paying attention to overall flavor and balance of the products in question.