Lidl takes on wine snobs by flogging cheap plonk from vineyards NEAR some of the best producers in the world
Discount retailer insists that drinkers are being ripped off by inflated prices and that its cheap plonk rivals expensive labels
BUDGET supermarket Lidl is hoping to get one over on wine snobs by flogging cheap plonk from vineyards NEAR some of the best producers in the world.
The discount chain believes their new collection is just as good as some made from the world’s most illustrious grapes saying consumers are being ripped off by the sky-high prices from expensive estates.
It claims wines produced in the same terroir, which refers to soil type, topography and climate, is almost the same as that from the "big name chateaux", which are much more expensive.
The German discounter is prepared to put its theory to the test when it launches its upcoming French Wine Cellar on Thursday.
The limited edition collection features 42 wines from some of France's best-known wine regions, including many that Lidl says "have been sourced from vineyards just a short distance from some of the big names in French wine".
Lidl said its latest wine collection will prove that "budget needn't stand in the way of quality".
Its Merlot-based Château Roque le Mayne, Castillon Côtes de Bordeaux, at £8.99 a bottle, came just 10 miles (16km) down the road from the famous Pomerol region, which produces wines that often reach more than £100 a bottle.
For white wine drinkers, Lidl will sell a Reuilly Domaine du Chêne Vert, Loire 2015 for £8.99 that it claims "features the same floral and lime notes as a classic Sancerre from the Loire Valley".
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Richard Bampfield, a master of wine and one of three experts on Lidl's UK panel, which tests the grocer's wines, said that there were not necessarily "dramatic differences" between the grapes grown by the top estates and their lesser-known neighbours.
He said that the key point to understand is how wines are marketed and sold. "The top wines are bought by speculators and collectors as well as wine drinkers and that tends to push prices up. The lesser known wines are being drunk by drinkers, without the impact of speculators, so the price stays lower.
"I think it is fair to say that often the price differential [between the top and lesser-known wines] is disproportionate to the difference in quality."
Lidl said that each of the wines in its French collection, first introduced in 2012, had scored at least 80 out of 100 points from its three masters of wines, with some scores "in the 90s".
However, the claim that a cheap bottle from down the road was every bit as good as the real thing drew a sharp reaction from some wine experts.
Dan Jago, chief executive of Berry Brothers & Rudd, the independent fine wine and spirits retailer, said: "There are a lot of great wines that are reasonably priced and come from estates situated in close proximity to some well-known chateaux.
"However, there is a marked difference in quality because even a short distance within a terroir can make huge difference to the quality of the wine; in Pomerol, 100 yards between estates impacts enormously on a wine's character and intensity."
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