Aldi has just casually launched its most premium wine range yet, just in time for Christmas.

And look, I appreciate the words ‘Aldi’ and ‘super premium’ don’t usually get uttered in the same sentence, but in the retailer’s own words, ‘shoppers can now sip like sommeliers without breaking the bank’.

They definitely had my attention at the last part of that sentence…

The new range includes high-end classics like Chablis Premier Cru, Sancerre and Châteauneuf-du-Pape, alongside a Rioja Gran Reserva and a Napa Cabernet Sauvignon and somehow prices start from just £6.29.

These are the kinds of wines you’d usually source from a wine merchant as they rely on factors like vintage, producer and site-specific vineyards. 

What is ‘premium’ wine?

To put ‘premium’ wines into perspective, they are typically produced in smaller quantities, by independent producers, from grapes grown in famously coveted regions around the world.

They’re usually made as vintage wines, meaning the grapes have to have been grown in the year stated on the bottle (or usually 85% do), from the better vineyard plots and they showcase a high level of provenance and grape varietal specificity.

Many are organic or biodynamic, shunning the use of chemicals in favour of sustainable methods. All of these factors push up the price.

This is the opposite to Aldi’s successful business model of working with top tier cooperatives across the world to procure their value wines. They tend to purchase in such high volumes that it means they can negotiate the best possible prices. Hence, my jaw is constantly on the floor when I attend their tastings.

What’s in Aldi’s new wine range?

There are 16 different wines in the new premium range, across red, white and rosé and they span a good number of the globe’s finer wine-producing countries – we’re talking Italy, Spain, France, United States and South Africa.

The selection includes the kind of appellations you’d find on Michelin Star wine lists or tucked away in private cellars of the annoyingly wealthy.

Prices for these bottles range from £6.29 to £21.99 at Aldi, which is remarkably cheaper than you’d find them in fancy restaurants.

Now, because I associate Aldi with the budget side of the wine world, I was curious to dip into this range and see what I thought. And full disclosure, I was sceptical going into it.

But after tasting the entire range, I’ve hand-selected five wines from a decent spread of price points and interest levels that I think should be on your shopping list on the run-up to Christmas.

Here’s the best of the bunch…

Specially Selected Stellenbosch Chardonnay, South Africa, (£6.29, 75cl)

Located east of Cape Town, Stellenbosch is looked at as one of South Africa’s finest winemaking regions. It’s sun kissed, so it tends to produce wines with ripe, vibrant aromas and flavours, with phenomenal freshness. This one was the major standout of the range for me, with rich, mineral and voluptuous flavours of nectarine, peach and mango with a balancing spritz of lime on the finish. It actually impressed me more than a bottle I recently tried in a fancy restaurant, which cost £125.

Specially Selected Chablis Premier Cru, France,(£21.99, 75cl)

A Chablis Premier Cru is currently on the list at Claridge’s Hotel for £1,175. That’s extreme, but Premier Cru is a massive step up in quality to regular Chablis. The vineyard sites (climats) with the best soil and climate are reserved for Premier Cru status. Aldi’s is a whisper of Claridge’s price tag, yet has elegance, minerality and Chablis’s typical tension, with flavours of tangerine, yellow plum and Golden Delicious apple crumble.

Specially Selected Cigales Rosé, Spain (£8.99, 75cl)

Just call me the Graped Crusader, as I’m the biggest advocate for rosé being consumed in all seasons, as it’s by far the most versatile style of wine you’ll find. This is from northeastern Spain, with bright red fruit and precise zing-factor, making it a true gastro-rosé. It’s a term I’ve literally just coined, as it matches phenomenally well with all things foodie. Try this with your turkey and trimmings in a few weeks and thank me later.

Specially Selected Moldovan Rară Neagră (£7.99, 75cl)

This is one of the real stars of the show, but strap yourself in for something different. First of all, this wine is from Moldova, made from a rare Transylvanian grape called Rară Neagră (rara-nee-egg-ra). Moldova has an established winemaking history stretching back 3,000 years, and you can tell. This is fruit-tastic, with lashings of crunchy plum and blackberry flavours, and a more serious line of cedar-like oak running through it.

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