€5 wine beats high-price rivals in taste stakes

It’s a screwtop bottle of plonk costing just €4.99 but its a corker, according to international wine experts.

And Aldi has seen unprecedented demand for its Spanish Toro Loco Tempranillo since it picked up the top award.

A blind-tasting event conducted by a panel of experts placed the red alongside many older wines costing nearly 10 times as much.

Judges at the International Wine and Spirit Competition awarded it a silver medal.

They described the wine as “fruity, rounded, and appealing”, with hints of “nice bright cherry”.

Toro Loco Tempranillo beat off a number of higher priced rivals including a fine Italian — a 2005 Costa di Bussia Riserva DOCG costing about €40 a bottle.

Toro Loco Tempranillo is from the Spanish wine-producing region Utile-Requena in Valencia. The region has 115 vineyards and produces 1.5m litres of wine annually.

Aldi’s buying director Niall O’Connor said he was delighted with the award.

“Our buying team works closely with leading wineries across the globe so our customers can enjoy the best wines without paying premium prices,” he said.

Mr O’Connor said they witnessed a huge increase in demand for Toro Loco Tempranillo after winning the award last month.

“Sales have increased significantly, but we are happy to confirm that we have plenty of stock at each of our 92 stores to meet the increase in demand,” he said.

British shoppers are not so fortunate — the wine sold out of many shops.

Aldi stores in Britain sold a month’s worth of Toro Loco Tempranillo in just three days.

Aldi’s range scooped 14 awards at the competition, including four silver medals and 10 bronze.

Read Blake Creedon’s wine column in the Weekend supplement

Big taste

When you reach for that carton of milk for the tea, what’s the best way to tell if it’s fresh? Look at the best-before date? Sniff the contents? Or maybe a bit of both?

The beauty of the International Wine & Spirits Competition awards is that they’re decided by similar common-sense criteria. First, there are the blind tastings, in which wines are judged solely on how they smell and taste, unburdened by information such as who sells it and for much. Secondly, wines are subjected to extensive chemical analysis.

So Aldi is right to bask in the publicity of the silver medal awarded to its Toro Loco Tempranillo Utiel Requena 2008. The last time I tried it, in Aug 2010, I recommended it, saying that the big rustic tempranillo was, crucially, crisp and correct and that you wouldn’t normally expect quality like this at its price of €4.99, proving yet again that the link between price and quality is tenuous to say the least.

— Blake Creedon