Lidl Festive Winter Wine Tour 2021 has started.
Monday 22nd November sees the start of Lidl’s festive wine choices in-store with their Winter Wine Tour. With 27 wines ranging in price from £5.49 to £15.99 there is a solid choice of whites, reds, a rosé, sparkling and sweet dessert wines to match the turkey and tinsel this Christmas and New Year.
Although the choice is smaller than in recent years (their quarterly Wine Tour selections started with 40 wines in 2015 and have gradually decreased) Lidl’s presence in the UK has increased dramatically. Now with 860 stores across the country, Lidl expect to reach a 1,000 by the end of 2023.
So what wines stand out in the Winter Wine Tour?
Cheapest at £5.49 is the plummy tasting Chilean red Carmenere, while the most expensive is the sharp tasting Chardonnay hidden behind the Chablis label of Premier Drus Les Muses. The only rosé is from Portugal (£6.99 Cabriz Dao Rosé) which is proving to be a popular country of choice for value wines post-Brexit, along with wines from Hungary of which there are three in the Winter Tour all labelled “Tokaji”.
Tokaji in Hungary is known for making sweet wines and the Tokaji Late Harvest Harslevelu is a perfect example at £7.99. There are also dry white wines in the Tokaji range made with the furmint grape variety. Lidl has two in the Winter Tour – Tokaji Amethyst Furmint £6.99 and Carpinus Tokaji Furmint £7.99 – which are so close in flavour and style you wonder why they stock both.
Watch out for the organic Prosecco (Prosecco Vino Biologica £7.49) and the vintage Champagne (a 2014) at £19.99, as well as the dumpy shaped bottle of cherry and chocolate flavour Italian red – Feudi del Duca Susumaniello at £7.49.
Lidl Winter Wine Tour 2021 recommendations by wineuncorked.co.uk
Carmenere Reserva Privada
£5.49 Lidl
Plummy flavours that match best to sausage casserole and veggie chilli.
Chablis Premier Crus Les Muses
£15.99 Lidl
This is an almost top level Chardonnay from the French region of Chablis, only Grand Cru wines have a higher status than the 40 Premier Cru. The label “Les Muses” is not a name directly associated with one of the named vineyard Premier plots (or climats) but is more likely a permitted “umbrella” name. Don’t expect buttery flavours as Chablis Chardonnay doesn’t use oak barrels to soften the apple and mineral flavours.
Cabriz Dao Rosé
£6.99 Lidl
This slightly sweet “off-dry” Portuguese rosé is lightly flavoured and won’t offend anybody. Match to cold lunches.
Tokaji Late Harvest Harslevelu
£7.99 Lidl
Sweet Hungarian wine with peach and lemon flavours. Match to the cheese and biscuits.
Comte de Senneval Brut 2014
£19.99 Lidl
A Champagne from a single year is known as a vintage and this one is 2014. Flavours of candied fruit are there in concentration. Great value at under 20 quid.
Feudi del Duca Susumaniello
£7.49 Lidl
Susumaniello is the name of the grape variety. Grown in the southern region of Puglia in Italy it is often used in blends but here it is on its own and tastes like chocolate and cherries.
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© Paula Goddard 2021 www.wineuncorked.co.uk
