It's mostly practice. In every field repetition is the key to be a master. But Konstatnin has also a charm when he speaks about his thoughts, that's talent and intelligence.
Totally agree that the Cotes du Rhone appellation is a cave of true bargains. If you dismiss the really cheap stuff, you can get excellent wine in the EUR 10-15 bracket.
A great video and not an easy task, that Bardolino was tricky for sure. As you said the lines between wine shops and supermarkets/discount retailers are very blurred now. I have found good wine and also rubbish wine at supermarkets, where I purchase the majority of my wine. The key I believe is to either know the producer/winery and if you don't to research it. Because fancy, cool or gimmicky labels or a lot of blah blah writing doesn't ensure wine quality. Besides getting information from your channel or other RU-vid wine channels Vivino and wine Searcher have been very helpful. Thanks for calling out the phishers and scammers on RU-vid, they need to be stopped and if we all take action hopefully it will stop.
Hey Konstantin, It would be great, if you could offer wine packages in your shop and make a video afterwards with a tasting, so people could also enjoy a wine along with the video! The would be a great interactive experience. I would defenitly buy one!!
But his shippingrates are ridiculous high. 19 euros...(And i live in Belgium so that's next to Germany)To bad otherwise i would buy some wines time to time.
Wie immer ein super Video, dank dir und wineking habe ich Wein als ein weiteres, neues Hobby entdeckt. Grüße aus der Pfalz und viel Spaß in Südkorea :)
Finally you tried the Tempranillo from Finca Sobreño 🤩 Honestly I like this wine BECAUSE he has to much of everything 😁 I would love to see you tasting Tempranillos best from 15€ to 50€ per bottle 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
The only nice Prosecco from Lidl we found in Croatia this summer and really enjoyed it. Another wines from Lidl or Aldi are too simple to catch something special.
Regarding the question of the day: I find it unlikely discounters will ever be able to outcompete specialists on a regular basis. The reason is simple: Aldi & Co. require huuuuge quantities, so they can't bother with any kind of selection process or even terroir, and everything will be evened out. While there may be decent quality, the occasional /trouvaille/ will not be found (notwithstanding bait offers).
Great idea with this comparison! And thank you for addressing the phishing issues. It happened to me on your channel last week but I knew it wasn’t you. 😊.
Hey Konstantin, any chance you would be able to do an „Ahr in 10“? Would be great to get more information on the small area and potentially bring more attention to the area that was so deviated by severe floods last summer. Love the videos, keep up the great work! Thanks!
Thanks for the vid and also thanks for pointing out the bots. I've also been reporting them but you saying it will definitely help spread the awareness! They're so damn annoying. Keep up the amazing work!
Wow, das Risiko, sich hier als Master auf die Nase zu legen war hoch. Respekt dafür und die Offenheit, auch nicht immer so genau zu wissen, was da hinterm Vorhang schwappt. @Leon: Schmuggel das nächste Mal einen “Meine Lese” (nee, heißt jetzt ja anders …) ins Team 😅
Over here the line wouldn’t be blurred, they would be messy. You would find entry level Jaboulet, Guigal, Villa or Perrin in discounters at cheaper prices.
Great descriptions, I could guess Syrah from the profile you outlined. I’m not convinced that discounters are good for wine consumers as their offerings are based on value to quality rather than quality itself. I would love to see more posts of specialists producers wines, after all most of your subs are probably wine enthusiasts rather than bargain hunters at Aldi
Thought you did a fantastic job considering the price point of both the discount wines and specialist wines. Your videos improve my Sunday afternoons here in the UK 🙂
I simply can't fathom how you identified a Lugana completely blind... Never even seen it on a shelf here in Norway! The discussion about widely appealing mass produced wines is interesting though. Could go into great detail about this, but it's too big of a topic to disect in a comment.
Fantastic video, Konstantin. The descriptions were so precise and complete I could tell (I think) what these wines taste like. I was even able to predict the region of the last one just from the description, which perfectly characterized a Tempranillo from Toro (they don't call it Tempranillo there). Those wines typically have that super-concentrated, tannic bite, with american oak and even a bit of burnt cocoa.
You left out 10 seconds with the bottle helps a lot. Shape, seal, etc. For example the Riesling bottle shape is typical. Burgundy shape and not Chardonnay or Pinot narrows it significantly. Reds almost certainly Southern France. Bordeaux bottle shape much less obvious. Capsule bottling suggests large volumes eg ALDI. Not that hard.
Great tasting! I do think that the discount retailers like Aldi will continue to get better at providing better quality for the money, but I think that discounters and specialists fill very different niches. If you want something inexpensive that you plan to open tonight, picking up a bottle from Aldi while grocery shopping makes sense. Those who want something more specific will still frequent specialists. It's the same way for other things too. For example, if I need to replace something simple on my car, like the windshield wipers or the battery, I can buy those affordably at a large store like Wal-Mart. If I need more specialized parts, I will go to an auto parts store. The state I live in here in the US has rather restrictive alcohol laws, so Costco and Aldi don't sell wine here. The state actually owns their own stores that sell wine and distilled spirits. While the selection of spirits at the state-owned stores is not fantastic, they actually do quite well with providing a good selection of wines -- everything from $8 Yellow Tail to Mouton Rothschild. Some stores even have a section called "Chairman's Selection" which focus on good value for money wines that the state procured a supply of -- everything from a $9 Montepulciano that drinks like a $20 wine, to a $36 2016 Brunello Di Montalcino that made Wine Spectator's Top 100.
Really nice blind tasting, well done! It was also educational, I already had the impression that one can find decent mass market wine in aldi but that good specialist win over the mass appeal offering... well at least for wine lovers 😂. It was nice to get a professional confirmation, thx again.
Good job despite the challenge. In the Canadian province of Ontario, wine sales are essentially monopolized by the government. This makes the entity about the biggest purchaser of wine in the world, which has some advantages, but also means there aren’t options to explore.
Have you tried a Robert Weil-Monte Vacano Riesling yet? I usually dont spend as much on whites as i do on reds but im curious as its labeled by some as the best Riesling in the world....
I worked at Trader Joe’s (sister company to Aldi’s), and 99% of their wines are geared to low-price instead of quality. This is great for beginner wine drinkers who want to explore, but not geared for wine aficionados. TJ’s, at their best, occasionally get overflow wines from high end wineries, but then these wines are not the typical $5-$8 TJ wines, they are more expensive, and they sit on the shelves for months.
An excellent review of what’s out there at this lower price range. I find the Rhone selections at ALDI/Trader Joe’s to be consistently good, especially at the $9 & $10 price. They also have been bringing some solid Bordeaux selections at great prices too.
Seing that Falstaff gave the Aldi Rose 88 points raises the question if there are better or worse wine magazines and ratings. Any experiences? Also is it possible to describe the taste preferences of the wine critics?
I consider Vinous Media in general and Antonio Galloni in particular to be very reliable. James Suckling is also reliable after subtracting 4 rating points. Jeb Dunnuck likewise after subtracting 3. In my experience your best choice is to use CellarTracker. Any one review can be off but the average is spot on, and best of all it's free, although I choose to pay.
Great video as always. I have been wondering though why the atmosphere of your videos changed slightly and I realized that you are no longer using any background music. Personally I liked the music, it was quite low volume and not intrusive at all.
To date, most of the good value wines I have tasted have come from chain specialists (which have disappeared in large numbers from UK High Streets) and mid-price supermarkets such as Sainsbury's etc, but maybe the discount merchants will do well, if they stock such things as Chilean Merlot, some kind of reasonable Chardonnay and ditto Sauvignon Blanc, also of course a Prosecco and White Zinfandel, which you can imagine the people going for if ok. A budget supermarket would have a job to sell a traditional German white for £5.00, which is the entry level price in middle range here.. Some good information here, I'm not overly looking forward to ransacking the cheapo shops on the strength of this for much to beat my Piesporter. Nice one Konstantin! 🌟👍
14:20 Intestering how you describe what people expect a red wine to be today. It's kind of a shame - even though this particular Bardolino wasn't very good, it's still a very valid wine style and I think it used to be much more popular. Perhaps overextraction and residual sugar has become the popular style for red wines, but the pendulum could still swing back to favour lighter wines again.
The vast majority of wines featured on your superb tasting videos are in the Parker 80s range -- 70s at least. But it would be truly educational (if you haven't done so already) to taste and comment on wines with much lower ratings. Viewers would find it interesting to hear your views on specific wines rated, say, 55. And what about wines rated under 50? Does Parker's scale have any meaning at that level? Many thanks!
reason you get spam is because you have giveaway in title of your videos, if you just say giveaway in the video they shouldn't come, they try to think people they won the giveaway and give money or so for shipping the prize etc
Konts! I'm getting to the point where I can start to get regions and grape varieties in blind tastings, but I'd love to know more about how to identify and analyse the type of methods being used to make the wine through tasting. I have some basics but I feel there is more to be known... Could be a good vid?
Very educational without being snobby. Thanks. ALDI have some nice Cote du Rhone villages. Most of the reds I buy from ALDI Australia are portugese. The whites are French. Staggers me that ALDI Australia can't stock any German whites, or even any German mustards.
Hmmm, I had the Finca Sobreno both Crianza and Reserva before they were in Aldi's portfolio ( just found out now ). I though they were decent enough entry level Toro wines, not too far off from what to expect from that denomination . Wonder if they reduced the quality in order to meet the high volume demand they need for such a big retailer...
I was not so good on the whites as not a big white drinker, but i got the red grape varieties and regions from the descriptions of the tastes (had the Italian as Valpocella or specialist local grape variety), which is what makes this channel so good. I would love to see your ratings versus those of Lidl UKs Richard Bampfield (or the US equivalent if they have one) as an alternative to Aldi. Oh and by the way you did a pretty god job nailing those.
Hallo Konstantin, habe ich das richtig verstanden? Der Bardolino wäre für den Discounter nicht geeignet, da er die Erwartungen der „Masse“ nicht bedient hinsichtlich Farbe und Aromatik? Gibt es zu diesem Thema Studien?
Good stuff, personally I would be even more interested in a comparison at a higher price point. I could be fooling myself here, but the average buyer of wine at a discount supermarket is not planning to spend a lot of money. So when a buyer takes the risk to fill the rack with something at 15 or 20 Euros, he/she is either going for an appellation that sells in that market (champagne, amaronne, Barolo etc) or that person REALLY believes that bottle. And I usually take the chance on it, though I would like to hear if anyone else feels the same
Very interesting. Especially at the price point. Do you think it would be more difficult at a higher price point…$25 to 30? And Leon picking that Bardolino was harsh!
For a completely neutral evaluation of the wines, you should not see the neck of the bottle, because based on whether it is a cork or a screw cap, you can pretty well judge the quality and price of the wine.
You are really nice. Of course you are a fucking professional taster, but, you are also really funny and make a really good show for us! So thank you man! Let’s do more blind tasting
Finca Sobreño don't use to be a bad wine at all. The grape variety, tinta de Toro is a tanic varity. Maybe it's too young to drink now. Cotes du Rhone is probably the best value wine in France.
Something to consider is the risks either style, mass-compatible or specialist, are running. If an Aldi win doesn't make you retch, you are happy. If it has any suggestion of complexity, you feel like you cheated the system. On the other hand, if you spend a few bucks more on a specialist wine, if it doesn't agree with your palate, or is unbalanced slightly, especially in a direction you have little tolerance for, you feel like you've been cheated. So i think it's easy for Aldi styles to win or draw, and easier for "specialist" styles to loss. But if you nerd out about wine a little, and are purchasing it often, I think the scales tip in favor of the style with the higher upside--specialist wines. I've never bought a discount wine that punched two or three classes above its weight. On the other hand, I've drank $20 bottles that drink like $60 bottles.
Meanwhile here in Massachusetts they've put it to public vote whether or not to allow places like Total Wine to have even more stores in our state. Smaller shops are going to get pushed out as Total Wine / national corporate chains get more and more power. Sad as hell.
But isn't it so that the wines of well-known wineries that are available at Aldi & Co are not from them themselves i.e, the grapes are from contract winegrowers and are usually not vinified at their wineries either? So, they are sold under their name but are completely independent wines.
Aldi has over 2000 stores. So to deliver a wine to Aldi you have to be able to deliver a lot of bottles. It is said that around 4 million bottles are required for a contract, which would be 2000 bottles per store per year. Only large wineries can supply this, but not individual winegrowers. I don't believe that this quantity can produce the same quality as specialist retailers, for whom much smaller quantities are sufficient and who have wines from winegrowers in their range.
Here in South Australia, Aldi and Costco aren't legally allowed to sell alcohol which makes me sad ☹️ but I do think the large retailers are pivoting towards selling more eclectic and niche styles
Here in SA, Coles and endeavour group have a stranglehold on the industry since most alcohol is sold via Dan Murphy's, liquorland, BWS, thirsty camel etc which they own all of.
Aldi/Hofer in Austria had a wine called Louis Felipe-Donna Bernada Cuvee from Chile, for only 16€ I bought like 10 bottles. Hope they will have a wine like this again some day....
You got it for only that!? Man, that wine sells for around $45 now, and is in very short supply. I got to taste it at my local grape harvest fair this year, and was super impressed. Good on you for capitalizing on that great deal!
As usually with discount stores such as Aldi and Lidl is a matter of convenience: you're over there shopping already so why not get some wine in the process? The downside is that they're catering for a generic taste so no adventure, no small producers, no smaller-yield grapes. Lots of Chardonnay but certainly not Melon à Queue Rouge.
Also I love all of you Aldi tastings, but for the American crowd. PLEASE DO TRADER JOES, doesn’t have to be blind Just go pickup some Trader Joe’s wines especially there Cabernet reserved Rutherford
I actually tasted the Lugana from Aldi and the Finca Sobreno from the previous vintage, my ratings were somehow higher (mid 80s), so i am wondering if these sold so well that they bought the next vintage although it wasn't as good. There seems to be some pattern of good to very good discounter wines being worse in the next vintage, but maybe that is just because if I didn't like the wine i will not buy the next vintage ;-)
Personally I don‘t believe that Aldi will outcompete specialists in quality. I had a few Aldi Wines in the last years and most of them didn‘t fit my expectations like the Amarone, Barolo or Rioja. In my opinion you get better quality for a few bucks more, when you buy wine at the specialist.
Tolle Video! Ich glaube in der Zukunft wird es entweder eine Gourmet Abteilung bei Aldi geben oder eine eigene hochwertigere Store Kette.Nicht nur für Wein sondern auch Lebensmittel, es gibt schon dryAged Fleisch ,rot Garnelen Trüffel Butter und so weiter und da sind teilweise echt gute Produkte bei.
Many wines but almost all of them is no good. This is reality of cheap wine shoping. But possible find something fine on low price anyway. Here now is season of bottling some first wines and i won't go to shop and spend money on something from shop. Now here is very early for botting. But i can't do it later in the winter. And hope it is will be fine. Difference between high price wines and low price wines looks like from low price wines many of them is no good but something can be fine. And high price wines mostly fine but sometimes is no good. Price here not always is big quality.
Hey Konstantin, I have found a bottle of Riesling Hochgewächs 2003 Kurfürsten Hof Reichsgraf von Plettenberg today, sitting next to a glas recycling container. Would you recommend I try it or would you be interested in maybe featuring it?
No because they have to sell wines that most people like and if many people have to like a wine, the wine cannot be special and so people who are really into wine will get bored soon because they want to experience different things. That is also the reason why some big discounters have started their own fine wine sub-companies like the REWE did with the Kölner Weinkeller. So, one of these annoying commentators stops his comment-spree for now ;-) (Sry for being that talkative while binge watching your channel)
Do you consider Costco a discounter? I buy almost all my wine there and feel that their $5 -$10 offers are better than ALDI’s. It may be because all the shops do not sell the same wine.
@George K. Good question, as Costco sells mostly (if not all) labels that could be obtained at wine retailers at higher prices. I too buy a good portion of my wine at Costco, usually in the $15 to $20 range, and pretty satisfied with the quality of their selections, such as the 2021 Westmount Willamette Valley Pinot Gris, delicious stuff!
@@stickshifter8 I buy my fair share of better wines there also, but guess I was thinking of wine like their Kirkland Malbec for $7.00 and their Cote du Rhône.
@@georgek.1498 Got it. Good point, I had totally missed the Kirkland labled products wich would probably place Costco as a discounter retailer per Konstantin’s criteria.
The wines number 2 & 3 on your list are switched. But, great tasting as usual. Sometimes Aldi or Lild (in The Netherlands) have nice quality German white wines but unfortunately, only every now and then. Lately Dutch supermarkets are doing better in that regard.
Haiyaa, I wait months and months for Konstantin to taste a Bardolino and he gets it wrong. In my time in the Italian Lakes I've decided it's just a bad wine - can anyone tell me there is a good example of this grape?
