It’s a gift! Aldi’s £10 bubbly beats its high-priced rivals
IF you want to do Christmas without breaking the bank, how about champagne at under £10 and fine red wines for less than £6?
Drinks sold by the discount chain Aldi have beaten much more expensive products in blind tastings by the consumer group Which?
It suggests supermarkets will be fighting something of a Christmas price war on bubbly, despite warnings that the Brexit vote would push up prices.
Rivals will have to match the £9.99 champagne from Aldi. Only last week, Tesco launched a promotion for its Louis Delaunay champagne at £9 a bottle.
The Which? taste tests named a Piper Heidsieck champagne brut non vintage, which costs £30, as the best.
But third place went to Aldi’s Veuve Monsigny champagne brut, which scored better than Laurent-Perrier brut, which costs £38, and Veuve Clicquot Yellow Label Ponsardin, at £35.
Aldi also came out on top in a category for the ‘best winter red’ with its Exquisite Collection Argentinian malbec 2016, which costs £5.99. The tasters were impressed, praising its ‘big red fruit flavours and rich tannins’.
In a separate survey of more than 2,000 Which? members, turkeys from Aldi were voted as matching those sold by Marks & Spencer, Waitrose or Morrisons in terms of taste. Independent shops and butchers came out top overall for taste.
In other festive food news, the Christmas pudding is making a comeback, with consumers aged 18-24 driving a trend for ‘show-stopping’ non-traditional versions.
After five years of falling sales, they rose 2.5 per cent last year and that is expected to continue this year.
The Matthew Walker company, which makes some 95 per cent of all Christmas puddings sold in the UK, said those dressed up with gold and silver or carrying a hidden surprise in the middle are leading the way.
The trend is exemplified by the M&S Chocolate & Orange Star Christmas pudding, while Heston Blumenthal has produced a Persian pudding for Waitrose which contains pomegranate liqueur, pistachios, caramelised orange and Middle Eastern spices.
‘Big fruit flavours’