This $10 Wine from Aldi Just Won “Best Wine of 2020”

What do Aldi’s Simply Nature Coconut Cashew Crisps, their Earth Grown Meatless Meatballs, and Quarter Cut Bourbon Barrel-Aged Cabernet Sauvignon have in common? Each of these Aldi products — along with their Happy Farms Sliced Deli Cheese, Park Street Deli Snack Selects Three Pack, and Country Creamery Pure Irish Butter — won their respective categories in the Product of the Year USA survey, reports MyRecipes.

That’s a lot of great stuff, even though Aldi having cool foods isn’t exactly news — but the fact that a $10 bottle of wine is drawing this kind of rave just might be. Quarter Cut Bourbon Barrel-Aged Cabernet Sauvignon is exclusive to Aldi (as if you need another excuse to go), and the company says it “draws its rich flavor from the charred barrels that once aged American whiskey,” and mentions that drinkers will find “aromas of ripe black cherries and dried herbs with notes of charred vanilla, toast, and a warm finish.” 

Wine snobs sometimes look down on the spirit barrel-aged wines, as they don’t taste much like the traditional version of the same wines. However, the process tends to make for extremely easy drinking, even as the ABV (how much alcohol is in the wine) climbs high — though the Aldi version is just 14.5%, just on the high end of standard for Cabernet Sauvignon (one of the more alcoholic varieties). And of course, easy drinking makes for popularity when it comes to the general public, which is who votes for the award.

Product of the Year bills itself as the largest consumer-voted award for product innovation, meaning that it focuses on new products that demonstrate something new in the function, design, packaging, or ingredients, and is voted on via a survey of 40,000 shoppers around the country. So when the award declares that a $9.99 Aldi bottle of wine is a game changer, there’s a lot of people behind that choice.