This $7 Shiraz from Aldi Beat a $375 Bottle of Wine in Competition
In excellent news for the wine-drinkers of the world, Aldi has done it again. The discount grocery chain has a $7 bottle of Shiraz from Australia that has been named one of the best wines in the world, and it just beat a $375 bottle in competition.
Aldi’s One Road Shiraz is a medium-bodied red with a flavor that’s described as “clean and fruit driven with no sign of wood. It retails for $6.99 in Australia, which is just about $5.35 in the U.S., but the budget wine just won gold in the Great Australian Shiraz Challenge, an exclusive, 23-year-old competition that compares only Shiraz wines from Australia. It’s described as one of the most prestigious single-class wine competitions in the world.
The Aldi wine was ranked gold, which is the designation the competition awards to any wine rated 18.5 points or higher by its panel of six expert judges. That means Aldi’s wine scored higher than over 200 other bottles of Australian Shiraz, including a 2013 vintage by Bird in Hand that sells for $375. (It might sell for a little less now that it’s been beaten in a wine competition by a $7 bottle from Aldi.)
Other high-priced bottles that scored lower than Aldi’s include a $250 bottle from Mount Pleasant Wines, and a $200 bottle from Wolf Blass Wines.
The average price of a bottle entered in the competition was $54. The Aldi wine was clearly one of the very cheapest wines in the whole competition.
Aldi’s One Road Shiraz also won the Best Value Shiraz of the Year award at the 2017 Melbourne International Wine Competition earlier this year.
“We pride ourselves on sourcing products of the highest quality, and these award wins are testament to the excellent calibre of the Australian suppliers we work with,” ALDI buying director Jason Bowyer said to Daily Mail Australia. “A $10 wine at ALDI should drink like a $20 to $25 wine from elsewhere, and we consistently deliver on this formula.”
This is not Aldi’s first budget wine to win big in international competitions. Earlier this year Aldi’s $8 Exquisite Collection Cotes de Provence Rosé 2016 was named the best value rosé at the prestigious International Wine Challenge.
At the moment, One Road Shiraz is only available at Aldi stores in Australia, unfortunately. But last year’s prize-winning rosé was originally available only in the U.K., and it did eventually make it to the U.S. this fall, so there’s still hope. In the meantime, Aldi just released their Soloist Pinot Noir in the U.S. It’s $14.99 a bottle instead of $7, but it’s still one of the best wines to pick up for Thanksgiving.