Lidl, like Aldi, is finding better and better wine with which to tempt its customers. Though both firms are German in origin, neither of them seems to use German wine as a regular sales ploy. Personally I would not regret it if they did, such is the dearth of good German wine in British supermarkets.
Nor does the focus seem to rest particularly on the New World. It is in France that both firms are finding their specialities and from French sources that they are assembling their most attractive offers.
True, Lidl’s wine shelves are notoriously a shambles. You hardly notice the good bottles resting amid the much less good on their side walls. The Cimarosa range which they do make some effort to display are mostly dull and drab.
Steer clear of these and trust that your eyes will catch sight of other things, whose price tags are often obscured, whose printed descriptions may seem to apply to different bottles altogether, whose layout is just a muddle - it almost as if supplies have been simply dumped on the shelves - but which happen to include some real riches.
The French offers, as I have said are the ones to go for, if you can find them - and inevitably not all branches of Lidl carry the same stock. But every month there is something good available, including, at present, a pair of admirable white burgundies and the 2014 vintage of their established stand-by - a pale pink, nicely dry Cotes de Provence costing £5.99, which would seem a good buy at double that price.
There is also an excellent Fronsac claret, which does cost more than double the price of the Provencal pink, as well as a Margaux at nearly £17, showing that Lidl is not frightened to charge a bit more for something really special.
As Christmas approaches, Lidl also stocks up with lobster, pheasant, quail, and langoustines in Japanese batter, all attractive matches for the better wines.
I first came upon this supermarket some years ago when I praised in one of my musical reviews an ergonomic stool, visually very striking, on which a visiting cellist sat for his Edinburgh recital. A friend who read my review telephoned me and told me that his wife, also a cellist, had bought the same stool and that it was on sale very cheaply in the Leith branch of - guess where? - Lidl. Going to the shop to see for myself, I was too late. The stool was sold out.
11 September 2015
Nor does the focus seem to rest particularly on the New World. It is in France that both firms are finding their specialities and from French sources that they are assembling their most attractive offers.
True, Lidl’s wine shelves are notoriously a shambles. You hardly notice the good bottles resting amid the much less good on their side walls. The Cimarosa range which they do make some effort to display are mostly dull and drab.
Steer clear of these and trust that your eyes will catch sight of other things, whose price tags are often obscured, whose printed descriptions may seem to apply to different bottles altogether, whose layout is just a muddle - it almost as if supplies have been simply dumped on the shelves - but which happen to include some real riches.
The French offers, as I have said are the ones to go for, if you can find them - and inevitably not all branches of Lidl carry the same stock. But every month there is something good available, including, at present, a pair of admirable white burgundies and the 2014 vintage of their established stand-by - a pale pink, nicely dry Cotes de Provence costing £5.99, which would seem a good buy at double that price.
There is also an excellent Fronsac claret, which does cost more than double the price of the Provencal pink, as well as a Margaux at nearly £17, showing that Lidl is not frightened to charge a bit more for something really special.
As Christmas approaches, Lidl also stocks up with lobster, pheasant, quail, and langoustines in Japanese batter, all attractive matches for the better wines.
I first came upon this supermarket some years ago when I praised in one of my musical reviews an ergonomic stool, visually very striking, on which a visiting cellist sat for his Edinburgh recital. A friend who read my review telephoned me and told me that his wife, also a cellist, had bought the same stool and that it was on sale very cheaply in the Leith branch of - guess where? - Lidl. Going to the shop to see for myself, I was too late. The stool was sold out.
11 September 2015
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