Aldi & Lidl Wines Blog

Producer: Cellier du Rhone

Region: Cotes du Rhone

Grape: Syrah / Grenache

Vintage: 2006

Price:  £3.50 / Aldi Wine

 I’m kicking things off with a wine my wife bought as a Christmas present for someone from Aldi, but then didn’t see the person over the festive period, so sat in our wine cupboard winking at me, begging to be opened.

This is my first Aldi wine, and it’s produced by Cellier de Rhone in the Cotes du Rhone AOC, which for wine novices, means: Appellation d’origine contrôlée. In layman’s terms, it means that this wine has adhered to a number of standards and controls (which I’ll write about it more detail later) which guarantees a level of quality from grape to bottle, and is from a specific controlled area.

Cellier du Rhone is a blend of the Syrah and Grenache grape varieties, which is a classic blend. The deep ruby colour and medium tannins point at Grenache being the prominant variety.

Appearance:  Clear, deep intensity, ruby red in colour

Nose: Clean, light to medium intensity with some hints of red fruits

Palate: Clean, short to medium length (how long the flavour lasts in your mouth) with a hint of black fruits and spice, including a bit of pepper.

Conclusion: A perfectly acceptable Cotes du Rhone, and certainly good value at £3.50. You’d expect to add another £2 on to this at the bigger supermarkets, and around £12 in a restaurant. Incidentally, this wine drinks well on its own, or with a nice bit of roast lamb. Would also go well with cheese as long as it’s not rediculously salty.

I’m enjoying this….bring on the next bottle!

This entry was posted on January 10, 2008 at 5:29 pm and is filed under aldi, Cotes du Rhone, Grenache, Syrah (Shiraz), wine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.