A new Wine Tour begins in Lidl today and will run while stocks last – or until the next tour begins.
That new one is scheduled to start on the 30 May.
I know that the these start dates are of interest to MidWeekers because they are usually preceded by price reductions on the previous tour in many stores.
This time, though, there are 16 items on offer from as many as eight different countries (with locations as diverse as Hungary and New Zealand).
Prices start at £5:99 and go up to a pinot noir at £12:99.
Although I have not seen champagne in a Wine Tour for a while, there is one fizz this time – a rosé cremant from the Loire at £9:99.
Here, then, are my recommendations from the list – although I did have to ascend the price ladder a bit for choices this time.
I hope you find something here to stimulate your tastebuds.
Pictures are again included where possible to make it easier to track down the wine in question but there are no hyperlinks as the promotion only started this morning.
A good value option.
2022 Vinho do Rosario (£6.99 at Lidl and 14% abv):
One of Portugal’s rising star regions is the Setubal Peninsula (over the bridge from Lisbon) where investments in vineyards and winemaking are strongly in evidence.
Certainly, quality is rising there fast but, as prices have not done the same yet, their wines (like this) can be very good value.
Dark in colour with unmistakable wine aromas, it delivers plum, strawberry and red currant flavours enlivened by acidic verve.
Its tannin, however, is firm but this is counterbalanced by a variety of supplementary components that range from tobacco, liquorice and black olive to clove and chocolate.
A tale of two from Bordeaux
Two Bordeaux reds jump out from the list but which one to choose?
The cheaper of the two options is the younger (by a year) and, being medium bodied, is less textured and its flavours are of lighter fruits.
Its partner is much more classic claret – with, presumably, more cabernet sauvignon – and a broader flavour range.
Is it worth spending the extra £2 though …. In my opinion it is, but here are my tasting notes so you can decide which matches your preference the better.
2022 Bordeaux Chateau Les Tuileries (£6.99 at Lidl and 13%) contains medium bodied loganberry, plum and cedar flavours with moderate tannin and balancing acidity and suggestions of baking spice bay leaf and vanilla.
By contrast in 2021 Medoc Cru Bourgeois Chateau Plagnac (£8.99 at Lidl and also 13%), is smoother and the flavours are of prune, mulberry and menthol with hints of star anise and tobacco leading into mineral background.
Switching to white
2022 My Treasure Grauburgunder (£7.99 at Lidl while stocks last and 12.5%):
As the name implies, Grauburgunder is the German name for pinot gris and its versions are much closer to those of Alsace than to, say, Italian pinot grigio.
The variety accounts for about 7% of the country’s annual yield but it usually grows in areas south of this example’s Rheinhessen homeland.
Textured, but pleasingly gentle in style, it exhibits fresh greengage and peach flavours.
These are coupled with just the right amount of orange centred acidity which, in turn, is offset by traces of slatey savouriness.
And two Hungarian whites.
Two grape varieties that prosper in Hungary are regulars in Lidl Wine Tours and this time both of them appear – and at the same price.
So, as with the reds from Bordeaux, which to choose?
Furmint is the more robust grape variety and is versatile enough to produce dry or sweet wines and several in-between.
Hárslevelű, by contrast, is usually fresher and more straight forward but makes greater demands in the vineyard if it is to give its best – and is more often used as a blending partner.
This time, personally, I would opt for the furmint, but Carpinus Tokaji Harslevelu may suit you better if it is a younger, more lively and less textured wine you would prefer.
2022 Tokaji Amethyst Furmint (£9.99 at Lidl and 11.5%):
With a subtle aroma and clean mouth-feel, this brings us rounded cooked apple, lemon balm and tinned pineapple flavours.
In support come citrus tang (to counterbalance an underlying sweetness) and a gentle savoury edge.
And, finally, some bubbles.
Cremant de Loire Rosé Brut (£9.99 at Lidl and 12%):
Cremant – French sparkling wine made by the same method as champagne but from different areas – can be variable.
Eight different regions are entitled to produce it (hence the variation) and some are versions I hesitate to recommend.
This example from the Loire, however, is well worth exploring.
Aromatic with small active bubbles, it provides gentle cranberry and strawberry flavours.
These are supported by zesty grapefruit acidity built into a creamy texture that also has traces of the sweeter spices.
Another Wine Snippet
I know that many MidWeekers enjoy quirky stories from the wine world so here is another.
It comes courtesy of the Drinks Business – which continues to provide a comprehensive picture of the trade.
As the Cono Sur geese illustrate, animals in the vineyard are not new.
It is partly a response to the way many growers have now transitioned from tilled, bare earth vineyards to ones with grass and other plants between the rows.
Tractors no longer get bogged down (or compact the ground) but, more importantly, water retention is improved, and the soil can be usefully enhanced if the plant mix is right.
The downside is that (as even suburban lawns tell us) grass can grow quickly and vigorously.
However, controlling that is also delegated to nature in several Oregon vineyards – and better still – they are collaborating to enable it to happen.
Three in the Willamette Valley wine region have joined together to engage shepherd Jared Lloyd – and over a hundred sheep.
These now graze their way between their trio of wineries with three herding dogs to supervise progress.
This neatly underlines broader moves there and elsewhere towards regenerative agricultural practices.
Without my being indelicate, grazing sheep also release natural nitrogen fertiliser into the soil.
That eliminates the need for chemical fertilisers while ovine mowing activity makes many herbicides unnecessary.
It can also further increase rainwater retention – substantially so.
And, of course, vineyard visitors love them.
All-in-all, a rather nice “win/win” story.
More details are in the original piece which can be access here.
After today’s concentration on a single retailer, it’s back to a broader look at budget (but great value) scene in Monday’s Top Tip selections.
13 responses
In Victorian times farmers here in Kent would have standard fruit trees, and graze sheep under them. In the autumn and winter they would put pigs in to snuffle up all the fallen apples.
Apple yields were lower but the trees lasted much longer, and they effectively had three crops for the price of one. We need more of that sort of thinking to replace the unsustainable intensive monocultures we have now.
A great example of biodiversity and yet great wine making in ” hostile” conditions is Tapada de Coelheiros just outside Evora in the Alentejo.Organic farm and winery which incudes olives,walnut orchards, wild meadow ,a reservoir and a third of the land is cork oak forests with a moss underlayer where sheep and deer graze freely.
The wine does not disappoint.Coelheiros Branco Wine 2023 £12.50 from the Wine Society is a blend of 80% Arinto and 20% Antao Vaz.
Complex,fresh,citrus,lime and grapefruit.Worth exploring.Coelheiros means “Rabbit Warren”.
Tokaji Amethyst Furmint is £1 off, so £7.99, with the Lidl Plus card.
Love the bio-diversity stuff Brian. As minimal as it might seem just seeing rose bushes planted at the ends of lines of vines in France especially, always made me think about the care farmers showed re their products. Now they take care of the finances in strapped times by better agricultural management as you describe. Great application.
Lidl seem to have a competitively priced, young, Hungarian rozé from Villány in the upcoming Tour that is fanciable to me at £6.99. Earlier this week in my usual store there was masses of the Lugana from an earlier Tour left in the crates. They can’t shift it maybe because it isn’t cheap! Fingers crossed they make a deal of it.
Sainsbury’s in early with the announcement starting Monday 29th April, running until May 5th, they have a 25% off buy 6 bottles deal. But there are a lot of bottles already down in price on the shelf that will count towards a double dip!!
While the Cecci TTD Maremma Toscana jumps out at as super-value-super-Tuscan, based mainly on Cabernet, at £5.62 down from £10.50, and I won’t ignore it, in the same range their Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2018 is the way more sophisticated Chiantishire offering at £8.25 down from £12.50. Really superior, Sangiovese drinking that we’d be hard-pressed to find even around Siena for that same money.
The Morellino di Scansano #13 in the Discovery Collection now seems long departed, more’s the pity. It was another Cecci offering that was so authentically exquisite. I have one bottle left of the 2021. Maybe there’s some lurking out-back in the store room. Bring it out please!!!
Some decent French rosé bottles at good money too, under £6. The top-shelf, silver-grey paper wrapped Portuguese Feureheed Douro will be £7.50. And the best deal of the lot must be the 2021 Vernaccia di San Gimignano is £4.50. Stuff in the small wine shop just inside the gate of that towered town isn’t as cheap as this is!
Correction:Coelheiros means” rabbits”.Tapada is “ covering”.So Tapada de Coelheiros means “Rabbit Warren”.Here ends today’s Portuguese lesson !
As is so often the case, Jerry, “what goes round, comes round”. I rather like the idea of windfall clearance also providing pork, with inbuilt apple sauce, for Christmas.
Another excellent example, Paul, of nature allowing several of its “branches” to help each other so that, in the result, the totality really does exceed the sum of the parts.
Thanks for the tip, Alun, in what I think is your first contribution to the Comments Section. Do let us have more of your thoughts.
Thanks for the notice of the Sainsbury’s promo Eddie. and, like you, I would like to see discounts on that Lugana – it is excellent.
The Asda “25% off 6 or more” started today as well. I have just bought 12 of the Extra Special Chile Carmenere, reduced to £5.62. Get there quick, because it will be sold out after the weekend.
Also, the Chile Pinot Noir Bicycletta reduced from £7 to a stupid £5.25. Both two of my favourites
Bought a couple of bottles of the Cremant de Loire Rosé Brut (& the Grauburgunder, My Treasure) this afternoon. Wife very happy with the choice, as am I. Well done as always Brian.
Yes that cremant does hit the spot rather well – nicely soft but avoiding the excessively mineral background that seems to overpower some of the cremant family.
Thanks for the tip, Dave., and for joining the comments section of the site – you are very welcome. Let’s hope people will take your hint and scamper to Asda as fast as they can caper.