Alert: Cheap Aussie Shiraz Wins Gold!

[Mahmoud Ali]

An Aldi wine has won gold at the 2017 Great Australian Shiraz Challenge.

https://www.marieclaire.com.au/aldi-shiraz-i ... -australia

The $6.99 Aldi 'One Road' Shiraz, South Australia/Heathcote, got 18.5 points, as high as any other wine and more than a $350 Two Hands wine, and is listed sixth from the top of the list of results, out-pointing wines like Bird in Hands "Mac" (the most expensive at $350/bottle), Mount Pleasant "Maurice O'Shea", Killikanoon's "Oracle", Wolf Blass' "Platinum", Lehmann's "Stonewell", Taylor's "Oracle", and Gemtree's "Obsidium". There were many more.

https://www.shirazchallenge.com.au/results/

According to Aldi it is a wine that is "medium bodied red is clean and fruit driven with no sign of wood."

Has anyone bought or tried the wine? Any opinions?

Mahmoud.

[shauno]

Is this a well known show?

There were 45 wines given Gold, and the Aldi wine didn’t win a trophy.

I’m happy to spend $7 to try it just in case, but I’d say it’s not the amazing super bargain that the results suggest...

[tarija]

Last time I watched the Olympics, there was usually only one gold medalist.

What is it with Australian wine shows and giving basically everyone a medal of some sort just for turning up?

[swirler]

At primary school everyone gets a gold star!

[cuttlefish]

It’s probably pretty good for $7 !

[dave vino]

Bronze medal 15.5 to 17 points
Silver medal 17 to 18.5 points
Gold medal wine above 18.5 points
Trophy best in their class.

or something like that.

[GraemeG]

Although Dave, most shows won't award a trophy unless the wine is of Gold standard.
So a whole class of crappy merlots, top wine pointed at, say, 18.2 = silver; usually means no trophy awarded for the class.
Graeme

[GraemeG]

Also, I recall a year where the Aldi entries did very well in the Sydney Top100 show too.
Maybe I'll investigate just for fun.
Their $25 Champagne is usually decent enough.
Graeme

[Ozzie W]

ALDI is very smart. The last couple of years, they've entered all their wines into many, many wine shows. They are playing the numbers game. They know they'll win some awards if they enter enough competitions. This isn't the first ALDI wine to win a gold medal and it won't be the last.

As for how $7 plonk can beat far superior wines in these wine shows (just have a look at some of the great wines that only won Bronze), I think that says more about the show system than the wines. There's a few reasons why I think wines like this get such good results.

• Many of the wines don't drink well when young and are designed to be aged.
• The judges get palate fatigue tasting literally hundreds of wines in one day.
• Many cheaper wines are specifically manufactured to a style that stands out when judging hundreds of wines a day.
• The wines are tasted without food. Many great wines don't drink well on their own.
• Time in the glass changes the wine. The same wine tasted later in the judging process would taste different if it were tasted earlier.

I've tasted a few ALDI wines before. They over-deliver for their price-point. But they aren't gold medal standard for my palate.

[RobK]

Bought some, tipped it down the sink.