As regular readers will know I am not one to witter on about all the awards that Aldi’s wines have won. Suffice it to say check out the website for our haul in 2008 to date. I must say however, that any work I have done has been blown out of the water by my colleague, Caroline Carey, with “The Fishmonger “ frozen fish range that recently won the “Grocer Gold “ award for the Own Label Range of the Year category at this year’s Grocer Magazine Awards. This is probably the most prestigious grocery award in the UK, so short of scooping golds in every category at next year’s wine shows I am afraid I will have to remain in her shadow for the foreseeable future.

It seems that you can’t turn on the TV at the moment without some expert blathering on about the decline of the economy. This has certainly had an impact on consumer behaviour and at Aldi we are seeing the benefit. Sales are flying and hopefully our new customers can really see that the words we constantly use about quality and value are genuine. We have recently launched a whole raft of new wines from Sancerre at £8.99 and a premium Pinot Grigio de Trentino at £4.99 to entry level Italian Red and White wines at £2.79. So however much cash you have to spend on wine there should be something there to experiment with. As I’ve said hundreds of times before; whatever price you pay you won’t get better value for your cash than at Aldi.

What’s more the same principle that is applied to the wine range goes for the rest of the products in the store and now you don’t have to take my word for it. Just ask the good people at The Grocer Magazine!

After the Hunter Valley I flew to Melbourne and from there drove North East for over 250km until I arrived at Gapsted Winery in the Victorian Alps. The region is as beautiful as the name suggests and the winery itself is bordered by Mount Buffalo National Park. By then I was becoming accustomed to the sight of eight foot tall kangaroos appearing from the tree line and the description of them by locals as overgrown rabbits gives some indication of the numbers that live in this area.

Victoria is renowned for ”cool climate” wines and it seems that the weather is regarded as appalling in Australian terms; I think they need a dose of British Summer to give them a more realistic yardstick. However the relatively cooler weather delivers a fresher style of wine than is normally associated with Australia and is particularly suited to unoaked white wines. Together with Gapsted we have developed two new white wines for the Bushland Grape Selection ranges. The Semillion/Chardonnay is round with green apple aromas and the Colombard/Chardonnay is slightly fresher and zippier with citrus flavours predominating. Both are great examples of wine styles from this region and are an interesting contrast to the weighty oaked style I get from the Hunter Valley.

The distances and ludicrously low speed limits in Australia meant it was the next day before I travelled back towards Melbourne through the Yarra Valley. It is here that some serious work is done on high end cool climate Australian wines by Steve Webber Head Winemaker of the De Bortoli Wines. Steve has received plaudits throughout Australia for this work and he took me through the process of how he is trying to capture the essence of each parcel of land in his wines by adopting a “hands off” approach in the winery. The results are stunning, delicate Pinot Noirs and Shiraz’s which are in a complete contrast to “typical“Australian wine. It is great to see somebody being successfully different and any wine enthusiast should be glad to embrace the extra variety that people like Steve are delivering.

In complete contrast the last leg of my journey takes me to Adelaide where I will be in the heart of “Big Shiraz” country, the Barossa Valley. More of that later.

As I write this I am on a plane flying from Newcastle in New South Wales to Melbourne. I have just finished my first visit to a vineyard in Australia and have been blown away by what I have seen.

Our Bushland Reserve Shiraz and Reserve Chardonnay are made by the Hope Estate who is based in the Hunter Valley. This famous region, which lies two hours drive to the north of Sydney, was once home to many famous brands but as demand grew for their wines they moved to more “productive” wine growing areas, where quality has been sacrificed for volume. Michael Hope, the owner of Hope Estate, is determined to keep the Hunter Valley story alive and has recently purchased the Rothbury Winery once home to Len Evans- a legendary figure in the Australian wine industry. The winery sits at the entrance to the Lower Hunter and by using the famous cask room as a function area Michael has turned the winery into a major visitor attraction. Some of the huge wooden casks which encircle the room have been signed by famous visitors, such as Malcolm Fraser the Australian Prime Minister, Adam Gilchrist and Denis Lilee, and Britain’s own John Cleese.

The grapes for our wines are grown further up the valley at the Broke Estate, also owned by Michael. The vineyard is on a gentle slope nestling against The Great Dividing Range. Where the vineyard ends the bush begins and as twilight fell I was intrigued to see a group of kangaroos make their way to the edge of the vineyard. You don’t see that in Bordeaux!! As I walked amongst the vines examining the soil structure Michael mentioned that I should keep an eye out for brown snakes as he hadn’t any antidote in the car. I casually enquired as to how deadly the venom of the brown snake was and his response that it wouldn’t be worth calling the ambulance had me back in the 4×4 faster than a possum up a tree.

Together we have been working on new blends for a single Estate Chardonnay and Single Estate Rosé to partner our Shiraz and we believe that the wines from the Broke vineyard have hit the nail on the head. They are so good that we believe that If it ain’t Broke don’t drink it!

Have you ever heard anybody complain that there isn’t enough paperwork to do? When did you last hear someone say, “Oh great, I’ve got a huge pile of memos to prepare”. Well I am no different to most and have developed my delegation skills to minimise the pain. What would you rather do - taste a flight of wines with a winemaker discussing how to move a blend forwards - or tap away on a computer screen for hours - no competition!

However, there is one date in the diary that nobody in the wine trade can avoid and that is Budget Day. The duty increases announced on Wednesday are effective from 12.00pm Sunday night so all costs must be changed. Then there are the implications on the selling prices of wines to consider and how should we offset the costs. This week the Chancellor raised duty (and the corresponding VAT) by 14p on a bottle of still wine and 18p on sparkling wine, and this is not a cost that can be absorbed by any retailer or supplier. The impact then will be felt by the wine drinking public on their favourite tipples.

We made decisions on Wednesday evening and Thursday morning on which wines need to go up in price and which will remain the same, and these will be in place on Monday morning. After that we have to hold our breath and see what the impact on sales will be. But you can be rest assured we will not be reducing the quality of any wines in order to hit/maintain lower price points. Once you start on that slippery slope it is very difficult to stop and my aim over the last four years has been to constantly improve quality. I am not about to change that policy now!

On the 10th of March we are launching our new Macon Villages so in February I was forced to travel to Burgundy to visit the producer and confirm the blending before bottling. I can almost hear your sigh of sympathy at my desperate plight!

The Macon Villages is the next wine in our drive to broaden the number of wines that we have at £4.99, allowing customers to trade up. This is especially important as recent statistics show that the average price paid for a bottle of wine in the UK has gone above £4 for the first time and the fastest growing sector is the already large £4 to £5 category. Macon lies in the most southerly part of Burgundy, any further south and you are in the Cotes du Rhone. It produces some red wines from gamay or pinot noir grapes, and sparkling Cremant du Bourgogne, which is very popular in France. However its reputation comes from the white wine which is 100% chardonnay. In fact the village of Chardonnay, from where the grape gets its name, lies in the heart of Macon.

Although some wines from the region are oak aged, the vast majority are fruit driven with a mineral quality and this is the approach we have taken with our blend. It is bright with green apple and citrus flavours, a broad mouth feel and a long mineral finish. I love it and I hope this style is appreciated by customers. Interestingly enough a colleague of mine said boldly that he didn’t like chardonnay but on trying this I converted him. He had an aversion to oaky styles and had assumed that all chardonnays were made that way. So if you have grown up on Aussie chardonnay and want to try something different, give this a go!

One of the pleasures of being a wine buyer is that you are occasionally invited to take part in unusual and interesting tastings. In late January I was tasting my entire range with the agency that will help me with wine related quality control issues. This took place over 3 days and during that time I was asked if I would like to be involved in a tasting that was taking place on behalf of a German wine Institute. The sampling consisted of 23 bottles of Riesling, all from the same tank, bottled on the same day, the sole difference being the type of closure.

We were faced with 10 different types of natural cork-ranging from the cheapest agglomerated cork, made from cork pieces and glue, to an expensive one piece cork, 10 different synthetic corks, 1 glass stopper, a stelvin screw cap and a metal beer bottle cap. The wine had been bottled in late 2005 and kept for two years in ideal cellaring conditions.

The wine itself was inexpensive basic quality Riesling but the purpose of the tasting was to discover the impact, if any, of the closure on the wine. The results were clear. After 2 years in bottle all of the cork stopped bottles had a very flat taste profile with very little flavour. In general the cheaper corks had performed worse than the more expensive ones but there was little to choose between them.

The synthetic corks had also flattened the wine but in many cases there was an unpleasant rubber note. After tasting 20 Rieslings my palate was becoming a little shell shocked and I was beginning to wonder if I could pick out any differences any longer. Then came the bottle sealed with the stelvin screw cap. What a difference! This was the first sample where you could detect an appley fruit character in the wine and as a result the taste was far more harmonious. The next sample was the beer bottle cap, and to my surprise, the result was almost identical to the stelvin closure. I shouldn’t have been so shocked as I then remembered that all Champagne is aged with a similar cap before the yeast is removed and the final corking takes place.

Finally we tasted the glass stopper and this was a definite no. 3 in the tasting. Our conclusions were clear. If you want to keep a wine’fresh’- put a cap on it!

The New Year didn’t start well for me as a technical hitch prevented my Christmas recommendations from going live on the blog until the 27th December. Now call me old fashioned but I think that is stretching the loyalty of even our most dedicated customers. I made the executive decision not to post it after the event and I suppose, looking on the bright side, I can always use the article for Christmas 2008.

Like most other people I try to reduce my intake of food and drink immediately after the festive period. This is a little trickier for a wine buyer than most, so my resolution is not to enjoy wine for a month. By that I mean that no social drinking, only business tasting. You will recall that last year I trialled a “fingerprinting” exercise of a group of Aldi wines and I am now convinced that this is a great way forward to improve quality control. Next week I will be flying over to Germany for 3 days to taste through and benchmark my entire range - so much for laying off the booze! I promise not to enjoy it as I wouldn’t want to break my pledge.

Normally at Aldi we keep our wines at a constant price, the trade jargon is “Everyday Low Price“. However, there are so many promotions on wine amongst the competition that this January we have decided to lower the prices on a group of wines until the end of the month. Some of the wines like the “Escape Hills” range are being sold through to make space for new items in the range, but others like Rioja Reserva and Bushland Estate Grown Shiraz at £4.49 are to encourage customers to try our more expensive wines. So if, like me, you’re trying to be good during January, drink a bit less but spend a little more on each bottle. That way you are giving yourself a treat whilst denying yourself!

The region of Alsace lies in the North-East corner of France. Sheltered by the Vosges Mountains to the West and bordered by the Rhine to the East it feels like a hybrid of rural France and Germany. And in many ways that is what it is as the land has been fought over for centuries with rulers changing frequently.

The wines too reflect this dual nature.

The region produces mainly white wines, which are excellent with the regional food, in fluted bottles with Germanic labels following the appellation controlée system. The two grape varieties that thrive best in Alsace and provide its well deserved reputation as a place for where stunning wines can be made are the Riesling and the Gewurtztraminer. The Rieslings are usually dry and fruity with an elegant mineral length whilst the Gewurtztraminers are rich and fruity with elderflower notes and a spicy finish. The wines can be fabulous and some of the late harvest wines (vendage tardives) are taste sensations. They also make fantastic sparkling wines by the traditional (champagne style) method which is known as Cremant D’Alsace. These are generally made with pinot blanc and/or pinot noir and can give entry level champagne a real beating in flavour terms, at half the price.

Unfortunately sales of Alsation wine in the UK are very small possibly because the bottles and labels make them look German and nobody wants to pay a premium for German wine. Last week I was fortunate enough to visit wineries in the area and whilst I can’t risk putting an Alsace wine into the core range, look out for some specials in 2008.

The drought in Australia and consequent reduction in grapes harvested has been well documented. What has been less publicised is the lower volumes that have been seen this year across most of Europe.

Intelligence from Italy suggests that yields in Chianti are over 20% down. Sicily has been badly affected by mildew with some estimates suggesting that the harvest is down by up to 50%. Further north the key Pinot Grigio areas of Veneto, Venezie and Trento have produced lower quantities this year and, together with increased demand, this has driven pricing upwards.

The South of France has also been affected and as the Languedoc is often considered the biggest vineyard in the world this will have an impact on grape prices. The key white table wine producing areas of Charente and Gascoogne have been badly affected by poor weather, driving base prices ever upward. France overall is forecasting the smallest harvest in 10 years.

Where does this leave the customer? In the short term there will probably be little impact as wine sales were generally flat during our dreadful summer and producers are trying to clear tanks of the 2006 vintage. However as we enter 2008 and the 2007 vintage is needed, prices will inevitably rise. We are unlikely to be spared duty increases from the Chancellor in March so my guess is that we will probably see fewer and less deep promotions; or else somebody, somewhere is going to lose a lot of money.

It is another piece of bad news for UK consumers who are facing price increases for many commodity items such as bread, milk, eggs and cheese and with beer prices also on the increase where are they to turn for a little cheer? Perhaps this would be a good time to slightly change drinking habits and trade up, buying a more expensive wine, but drinking less often. There will proportionately be a lesser increase in more expensive wines and usually the extra cost does deliver a better flavour. This year we have launched a Rioja Reserva and a Premium Australian Shiraz at £4.99 and these are to be joined by a Medoc within the next fortnight. Although similar in style to our Claret at £3.29 it has extra depth of flavour and strength. Perhaps try the Claret with its screw cap for sipping midweek, and the Medoc at the weekend. I’ll raise a glass to that.

For retail buyers Christmas starts in early January. Proposals are made in March and contracts signed, sealed and delivered by June. Job done!! The only thing left is to get the product to the stores and hope that the customers enjoy what you offer them.

To state the obvious, alcoholic drinks form a very important part of any retailers Christmas offer and Aldi is no different. My colleagues and I are under pressure from the business to deliver exciting and interesting new products which deliver reasonable profits. With all the promotional activity that takes place at Christmas time this can be a real challenge.

As I write this, we are putting the finishing touches to our wine, beers and spirits leaflet, the showcase for our seasonal ranges. This year I am focusing on my Christmas specials which will all be put on sale on the same day, Thursday 22nd November. We do have some great wines from Bordeaux; a Pauillac, a Margaux and a St Emillion, all at £8.99, which are fit for any Christmas dinner. I recommend that you try them all, decide which you like best, and buy a case of that for Christmas. (Did you notice the cunning sales pitch!). We also have a cru classe Sauternes. I know £8.99 is a lot to pay for a dessert wine but believe me it is worth it. Try it with fois gras, pate or even blue cheese if you don’t fancy it with puddings. It is delicious.

Wines that we are listing for the first time include the 10 year old Tawny Port that I discovered on my visit to Portugal (see A Room with a View). To make the product even more seasonal we have put it in a gift box, another first for an Aldi wine.

I lived in Italy for a year, many years ago and since then have had a soft spot for Italian wines. I managed to convince everybody that a Vino Nobile de Montepulciano was a great idea for Christmas. From just outside Sienna this is mainly made from Sangiovese grapes, like its near neighbour Chianti, and it is a fantastic food wine. It will go with any meat from Turkey to Lamb, so it is worth trying, especially if you are a Chianti fan.

Christmas time allows me the opportunity to list more expensive wines than I could normally put in to the stores but I do feel that they are equally good value. So trade up this Christmas and give some or all of them a try!