Winebits 462: Lidl, expensive wine, wine importers

This week’s wine news: Discount grocer Lidl and its cheap wine plans Texas expansion, plus more expensive wine is sold, and wine importers are your friend

• On to Texas: Lidl, the European discount grocer that will will debut on the East Coast at the end of next year, has said it will make Texas its second destination. This is huge news for wine drinkers, since Lidl is one of the leading wine retailers in Europe, regularly winning awards for its cheap wine. It also means we will have arch-rivals Lidl and Aldi in Dallas, and as a grocery store consultant friend of mine put it: “I wouldn’t want to be in the supermarket business in Dallas and get caught in the middle between Lidl and Aldi when they go at it.”

• Too expensive to drink? How about paying $18,000 bottle for a bottle of red Burgundy? Or this quote, from the owner’s daughter after the wine was sold at auction: “My father would have been so proud and so honored. He bought the right wines at the right price.” Nothing, of course, about drinking the wine, supposedly some of the best in the world. In this, just one more example that more and more high-end wines are made to collect, and not to drink.

• The fine print: Marrisa Ross in Bon Appetit tries too hard to be hip and with it, but her point is spot on – the wine’s importer, listed in tiny type on the back label, speaks volumes about the quality of what’s in the bottle. We’ve said this on the blog for years, and even listed some of the best cheap wine importers. Know, too, as Ross writes: “Shopping by importer helps you buy more strategically, because even if you don’t know the grape, the region or the producer, you know and trust the importer.”