Aldi’s wine range is rising to new heights

Toro Loco Organic Red Wine, Utiel-Requena, Spain 2017 (£4.99, Aldi). Like most of the country, it seems, I’ve been on a bit of a journey with Aldi in the past decade. According to a recent Guardian long read on the arch-discounters, the stores, which had just 2% of the UK retail market in 2009, now have around 7.5%, making them the fifth largest retailer in the UK. Most of us now do at least some of our shopping there – enticed not only by low prices, but by the growing number of frills that have been sewn on to the original no-nonsense, pile-’em-high template. This is certainly true when it comes to the Aldi wine range, which has got much more ambitious and interesting over the years, although not – as a recent tasting of 90-odd wines showed – at the expense of its core budget mission, as represented by its always bright-and-juicy southeast Spanish red Toro Loco range.

The Wine Foundry Avesso, Vinho Verde, Portugal 2018 (£6.49, Aldi). A lot of the credit for Aldi’s vinous improvement must go to buyer Mike James, who has been working for the firm throughout its ten-year growth surge. James is an amiable presence (or so he seems to me at least, but then, I’ve never had to negotiate with him), and he seems to take great pleasure in testing the boundaries of what Aldi customers are supposed to like, lining up orange and organic wines, and small parcels of finer wines from lesser-spotted and up-and-coming wine regions such as Tasmania, England and, providing some of the highlights of the latest range, Portugal. The best of the Portuguese bunch, a delightful cherry and violet-scented Gym Dão Red 2017 (£5.49), won’t be on shelves until June; but the breezy crisp exotically fruited Avesso dry white is a ready for springtime salads now.

Exquisite collection Argentinian Malbec, Uco Valley, Argentina 2018 (£6.29, Aldi). Not everything in the Aldi range is worth buying, far from it, even at the sometimes very low prices. And I do sometimes wonder if Aldi’s range only looks so good today because, a) it used to be so dull and b) it’s moving in the right direction while many of its rivals are going backwards. Still, there are a number of wines in the retailer’s Exquisite series that, if not quite deserving the titular adjective, certainly hit a sweet spot where low price, quality and typicity meet. Among my favourites are the salty-peachy dry white Exquisite Rías Baixas Albariño, Spain 2018 (£6.49); the lipsmackingly limey Exquisite Clare Valley Riesling, Australia 2018 (£6.99); and the succulent Exquisite Argentinian Malbec. Look out too for a pair of nifty French fizzes: creamy Crémant du Jura 2016 (£8.29) and apple-snappy Crémant de Loire Blanc de Noir NV (£7.99).

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