Dive Brief:
- The Exquisite Collection Cotes de Provence Rosé 2016 — an $8 bottle of rosé wine sold at Aldi — has been cited as one of the world's best wines for value, according to Fortune.
- The wine earned the designation in the under £8 (or roughly $10) category at the International Wine Challenge’s Great Value Awards, where thousands of wines were judged by experts.
- Overall, Aldi won 18 medals in the International Wine Challenge — five silver and 13 bronze.
Dive Insight:
With five silver and 13 bronze medals won by Aldi in the competition, the retailer is proving that wine doesn’t need to be expensive in order to be appreciated. The retailer has prided itself on high quality products that don't cost much, including a wine section that can be enjoyed by many.
Wine experts say the U.S. wine market is growing due to an uptick in interest in fine wine and increased product launches, while more millennials are enjoying wine today. By offering award-winning products, retailers like Aldi can better attract wine enthusiasts to their stores. Traditionally, wine enthusiasts have turned their noses up at the thought of buying wine from a supermarket, instead opting for more traditional wine stores, believing that you can only get truly great wine there.
Of course, wine is far from the only Aldi product that boasts a winning combination of high quality and value: Several of Aldi's private label products recently received accolades from BrandSpark International's 2017 Best New Product Awards. While store-branded products in the past have been viewed as "generic" knock-offs by consumers, Aldi has achieved private label success by focusing on improving design, taste and price — and products like the award-winning rosé are a case in point.
Like its German sibling Lidl, Aldi is aggressively expanding into the U.S. grocery market. By 2018, Aldi says it will have more than 2,500 stores in the country. Analysts expect the retailers' low prices, quality goods and unconventional "treasure hunt" offerings will win over U.S. shoppers as their stores enter the market. The two discount grocers are expected to add more fuel to the ongoing price war in the grocery space.