Lidl and the "Honest" Tasting Notes

In the past we have already talked about large-scale retail, Private Label and some wines sold at Lidl, such as the Gamay and the Montepulciano "pushed" by Luca Maroni; today instead we are talking about the communication strategy of the company that, in Italy, has managed to conquer the discount market.

Recently some amusing descriptions appeared on the tasting notes of certain wines:

- a Traminer "perhaps a little too sweet"

- a Verdicchio "vegetal, savory, bitter, a touch of sulfur, but comes across as pleasant in the finish. Then there is the complex"

- the frizzante Malvasia "Delicately vegetal, apple, floral, a slightly aggressive bubble, but lacking in presence".

- the organic Montepulciano is the one that surprised us the most: "nose with rustic traits, with hints of fur and soot"

- all the way to the Zibibbo Terre Siciliane with "reductive note, sage, bay leaf, slightly sweet attack, salvageable"

All signed by Gambero Rosso – many "inhabitants of the wine world" turned up their noses, but they would have done so anyway at the mere thought of finding a wine with a gilded description on a Lidl shelf; so who cares, at least I had a good laugh!

The tasting notes in question appeared online and in flyers, creating wonder in the wine world, which was satisfied by the honesty after the uproar over discount French wines; certainly a targeted strategy by Lidl; too bad the wines in question then disappeared, with the exception of the Malvasia whose note was changed!