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Lidl best value supermarket for wine, says new app

Published:  10 November, 2014

Lidl is the UK's best supermarket for wine when it comes to value - according to an 18-month study tasting over 4,000 wines carried out by the Wotwine app.

According to the app, which claims to have tasted nearly all wines available on Britain's supermarket shelves, 65% of wines in Lidl represent good value. The tasting panel includes some serious names from across the UK wine industry, including four MWs.

Lidl ChiantiLidl came out tops in the battle of supermarkets when it comes to wine value, according to Wotwine.

Aldi comes a close second in terms of value at 64%, while conventional multiples are further down the list. Asda leads the way with 48% good value wines; Tesco at 45%; Sainsbury's and Waitrose at 43%, while M&S lags well behind with only 26% of its wines being rated good value.

Shoppers may also struggle to find good value bottles at Morrisons, where 60% are poor value, and the Co-Op, where 59% were also rated poor value for money.

Since Wotwine was founded two years ago, the team claims to have tasted almost every bottle of wine - around 4,161 - available on supermarket shelves. The team comprises four Masters of Wine, including Dee Blackstock MW, former Waitrose buyer; Christopher Burr MW, former international head of wine for Christies; Nick Clarke MW, who has over 50 years' experience in the wine trade and Linda Jotham MW. The team also includes a range of winemakers, other trade professionals and master sommelier Joao Pires.

The team reviews each wine and values it, at what it considers to be fair market value.

Overall, one quarter (26%) of wines were classified as "extra value" - worth more than the price, 17% "fair value" - worth the price - meaning that less than half (43% in total) of all wines in UK supermarkets are worth paying for.

The Wotwine iPhone and Android apps work by scanning a bottle's barcode in a supermarket, and making the reviews and price valuations available instantly to shoppers in store.

So far users have scanned over 61,000 bottles of wine and found nearly 20,000 good value bottles.

It is also launching Wotwine.com, which will allow users to search by any variation of wine type, grape, price and store. Supermarket prices and promotions are updated daily - so users see the best value purchases in real time. They can then click to add to their normal online shop.

Wotwine gave a few examples of deals available now:

  • Lidl's Palomar Creek Zinfandel. Purchase price £5.45 but worth £10. (82% extra value).
  • Lidl's Clairette de Die Tradition. Purchase price £6.99 but worth £12. (72% extra value).

The news is not so positive for shoppers who rely on promotions:

  • Tesco. Calloway Crossing Cabernet Shiraz. Was £9.99. Now £4.99. But worth £3.99.
  • Sainsbury's. Vina Maipo Reserva Rosé. Was £7.50. Now £5. Worth £3.99.

"Lidl's small but well-selected range shines above the other supermarkets. Their value is the best in the market making them our wine supermarket of the year" says Alex Tilling, Wotwine's senior taster.

"We've also found that most consumers, understandably, have trouble deciding when faced with a wall of similar wines in a major supermarket. They instead just plump for the wine on promotion."

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