Lidl French Wine Tour Preview Tasting - Reds Results

To add a bit of extra fun with our Lidl French Wine Tour Preview Tasting we included a few wines from Lidl's Core Range and had a great evening tasting and scoring them. Not only did a few comment on Richard Bampfield MW's similarity to Star Trek's Jean-Luc Picard but it caused even more hilarity when on that theme, Richard told us about the ban on UFO's landing in Châteauneuf-du-Pape.  In 1954 Châteauneuf-du-Pape's mayor Lucien Jeune issued the ban, stating “Any aircraft, known as flying saucer or flying cigar, which should land on the territory of the community will be immediately held in custody.”  The law was revisited in 2016 when Mayor Claude Avril confirmed the ban was not going to be lifted.  Thankfully to date, as Richard reported, no aliens have landed their UFO in the vineyards of Châteauneuf-du-Pape.

Move over Jean-Luc - Richard Bampfield becomes the first MW to be Captain of Starship USS Enterpise!

Back to the tasting and we enjoyed comparing Lidl's Provence Rosé with the Val de Salis Pays d'Oc Rosé.  Despite the Provence Rosé being £1 more expensive, most preferred the Val de Salis at £6.99. We then headed off to South West France for a Malbec and heard all about Malbec before heading off to Beaujolais to enjoy a big Morgon packed with black fruit and tannins which certainly needed some cheese to soften them. Finally, we enjoyed a pair of Crus from the Rhône.  Here we tasted Lidl's new Châteauneuf-du-Pape side by side with the Gigondas.  True to their reputation, in character Châteauneuf-du-Pape tends to be the loudest at the party - powerful with big tannins, yet Gigondas is likely to be calmer and perhaps more interesting for those who take the time to get to know this character; elegant and perfumed. Gigondas stole the show and it's also worth bearing in mind it's a beautiful village high up against the backdrop of the Dentelles de Montmirail and definitely one to put on your bucket list to visit. Here are the results following the tasting and a big thanks to all who debated amongst their households to come to their final decisions.  Apologies for the divisions the scoring caused but trust all was forgiven by the end of the evening!

Wines in green are those from the current Wine Tour whilst those in black are from Lidl's Core Range.

If you would like to join us for the next Wine Tour when we'll be off to the New World then we'd love to see you.  Tickets are just £10 and it's up to you which wines you'd like to taste along with us. 

Find out more and book here.