Discount Wine Tasting Series: Lidl’s Australian Chardonnay for €2.49

Introduction
The prices of discount wines sometimes seem like something out of science fiction. Bordeaux for €2, Australian or Chilean wine for €2.50, Burgundy for €3… as if the winemakers were working at a loss. And sometimes this is true.

Why so cheap?
The first tasting was Australian Chardonnay for €2.49 from Lidl. Before commenting, let’s consider how such a low price can be achieved for wine that is transported almost across the entire planet. Factors that determine the price of wine:

• Viticulture costs:
  • Vineyard work difficulties (flat or slopes, maintaining vine health – for example, fighting diseases due to high humidity)
  • Machine or manual harvesting
• Crop volume: the more grapes, the greater the volume of production, and the lower the wine prices
• Production technology: the more stages and the longer it is, the more expensive the wine (for example, wines aged in barrels will be more expensive by definition)
• Packaging: bottle, cork, label, etc.
• Workers’ salaries
• Transportation
• Wine quality and exclusivity: the winemaker has every right to sell young wines of exceptional vintage and becoming rare at a higher price
• Protected Geographical Indication: wines with a protected geographical indication, due to more flexible restrictions on production volumes and the varieties used, will most often be cheaper than wines with a protected geographical designation (and without one or the other – even cheaper)
• The prestige and fame of the name, the law of supply and demand – also determine prices. A striking example is champagne – this sparkling wine is a symbol of celebration and luxury, there will always be a fairly high demand for it, so the prices for champagne are consistently high, and over time they only increase along with inflation, unlike Bordeaux, where even the most prestigious wines begin to lose value

Using the example of Australian Chardonnay, the following factors explain its low price in Europe, not even in Australia itself:

• The costs of viticulture are low: flat terrain, the use of equipment for processing vines and harvesting
• High permitted production volume
• Short production cycle – this wine underwent only alcoholic fermentation, short aging for stabilization
• In this case, there was also no goal to produce something exceptional, harmonious with natural acidity and richness, but affordable and inexpensive. The characteristics for obtaining a more or less correct wine were achieved by using correction technologies – acidification, that is, adding tartaric or other permitted acid to wine or must if the natural acid in the grapes is not enough. This method is much cheaper than using viticulture technologies (for example, working with foliage so that the bunches themselves remain in the shade).
• This wine has the name “Southeast Australia”, which means that the grapes can be from any part of this wine region.
• Considering the volume, style and name, such a wine is not uncommon.
• The wine was transported by sea, in huge tanks, not in bottles, and it was bottled in Europe (namely, in Germany, as the label says). This is the most economical way to ship wine, permitted for inexpensive wines without a protected designation (wines with a protected geographical designation must be bottled within the appellation, and sometimes only in a chateau)

A little about the protected geographical indication “South-Eastern Australia”

South-Eastern Australia is the so-called “wine superzone”, which does not coincide with the administrative boundaries of the regions of Australia and includes:

• Entire states of New South Wales and Victoria
• Some parts of states of South Australia and Queensland

Here are also such appellations as Tasmania, Adelaide Hills, Barossa, where the most famous and expensive wines of Australia are produced. In terms of area, South-East Australia is twice the size of the largest American Viticultural Area (AVA). Obviously, the terroir (a combination of climate, topography and soil characteristics) of South-East Australia is so diverse that it would be impossible to describe it without the context of a sub-region. There are cool and rather damp coastal zones and arid territories in the interior of the continent, where irrigation is allowed, plains where the use of machinery and high yields are possible, and uplands where vineyards are less productive and work can only be done by hand. Accordingly, the wines of South-East Australia vary greatly in style, quality and price. This also includes the island of Tasmania, famous for its high-quality sparkling wines from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. And its oceanic island climate makes South East Australia even more diverse as a wine region.
The soils of this wine super zone range from volcanic, with a high iron content, to chalky, rocky, clayey…
If we consider South East Australian wines only in the context of the low-cost, low-maintenance category, the grapes are either grown in river plains where the vines are not threatened by fungal diseases due to humidity and irrigation is allowed, allowing high yields with little effort or expense, or they may come from different appellations within the super zone (for example, grapes that producers have rejected as not being of sufficient quality for more prestigious cuvées).

Sample and tasting: Cimarosa Australian Chardonnay 2024, Lidl for €2.49

I’ll start with the tasting comments, which I’ll then compare with the wine’s composition, available online via the QR code on the bottle.

Color: pale lemon, with a golden hue
Aroma: medium intensity, simple and purely fruity, with dominant ripe white peach, nectarine and yellow plum, complemented by melon, fresh yellow Golden apple, fresh white grapes and the sourness of lemon zest.
Taste: repeats the bouquet of aromas (peach, yellow plum, yellow apple, grapes), but with a more pronounced sourness and bitterness of citrus fruits in the attack. The body is medium (-), short aftertaste with a slight tingling sparkle. Medium (+) acidity, which adds a characteristic dryness in the aftertaste – a sign that the wine could undergone acidification.
Overall impression and quality assessment: as expected from such a price – the quality of the wine is average: the drink is quite suitable for consumption, but without organoleptic pleasure.

Now an additional comment on the taste characteristics and composition of the wine. Here is what is listed in the official database of the European Union (the composition of this wine is not a secret and is available via the QR code on the bottle):

• Grapes
• Concentrated grape must
• Acidity regulator: tartaric acid
• Preservatives and antioxidants: sulfites, ascorbic acid
• Stabilizer: carboxymethylcellulose
• Carbon dioxide

What conclusion can be drawn from this? Firstly, the presence of tartaric acid confirms the use of a technology noted during the tasting – acidification of the wine: its acidity seems unintegrated into the organoleptic profile, dry in the aftertaste. In addition, concentrated grape must was added, meaning the wine was also subjected to chaptalization – the addition of sugar in a permitted form in order to increase the alcohol content after fermentation. Why was this done if it is easy to grow grapes in large quantities and in favorable conditions for this wine? The large volume is explained by permitted irrigation in a sunny and hot climate, which allows the vine to grow quickly and form a rich harvest and numerous bunches for easy propagation. And this, in turn, means quantity, not quality, whereas in survival conditions the vine concentrates on the quality of the few berries that it can afford to produce. Continuing the logic, more berries – more juice, i.e. more water in the berries and less sugar, which may not be enough to reach the level required by the specifications (the wine in question is exported to Europe, where the laws regarding wines and protected geographical indications are quite strict – to be called “wine”, an alcoholic beverage must have a minimum strength). If the grapes do not have enough sugar to reach the required strength after fermentation, then the winemaker has the right to add sugar in one form or another, which must be completely transformed into alcohol. But this technology will also affect the balance of the wine, although chaptalization is more difficult to determine during tasting than acidification. The alcohol level can be adjusted in this way, but the complexity of the bouquet cannot be improved, so the wine, despite all its body, may seem empty or simple in terms of organoleptics.

Conclusion: to buy or not to buy?
The tasting and the composition confirming it indicate that this is, one might say, an artificial drink, with strength and acidity adjusted to standards, without any signs that allow identifying the origin of the grapes. It is possible to determine the variety by tasting, but this drink is not suitable for wine connoisseurs, unless you are undergoing training to become a sommelier or oenologist.