Supermarket customers are spending more on wine than any other food and drink item this Christmas - but it appears shoppers are splashing out more than is necessary to toast the festive season.
Research by budget grocery chain Aldi has revealed that £6 is all that’s needed to give the gift of great tasting wine this Christmas - but some consumers are spending up to six times more.
During a blind taste test led by Oxford University food psychologist Professor Charles Spence, it was found that the majority of drinkers couldn’t tell a £6 bottle from one costing £36, and most preferred the cheaper option.
In this test, in which wines were smelled (nosed), tasted and rated, a £6.49 bottle of discount supermarket wine was found to be preferred (rated 7 on a scale of 1-10) to a £36 bottle purchased from an independent wine store (rated 5).
Preference was also reflected in the cost that consumers were willing to pay for the wine – an average of £9.97 for the cheaper bottle compared to just £7.77 for the £36 bottle of wine.
To back the findings that good plonk need not cost a lot, Aldi 's own-label, award-winning budget bubbly Veuve Monsigny has become one of the most popular brands in the UK and is second only to Moët & Chandon in sales.
The £13.99 bottle is just a fraction of more well-known brands and one of the cheapest on the market.
Aldi stocks more than 50 wines that fall into the £6-£7 category, meaning shoppers can give the gift of great wine this Christmas without being out of pocket.
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