While I will concede that there are people out there who are experts on this sort of thing, most of us are navigating the world of wine completely in the dark, like one of those blind cave fish trying to swim around submerged tree roots.

Very few people know what wine is supposed to taste like. We all know what wine isn’t supposed to taste like, but our evaluation beyond that is usually rooted in a combination of how much it cost and what the other people who are drinking it are doing with their faces.

In the words of Manny from ‘Black Books‘, the one thing we know for certain is that the more expensive a wine is, the gooder it is. Until it isn’t.

What I’m trying to say with this preamble is: in a victory for people like you and me, an $8 bottle of cheap Aldi piss just took out a silver medal at a prestigious wine competition.

The International Wine Challenge describes itself as the “most influential wine competition in the world” which, if true, means the supermarket chain just scored themselves a big upset in the viticultural world.

The wine in question is Aldi’s 2016 Côtes de Provence Rosé, which retails at around $8 but beat a bunch of wines that retail for over three times as much.

Aldi, cool as always, were delighted but not surprised, telling ‘The Sun‘:

“Being recognised yet again for the quality of our wine is testament to the hard work our talented buying team put in to deliver exceptional products at unbeatable prices. “We have been working closely with renowned winemaker Jean Claude Mas to change perceptions around French wine, which is often perceived as expensive and intimidating, so it is fantastic to see some of these products acknowledged as some of the best in the world.”

I, personally, am going to use this new knowledge to assume that every wine under $10 is actually a secret, unappreciated masterpiece and that I am therefore a genius for buying and drinking it.

Source: The Sun.

Photo: Sideways.