Aldi "Hermitage"

tarquincat

Not just on Supermarket bashing, but a serious question....

Aldi are selling "Paul Chevalier Hermitage" for £19.99
Now, Hermitage is a very small, prestigous area, looking at the Web, I cannot find any record of this producer. So, I am guessing it is Aldi's own branded name. It has "Appelation" etc on the bottle.
Therefore, how can I be sure it is actually "Hermitage" wine ? Are supermarkets allowed to call the wine what they like ?
Could they sell a cheap bottle of plonk they have produced as "Aldi Chateauneuf du Pape" ?

antrobus

tarquincat wrote: »

Not just on Supermarket bashing, but a serious question....

Aldi are selling "Paul Chevalier Hermitage" for £19.99
Now, Hermitage is a very small, prestigous area, looking at the Web, I cannot find any record of this producer. So, I am guessing it is Aldi's own branded name.It has "Appelation" etc on the bottle. ....

I suspect it's 'Paul Jaboulet Aine'. Their white is sold as 'Chevalier de Sterimberg', so I'd guess someone has concocted the name 'Paul Chevalier' in order not to embarass anyone.

tarquincat wrote: »

...Therefore, how can I be sure it is actually "Hermitage" wine?

Pretty much 100% I'd have thought. Doesn't mean it's worth £20 a bottle, of course. I really wouldn't know. £20 is a bit outside my price range.:)

tarquincat wrote: »

...Are supermarkets allowed to call the wine what they like? Could they sell a cheap bottle of plonk they have produced as "Aldi Chateauneuf du Pape" ?

No and No. The FSA, the EU, the French government etc and so forth would be down on them like a ton of bricks.

dlusman

tarquincat wrote: »

Not just on Supermarket bashing, but a serious question....

Aldi are selling "Paul Chevalier Hermitage" for £19.99
Now, Hermitage is a very small, prestigous area, looking at the Web, I cannot find any record of this producer. So, I am guessing it is Aldi's own branded name. It has "Appelation" etc on the bottle.
Therefore, how can I be sure it is actually "Hermitage" wine ? Are supermarkets allowed to call the wine what they like ?
Could they sell a cheap bottle of plonk they have produced as "Aldi Chateauneuf du Pape" ?

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http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/home/event/article-2814460/OLLY-SMITH-Nights-drawing-weather-turning-frosty-uncork-central-heating-soul.html

tarquincat

antrobus wrote: »

I suspect it's 'Paul Jaboulet Aine'. Their white is sold as 'Chevalier de Sterimberg', so I'd guess someone has concocted the name 'Paul Chevalier' in order not to embarass anyone.



Note sure I follow. If it is "Paul Jaboulet Aine" which is a respected brand and would give credence to the price & quality, whay would they say it is something (slightly) different ?

Usualsuspect_3

I used to buy Paul Jaboulet's Cotes de Ventoux from Oddbins; gorgeous wine it was around £7 but by far the cheapest in the range. The Hermitages were much more expensive. Will deffo check this one out.

antrobus

tarquincat wrote: »

..Note sure I follow. If it is "Paul Jaboulet Aine" which is a respected brand and would give credence to the price & quality, whay would they say it is something (slightly) different ?

Because it's being sold in a discount supermarket.

Supposing it is Paul Jaboulet Aine. You don't really want the people who have just paid over £100 a bottle for your La Chapelle 2010 Hermitage, thinking that they could have got something similar from Aldi for £20.

http://www.bbr.com/products-12829-2010-hermitage-la-chapelle-paul-jaboulet-aine

tarquincat

antrobus wrote: »

Because it's being sold in a discount supermarket.

Supposing it is Paul Jaboulet Aine. You don't really want the people who have just paid over £100 a bottle for your La Chapelle 2010 Hermitage, thinking that they could have got something similar from Aldi for £20.

http://www.bbr.com/products-12829-2010-hermitage-la-chapelle-paul-jaboulet-aine

I disagree, that is exactly what ALDI DO want people to think !
Thats their whole business model.
They wouldnt sell Caviar at a cheaper price than posh rivals & brand it as Fish Eggs

antrobus

tarquincat wrote: »

I disagree, that is exactly what ALDI DO want people to think !
Thats their whole business model....

You miss the point. It's what Paul Jaboulet Aine (or whoever) thinks that matters.

tarquincat wrote: »

...They wouldnt sell Caviar at a cheaper price than posh rivals & brand it as Fish Eggs

Caviar isn't a brand it's a product description. Aldi are selling Hermitage wine as Hermitage wine, in the same way as they are selling caviar as caviar.

Curiously enough, Aldi did recently get into 'trouble' for selling caviar as Beluga caviar, when it wasn't, so they dropped the 'Beluga'.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/11191901/Aldi-renames-10-Beluga-caviar-after-outcry.html

tarquincat

antrobus wrote: »

You miss the point. It's what Paul Jaboulet Aine (or whoever) thinks that matters.



Caviar isn't a brand it's a product description. Aldi are selling Hermitage wine as Hermitage wine, in the same way as they are selling caviar as caviar.

I am still confused by this.

Hermitage is such a small wine area & all the producers are easily found on the web. We seem to be assuming this is Paul Jaboulet Aine, as it sounds a bit like it. We have the "Paul" and the "Chervalier" which is part of the name of one of their wines.

Its a bit like having your own brand Champagne & calling it Dom Reserve or something like that, assuming the word "Dom" has no copyright.

If you were wealthy enough to regularly drink Hermitage wine, you would pay the £50 or whatever for one of the known brands.

If you are not poor & like to treat yourself at christmas, why would you pay £19.99 for something that is probably Hermitage as presumably you are not allowed to say it is if it isn't, but the brand is a made up name ?
I guess the proof is in the pudding, i.e. if it sells.

antrobus

tarquincat wrote: »

...

I am still confused by this.

Hermitage is such a small wine area & all the producers are easily found on the web. We seem to be assuming this is Paul Jaboulet Aine, as it sounds a bit like it. We have the "Paul" and the "Chervalier" which is part of the name of one of their wines.

That's right, I was only guessing.:)

As it happens I was in Aldi today, so I had a look at an actual bottle of their Hermitage wine. On the back label it says bottled by Cave de Tain l’Hermitage, which is (apparently) "one of the biggest and best wine cooperatives in France" that "supplies most of the supermarket own label and n!gociant Crozes-Hermitage and accounts for 70% of the total Crozes-Hermitage produced and 30% of Hermitage". So I'd guess that's where it comes from.

http://www.winetravelguides.com/Guides/France/Rhone-Valley/Around-Tain-lHermitage/Producers/Cave-Cooperative-de-Tain-l_Hermitage

tarquincat wrote: »

...Its a bit like having your own brand Champagne & calling it Dom Reserve or something like that, assuming the word "Dom" has no copyright.

Well, you could certainly try sticking 'Dom Reserve' on a bottle of champagne, although I'd imagine that LVMH might hit you with a writ if you did.:)

tarquincat wrote: »

....
If you were wealthy enough to regularly drink Hermitage wine, you would pay the £50 or whatever for one of the known brands.

If you are not poor & like to treat yourself at christmas, why would you pay £19.99 for something that is probably Hermitage as presumably you are not allowed to say it is if it isn't, but the brand is a made up name ?
I guess the proof is in the pudding, i.e. if it sells.

It's like a lot of things in this world. There are people who will pay £100 or so for a pair of jeans simply because it has some designer label. Those designer label jeans may well come from some factory in China that also makes jeans for other outlets which retails them at a tenner. You pays your money and you makes your choice.

tarquincat

Thats brilliant detective work antrobus !
Looking at their online shop from your link

http://www.cavedetain.com/wine/hermitage-rouge-,bouteille,15.html

Their 2010 Hermitage is 26 Euros.
Add a bit for UK Duty, then take a bit off for Supermarket buying power and the price would come to....let me see... around £19.99