
Sweet szamorodni by Szent Tamás Winery. Photo courtesy of SzentTamas86
Lidl, a highly competitive German-based grocery chain, is considering stocking more Eastern European wines after the success it had with the Hungarian Château Dereszla Tokaji Furmint (£5.99) and Tornai 2013 Somló Juhfark.
Anna Krettman, the wine buying manager of Lidl said that the “stand-out” white wines from Hungary had been accepted “particularly well” by consumers.
“There is a lot more to bring out from Eastern Europe,” she said. “The Hungarian offer that came in with Cellar on 3 March has done very well for us and we will definitely do more in the next few Cellars. It has been flying off the shelf.”
Wines from Austria also were bought well.
“We haven’t done a [full] Austrian range yet, but we would like to put it on shelf in the Easter or summer next year. In general, aromatic grapes are more popular across the board and people like them and are willing to give them a try.”
The wine managers at Lidl would like to expand even further, considering wine from Romania:
“Romania is definitely an obvious one to look at next, and I would love to see Moldovia too, as there is lots of potential there, as well as Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Bulgaria in the longer-term,” said Caroline Gilby, another wine buying manager.