Aldi

Jun 19 2020

New Video: Meet A Rose from Aldi Called Trestoria

Hi everyone! You know we love Aldi wine and beer. And, given the current state of the economy, we’re spending more time at Aldi for just about everything*.

To wit, a little while back, we decided to experiment and see what Quarantine Beverages we could buy for a minimal amount of cash.

Hence this photo:

Aldi Aclohol Purchases — You don’t have to spend a lot to drink like a million bucks.

Today, we review the Trestoria Rose. (We’re looking for the accent mark, can’t find it, and are afraid that we’ll have one of those “&–” errors on the site, so…)

We’ll let you watch the video for the review.

Focus on the wine, not the fact I need a haircut

* The rest is either from Costco, and we do realize we need to update this “What to Buy at Costco” post, or from the local independent market, where the service is better than the chain and the specialty items we need, like the marjoram we bought on three separate occasions because we thought we were out of it.

Sep 05 2016

Folded Mountains Majesty (er, an A-rated beer from Aldi)

Dave returns (!) with a review (!!) of a beer from…well, duh, Aldi. Is it worth the money? Does it get a good grade?

Hello, sports fans. I’m back. (I won’t bore you with the gory details of my absence; suffice it to say I can now tolerate some libations. And I’m also visiting Aldi again.)

I thought I’d return to what made me happy about beer – the pale ale – and used the most recent trip to Aldi as an excuse. So let’s give this one a try: Folded Mountains Pale Ale. From Aldi. Did I mention I got it at Aldi?

Taste

In a word: Hoppy. That, to me, is a good thing. I want a pale ale that pushes the boundaries between hoppy goodness and IPA bitterness. (I have discovered, through years of research, that my own preference would be an IBU figure of about 45.) This one has to be right in that zone, I would bet.

Allow me to apologize for being wrong all these years. The correct term is “International Bittering Units.” I thought it was “Bitterness.” Oops. Metasip regrets the error.

My all-time favorite beer is Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and this reminded me a ton of that. (Foreshadowing the eventual grade for this one.)

Profile

5.3% ABV. One is plenty for the aging beer-drinker with cluster headaches. (Brewed in Rochester, NY.)

Value

If memory serves, I spent $6.99 on the six-pack.

Let’s talk about pricing for a second, not on this stuff, but on all ales. WHAT GIVES? I’m telling you, it’s like I took a break from drinking, came back, and everyone raised the price on everything. Why? Because they can? Because they should? Supply and Demand? The FDA?

Srsly, $10 is becoming about the norm for a six-pack of anything “craft brewed” – and I get it, you need to charge a premium, but I’m all like “whoa!”

Metasip Grade: A

Yeah, I’m going there. This is an A-rated beer, and I don’t care that we give out so few As and it’s been at least a year since I rated beer here. From the first sip to the last, this beer reminded me of Sierra Nevada, and that’s a really good thing.

Please go get some. Thank me later.

Apr 18 2015

After Three Sips of This Beer, I Read the Label…and What I Found Shocked Me!

Another beverage knock-off from our friends at Aldi. But this one…

We’re back with another review of another beer – but we’re also having a little fun with this fact: Writing ridiculous headlines that ask people to click on a post can only work if you (1) have something interesting to say and (b) use too much hyperbole. So, while the real headline here should be something like “An Aldi Beer that’s 11 (or so) Ounces” or, more accurately, “Boot Tread Amber Ale Review,” we went with what’s called a “BuzzFeed-style Clickbait Headline.” Reality: After Three Sips of This Beer, I Read the Label…And What I Found Shocked Me!

Consider yourself an SEO test case. We’re gonna see how well this works.

Boot Tread Beer Review

Honestly, I picked this up because I was at Aldi and it was a “Belgium Amber Ale.” And it had a very “where have I seen that label before?” look to the bottle. (Hint: Fat Tire.) And the price was good – or so I thought! – leading me to say “what the heck?”

Taste

Closer to Blue Moon in taste – an assistant Metasip taster said “that is like Blue Moon, but hoppier” – I found it to be rather average, actually. Not even close to Fat Tire: too much of a wheat beer feel for me.

Profile

Again, wheat. If I had to guess, I’d put the IBUs at about 10 or 15.

Value

Here’s where the “scandal” comes in:

IT’S NOT A 12-OUNCE BOTTLE!

Math: $6.49 for a 6-pack, 11.2 ounces per bottle, equals roughly 9.657 cents per ounce. OR, if this were a 12-ounce bottle, we’d actually be looking at $6.95 for a 6-pack.

Since Fat Tire is normally about $8.99 a six-pack, this is a value in comparison. (If you’re comparing to Blue Moon – price of that vs. Fat Tire is pretty much a wash.)

Why 11.2 ounces? No idea.

Metasip Grade: B

I wasn’t wowed by this beer, and found it too close to Blue Moon and not close enough to Fat Tire to fit into a nice, clean category. Were it a direct knock-off, like the last Aldi beer we reviewed, it would get a higher grade. But no.

After Three Sips I Read the Label…

Okay, what I found didn’t actually shock me, but it did have me question why there’s .8 ounces less per bottle than the norm.

Oct 22 2014

San Zenone 2013 Montepulciano D’Abruzzo

Another wine from Aldi?

Yes. We went there, again, with a wine from Aldi that, again, is worth every penny. In this case, the San Zenone 2013 Montepulciano D’Abruzzo – that’s a mouthful and we even neglected to identify whose Montepulciano it was in the video below – is worth all 499 pennies.

Here’s a shot of the bottle – which we altered because we like playing around with the photo settings, and also because it’s really tough to see the words “San Zenone” on the top of the bottle.

As is the case with this burgeoning video review industry of ours, you can either read up on what we thought below, or just watch the video. Hardcore fans – the ones following us on Twitter – should do both.

San Zenone Montepulciano D’Abruzzo Review

First up, it’s Italian – this scores points with us. Secondly, it has the “DOC” recognition (though not the cute little sticker, for some reason). Third, it’s from Aldi – so, since we trust the wine buyers there, it’s worth a shot. Right?

Taste

This smells, swishes, and eventually tastes like Italian wine. Big and bold. I’m thinking pasta already. I want to go to Italy right now, people.

But I can’t, so I’ll settle for the fruit and spice in this bad boy Montepulciano.

Profile

12.5% ABV. Imported from Italy. DOC designation.

Value

$4.99 and I’m thinking that Aldi is carving out a tremendous little niche for itself as the value wine people near me. There’s a reason they advertised this last week, getting us ready for the Wednesday arrival; as a result, it was almost gone when I made a return trip. Good thing I bought two.

Metasip Grade: A-

We are a broken record – but it’s tough to beat the Aldi scores when they’re like this one.

Aug 11 2014

Flirty Bird 2012 Syrah

Aldi: You don’t disappoint. You’re like the Triple Crown of Alcohol.

Let me explain what I mean there, and why Aldi’s Flirty Bird 2012 Syrah has a “Triple Crown of Alcohol” thing going for it.

See, you don’t want to spend too much, do ya? It’s okay to splurge, it’s okay to go buy a $50 bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon if that’s your thing. But it’s not our thing – and we don’t think this site would have gotten the traction it has gotten so far if we focused on the $50 bottles.

But you also want something that DRINKS more expensively than it actually is.

This is why we focus on the three pillars to make up our Triple Crown: Taste, Profile, and Value.

It’s got to Taste good, that’s a given. But Profile is often overlooked – and that actually gets woven into the overall Metasip Grade. If the “profile” of the wine is “White Zinfandel,” then you have a certain level of expectation, right? (Cheap, watered down, flavorless, too sweet, etc.) And you would expect to pay…what…$6 for an enormous jug of the stuff?

Value, then, has a little something to do with Profile and Taste, too.

It would be easy to get an A grade here at Metasip if you had a dynamite White Zinfandel that tasted outstanding and only cost $1 for a bottle. But the odds of that happening are slim.

However, as you’ll learn in this review…the odds of Flirty Bird 2012 Syrah getting an A? Pretty good.

Flirty Bird 2012 Syrah Review

Taste

I was actually very impressed with this bold, dry, earthy Syrah. It took a few minutes – it needed to breathe – but once it did, it served as a great complement to steak. It was what you would expect from a big, bold Australian Shiraz, were you to pick one up from any of the Aussie providers. Read here for a review from the…unfortunately named…Terroirist website.

Sidebar: really, I know you’re trying to be cute over there, but it looks too much like a word that would get you on the NSA watch lists.

And, before we get back to the review, one other note. We can’t explain the difference between Syrah and Shiraz very easily, so let’s let someone from Popsugar do it. Here’s a link. Popsugar on Syrah vs Shiraz.

Anyway, this wine, IMHO, has a very Australian character to it…which segues nicely into the “Profile” section of the review…

Profile

IT’S FROM SPAIN????!!!!

Those extra exclamation points are warranted because – SHAME ON ME! – I didn’t actually read all of the label. I just saw “Syrah,” thought “Shiraz,” and said “cool! Australia!”

It’s from SPAIN.

This is totally unexpected. And a bonus, in my book, since I’m drinking something that has the profile you’d expect from Australia, but it’s not even from a country you’d expect to get THIS wine from.

Value

$4.99. A jaw-dropping price.

Metasip Grade: A

Yes, that Triple Crown. Tastes great, an expensive profile, and a VERY affordable price. I’m buying more.