VINIDA - Supermarket or Wine Merchant

Walk into a supermarket and you'll find shelves lined with familiar names: Chablis, Amarone, Barolo, Champagne. Visit a specialist wine merchant and you'll often find those very same names: but from different producers, often made in slightly different styles and often at a different price point. So what exactly is the point of specialist merchants, why doesn’t everyone simply buy their wine from supermarkets? Is there really a difference in the glass, or is it simply clever marketing?

In this tasting we will pitch supermarket wines head-to-head with wines from specialist merchants in a series of blind comparisons. Each pair will represent the same classic wine style (e.g. two Barolos), with one bottle sourced from a supermarket and the other from an independent wine merchant. Together, we will explore whether these wines truly differ in quality, style and expression, or whether expectations sometimes influence our judgement more than the wines themselves.

The tasting will feature some of Denmark's most popular wine styles, allowing you to compare familiar favourites side by side. Along the way, we will discuss how factors such as vineyard selection, winemaking philosophy, production scale and commercial decisions shape the final wine, and find out whether these differences justify the price premium often associated with specialist retailers. Other pairs will be controlled for price with both wines coming from

Crucially this will be an opportunity to discover your own preferences. Do you consistently favour the wine merchant's selection, or might the supermarket bottle surprise you? Through guided tastings and interactive discussion, you may find that the answer is not always as straightforward as you expect.

Whether you are a regular supermarket shopper, a devoted wine merchant customer, or simply curious about where your money is best spent, this promises to be an entertaining and thought-provoking evening that will help you buy wine with greater confidence.

This tasting will be presented in English by Denmark’s two-time blind tasting champion Domen Prešern DipWSET (domen@talkingwine.dk).

This tasting is open for everyone, but as we sometimes will be very detailed, it does offer a better experience if you have some basic knowledge of wines. A good help is to study this “cheat-sheet” kortlink.dk/2pdep and kortlink.dk/2pdfs, to get a basic understanding of wines, their appearance, aromas, flavors and structure.

It is possible to order a quick snack meal to be served at 18:10.

The presentation will be in English

Find your way to IDA Aarhus

This event is organized by Poul Tang poul.tang@m.ida.dk – 51 71 52 40.