Aldi takes on high-end wine traders by selling 1973 vintage Napoleon brandy for just £29.99

• Budget chain is to sell brandy for less than one third of its £107 list price
• It is also offering prestige spirits, whisky and wine at discount prices
  
• Aldi has seen a big increase in number of shoppers from wealthy homes
  

By Sean Poulter, Consumer Affairs Editor

Published: 13:01 EDT, 4 November 2013 | Updated: 13:25 EDT, 8 November 2013

Budget supermarket chain Aldi is to offer prestige spirits and wine at a fraction of the price charged by specialist drinks retailers.

Aldi, which opened its 500th UK store last week in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, will be selling Speyside 30-year-old Single Malt Scotch Whisky for £54.99 – a saving of 58 per cent on the £131 price.

Also available will be a 1973 Napoleon Vintage Brandy at £29.99, which is equivalent to brandies normally up to three times the price.

Aldi has a relatively small UK market share of 3.8 per cent but has made a concerted effort to target middle income and wealthy shoppers with a no-frills approach to selling quality products in large volumes with slim profit margins.

It has won a reputation for providing quality food and wine, after winning a host of taste test awards, at budget prices.

The chain is now hoping to appeal to those looking to put together a prestige drinks cabinet for Christmas.

It will be selling Speyside 30-year-old Single Malt Scotch Whisky at what might appear a rather extravagant price tag of £54.99.

However, this represents a saving of 58per cent on the £131 charged by specialist retailers.

There is also a 1973 Napoleon Vintage Brandy - Armagnac Baron De Lustrac – at £29.99, which is less than one third of the more normal £107 list price.

The range also includes a £17.99 bottle of Tokaji Aszu 6 Puttonyos 2008 , which is a rare and celebrated vintage of a Hungarian dessert wine and won a gold medal at the 2012 International Wine & Spirit Competition.

The usual market price for such a quality product is around £31 with some of the high-end retailers, including Fortnum and Mason and Selfridges, selling an inferior 5 Puttonyos Tokaji for £23.50 and £35.99 respectively.

The range includes non-vintage Grand Cru Champagne NV for £22.99, which is over £20 cheaper than comparable bottles available elsewhere.

There is also a Glen Orrin 30 Year Old Whisky for £54.99, which is up to £80 cheaper than upmarket stockists, plus an Edouard Delaunay Reserve Meursault at £18.99, a Magnum of Prosecco  at £15.99, and ‘the world’s best rum’ El Dorado 15 Year Old Rum at £35.99.

Popular: The budget chain will also sell prestige spirits, whisky and wine at a fraction of the price charged by specialist drinks retailers and upmarket stores

Aldi has a relatively small market share in the UK of 3.8per cent, however it is part of a German retail giant with thousands of outlets across the world and enormous buying power.

It has made a concerted effort to target both middle income and wealthy shoppers in this country with its no-frills approach to selling quality products in large volumes with slim profit margins.

Just last week, its £3.89 Connoisseur Christmas Pudding came top of a blind taste test by the Good Housekeeping Institute, beating the best that Harrods, Fortnums and Heston Blumenthal have to offer.

It won 16 gold awards at the Grocer Own Label Awards 2013 – more than any other retailer – with products as diverse as Ultimate Dry Cure Lightly Smoked British Streaky Bacon to West Country Strawberry Yogurt and Diplomat Gold Tea Bags.

Research published by retail analysts Verdict last week found the number of people using Aldi for their main weekly shop has leapt 31.7per cent in a year. 

Some 36.6per cent of shoppers who have switched came from Tesco, 19.7per cent from Asda, 16.9per cent from Morrisons and 12.7per cent from Sainsbury’s.

Almost one in five people going through the discounter’s tills are middle class or upper middle class, which is up from just one in eight a year ago.

While the proportion of the wealthiest families doing most of their shopping at Aldi has more than doubled from 1.8per cent in 2012 to 4per cent this year.

Andrew Stevens, food and grocery specialist at Verdict, said: ‘Aldi has been the biggest winner in terms of switching and shopper number growth in 2013.

‘Shoppers have switched to Aldi for price, but have stayed with the retailer due to the high quality of its products.

‘While most Aldi shoppers – 91per cent - say they shop at the discounter for its prices, 29per cent state that the quality of products is the main reason they keep coming back to store, the second highest in the sector behind upmarket grocer, Waitrose.’