Aldi has gone undercover at one of the UK’s most prestigious horse racing events as it tricks wine snobs with its latest social media stunt from Taylor Herring.
The team went incognito at the Royal International Horse Show to test the discerning palates of wine buffs, as Italian wine expert ‘Justin Youraldi’ served samples from his collection of exclusive vintages.
While the crowd thought they were tasting exclusive wines from some of the world’s most elite vineyards, costing as much as 10 times the price, they were in fact enjoying a bottle of £4.99 wine from the discount supermarket.
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Guests at the event spoke eloquently about the aromas, balance, acidity and earthiness of the supposedly expensive wine on offer, with most estimating the bottles cost between £30 and £40.
Some were even coaxed into putting their ears to glasses of bubbly to see if they could identify the more “expensive-sounding fizz”. Many of them said they could, before a big reveal left them shocked to find they’d been drinking £5 bottles of plonk.
The stunt backs up research by Aldi which shows that people enjoy fooling friends with a bargain, as almost half of those surveyed (43%) say they’ve served a low-cost wine and received compliments. Only slightly less (38%) say the more expensive options are completely over-rated.
