I’ve tried wines that cost £100 but cracking £8.99 bottle from Lidl outperforms them

Lidl has achieved the hat trick in the World Drinks Awards.  

Yes, in what is coined ‘the World Cup of Drinks Competitions’, three of the bargain retailer’s sparkling wines have scooped ‘Best in Class’.   

That’s a heck of an accolade for Lidl’s £8.99 Crémant de Loire AOC Brut, £24.99 Champagne Bissinger & Co Premier Cru, and their £7.99 Prosecco Superiore Extra Dry DOCG.  

Technically then, you can now lift a glass of the world’s best wine for under a tenner, just saying.  

What are the World Drinks Awards? 

Launched in 2007, the awards were set up with the aim of ‘selecting the very best in all internationally recognised styles of drinks, through blind tasting with an expert panel of judges.’  

With over 35 categories, including wine, spirits, beer, no- and low-alcohol drinks, tastings are hosted globally in the UK, Germany, Brazil, Chile, Japan, Canada, and the USA.  

And it’s not Lidl’s first wow-moment at these awards, either. In 2023, their £14.99 Montaudon Champagne was voted ‘tastier than Moët’. So, they clearly have history at the top spot, proving you can lead a champagne lifestyle on a lemonade budget.   

And given I’ve worked in the industry for more than a decade, I’m lucky enough to have tasted many highly-priced wines in my time. That’s not a flex; it’s just factual. And I have to say, Lidl’s £8.99 Crémant holds its own, and in some cases outperforms some of the more premium wines I’ve sampled, some of which cost as much as £100.

It was described by the judges as having ‘fresh apricots on the nose, a beautifully fresh, crisp palate balanced by nice astringent lime notes’. Read to the end to find out what I thought of it.  

How can a cheap wine beat an expensive wine? 

For many reasons, including supermarkets keeping prices down by buying grapes in bulk, working with cooperatives which charge less for the wine than a prestigious wine producer, and lowering the alcohol content to avoid hefty duty rates.  

Also, supermarkets own the rights to their own-label wines, so they can undercut brands on price as they please. When it comes to well-known brands, you’re often paying for the reputation of a particular region of producer; hence, the price is higher-end.  

There are times when the price doesn’t tally so well with the quality. That’s probably why supermarket own-brands are growing three times faster than their branded competitors in 2026.  

Why is Crémant so cheap? 

More specifically, why is Crémant so cheap when it’s made in the same way as Champagne? 

Full disclosure, it’s only really Lidl’s and Aldi’s that sell for under a tenner; most supermarkets’ are nudging £12 to £15, but that’s still cracking value for money.  

It’s all in the name, basically. Champagne, which is a legally protected term, is synonymous with luxury and fine quality. They have spent centuries and a lot of money curating their images, and it has paid off.  

But Crémant’s cat is very much out of the bag. In fact, the UK imported 6.3 million bottles of it in 2025, up 22 per cent on the year before. There are 10 officially recognised French regions where crémant can legally be made, each with slightly different rules and accepted grape blends. The most popular is Crémant de Loire, which this one is from.  

Which brands were Lidl’s wines up against to win their titles? Sadly, the World Drinks Awards don’t disclose the names of wines that have entered and not won trophies. But you can bet that some of the big names put themselves forward. In fact, there are reports of ‘luxury champagne houses and internationally renowned brands’.   

What do the winning wines taste like?

Prosecco Superiore Extra Dry DOCG, £7.99 

The key is the ‘G’ in Prosecco DOCG. This means the grapes have been grown in a much smaller, far more premium, and higher-altitude site in the Prosecco region than the regular stuff. The result is a well-put-together sparkling with lime blossom and clover honey notes on the nose, melon seed and fresh blossom on the palate, an off-dry style of cantaloupe melon and honeycomb bolstered by a twang of mineral acidity on the finish. Surprisingly good (for a non-Prosecco fan, usually).

Crémant de Loire AOC Brut, £8.99 (£6.99 with Lidl Plus) 

A lean and dry style of sparkling, with white flowers and notes of spiced pear on the nose. The palate is dominated by flavours of stone fruit, with nectarine and tinned peaches abounding, and a hint of fuzzy Golden Delicious. Lean, tense and nervy, in a good way, this is a cracking wine for the money.   

Champagne Bissinger & Co Premier Cru, £24.99 

Not only did this receive the ‘Man of the Match’ equivalent at the World Drinks Awards, but it also received an Outstanding at the International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC). This one has a lean, dry, and clean style, with a fresh nose of apricot stone. This leads to peach and satsuma pith on the palate, with a lime sherbet note on the finish that goes on and on. Gorgeous fizz.  

My Overall verdict…

All three wines are top-tier, especially for the money. Whether they were deserving of their awards or not, it’s hard to say that without knowing the competition.  

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