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The Motif Red Hills Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 is a Trader Joe’s $4.99 exclusive. The Red Hills AVA is located inside the Lake County AVA which is north of Napa Valley and east of Mendocino.
Clear Lake is the largest lake in California and it is situated in Lake County. The Red Hills AVA is on the southwestern shore of Clear Lake. The red from Red Hills comes from volcanic flows deposited there over ten thousand years ago.
Most of the vineyards are planted 2000 feet above sea level. During the growing season, the days are warm and the nights are cool. This warm-up cool-down cycle allows the grapes to have a long, full growing season. The volcanic soils are full of minerals and impart interesting flavors to the grapes.
I am talking about the Red Hills AVA for two reasons. The first is we also never see $4.99 Red wines come from sub-AVAs of interesting growing areas. And second, we know virtually nothing about the Motif Red Hills Cabernet Sauvignon 2020.
I looked this wine up in the California Wine Cola Public Registry and found it is registered to a Mobile Bottling company. Many wineries do not want to invest in a bottling line that they will only use for 2 weeks in the fall. Contracting with a mobile bottler allows them to pay for only the services they need.
The company also has a bonded wine storage warehouse and barrel storage. The back label says “vinted and bottled by” which suggests that someone else produced the wine and the name on the back label may have aged the wine a certain amount of time and bottled the wine.
With the wine and barrel storage facility, I would imagine that they have the opportunity to receive deals on lots of wine. Maybe this is how the Motif Red Hills Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 ended up selling for five bucks on Trader Joe’s shelves. The alcohol content is 14.5%.
The packaging and label are beautiful and do not suggest a wine selling at this low price.
The Motif Red Hills Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 Tasting Notes
The color is a deep dark raspberry jam red. The nose is blackberry, plum, dark chocolate, black pepper, a little spice, and ripe black cherry. The Motif Red Hills Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 is smooth, with ripe fruit flavors and spice.
This Cabernet Sauvignon tastes like blackberry, licorice, dusty tannins, a slap of spice, and plum, The mid-palate adds a little dark chocolate, sour cherry, and blueberry.
The Summary
- The Motif Red Hills Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 is way better than any $4.99 has a right to be.
- My favorite Cabernet Sauvignon? No. My favorite $4.99 Cabernet Sauvignon? Easily.
- This is a real Cab Sauv with tannins and real Cabernet flavor.
Totally agree, it’s yummy!
Ridiculously good for the price. I’ve bought 10-12 additional bottles since buying the first one. I wouldn’t hesitate to serve it any get-together, with beef as the main course.
Since I first tried this wine it became my new go-to. I agree with your breakdown. It is now the best wine for the price of anything I’ve tried.
Just when everyone is trying to go upscale Motif comes along & makes it less necessary (at least for those of us on a budget).
How do they scale something someone else is producing as consistently good as this?
It took someone with chops, connections & experience to make this happen.
It wouldn’t surprise me of someone who has a name is hiding behind the curtain.
Here is my take on the wine. From what I can tell this is a product from the same folks who do Two Buck Chuck. The 2020 vintage was a difficult one for many vintners in northern California and some didn’t make wine at all or sold off a lot of finished wine or grapes for bulk. That allows companies like the Two Buck Chuck people to buy up all that bulk on the cheap and release wines like this. It is often a boon to consumers because they get inexpensive wines that in a good year would fetch a lot more.
Hi,
The difference is this wine is sourced from the Red Hills AVA which is a sub AVA of the Lake County AVA. While the actual producer is not known, it is probably excess grapes or finished wine. I don’t think Bronco wines had a hand in it, but then again you may be right. These wines are inexpensive and you take your chances.
Cheers,
Dave (Cheapwinefinder)