(the cheap REDS we’re diggin’ on lately)
The Union and Branch Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 are a $14.99 Aldi wine exclusive produced for them by a large family-owned wine estate located in the Monterey AVA of California. The $14.99 price point is a stretch for Aldi wine. They have an excellent $19.99 Champagne that they release every year for the holidays,…
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The Paso Dragon Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 is a $7.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive sourced from grapes farmed in the Paso Robles AVA inside the larger Central Coast AVA. The Paso Dragon name comes from Lake Nacimiento, which shoreline does resemble a dragon. Check out the label for an artistic representation. I found a website that exports…
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The 14 Hands Hot To Trot Red Blend 2018 is a blend of 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 37% Merlot, 19% Syrah, 2% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Petit Verdot sourced from vineyards through the Columbia Valley AVA in Washington. The name 14 Hands refers to the wild horses that at one time roamed free in the area….
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The Grifone Sangiovese 2018 is a $3.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive sourced from grapes farmed in the Puglia region of Italy. Puglia is the heel to Italy’s boot shape and this is the area where much of Itay’s affordable everyday wines come from. This Sangiovese has rated an IGT wine which means that its characteristics conform…
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The Sobon Estates Old Vine Amador County Zinfandel 2019 is sourced from estate vineyards in the Amador County AVA, east of Napa, north, and east of Lodi, and east of Sacramento, California. Amador County is one of the oldest wine regions in California. The Sobon family started Shenandoah Vineyards in 1977 and 1989 purchased the…
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The Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir 2020 is a $14.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. I am not sure about the difference between a Platinum Reserve, a Diamond Reserve, and the good old Grand Reserve Trader Joe’s wines. But they do have a track record of being solid bang-for-the-buck wine. The Santa Lucia…
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The Dancing Flame Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 is an Aldi $6.99 import exclusive. Vina Luis Felipe Edwards produced this wine, a winery founded in Chile in 1976, and sourced from grapes grown in the Colchagua Valley. We first reviewed the 2012 vintage back in 2014, that wine sold for $4.99. The Dancing Flame name refers…
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The Trader Joe’s Diamond Reserve Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 is a $19.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. The Diamond Reserve wines are their double-secret super rare wines; if you are interested, do not wait to try one because when they are gone, they are gone forever. Twenty bucks are beyond the usual price range for…
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The Meiomi California Pinot Noir NV is a very popular wine. In 2015, Constellation Brands purchased the Meiomi brand from Joe Wagner of the Wagner family of Caymus fame for $315,000,000. At the time, Meiomi was selling 600,000 cases of Pinot Noir per year, that is, over 7 million bottles. From what I have read,…
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The Argyle Willamette Valley Brut 2017 is a vintage-dated small-batch estate-grown Sparkling wine made in the Champagne style. Argyle was founded in 1987 and produced exceptional Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Reisling, and Sparkling wines. This Bubbly consists of 55% Chardonnay, 30% Pinot Noir, and 15% Pinot Meunier. The Chardonnay was sourced from the Knudsen Vineyard in…
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The Hwy 5 Pinot Noir 2020 is a $5 Aldi exclusive sourced from vineyards in California. Aldi owns the trademark for the brand name, but E & J Gallo made the wine. Neither Aldi nor Gallo offers any production information concerning this wine. I suspect if they told us the production details, we would not…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive, Cabernet Sauvignon blended with smaller amounts of Petit Verdot and Syrah sourced from vineyards (or vineyard?) in Sonoma County in Northern California. I was going to do my usual “what is this wine” thing and deduce what this wine is…
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The Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Sonoma Brut 2021 Edition is a $14.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. We reviewed this Sparkling wine about one year ago, and I wanted to revisit this Bubbly since we recently enjoyed Trader Joe’s North Coast Brut, which sold for five dollars less at $9.99. Is the Sonoma Brut worth 33% more?…
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The Ronan By Clinet Bordeaux Merlot 2016 is 100% Merlot sourced from estates near Chateau Clinet, located in the premier section of Pomerol in the Bordeaux region of France. Chateau Clinet Bordeaux wines sell in the $150 to $350 range, and I found this wine for $8.99. While the grapes used did not come from…
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The Mud House Central Otago Pinot Noir 2019 is a reasonably priced Pinot Noir from New Zealand. Central Otago is located in the southern part of New Zealand’s South Island. Marlborough, where most of the Sauvignon Blanc is produced, is on the northern tip of South Island. This Pinot Noir is sourced from a single…
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The Ernest Rapeneau Champagne (Dec. 2021) is exclusive to Trader Joe’s in places where Trader Joe’s sells wine but is otherwise sold all over the world. Ernest Rapeneau has been in the wine business since 1901 and has concentrated on Champagne since 1927. The winery is run by the 4th generation of the family and…
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The Ile de Conas Le Rosé 2020 is a $7.99 Trader Joe’s wine. It looks like this Rosé is sold as Paul Mas Le Rosé outside of the US and as Ile de Conas at TJ’s. Ile de Conas is the name of the Paul Mas Estate near the village of Conas, which is located…
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The Ugly Sweater Red Blend 2021 Edition is $8.49 at Trader Joe’s. It is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Petite Sirah sourced from vineyards in Lodi, California. It is a non-vintage wine; Christmas 2022 may have a different grape blend. The information on the bottle is confusing; the back label says…
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The Louis Pommery Brut NV is a blend of 95% Chardonnay, and 5% Pinot Noir sourced from vineyards in California. This Sparkling wine is the California version of Champagne Pommery (founded in 1858), with Madame Pommery creating Brut (dry, not sweet) Champagne in 1874. Pommery has had a winery in Napa since 2004. The same…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve North Coast Brut Rosé Sparkling Wine is a $9.99 Bubbly exclusive produced by Rack and Riddle of Healdsburg, California. Rack and Riddle is a custom wine brand winery that specializes in Sparkling wine. If you have had a value-priced Bubbly from California, it is possible that it was made at Rack…
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The Seghesio Sonoma County Zinfandel 2019 is a blend of 55% estate fruit, from Sonoma Valley, the Russian River Valley, Alexander Valley, and Dry Creek, along with 45% grapes from long term contracted vineyards. This is Seghesio’s “entry-level” Zinfandel bottling, though it is hard to call any wine that has received 90 points plus eleven…
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The Upper Eden Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir 2019 is a $12.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive wine made for them by an independent specialty wine brand producer located in the Santa Lucia Highlands AVA of Monterey County in California’s Central Coast. The vineyards sit in the highlands or benchlands of the Santa Lucia Mountains with elevations…
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The Heartleaf California Rosé 2020 is a $5.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive produced by a private brand winery located in Napa. The last few Trader Joe’s wines we reviewed were also sold at retail wine shops in New York, and Trader Joe’s prices are 40% to 50% than the same wines at the retail shop. While…
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The Maison Barboulot Cabernet Syrah 2020 is a $5.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive wine in places where Trader Joe’s can sell wine. In New York, grocery stores can only sell beer, so this Red blend is $9.99 in New York. In Germany, the Maison Barboulot Cabernet Syrah 2020 is 9 Euros which equals about $10 or…
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The Patricia Green Cellars Dollar Bills Only Pinot Noir 2020 is farmed from estate vineyards in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. This is a bottling they produce only under a particular circumstance, and it isn’t a wine they make every year, not that they would want to. The 2020 grape harvest was marred by fires…
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