The Story The Hyland Estates Old Vine Pinot Noir 2018 is sourced from the Hyland Vineyard which was planted in 1971. The Hyland Vineyard is situated in the foothills of Oregon’s Coast Range inside the McMinnville sub-AVA of the greater Willamette Valley AVA. It is one of the oldest and finest vineyards in the Willamette…
Read More
The Story The Pinot Project 2018 is a $10.99 Pinot Noir from Costco, it is also available at Trader Joe’s and most other wine retailers. This is a wine label from Skurnik Wines and a Pinot Grigio, a Chardonnay, and Rose’ are other wines in the project. Skurnik Wines is a major wine importer (they…
Read More
The Story The Loudenotte Pinot Noir Pays d’Oc 2018 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s import exclusively sourced from grapes from the south of France. The Oc in Pays d’Oc refers to Occitania which runs from the border with Spain to the Rhone Valley to the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean. The wines from this region are…
Read More
The Story The Trader Joe’s Reserve Anderson Valley Pinot Noir is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. Anderson Valley is located in coastal Mendocino and is situated between two mountain ranges. Two more things to note are this the 2018 vintage and is Lot #201. Anderson Valley has a growing reputation for the production of fine…
Read More
The Story The Bluebird Monterey Pinot Noir 2016 seems to be an orphan wine. All the social media for Bluebird Wines and they had everything, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, all stopped posting in 2015. There is a single webpage, for the 2013 vintage of this wine. They seemed to have produced other wines from past…
Read More
The Story The Anne Amie Rose of Pinot Noir 2019 is an estate farmed, produced, and bottled Rose‘ sourced from vineyards in the Yamhill-Carlton and Chehalem Mountain districts of the Willamette Valley in western Oregon. Anne Amie Vineyards is a privately owned winery founded in 1999. This Rose‘ is a brand new wine for Anne…
Read More
The Story The Cotillion Pinot Noir 2017 is a Trader Joe’s $9.99 exclusive brand sourced from vineyards in 56% Monterey County, 33% Sonoma County, and 11% Santa Barbara County in California. Under usual circumstances, this is a wine that would show ‘California‘ on the front label as a place of origin since 67% of the…
Read More
The Story The Trader Joe’s Reserve Monterey Pinot Noir 2018 lot #191 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive produced for them by an unspecified winery from grapes farmed in the Monterey County AVA inside the Central Coast AVA of California. The listed producer, Ashford Court, also is the name used for Trader Joe’s Cotillion Pinot Noir….
Read More
The Story The Anna de Codorníu Brut Rosé Cava is a blend of 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay sourced from estate vineyards near the town of Lleida in the Cava D.O. of northeast Spain (near Barcelona). A typical Cava uses the three indigenous grapes, Macabeo, Xarello, and Parelada, but since this is a Rose’ and Red…
Read More
The Story The Revelation Pinot Noir 2018 is a Trader Joe’s $7.99 American exclusive sourced from vineyards in the Languedoc region of southeastern France. The Languedoc growing area borders the Mediterranean on the east, the Pyrenees Mountains to the west and Spain to the south. This is a Pays d’Oc (IGP) designated wine which is rated a…
Read More
The Story The 90+ Cellars Pinot Noir Lot 179 2018 is sourced from vineyards in more than one California Coastal grape growing AVA. And that is about all I know about where the grapes were grown and who made the wine since 90+ Cellars are Negociants. A Negociant is a French term and it refers to…
Read More
The Story The Kirkland Champagne Brut is a $19.99 Costco exclusive produced for them by Champagne Janisson of Verzenany in the Champagne district of France. There was a time when a sub 20 buck real-deal Champagne was unheard of, but ALDI, Trader Joe’s (I think TJ’s French Bubbles has gone up in price) and Costco have…
Read More
The Story The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Carneros Pinot Noir 2018 Lot #23 is a $12.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive sourced from vineyards in the Carneros AVA which is half inside the Sonoma AVA and half inside the Napa AVA. This is the 10th vintage of TJ’s Grand Reserve Carneros Pinot Noir, we last reviewed the 2017…
Read More
The Story The Roederer Estate Brut is a non-vintage Sparkling wine with a blend of 60% Chardonnay and 40% Pinot Noir. Roederer Estate (founded 1982) is the Mendocino County, Anderson Valley in particular, branch of the nearly 200-year-old (founded 1833) Louis Roederer Champagne House in France. Roederer Estate has 600 acres of vineyards and grows…
Read More
The Story The ALDI Monsigny Brut Champagne #3 is a non-vintage $19.99 ALDI exclusive, a blend of 60% Pinot Noir, 30% Pinot Meunier, and 10% Chardonnay sourced from multiple vineyards in Champagne, France. It seems this is a brand name that ALDI owns and in the past several different Champagne Houses supply the Bubbly for ALDI….
Read More
The Story The Beringer Founders Estate Pinot Noir 2017 is the #1 wine on Wine Enthusiast Top 100 Best Buy Wines of 2019. And that is somewhat remarkable. Beringer is the oldest (since 1876) continuously operating winery in the US and they produce a lot of wine, from $400 bottles to $4 bottles, they run the…
Read More
The Story The Castle Rock Mendocino Pinot Noir 2017 is an inexpensive Pinot Noir, I found it for $7.99 at Costco that should provide a solid value. Castle Rock is an interesting wine company, they have been around for 25 years and have a unique business model. They own no vineyards, all their grapes come from…
Read More
The Story The Mumm Napa Brut Rose’ is a blend of 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay sourced from as many as 50 different vineyards (depending on the vintage) in the Napa Valley AVA. Mumm Napa started in the early 1970s is the California project of GH Mumm founded 150 years earlier in Champagne, France. Mumm…
Read More
The Story The Trader Joe’s Petit Reserve Russian River Pinot Noir 2018 is a $7.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. There have been other Trader Joe’s Reserve Pinot Noirs over the years, the regular Reserve and Grand Reserve wines tend to have Lot #’s to differentiate them, I believe the Petit designation indicates that there is a limited…
Read More
The Story The Moon X Black Pinot Noir 2017 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s wine, but I don’t think it is a TJ’s exclusive a website from New York sells it online for $9.99. The 2016 vintage of the Moon X Black Pinot was the #1 page on CheapWineFinder for about a year and a…
Read More
The Story The Caretaker Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir 2017 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive produced for TJ’s by the Central Coast Wine Warehouse. They are a full-service wine company that makes contract wine and brand wine, is a certified sustainable facility and own some of the finest vineyards in the Central Coast AVA….
Read More
The Story The Petiole Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2017 is an $8.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive, we reviewed 2015 Petiole and that vintage sold for $9.99. The 2015 version had a Fearless Flyer write-up which indicated the Pinot was made by a large Oregon producer and the Pinot was aged in oak barrels for 14 months. I don’t know if…
Read More
The Story The Angeline Reserve Pinot Noir 2017 is produced from vineyards in coastal Mendocino County, along with a smaller portion of grapes from the Russian River AVA and the Carneros AVA. Angelina is a family owned and operated winery and vineyards headquartered in the Russian River Valley of Sonoma. They produce another Pinot Noir, the…
Read More
The Story The Jezebel Oregon Pinot Noir 2017 is a blend of 52% Willamette Valley and 48% Southern Oregon grapes. There are 5 AVAs due south of Willamette Valley. While most of these areas tend to be warmer and dry, there are still plenty of cool locations to grow Pinot Noir. Jezebel is the 2nd label…
Read More
The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Santa Lucia Highland Pinot Noir Lot 80 2017 is 100% Pinot Noir exclusive Trader Joe’s $12.99 wine sourced from a vineyard or vineyards from a very high-end exclusive Pinot Noir growing area in Monterey County, California. Here is a Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve from Carneros. The Santa Lucia Highlands are located on…
Read More
