The 19 Crimes Snoop Dogg Cali Smooth Red 2022 is a limited edition wine I found selling for $13.99. The 19 Crimes brand usually features wines from Australia, but Snoop Dogg (and Martha Stewart) wines are produced from grapes farmed in California. The Story The 19 Crimes Snoop Dogg Cali Smooth Red 2022 bottle does…
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The Korbel California Brut Rosé Champagne is a Sparkling wine I found selling for $11.99. The Champagne in the name is legit. In 2006, when California and Champagne, France, agreed to use of the term “Champagne”. Certain wineries were grandfathered in, so Andre’s, Cook’s, and Korbel retained the right to call their Method Traditional (Like…
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The La Burgondie Cremant de Bourgogne Brut Rosé (2024) is an $11.99 Trader Joe’s wine in cities with a Trader Joe’s wine department. I found this wine selling for $16 to $19 in places not served by Trader Joe’s. La Burgandie makes this French Bubbly. They are a Co-op with over 700 growers and produce…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Horse Heaven Hills Cabernet Sauvignon Syrah 2023 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. The blend is 74% Cabernet Sauvignon and 26% Syrah. The Horse Heaven Hills AVA is located in the south-central portion of the Columbia Valley of Washington. It got its name because the first settlers to the area found…
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.The Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Napa Meritage 2022 is a $17.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. The back label says this wine was “vinted and Bottles by” JBA Cellars in Rutherford, California. Vinted and bottled legally means they bottled the wine and possibly did some aging, so JBA Cellars is a company set up to keep us…
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The Super Happy Happy Canyon AVA Red 2023 is a ten-buck Trader Joe’s exclusive. This Red is made by Field Recordings, an excellent winery in San Luis Obispo, inside Paso Robles. I searched the internet for information on this bottling and found nothing, leading me to believe it is only available at Trader Joe’s. Field…
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The Malene By Chamisal Vineyards Rosé 2023 is a wine selling for $12.99 at Costco and a check of the web found it listed for $15 to $22 with most prices on the higher end. Chamisal Vineyards was founded 51 years ago in the Central Coast AVA San Luis Obispo. They own multiple vineyards and…
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The Tenebres GSM 2022 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s import wine, in 2019 it sold for $5.99, and in Canada, it is priced at $19.50. It is designated an IGP. Pay d’Oc wine, Pays d”Oc indicates that this wine is sourced from the Languedoc Roussillon Wine region of southwest France. The Languedoc Roussillon region is…
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The La Galope Gascogne Rosé 2023 is a wine I found selling for $9.99 at a local supermarket, a web check showed this wine selling for an average of $13. Cascogne is located between the Pyrenees and the Atlantic Ocean in southwest France. This is designated a Comté Tolsan IGP wine which is one of…
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The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Santa Barbara GSM 2022 is a Trader Joe’s $12.99 exclusive. A GSM wine is the main blend from the Southern Rhone Valley in France. This blend is 42% Grenache, 395 Syrah, and 19% Mourvedre. The back label says this wine was produced and bottled, which means they made it, by…
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The Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Cachapoal Valley Red Blend 2021 is $14.99 at Trader Joe’s. This Red Blend is not exclusive to Trader Joe’s since the same wine sells under a different label for about $35. There were a few clues to the origin of this bottle, the bottle is a very heavy Napa-style. The…
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The Whispering Angel Rosé 2023 is a wine from Provence in the south of France, I found it on a Mother’s Day/Spring sale for $13, but a check on the web says it sells for $12 to $20. This is one of the many Rosé brands from Chateau D’ESCLANS in the Cotes de Provence AOC,…
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The Outlander Paso Robles Meritage 2022 is a $7.99 Aldi exclusive, Aldi has trademarked the Outlander name. It is produced by a winery located in Greenfield, California, (Monterey AVA) which happens to be the home of a family-owned winery in business since 1972. A Meritage (rhymes with heritage) wine is a California wine that exclusively…
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The Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Saint-Emilion 2022 is a 414.99 Trader Joe’s import exclusive. Saint-Emilion is on the Right Bank of the Garonne River in Bordeaux and along with nearby Pomerol is arguably the best place in the world to grow Merlot. The Merlot grape comprises 79% of the vines, 15% of Cabernet Franc, and…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Rasteau Cru 2022 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s import exclusive. The actual name is Rasteau Appellation Rasteau Controlée 2022 Lot 254, Cru de la Vallée Rhone. Here is an entry-level view of how the wine classifications in the Southern Rhone Valley work The first level is Cotes du Rhone AOC, which…
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The Porto 6 Vinho Tinto 2021 (Vinho Tinto translates to Red Wine) is a Trader Joe’s $5.99 import exclusive sourced from vineyards in Lisboa Portugal. Lisboa is a region along the northern Atlantic coast near Lisbon. It is a large wine region with several sub-regions inside. Porto 6 Vinho Tinto 2021 is produced by Vidigal…
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The Kirkland Signature Gigondas 2021 is a $13.99 Costco exclusive produced for them by Guillaume Gonnet a winemaker who owns vineyards in the Chateauneuf Du Pape region of the Southern Rhone Valley in France. Guillaume Gonnet produces wine from all the different sections of the Southern Rhone. The Northern Rhone specializes in expensive Syrah wines,…
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The Rose & Finch California Red Wine 2021 is a $3.49 Trader Joe’s exclusive made for them by Fior di Sole a family-owned Napa wine company that makes its own brands, produces custom brands, bottles wine, you name it they can probably do it. A quick check of their brand’s page shows several wines I…
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The Peirano Estate Illusion Red Blend 2021 blends Old Vine Zinfandel, Merlot, Petite Sirah, and Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from estate vineyards in the Lodi AVA. Peirano Estate is a family-owned vineyard and winery, the family has grown grapes since the 1880s. Lance Randolph (4th generation) and his daughter Alexis Randolph (5th generation) make the wine….
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The Skull Red Wine 2021 is organic and blends 60% Zinfandel, 30% Petite Sirah, and 10% Mission sourced from Mendocino and Santa Barbara vineyards. This brand is from Patrick Cappiello (who owns Monte Rio Cellars) and Pax Mahle (Pax Wines). Patrick Cappiello is an ex-skate punk, hence the Skull imagery, and an award-winning Sommelier who…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Santa Ynez Valley GSM 2022 is a Trader Joe’s $9.99 exclusive. The blend is 47% Mourvedre, 34% Syrah, and 19% Grenache, so it is an MSG blend. The Santa Ynez Valley is located in southern Santa Barbara County, between 2 mountain ranges. The western part of the valley gets cool Pacific…
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The Kirkland Signature Napa Valley Red Blend 2021 is a $10.99 Costco exclusive. Costco often names the producer of their Signature wines, but not here. This is a Bordeaux Blend with 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot, 10% Malbec, 6% Cabernet Franc, and 3% Petit Verdot. Carmenere is the other Bordeaux-approved Red grape, but it is…
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The Dearly Beloved I Thee Red Lodi 2021 sells for $7.99 at Trader Joe’s stores and seems to sell for as high as $14 in places that TJ’s does not cover. This is a wine that returns to Trader Joe’s vintage after vintage. We typically review the latest version of this Red Blend at this…
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The Shannon Ranch Big Horn Red Blend 2020 sells for $5.99 at Trader Joe’s and has sold for around $15 at wine shops previously. This is a wine produced by the Shannon Family of Wines a sustainably farmed, family-owned winery located in the Lake County AVA of Northern California. As of 2023 Shannon wines are…
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The Z Alexander Brown Uncaged Proprietary Red Blend 2020 is a wine I found for $12 at a local wine shop. It is a collaboration between musician Zac Brown and John Killebrew, the winemaker for Delicato Family Vineyards, the makers of Gnarly Head and Coppola wines. Proprietary Blend indicates that the blend is unique to…
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