Cheap wines that are SCARY cheap but super surprising
The Story The Peaks and Tides Sonoma Coast Chardonnay 2018 is a $9.99 ALDI exclusive sourced from vineyards along the Pacific Coast in Northern California. The Peaks and Tides brand also have a Cabernet Sauvignon and I think I saw a Pinot Noir. The Sonoma Coast runs from above San Francisco all the way to…
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The Story The Aria Pinot Noir Brut Cava is a non-vintage Bubbly from the Penedes region of Catalunya, near Barcelona in Eastern Spain. Aria is part of the Segura Viudas family of Sparkling wines. Segura Viudas is in turn part of the Freixenet group that includes Mionetto Prosecco and Gloria Ferrer wines. Cava is produced…
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The Story The Fallen Bridge Lodi Zinfandel 2017 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. That is about all the information available for this Zin. The company that made the wine, Sonoma Bespoke, is a custom private-label winery. They make wines for stores and restaurants across the country. If you are in a 7/11 and see…
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The Story The Pico Viejo Reserva Chardonnay 2019 is a $7.99 ALDI exclusive sourced from grapes grown in vineyards located in the Uco Valley of Argentina. The Uco Valley is not actually a valley, it is high plains that butt up against the Andes Mountains. The Uco Valley is one of the best-growing regions in…
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The Story The Liquid Light Sauvignon 2018 is a wine brand from Chateau Ste Michelle’s family of wines sourced from grapes of 68% Horse Heaven Hills AVA and 32% Yakima AVA of Washington State. Chateau Ste Michelle is by far the largest winery in Washington and according to several winemakers I have talked to over…
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The Story The Tourner Sparkling Brut is a $6.99 ALDI exclusive produced in the Traditional Method from grapes grown in California. And that is just about everything I know about this Bubbly. The back label has a few words concerning tasting notes, but nothing that would give clues as to the grapes used. The number…
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The Story The VINTJS Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 2018 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive sourced, like the name says, from the Sonoma Coast AVA located along the Pacific Coast of Sonoma County. The AVA border goes far enough inland to include some of the Russian River AVA. I was in Trader Joe’s looking for…
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The Story The Opaline Sparkling Pinot Noir Brut Rose is a non-vintage $7.99 Trader Joe’s wine imported from France. That is the bulk of the information concerning this Bubbly. The label says Product of France which does not narrow wines’ origin down to any great extent. The Opaline does have a very nice bottle. The…
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The Story The Fetzer Shaly Loam Gewurztraminer 2018 is sourced from vineyards in the Monterey AVA of California’s Central Coast AVA. Shaly Loam is a type of soil associated with farmland since we are not told exactly where the vineyards are mentioning the type of soil without a vineyard location is being very specific and…
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The Story The Divine Carneros Chardonnay 2018 is a $7.99 Trader Joe’s wine. This seems to be a wine that was produced by an actual winery and not another store brand. The back label shows the producer as Kallan Cellars and gives a Kallancellars.com web address. The cork is even personalized with “The Divine” printed…
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The Story The Cafaggio Single Estate Chianti Classico DOCG 2015 is a $9.89 Costco wine. That is a Chianti Classico with five years of age from one of the original Chianti villages in Tuscany. In Chianti there are three main subdivisions, Chianti Classico is the original and is centered around 5 villages, the Cafaggio is…
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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…
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The Story The Antoine Delaune Beaujolais Villages 2018 is a $6.99 ALDI import exclusive. ALDI (both ALDI North Trader Joe’s in America and ALDI South) is a German company with stores thru out Europe the US and Australia and has over 10,000 stores which give them tremendous buying power. In Europe, Great Britain, and Ireland…
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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…
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The Story The Kingsley Sparkling Brut Rose‘ is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s Sparkling wine made in the Traditional Method by Rack and Riddle. That is all I know about this Bubbly, but that might be enough. The first thing to note is that $6.99 for a Traditional Method Sparkling wine is crazy cheap. The Traditional…
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The Story The Rosa dell Olmo Barbera d’Asti 2018 is a $5.99 Trader Joe’s import wine, I am not sure if this is an exclusive TJ’s wine since I found a wine shop on the internet selling this wine for around $12. This is a DOCG designated wine. Italy has strict rules and regulations pertaining…
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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…
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The Story The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Napa Chardonnay 2018 Lot 85 is a $12.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer says “expect to pay twice as much elsewhere for a similarly pedigreed Napa Chardonnay.” And they called this wine producer their winery partner. That sounds about right, if a winery from Napa releases…
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The Story The Proyecto la Garnacha Salvaje del Moncayo translates to the Wild Garnacha Project of Moncayo. The concept behind this wine is simple. Find old, neglected Garnacha vineyards and bring them back to life. The Moncayo is one the largest mountain peaks (Pyrenees) along the Elbro Valley in the district of Aragon in northeast…
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The Podcast Story We thought we would try our hand at a ZOOM webcam get together that has become one of the main ways to stay in touch in these days of self-isolation. So the Cheapwinefinder Lockdown Virtual Wine Tasting Podcast was born. The concept was Mike and Dave would each pick up a Sauvignon…
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The Story The Parasphere Sonoma Zinfandel 2014 is a $7.99 Trader Joe’s mystery wine. There are several things here that do not add up to an aged Sonoma County Zinfandel for under eight bucks. The first point is obvious, Sonoma Zinfandel at 6 years of age selling for $7.99 does not exist in the wild….
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The Story The Santa Julia Reserva Malbec 2018 is 100% Malbec sourced from Estate vineyards in the Uco Valley in the southwest corner of the Mendoza Valley in Argentina. Santa Julia is one of the labels produced by Familia Zuccardi Estates which has been in the wine business since the 1950s. Santa Julia was started…
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The Story The Arroyo del Imperio Chardonnay 2019 is a $5.99 Trader Joe’s wine sourced from vineyards in the foothills of the Andes in the Central Valley of Chile. There usually isn’t much of a story to tell for six buck Trader Joe’s Chardonnay. There is no technical information available concerning the production of this…
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The Gnarly Head Old Vine Zinfandel 2018 is sourced from vineyards in the Lodi AVA of Northern California. Gnarly Head is one of Delicato Family Vineyard’s portfolio of wines. Click on the link above to see their family of wine. Delicato has been around since 1924, they are the sixth-largest winery in the United State….
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The Story The Yalumba Y Series Shiraz Viognier 2017 is 95% Shiraz and 5% Viognier sourced from vineyards in South Australia. In case you are not aware, Shiraz (Syrah) is a red grape and Viognier is a white grape and it is not all that common that red and white grape are used in a…
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