Cheap wines that are SCARY cheap but super surprising
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…
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The Story The Delicious Monster White Blend 2019 is a $5.99 Trader Joe’s import wine, a blend of 60% Chenin Blanc, 20% Muscat, and 20% Chardonnay from McGregor Winery vineyards in South Africa. McGregor Winery is a co-op of 33 farmers who have banded together to produce wines in the foothills of the mountains in…
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The Story The Moon Willow Riesling 2018 os a $6.49 ALDI exclusive sourced from sustainably farmed vineyards in the Monterey AVA of California’s Central Coast AVA. ALDI virtually never gives out technical information about their wines, so who, how, and where will be a mystery. But at this price point taking a chance isn’t too big…
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The Story The Dearly Beloved I Thee Red 2016 is a kitchen sink blend, Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Franc, and Petite Sirah sourced from vineyards in the Central Coast AVA of California. Trader Joe’s sells this blend for $7.99 and the Dearly Beloved website shows they produce 2 Red blends and a Chardonnay…
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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…
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The Story The Lindenman’s Bin 65 Chardonnay 2018 is one of CheapWineFinder’s perennial favorites it is an amazingly inexpensive Chardonnay (this time we found it on sale for $2.99, Binny’s Chicago) that delivers year after year. Sourced from multiple vineyards in Southeast Australia, Lindeman’s is no longer an operating winery, it is a brand. A large…
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The Story The Time Waits For No One Monastrell 2017 is 100% Monastrell (Mourvedre in France) produced by Finca Bacara (Finca translates to farm or vineyard) in the Jumilla DO of southeastern Spain. This wine is designated a DOP wine which is Spain’s highest wine category and Monastrell is the #1 Red grape in Jumilla accounting…
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The Story The Kirkland Asolo Prosecco DOCG Extra Dry is a $6.99 Costco import exclusive sourced from grapes farmed around the town of Asolo in the center of the Prosecco region in Veneto, Italy. In California, the wine grape growing regions comprise of unique territories known as AVA’s, such as Paso Robles, Sonoma, Dry Creek, etc.,…
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The Story The Violet House Central Coast Red Blend 2017 is an $8.99 ALDI exclusive wine. And that is about all I know about this wine, there is no mention on the web and ALDI doesn’t say a thing. The back label says this is a non-traditional blend and a 2017 vintage is decent age…
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The Story The Trader Joe’s Petit Reserve Russian River Chardonnay 2018 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. And this is an unexpected Chardonnay, the Fearless Flyer didn’t have much of anything interesting to say and the front label is the usual Tj’s exclusive label. But the back label tells that these grapes came from a…
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The Story The Kirkland Ti Point Sauvignon Blanc 2018 seems to be a $6.99 Costco exclusive sourced from grapes grown in the Marlborough region of New Zealand’s South Island. Ti Point Vineyards produced and bottled this Sauv Blanc (that technically means they made at least 75% of the wine) and they are a winery that started…
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The Story The Crusher Petite Sirah is 82% Petite Sirah and then smaller percentages of Syrah, Tempranillo, Malbec, Merlot, and Zinfandel sourced mainly from 2 vineyards, one in the Clarksburg AVA and another in the Lodi AVA, both areas have good growing conditions for Petite Sirah. The Crusher line of wines is one of Don Sebastiani and…
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The Story The Domaine de La Noblaie Chinon Goutte de Rose’ 2018 is a Rose’ of Cabernet Franc sourced from 2 Estate hillside vineyards in the Chinon district of the Loire Valley in west-central France. The vineyards have been certified organic since 2005 and Domaine de La Noblaie has been worked by the family for four…
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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….
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The Story The Garnacha de Fuego 2018 is an old vine (between 39 and 79 years old) Garnacha sourced from mountainside vineyards in the Calatayud district of the Aragon DO in northeast Spain. This is one of Jorge Ordóñez Selections line of imported wines, he is a major importer of Spanish wines and his wines…
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The Story The St. Somewhere AlexanderValley Chardonnay 2018 is a $7.99 Trader Joe’s single-vineyard exclusive. Trader Joe’s seems to use the St. Somewhere label when a winery has excess wine to sell. The last time they used the name was an Oregon Pinot Noir that accidentally has 1.5% of California Pinot Noir blended in, their mistake…
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The Story The Delas Ventoux Red 2017 is a blend of 80% Grenache and 20% Syrah (this is a blend that is produced every year and there can be minor variations in the blend from vintage to vintage) sourced from vineyards in and around the villages of Mazon and Goult in the Ventoux region of…
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The Story The Bogle Vineyards Chardonnay 2018 is sourced from 3 locations, the Clarksburg AVA, the Dunnigan Hills AVA, and the Monterey County AVA. Both Clarksburg and Dunnigan Hills are located in the Central Vally AVA, Dunnigan Hills is east of Napa on the other side of the mountains and Clarksburg is west of Lodi…
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The Story The Maricool Muscadet 2018 is a $4.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive, an AOC designated white from the Loire Valley in France. The grape used for Muscadet (the “det” is pronounced day) is Melon de Bourgogne a grape that long ago was prevalent in Burgundy and now is found in the Loire Valley. This is one of…
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The Story The Flower Keeper Sauvignon Blanc is an $8.99 ALDI exclusive sourced from grapes in the Monterey County AVA of the Central Coast AVA of California. ALDI does not offer much technical information on the production of this wine other than it was fermented and aged in stainless steel tanks, which is very common…
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The Story The La Ferme Julien Rose’ 2018 is a $5.99 Trader Joe’s not very exclusive Rose‘ blend of Cinsault, Grenache and Syrah sourced from vineyards in France. Not very exclusive since the La Ferme (The Farm) is the same wine as Famille Perin’s La Vielle Ferme Rose’. Each wine, La Ferme and La Vielle…
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The Story The Purple Moon Chardonnay is a non-vintage $3.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive sourced from vineyards in more than one California grape growing AVA. There is not going to be much of a story here, I am pretty sure which winery produced this wine, and they are a quality winery. But other than that there isn’t…
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The Story The Hopes End Red Wine Blend 2016 is a blend of 42% Shiraz/Syrah, 38% Grenache, 13% Malbec, and 7% Petit Verdot sourced from vineyards in South Australia (near Adelaide). Hopes End is one of Trinchero Family Estates line of wines, other brands include, Joel Gott, Menage a Trois, Folie s Deux, Charles &…
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The Story The Plus and Plus Brut (or +&+ on the label) is a non-vintage blend of 3 indigenous Catalonian grapes, 30% Xarello, 50% Macabeo, and 20% Parellada has grown on the Penedes region of eastern Spain, near Barcelona. The +&+ is produced by Bodegas Pinord a family-run winery that was founded over 150 years ago….
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The Story The Sphere Central Coast Chardonnay 2017 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. The Central Coast AVA runs along California coast just north of Los Angeles to San Francisco. The only information we have on this Chardonnay is what is written on the back label, which luckily is informative. It says there is a decadent…
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