Cheap wines that are SCARY cheap but super surprising
The Story The M.Chevallier Brut Cava is a Trader Joe’s $5.99 exclusive sourced from vineyards near Barcelona in northeast Spain. The trademark for this Cava is owned by the oldest and 2nd largest Cava producer in Spain. It is also imported by their own wine importation company, so they are not hiding anything. Trader Joe’s does…
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The Story The Franciscan Napa & Monterey Chardonnay 2017 is sourced from vineyards in 63% Napa County (mostly Carneros and Southern Napa) and 37% Monterey County (including Arroyo Secco and San Bernabe). These are excellent Chardonnay growing regions where the average Chardonnay is far more expensive than the Franciscan’s $14.99 list price. The list price for…
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The Story The King Rabbit Rose’ 2018 seems to be a Whole Foods $9.99 exclusive sourced from the Languedoc in southwestern France. The King Rabbit Rose’ is made with the Cinsault grape, which is one of the main blending grapes of the region. Cinsault is also one of the grapes featured in the Rose’ wines…
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The Story The Rain Cloud Red Blend 2016 is a $5.99 wine from Trader Joe’s. This is a bit of a mystery wine, there is no official information for it on the web. The Rain Cloud Red won a Silver Medal in the Cabernet Sauvignon based Red blend category at the San Fransisco Chronicle Wine Competition,…
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The Collection Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 (Target) is a $9.99 Target exclusive sourced from vineyards in California. Target also offers their California Roots line of $5.00 wines, which I thought were “ok” but not anything special. It is hard to be too critical of a decent five buck wine. Should we expect a wine twice as…
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The d’Arenberg Stump Jump GSM 2014 is a blend of 38% Grenache, 32% Shiraz/Syrah, and 30% Mourvedre sourced from vineyards in the McLaren Vale region of South Australia. McLaren Vale is one of the premier winemaking regions in Australia, it is located near the city of Adelaide, near a bay on land that juts out into…
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The Oxte The Silence Red Blend 2017- Trader Joe’s is a Trader Joe’s $5.99 import exclusive, a blend of 40% Tempranillo, 25% Syrah, 25% Garnacha (same as Grenache) and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from vineyards in the Cariñena region of Northeast Spain. Oxte is the Spanish word for “shoo” as in shoo fly, to swat something away….
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The Epicuro Nero D’Avola 2017 is a $5.99 Trader Joe’s import exclusive sourced from vineyards in Sicily. Nero D’Avola is THE Red grape of Sicily, the Nero translates to dark or black (in the old days Red wine grapes were referred to as “blacks”) and D’Avola means “of Avola” which is a coastal town in Sicily….
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The Francesco Toscana IGT Rosso 2015 is an ALDI $8.99 import exclusive. The ALDI website from Germany says this is a blend of Bordeaux grapes with a little Syrah added in to smooth things out. A Toscana IGT Rosso indicates that this is a Red (Rosso) wine from the whole of Tuscany (Italy) and not an…
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The Trader Joe’s Cotillion Pinot Noir 2016 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive sourced from vineyards in 56% Monterey County, 33% Sonoma County, and 11% Santa Barbara County. These 3 counties are very solid Pinot Noir growing region and the bottle could have indicated California as the grape origin, since 2 of the AVA’s are…
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The 90+ Cellars NZ Sauvignon Blanc Lot 2 2018 is sourced from vines grown in the Awatere Valley of the Marlborough region on the South Island of New Zealand. 90+ Cellars are Negociantes, which means they purchase left-over or surplus wine from Wineries all over the world. This is a centuries-old French tradition and it works because…
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The Charles Smith Eve Chardonnay 2016 is 100% Chardonnay sourced from Washington State. Yes, I know that is a vague description for grape sourcing, but some of my confusion comes from the label. Typically with Washington State wine in this price range (I found it on sale for $8.99) the label shows Columbia Valley as the…
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The Chiare’ Blanc de Blanc Sparkling Wine (Chiare’ is Italian for clear) is a $7.99 ALDI’s vintage dated Bubbly sourced from vineyards in Monterey, California. CWF reviewed the 2014 vintage (it was $6.99 then) and thought it was worth twice the price. ALDI must have showcased the 2014 in its advertisements, because we learned that vintage…
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The Dama D Roca Garnacha 2016 is a $5.99 Trader Joe’s import exclusive produced by Bodegas Paniza, a co-op of 300 vineyards located near the town of Paniza in the Cariñena DO of the Aragon region of Northeast Spain. Bodegas Paniza makes several other Trader Joe’s Spanish wines. This Garnacha was aged in oak barrels, which is extremely…
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The Motto Gung Ho Red 2014 is a Red Blend, 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Petit Verdot, 12% Petite Sirah, and 10% Zinfandel, all sourced from California vineyards, that is currently selling for $3.99 at Trader Joe’s. This isn’t a Trader Joe’s exclusive, it is selling on the internet for 6 to 7 bucks (though a few…
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The Dark Horse Double Down Red is a non-vintage limited edition Red blend using Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Tannat (a blending grape originally from France, used to add dark fruit and structure to the blend) and Teroldego (a grape originally from Italy, it has characteristics similar to Zinfandel and Syrah) all sourced from vineyards in California. Dark…
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The Paluzzi Moscato D’Asti 2017 is a $6.99 ALDI’s Sparkling wine from the DOCG Asti region inside of Piedmont in northwest Italy. The entire Asti growing region is designated DOCG (that is Italy highest designation concerning location and the rules and regulation of growing grapes and producing wine, followed by DOC, IGP, and Table Wine. Gancia…
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The Old Moon Old Vine Zinfandel 2016 is a $5.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive, part of the Trader Moon series of wines produced for TJ’s by a family owned vineyards and winery located in the Lodi AVA, the gnarled vine on the bottom of the front label is a clue to the producer. As with most Trader…
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The Shoofly Shiraz 2015 is sourced from select vineyards located in the McLaren Vale, Langhorne Creek, Padthaway, and Wrattonbully wine regions of South Australia. Shoofly is one of Ben Riggs wines, he has been a successful winemaker in Australia for a long time and CWF has featured 4 or 5 vintages of his Woop Woop Shiraz…
Read MoreThe Susana Balbo Crios Malbec 2017 is 100% Malbec sourced from vineyards in the Uco Valley of western Mendoza in the foothills of the Andes, well maybe not exactly foothills since the elevation for the vineyards is 3,700 feet above sea-level. Susana Balbo founded her line of wine in 1999, the Crios label features younger, drink-it-now…
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The Eris Carneros Chardonnay 2014 is a $7.99 (this time around) Trader Joe’s exclusive that the front label says is Estate grown from a winery located on the Napa side of the Carneros AVA in Northern California. Carneros is half in Sonoma and half in Napa and has a southern border on the San Pablo Bay…
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The Louis Jadot Mâcon-Villages Chardonnay 2017 is sourced from grapes grown in the Côte-Mâconnais district in the south of Burgundy centered around the village of Mâcon in eastern central France. The Beaujolais district is just south of Mâcon. The Louis Jardot Chardonnay is AOC wine and the Mâcon-Villages classification is step up from the entry-level Mâcon wines. In Burgundy the different…
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In this podcast episode, we enjoy a beautiful Trader Joe’s Grüner Veltliner – from Hungary! A Grüner that’s not from Austria? Waaaaa? Listen in to see what we think of the Floriana Grüner Veltliner 2017 G’day mate! (just kidding that’s Australia)
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The Satis Dei Syrah-Garnacha 2016 is an $8.99 Trader Joe’s import wine, though I think it is available in other parts of the world from different retailers. The Satis Dei is 55% Syrah and 45% Garnacha and is a Tierra de Castilla designated wine (the same as a IGP or Vin de Pays wine) in the Castilla/La…
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The Gnarly Head Old Vine Lodi Zinfandel 2016 is sourced from 35 to 80 year old grapevines farmed in vineyards in the Lodi delta region. Gnarly Head is one of the labels from Delicato Family Vineyards, a family owned winery and vineyards founded in 1924, some of their other brands include Both Box, Handcraft, Twisted, and…
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