Cheap wines that are SCARY cheap but super surprising
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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The Dellara Cava Brut is a $6.99 ALDI Sparkling wine from somewhere in Spain. I say somewhere in Spain, since you would normally see (about 90% of the time) the Penedes DO or Catalonia (near Barcelona) on the label, but the Dellara simply says “Product of Spain“. It had the Cava stamp on the top of…
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In this podcast episode, we search a bottle of Beaujolais for all the Gamay goodness that the Pope of Beaujolais intended. Did we find it? Listen in as we describe … Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais 2015
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The Burning Cavalier Merlot Cabernet 2017 is a rather morbidly named $5.99 Trader Joe’s import wine, a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon from vineyards in the Languedoc region of France, just north of the border with Spain and along the Mediterranean Sea. The Languedoc is the largest grape growing region in France and while there…
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The Paxis Red Blend 2013 is a blend of Touriga Nacional (this THE red grape of Portugal), Tinta Roriz (also known as Tempranillo), and Touriga Franca (an indigenous grape that mixes well with Touriga Nacional) sourced from vineyards in the Lisboa region of Portugal. I found Paxis on sale for $6.99 and while this is the…
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In this podcast episode, we bring cheap to a whole other level with the Lindeman’s Bin 65 Chardonnay 2017 Listen in to see if real cheap is just too cheap.
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Meritage Napa Valley Lot #176 2015 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive, it’s a Red blend with Merlot as the main grape, followed by Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Verdot, Cabernet Franc, and Malbec sourced from vineyards in the Napa Valley of Northern California. The word Meritage is a combination of merit and heritage…
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The Claire Patelin Cotes de Gascogne Sauvignon Blanc 2017 is a $5.99 Trader Joe’s import exclusive sourced from vineyards in the Cotes de Gascogne area of southwest France. The Cotes de Gascogne shares a boundary with the Armagnac AOP which has been a premier Brandy region for 700 years. The Cotes de Gascogne is primarily a White…
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The Colossal Reserva Red 2015 is a blend of 30% Touriga Nacional (probably the #1 Red grape of Portugal), 30% Syrah, 30% Tinta Roriz (known as Tempranillo in Spain), and 10% Alicante Bouschet sourced from Casa Santos Lima estate vineyards in the Lisboa wine region of Portugal. The Colossal Reserva is something of a rare wine,…
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The Mionetto Rose’ Extra Dry is a proprietary blend of red grapes sourced from vineyards in both the Veneto and Trentino grape growing regions in northern Italy. Mionetto (founded in 1887) is well-known as a producer of Prosecco, but the Rose’ Extra Dry is not a Prosecco. A Prosecco is a very specific thing, it is…
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