Cheap wines that are SCARY cheap but super surprising
The Story The Susana Balbo Crios Torrontés 2017 is sourced from vineyards in 2 regions of Argentina, the Uco Valley in Mendoza (the middle of Argentina) and Cafayate in Salta (Northwest Argentina). Both regions are high up in the foothills (1,700 meters or almost 5,600 feet above sea level). The high altitude is inhospitable to almost all…
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The Story The Overlake Sauvignon Blanc 2018 is a $4.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive, produced by the Nice Wine Company from vineyards in the Lake County AVA of Northern California. There actually was a Nice Wine Company, it was located in the town of Nice and they had been making wine for Trader Joe’s since at…
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The Story The 90+ Cellars Languedoc Rose’ Lot 33 2018 is an AOC designated wine sourced from grapes from several vineyards located in the foothills of the Cevennes Mountains in the Languedoc region of south central France. The grapes used in the blend are Syrah, Grenache, Mourvedre, and Cinsault, which are some of the best Red…
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The Story The Exquisite Collection Single Vineyard Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2018 is an $8.49 ALDI import exclusive. Marlborough is located on the Northwest tip of New Zealand’s South Island, most of the nationally distributed NZ Sauvignon Blanc comes from this region. There is a pecking order for the pricing of New Zealand Sauv Blancs. The…
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The Story The Cachai Chardonnay 2018 is a $3.99 Trader Joe’s import exclusive sourced from vineyards in Chile. Normally when you see wine from Chile the label will show the Central Valley or some smaller valley as place of origin, but the Chacai (translates to “catch”) just says Chile. That would lead you to believe that…
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The Story The Burlwood Extra-Dry Sparkling Wine (ALDI) is a $4.99 non-vintage ALDI exclusive made for them by a winery located in Modesto, California. ALDI does not tell us what grapes are used, at $4.99 there is no money left over for niceties like technical sheets. But an under 5 buck Sparkling wine is probably judged…
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The Story The Sierra de Viento Garnacha 2016 is sourced from vineyards in the Cariñena region of the Aragon DO in Northeast Spain. Cariñena is an old wine producing region, it was founded by the Romans. Its funny that virtually every wine producing area in Europe has a heritage that is connected to Rome and some along the…
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The Podcast The Prayers of Sinners Red is a blend of 90% Syrah and 10% Merlot sourced from vineyards in the Columbia Valley of Washington. This Red Blend is a companion wine to Prayers of Saints Chardonnay. They share a label concept. Chardonnay equals Saints, Red blend equals Sinners. But in the end everyone ends up the…
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The Story The Moonlight & Roses Coteau d’Aix en Provence Rosé 2018 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s import exclusive sourced from the Aix region of Provence in the south of France. The Coteau d’Aix AOC is located in the northwest side of Provence and is 2nd in wine production to Côtes de Provence. Not only is this region…
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The Story The Giretto Pinot Grigio 2018 is a $5.49 ALDI exclusive sourced from the Dell Venezie region of Northeast Italy. The 2018 version of the Giretto seems to be something of an upgrade. Past vintages of this Pinot Grigio were designated IGP wines, while the 2018 is a DOC wine. An IGP wine in…
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The Story The Grifone 1967 Toscana 2014 is a $5.99 Trader Joe’s wine, sourced from grapes from the Tuscany region of Italy. This wine is also known as a “Super Tuscan“, which is Sangiovese blended with French varietal grapes, in this case 10% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Syrah. There is a story about how these IGP…
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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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