Cheap wines that are SCARY cheap but super surprising
The Les Allies Blanc de Blanc Brut is a French Sparkling wine I found at a local Chicago wine shop selling for $9.99. This is a Cote d’Or wine from Burgundy, France, and is a Vin Mousseux wine meaning it was produced in a method different than the Traditional or Champagne Method. That usually means…
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The Sand Point Sauvignon Blanc 2021 is a wine I found selling for $9.99. The Sand Point brand of wine is part of the Lange Twins Family Winery and Vineyards located in Acampo, California inside the Lodi AVA. The Lange Twins are 5th generation farmers whose families started working the land in the 1870s. The…
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The Exquisite Collection Cotes de Provence Rosé 2021-Aldi is a $9.99 Aldi exclusive. This is a wine that in Aldi Europe and for a couple of years in the US sold out in a matter of hours. The 2016 vintage of this wine won an award for one of the best Provence Rosé wines in…
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The Rough And Ready Cabernet Franc Vs Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 is an $8.99 Trader Joe’s wine, but in places that don’t have a Trader Joe’s this wine sells for $15 to $18. It is a wine made for Trader Joe’s by Bozzano & Co., they have produced other quality wine for TJ’s in the past….
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Paso Robles Meritage 2021 is a $9.99 TJ’s exclusive. The back label says this Red was “vinted and bottled by Healdsburg Wine Cellars.” That is a division of Delicato Family Wines, they make Gnarlyhead wines, along with many other brands. They recently purchased Coppola WInes and also have holdings in Napa….
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The Angeline California Sauvignon Blanc Reserve 2021 is a wine I found on sale for $7.99 (Binny’s Chicago area), this vintage received 92 points from James Suckling, the leading wine reviewer. Angeline is an affordable line of wines from Martin Ray Winery (family owned since 1990) a high-end winery located in the Russian River AVA…
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The Kirkland Signature Extra Dry Prosecco Rosé 2021 is a 7.99 Costco exclusive. The traditional Prosecco grape, Glera, and Pinot Noir are used for additional flavor and color. This is an Extra Dry or slightly sweet wine, which is the way the Italians prefer it. The natural acidity balances the extra sugar, so this is…
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The Kirkland Signature Cotes de Provence Rosé 2022 is a $7.99 Costco exclusive. It is produced for Costco by Oliver Sumeire (winemaker) for Famille Sumeire a winemaking family with roots in Provence that go back to the 1200s, though the history of the modern wine business dates to the 1880s. The Cotes de Provence is…
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The Don’t Mind If I Do Pinot Grigio 2022 is Vegan-friendly. You might ask how can something made from fruit not be ok with vegans? It is the fining process, fining is where the solids, grape skin residue and spent yeast are removed from the wine after aging and before bottling. They have traditionally used…
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The Caretaker Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive bottled for them by Miller Family Wines. Bottled for them means just that, they officially bottled the wine, and who knows who did the rest. Miller Family Wines are the parent company of the Central Coast Wine Warehouse which 10 to 15…
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The Kirkland Signature K Vine Syrah 2021 is a $9.99 Costco exclusive produced especially for them by House of Smith/Charles Smith Wines from Washington State. This wine is sourced from a single vineyard, Frenchman Hills Vineyard, located in the newly formed Royal Slope AVA (2020). K Vintners has a history of making 100-point Syrah wines,…
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The Esteban Martin Garnacha Syrah 2021 is a $4.99 wine at Costco, it sells for as high as $13.99 elsewhere with the average on the web being closer to $8 or $9. Esteban Martin was founded in 2003 with a partnership of Miguel Esteban and Asuncion Martin in a winery located near the town of…
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The Kirkland Carneros Signature Pinot Noir 2021 is a $9.99 Costco exclusive by winemaker Alison Crowe. Alison is the Director of Winemaking at Plata Wine Partners, which owns 60 vineyards and farms 18,000 acres of grapes. They supply grapes for 34 of the top 30 wine companies and make wine brands. This seems to be…
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The Trader Joe’s Grower’s Reserve Red Wine 2021 is a $5.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. This wine is produced for Trader Joe’s by ASV Wines who have been in business since 1982 and own several sustainably farmed vineyards in the Central Coast AVA and an organic vineyard in southern Monterey County where they grow Cabernet Sauvignon…
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The1 is a $5.99 Trader Joe’s wine though it is available in other countries. This is an IGP-designated wine, the top rating is DOCG followed by DOC. IGP wines have less stringent growing and producing regulations and are often sourced from vineyards in more generic growing regions. Aglianico is said to be one of the…
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The Vino Columbia Valley Pinot Grigio 2020 is a wine that should be found for around $10, I saw prices as high as $13 and I found it for $8.99. It is a brand from Charles Smith/House of Smith Wines. The full name of this wine is Vino CasaSmith and these wines are Italian varietals…
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The Woodleaf Ranch Russian River Chardonnay 2020 is a $9.99 Aldi exclusive. I checked the California wine labeling website COLA and it showed that Rack and Riddle cellared and bottled this Chardonnay. Cellared and bottled means just that, they aged the wine for a certain amount of time and bottled it, but the named producer…
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The Trader Joe’s Grower’s Reserve Organic California Chardonnay 2022 is a $5.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. It is produced for Trader Joe’s, or at least “vinted and bottled by”, ASV Wines. ASV Wines is a family-owned winery in business since 1981 and they own 1,500 acres of vineyards. Vinted and bottled by does not indicate that…
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The 3 Rein Never Tame Red Blend 2020 is a $7.99 Aldi exclusive. It was produced for Aldi by Precept Wines the largest privately owned wine company in the Northwest and it uses grapes farmed in the Columbia Valley AVA of Washington. That is the extent of what we know about this wine. The back…
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The Tuatea Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2022 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s wine. This wine is imported to the US by WX Imports. It seems this wine sells in places where there is no Trader Joe’s for $13.99. CWF reviewed the 2017 vintage Tuatea and the Fearless Flyer back then mentioned his wine had some oak…
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The Don’t Mind If I Do Red Blend 2021 is a $7.99 Aldi sort of exclusive. It is a wine that has zero sugar, 85 calories, is gluten-free, and has only 9% alcohol content. It is made for Aldi by Scheid Vineyards and family-owned operation located on the Monterey AVA. The reason I say that…
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The Peaks And Tides Sonoma Coast Chardonnay 2021 is a $9.99 Aldi exclusive. The Peaks and Tides name is owned by Aldi, but the back label says it was vinted and bottled by a wine company in Geyserville, California. A quick check of the web showed this wine is credited to Delicato Family Vineyards who…
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The Domaine Condorcet Chateauneuf du Pape 2021 was found at Aldi for $9.99, it originally sold for $24.99 which was Aldi’s most expensive wine. A Chateauneuf-du-Pape wine is a Red blend from the southern Rhone Valley in France. It translates to the Pope’s new Chateau or in the 1300s, Castle. The Pope did not always…
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The Motif Red Hills Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 is a Trader Joe’s $4.99 exclusive. The Red Hills AVA is located inside the Lake County AVA which is north of Napa Valley and east of Mendocino. Clear Lake is the largest lake in California and it is situated in Lake County. The Red Hills AVA is on…
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The Gearbox Pinot Noir 2020 is $5.99 at Trader Joe’s. This is a wine that had retailed for an average of $15 at wine retailers, though it seems that there has been a recent price reduction occurring. So this may be a wine close-out. The Gearbox Pinot Noir 2020 is produced by Precision Wine Company,…
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