Cheap wines that are SCARY cheap but super surprising
The Kirkland K Vine Rosé 2022 is a $9.99 Costco exclusive produced for them by Charles Smith of K Vintners of Walla Walla, Washington. K Vine is a label created for their Costco wines, there is currently a Chardonnay, a Rose, with a Cabernet Sauvignon soon to come. The Kirkland K Vine Rosé 2022 is…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. The Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer says this wine would sell for around $25 at a retail wine shop. A quick web check showed a 2017 vintage Cabernet Sauvignon selling in 2023 for a range of $20 to $70. Most wines,…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Syrah Wahluke Slope Organic 2021 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. This wine is 96% organic Syrah and 4% Merlot. For some reason, they do not label the Merlot grapes as organic. The wine was certified organic by California Certified Organic Farmers. The USDA requires 100% of the grapes to be…
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The Vin De Bordeaux B by Fonbadet Bordeaux 2019 sells for $7.99 at Trader Joe’s though it is widely available elsewhere, we will get to that later. It is a blend of 40% Cabernet Franc, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 30% Merlot. It is sourced from a Chateau Fonbadet vineyard that was surrounded by First Growth…
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The Trader Joe’s Petit Reserve Paso Robles Chardonnay 2021 Is a $7.99 limited exclusive wine. Usually, Trader Joe’s wine has no production notes, but this wine is featured in the Fearless Flyer so we have a few things to go on. To make a short story even shorter, Trader Joe’s says that a wine partner…
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The High Guard Chardonnay 2021 Trader Joe’s is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. It is produced for them by a family-owned winery located in Napa Valley, though the grapes are from California. A wine produced from grapes grown in California must show California as the place of origin f the grapes are not from one…
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The Quarter Cut Bourbon Barrel Malbec 2020 Aldi is a $5 Aldi wine imported from Argentina. The $5 price tag may be unique to my local Aldi, the wine seems to normally sell for $7 or $8. Wine from Argentina typically will show a vineyard location even if it is as general as the Mendoza…
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The Paton Clemente Tempranillo Crianza 2019 is a $4.99 Trader Joe’s import exclusive, sourced from vineyards in the La Mancha D.O. of central Spain. LaMancha is the largest wine-producing region in Spain and one of the largest in the world. Crianza is a Spanish wine designation, these wines must have two years of age with…
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The Purple Moon Chardonnay 2020 Trader Joe’s is a $3.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. This wine is one of TJ’s perennial wines we first reviewed the 2011 vintage, it was $3.99 9 years ago. How they keep the price the same after all these years is a small miracle. This wine along with other wines in…
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The Kirkland Bordeaux Superieur 2020 is a $6.99 Costco exclusive, a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot. The Superieur designation is a step up from plain Bordeaux wines, the best Bordeaux wines are from specific locations such as Medoc or Pomerol. Over half of the wines from Bordeaux sell for under $25. The…
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The Kirkland Russian River Pinot Noir 2021 is an $11.99 Costco reclusive made for them by winemaker Nancy Walker. Nancy has over 20 years of experience and is one of the winemakers for Vintage Wine Estates. Trader Joe’s and Aldi never offer information on who made their wines, I have fun figuring out who made…
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Trader Joe’s French Blanc de Blanc and Brut Rosé both Trader Joe’s exclusive $6.99 import Sparkling wines. The Fearless Flyer indicates that these are proprietary blends from the South of France near the Mediterranean Sea. These French Sparkling wines probably do not include Chardonnay or Pinot Noir the mainstays of Champagne Sparkling wines. It is…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Santa Barbara Syrah 2021 is a Trader Joe’s $9.99 exclusive. This Syrah is produced by the Miller Family Wine Company they are a fifth-generation wine company that owns 1,500 acres of vineyards in Paso Robles. They are also part of Thornhill Companies which own the acclaimed Bien Nacido and French Camp…
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The Dancing Flame Gran Reserva Sauvignon Blanc 2021 is a $7.99 Aldi wine made for them by Vina Luis Felipe Edwards the largest family-owned winery in Chile. The grapes are sourced from vineyards in the Leyda Valley, situated between the Andes Mountains and the Pacific Ocean. The Leyda Valley vineyards are located between 3,300 ft…
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The Mionetto Prosecco Treviso Brut is a Sparkling wine from a winery founded in 1887 in the Valdobbiadene region of Veneto which is now located inside the Prosecco DOC region of northern Italy. The winery changed to the Charmat Method in 1982. The Charmat Method is by far the main production technique used in Prosecco….
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The Big Churn Chardonnay 2021 is $6.99 at Trader Joe’s. I do not think it is a Trader Joe’s exclusive it looks like it is available at internet wine sellers for between $8 and $12. This Chardonnay is produced by Fior di Sole, a family-owned winery headquartered in Napa. They are the 10th largest winery…
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The Chateau Ste Michelle Sauvignon Blanc 2021 is sourced from multiple vineyards throughout the Columbia Valley AVA, using both estate and contracted vineyards. Chateau Ste Michelle (founded in 1954) is the largest winery in Washington. Eight of the top ten best-selling labels of Washington wine are owned by them and almost 2/3rds of the grapes…
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The Intermingle Red Blend 2020 is a $6.99 Aldi wine, a blend of Zinfandel, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from multiple vineyards in California. Aldi trademarks the Intermingle name, but the wine seems to be produced by Sutter Home wines which is part of Trinchero Family Estates and this is an award-winning wine. I don’t…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve North Coast Brut is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive non-vintage Sparkling wine produced for them by Rack and Riddle out of Healdsburg, California. Rack and Riddle is a large operation specializing in Traditional Method (Champagne-style) Sparkling wines. They make plenty of Bubbly that shows other wineries’ labels, you may not be…
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The Trader Joe’s Petit Reserve Monterey Pinot Noir 2020 is a $7.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive wine. The Petit in the name indicates a limited supply of this wine, though all Trader Joe’s Reserve wines are one-off wines. They may return the next vintage but not necessarily by the same producer. The Fearless Flyer does not…
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The Emma Reichart Dry Riesling 2021 is a $4.99 Trader Joe’s imported wine from the Rheinhessen region of Germany. Both Trader Joe’s and Aldi are German companies that are famous for their European value wine selection. Trader Joe’s knows German wine. If you think that $4.99 is too cheap for a decent bottle of wine…
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The Burlwood Cellars Brut Rosé is a $4.99 Sparkling wine from Aldi. It is produced by a wine company from Modesto, California which would seem to strongly suggest that some entity of E & J Gallo was involved. This a five-buck Bubbly that sells for $10 to $12 in states without Aldi stores. I don’t…
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The Zombie Zin is a non-vintage wine that is 95% Zinfandel and 5% Syrah sourced from vineyards in several locations in California. Zombie is a brand from Chateau Diana a family-owned and operated winery started in 1981 and is located in Sonoma. Zombie Zin may be a brand that was produced to take advantage of…
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The William Wright Monterey Pinot Noir 2020 is a $9.99 Aldi wine sourced from estate vineyards in coastal Monterey County, California. The estate in question is the Scheid Family Vineyards a large sustainably farmed family-owned wine company founded in 1972. This wine is available in Demark for the equivalent of $18. Scheid owns 12 vineyards…
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The Dearly Beloved I The Red 2020 is a $7.99 Trader Joe’s wine sourced from vineyards in California’s Central Coast AVA. There are 3 wines in the Dearly Beloved line, another Red with a different blend of grapes from California and a North Coast Chardonnay. These wines are made by Precept Wine, the largest privately…
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