Cheap wines that hover right around twenty bucks
The Skull Red Wine 2021 is organic and blends 60% Zinfandel, 30% Petite Sirah, and 10% Mission sourced from Mendocino and Santa Barbara vineyards. This brand is from Patrick Cappiello (who owns Monte Rio Cellars) and Pax Mahle (Pax Wines). Patrick Cappiello is an ex-skate punk, hence the Skull imagery, and an award-winning Sommelier who…
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The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2022 Lot 124 is a $12.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. Unlike most Trader Joe’s Reserve wines, we know who produced this Pinot Noir. The back label says this wine was: Produced and Bottled” by DW Hinman Cellars. Doyle Hinman planted his first grapes in 1972 and by…
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The Elouan Oregon Chardonnay 2020 is one of the brands from Copper Cane, the wine company owned by Joe Wagner who is part of the Wagner family of Caymus fame. Joe Wagner is the son and you should know him from Meiomi wines which he founded and sold for 1/3 of a billion dollars. The…
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The Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Carneros Pinot Noir 2021 is a $14.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. There was a 2020 Vintage TJ’s Platinum Reserve Carneros Pinot which also sold for $14.99. This seems to be a reoccurring Thanksgiving wine. The Carneros AVA is located on the San Pablo Bay, east of Oakland, and about half of…
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The Cameron Hughes Russian River Pinot Noir 2018 Lot 947 is a Nogociant wine, you should be able to find it for around $19. A negociant is a French wine company that goes to wineries and makes a deal to buy excess wine. It is all very hush-hush, nobody is to know who the winery…
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The Mumm Napa Blanc de Blanc is a Bubbly that lists at $26 but should be available for under $20 during the holiday season. Mumm Napa is the California division of C.H. Mumm, a Champagne house founded in 1827. In 1983 they started producing Sparkling wines in Napa under the Domaine Mumm name which was…
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The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir 2021 is a $12.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. In January of 2022, Trader Joe’s offered the Platinum Reserve SLH Pinot Noir. That wine sold for $14.99 and if you click on the link you will find that we thought it had too much alcohol and wasn’t…
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The Cannonball California Sauvignon Blanc 2022 is a wine I found selling at a local wine shop for $11.99. Cannonball Wine was founded in 2016 with the mission goal of making “the best California Cabernet under $20“, they have since branched out to include Melot, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon Blanc. The Cannonball California Sauvignon Blanc 2022…
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The Aldi Specially Selected Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 is a $14.99 Aldi exclusive. The back label says Isolated Cellars bottled this wine, which is the least important factor for wine drinkers. There is no mention of exactly who produced the wine and exactly where the grapes are grown, Napa Valley is a large growing…
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The Kirkland Signature Napa Valley Red Blend 2021 is a $10.99 Costco exclusive. Costco often names the producer of their Signature wines, but not here. This is a Bordeaux Blend with 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot, 10% Malbec, 6% Cabernet Franc, and 3% Petit Verdot. Carmenere is the other Bordeaux-approved Red grape, but it is…
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The Aldi Specially Selected Valdobbiadene Extra Dry Prosecco 2022 is a $10.99 Aldi exclusive, it is part of 10 wines in the Specially Selected series featuring wines from all over the world. Here is a link to their French Sparkling wine LINK. Aldi does not offer any details on the wines, such as why they…
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The Aldi Specially Selected Fleurs D’Eau Sparkling Brut Rosé is a $10.99 Aldi exclusive, it has been available at European Aldi stores for several months and has been well received. Basic information such as where exactly the grapes came from (location is significant for French wine), which grapes were used, and which Sparkling wine method…
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The Z Alexander Brown Uncaged Proprietary Red Blend 2020 is a wine I found for $12 at a local wine shop. It is a collaboration between musician Zac Brown and John Killebrew, the winemaker for Delicato Family Vineyards, the makers of Gnarly Head and Coppola wines. Proprietary Blend indicates that the blend is unique to…
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The Peaks & Tides Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 is a $11.99 Aldi exclusive. There is a Chardonnay and a Pinot Noir from the Sonoma Coast AVA from Peaks and Tides. The Peaks and Tide’s name is more reflective of the Sonoma Coast AVA than Sonoma County since the is located in Coastal Mountain Valleys….
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The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Sta. Rita Hills Chardonnay 2021 is a $12.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. TJ’s at one time had a chart that said that this tier of Reserve wine is equal in quality to this price range of retail wine. They no longer publish those claims, but a Grand Reserve wine should to…
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The ranga.ranga. Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2022 is a single vineyard (Waverley Vineyard) located in the bluffs overlooking Blind River in the Awatere Valley in southwest Marlborough on New Zealand’s South Island. Barker’s Marque Wines is an independently owned winery that produces ranga.ranga, their “old school” Sauvignon Blanc. ranga.ranga is the Maori word for “gentle breeze”…
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The Angels and Cowboys Sonoma Rosé 2022 is a wine I found on sale for $11.99 and a quick check of the web showed prices from $14 to $17. Angels and Cowboys is a brand from Share a Splash Wine Company which also has Cannonball and Astrolabe brands. This is a Rosé made with a…
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The Doña Paula Estate Blue Edition Velvet Red Blend 2021 is $10.99 at Costco and $14 to $29 elsewhere. This wine is a blend of 60% Malbec, 30% Pinot Noir, and 10% Bonarda sourced from the Doña Paula Estate El Alto Vineyard (3,445 feet up in the Andes foothills of the Ugarteche sub-region of the Luján…
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The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2021 is a $12.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. The Dry Creek Valley first planted Zinfandel vines in the 1870s, phylloxera hit the California vineyards in the 1890s and destroyed most of the vines. The vineyards were replanted and several of those ancient (by grapevine standards) are still…
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The Mumm Napa Brut Prestige is a blend of 45% Chardonnay, 45% Pinot Noir, and the other 10% is a mix of Pinot Gris (White) and Pinot Meunier (Red). This Bubbly is produced in the Traditional Method or Champagne style. The second fermentation or triage lasted for a minimum of 18 months. GH Mumm started…
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The 19 Crimes Snoop Dogg Cali Red 2021 is a wine I found at a local big box wine shop selling for $11.99. Most 19 Crimes wines feature wine from Australia, but the Snoop Dogg line and the Martha Stewart Chardonnay are sourced from California and this Red is from the Lodi AVA. The blend…
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The Amuse Bouche Pet-Nat 2022 is a $11.99 Trader Joe’s wine made for them by Pierre and Antonin who produce natural wines in the Languedoc region of France. Pet-Nat is short for Pétillant Naturel which is a very old method of producing Sparkling wine. It is also called the Ancestral Method. A simple explanation of…
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The Kirkland Signature Series Columbia Valley Red Wine 2021 is a $16.99 Costco exclusive. The grapes are sourced from high-end vineyards in the Walla Walla AVA, the Waluke Slope AVA, and the Horse Heaven Hills AVA. The blend is Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah. The Kirkland Signature Series wines are unique. The concept is simple,…
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The McClean Vineyards Love Red Blend is a non-vintage Red Blend that sells for $13.89 at Costco. The price on the internet varies from $15 to $27. McClean Vineyards no longer has a webpage and they have not updated their social media in 6 months to over a year. This wine seems like a close-out…
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The Federalist Ben Franklin Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 is a wine I found for $10.99 and the prices on the internet range from $10 to $20. This wine is over 90% Cabernet Sauvignon with small amounts of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Sirah, and Sangiovese added. This is a brand from Terlato WInes which is the company…
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