The Story The Peaks and Tides Sonoma Coast Chardonnay 2018 is a $9.99 ALDI exclusive sourced from vineyards along the Pacific Coast in Northern California. The Peaks and Tides brand also have a Cabernet Sauvignon and I think I saw a Pinot Noir. The Sonoma Coast runs from above San Francisco all the way to…
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The Story The Aria Pinot Noir Brut Cava is a non-vintage Bubbly from the Penedes region of Catalunya, near Barcelona in Eastern Spain. Aria is part of the Segura Viudas family of Sparkling wines. Segura Viudas is in turn part of the Freixenet group that includes Mionetto Prosecco and Gloria Ferrer wines. Cava is produced…
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The Story The 19 Crimes Snoop Cali Red 2019 is a blend of mostly Petite Sirah and then Zinfandel sourced from vineyards in California. 19 Crimes are one of Treasury Wine Estates’ family of almost 50 wine brands. They seem to concentrate on Australian Brands but have a very solid American portfolio. The name 19…
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The Story The Fallen Bridge Lodi Zinfandel 2017 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. That is about all the information available for this Zin. The company that made the wine, Sonoma Bespoke, is a custom private-label winery. They make wines for stores and restaurants across the country. If you are in a 7/11 and see…
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The Story The Pico Viejo Reserva Chardonnay 2019 is a $7.99 ALDI exclusive sourced from grapes grown in vineyards located in the Uco Valley of Argentina. The Uco Valley is not actually a valley, it is high plains that butt up against the Andes Mountains. The Uco Valley is one of the best-growing regions in…
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The Story The Liquid Light Sauvignon 2018 is a wine brand from Chateau Ste Michelle’s family of wines sourced from grapes of 68% Horse Heaven Hills AVA and 32% Yakima AVA of Washington State. Chateau Ste Michelle is by far the largest winery in Washington and according to several winemakers I have talked to over…
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The Story The Summer Water Rose‘ 2019 is a blend of 85% Grenache and 15% Syrah sourced from vineyards in the Central Coast AVA of California. This Rose’ is made in the style of French Provence Rose’. Summer Water is one of the Winc family of wines. Winc is a wine membership company, you pay…
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The Story The Tourner Sparkling Brut is a $6.99 ALDI exclusive produced in the Traditional Method from grapes grown in California. And that is just about everything I know about this Bubbly. The back label has a few words concerning tasting notes, but nothing that would give clues as to the grapes used. The number…
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The Podcast Story Ok, with all the turmoil 2020 has brought us, complaining about the lack of useful information available on a wine bottle label seems a bit shallow. But after being cooped up in the Cheapwinefinder Covid-19 bunker all these months any distraction from current events is a welcome respite. So, listen to Dave…
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The Story The VINTJS Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 2018 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive sourced, like the name says, from the Sonoma Coast AVA located along the Pacific Coast of Sonoma County. The AVA border goes far enough inland to include some of the Russian River AVA. I was in Trader Joe’s looking for…
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The Story The Opaline Sparkling Pinot Noir Brut Rose is a non-vintage $7.99 Trader Joe’s wine imported from France. That is the bulk of the information concerning this Bubbly. The label says Product of France which does not narrow wines’ origin down to any great extent. The Opaline does have a very nice bottle. The…
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The Story The Hyland Estates Old Vine Pinot Noir 2018 is sourced from the Hyland Vineyard which was planted in 1971. The Hyland Vineyard is situated in the foothills of Oregon’s Coast Range inside the McMinnville sub-AVA of the greater Willamette Valley AVA. It is one of the oldest and finest vineyards in the Willamette…
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The Story The Fetzer Shaly Loam Gewurztraminer 2018 is sourced from vineyards in the Monterey AVA of California’s Central Coast AVA. Shaly Loam is a type of soil associated with farmland since we are not told exactly where the vineyards are mentioning the type of soil without a vineyard location is being very specific and…
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The Story The Petit Bourgeois Loire Sauvignon Blanc 2019 is an IGP Valle de Loire wine (the back label calls this a “table wine” which is a designation below IGP). It is the entry-level Sauvignon Blanc from Famille Bourgeois and winemaking family that has been producing wine in the Loire Valley for ten generations. They…
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The Podcast With this podcast, we at Cheapwinefinder.com discuss getting started drinking French wine. With all the different wine regions and classifications, it can get very confusing. We try to keep it simple, most of the grapes used are familiar to American wine drinkers, such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon Blanc. But…
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The Podcast Cheapwinefinder Talks about Trader Joe’s & Aldi Wine. With this podcast, we explain why we often choose wines from Trader Joe’s and Aldi. Why we like most of their wines, why they are different from retail wine shops, and what they are so inexpensive. I won’t write much more since this a podcast…
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The Story The Antoine Delaune Beaujolais Villages 2018 is a $6.99 ALDI import exclusive. ALDI (both ALDI North Trader Joe’s in America and ALDI South) is a German company with stores thru out Europe the US and Australia and has over 10,000 stores which give them tremendous buying power. In Europe, Great Britain, and Ireland…
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The Story The Loudenotte Pinot Noir Pays d’Oc 2018 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s import exclusively sourced from grapes from the south of France. The Oc in Pays d’Oc refers to Occitania which runs from the border with Spain to the Rhone Valley to the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean. The wines from this region are…
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The Story The Kingsley Sparkling Brut Rose‘ is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s Sparkling wine made in the Traditional Method by Rack and Riddle. That is all I know about this Bubbly, but that might be enough. The first thing to note is that $6.99 for a Traditional Method Sparkling wine is crazy cheap. The Traditional…
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In this episode Quake chats clones, guitars, Alexa, and Chardonnay – the Wente Single Vineyard (Riva Ranch) Chardonnay 2018. Wente is the First Family of Chardonnay, and they’re doing something pretty cool – a virtual wine tasting app for your Amazon Echo or Google Home device. So why should we tell you all about this…
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The Story The High Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2018 is a single vineyard (Betsy’s Vineyard) located in the High Valley sub-AVA of the Lake County AVA which is directly north of Napa. High Valley is one of Shannon Ridge’s family of wines. Shannon Ridge is owned by Clay Shannon who farms several thousand acres of vineyards….
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In this episode, we chat with the folks over at Everledger about the emerging wine tech that not only prevents fraud, but can create a direct relationship between producers & us winos! Did you know one third of the booze out there is fake or mislabeled? There’s such stringent rules in place to be sure…
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The Story The Trader Joe’s Reserve Anderson Valley Pinot Noir is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. Anderson Valley is located in coastal Mendocino and is situated between two mountain ranges. Two more things to note are this the 2018 vintage and is Lot #201. Anderson Valley has a growing reputation for the production of fine…
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The Story The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Napa Chardonnay 2018 Lot 85 is a $12.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer says “expect to pay twice as much elsewhere for a similarly pedigreed Napa Chardonnay.” And they called this wine producer their winery partner. That sounds about right, if a winery from Napa releases…
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The Story PPE, six-foot social distancing, lockdown, masks, wash your hands every time you touch something, cross the street when you see someone walking towards you, so much for your favorite pub or restaurant, and stand in line to enter the grocery store, the so-called new reality. Well, we have our XLR microphones and our…
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