The Story The Domaine de la Prébende Beaujolais 2017 is a AOP Beaujolais Villages designated Gamay Red wine. The actual name of this bottling is the Anna Asmaquer Beaujolais Villages 2017, but you will only find this in small print on the back label. Anna is the Great Grandmother of the winemaker, Ghislaine Dupeuble, of Domaine Dupeuble…
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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 Nick Goldschmidt Fidelity Alexander Valley Railroad Estate Zinfandel 2017 is 88% Zinfandel and 12% Petite Sirah sourced from the Railroad Estate vineyard in Alexander Valley, Sonoma, California. Nick Goldschmidt is the head of a vineyard and winemaking family, everyone get involved, including the children. They have vineyards and wineries in New Zealand,…
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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 Villa Sandi ilFresco Brut Prosecco is a DOC classified non-vintage Bubbly, 85% Glera, 15% Chardonnay & Pinot Blanc sourced from the Treviso region of Veneto (Venice) in Northeast Italy. Villa Sandi has been a wine estate since 1622, though Prosecco, as we know it today, has only been around for a little over 100 years. The…
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The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Santa Lucia Highland Pinot Noir Lot 80 2017 is 100% Pinot Noir exclusive Trader Joe’s $12.99 wine sourced from a vineyard or vineyards from a very high-end exclusive Pinot Noir growing area in Monterey County, California. Here is a Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve from Carneros. The Santa Lucia Highlands are located on…
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The Prayers of the Saints Chardonnay 2017 is 100% Chardonnay sourced from vineyards in Washington State. I have noticed that wine that once had Columbia Valley as the place of origin on the label now say Washington State, they must be looking to promote Washington since the Columbia Valley produces 99% of the wine in Washington….
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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 Dark Horse Brut Sparkling Wine is a non-vintage Chardonnay based Bubbly sourced from grapes grown in more than one California grape growing/wine-producing AVA. Dark Horse is one of E & J Gallo’s (the largest family owned winery in the US) many wine labels, here are links to our posts on Dark Horse Double Down Red and…
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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 Carpe Diem Anderson Valley Chardonnay 2015 is 100% Chardonnay sourced from vineyards in the Anderson Valley AVA (about 100 miles north of San Francisco) which runs along the Pacific Coast of Mendocino County in Northern California. Carpe Diem is a joint project between the winemakers of Roederer Estate (the Champagne House’s California holdings in Mendocino) who…
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The Erath Oregon Pinot Noir 2016 is sourced from vineyards all over Oregon, the Willamette Valley AVA is the one that everyone knows, but there is also the Rogue Valley AVA and the Umpqua Valley AVA. Erath Winery is one of the Chateau Ste Michelle family of wines and this is their “Taste of Oregon” Pinot…
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The Barons De Rothschild Légende Bordeaux Blanc 2017 is 70% Sauvignon Blanc and 30% Sémillon sourced from Rothschild vineyards in the Entre-Deux-Mers AOC region, a mostly White grape growing area of Bordeaux. If you are new to White Bordeaux wine, the main grape is Sauvignon Blanc that is often blended with Sémillon and occasionally other White grapes….
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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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Quake & Dave Drink Duckhorn Decoy Red Blend 2016 and talk about Chinese science beakers, bacon fat, and ducks
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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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Left Bank or Right Bank? What’s the difference? Listen is as we tell you all about our UGCB (l’Union des Grands Crus de Bordeaux) tasting!
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Quake & Dave Find The Perfect Valentine’s Day Wine, Sexual Chocolate Red Blend, That Is Both A Hedonistic Delight And A Shout-out To Eddie Murphy’s Movie, Coming To America. So If You Make Valentine’s Day A Bottle Of Wine And A Movie Night, We Got You Covered !
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Quake and Dave Go To A Wine Tasting (oh, how unusual) and discuss their experience and Store Wine Tasting in general. Today we visited the The Wine Cellar of Palatine and Garfield’s, also in Palatine, Illinois.
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Quake and Dave figure out that when you compare “cheap” wine with other adult beverages cheap wine ain’t so cheap!
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Quake and Dave start off talking about the Sparkling Wines of the Asti Region in Italy, and the discussion heads off to points unknown
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Trader Joe’s Brut Champagne..60% Pinot Meunier 40% Pinot Noir… Family Owned Small Production Real-Deal Champagne…. $21.99
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