The Trader Joe’s Reserve Napa Valley Chardonnay 2019 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. This wine seems to come from a producer, ABJ WInes, who I believe is owned by someone who sold their Napa vineyard and winery to produce custom-label wines. This person has extensive connections in Napa, and that is a good sign…
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The Violet House Monterey Red Blend 2019 is a $7.99 ALDI wine made by a family-owned winery in Monterey that makes most of the Monterey AVA wines for ALDI and Trader Joe’s. We reviewed the 2017 vintage of the blend exactly two years ago, and that version sold for $8.99 and featured a spooky/odd illustration…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Wahluke Slope Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s wine, 93% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 7% Merlot sourced from the Wahluke Slope AVA in the south-central section of the Columbia Valley AVA of Washington. This wine was produced and bottled by (that indicates they made the wine) by CC Vineyards of…
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The Witches Brew Pumpkin Spice Apple Wine is a fruit wine I found at Trader Joe’s for $6.99. Made by Leelanau Cellars of Northern Michigan who have been producing fruit wines since 1974. They produce three versions of Witches Brew, a sweet Red Blend (made from grapes), and spiced apple wine, and this offering. There…
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The Freakshow Red Blend 2019 is a blend of 59% Syrah, 37% Petite Sirah, and Souzao (a blending grape mainly used in making Port wine) sourced from sustainably farmed vineyards in the Lodi AVA. FreakShow is a line of wine from Michael and David Phillips, fifth-generation growers (the 6th generation is also part of the…
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The Domaine de Paris Cotes De Provence Rosé 2020 is a blend of 40% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 20% Cinsault, and 10% Carignane from vineyards in the Breban Family Estate. Cotes De Provence is the largest appellation in the Provence growing area. Close to 90% of the wine produced in Provence is Rosé. The south of…
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The Villa Antica Asolo Prosecco DOCG is a $7.99 Trader Joe’s import wine exclusive. The grapes are farmed around the village of Asolo, where the vineyards receive the top DOCG, and Conegliano and Valdobbiadene are the other two. DOCG desiganted regions inside of Prosecco. Most of the vineyards in Prosecco are rated DOC, with the…
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Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Russian River Pinot Noir 2020 is an exclusive wine of $12.99 Trader Joe’s. This Pinot was produced for Trader Joe’s by MWK Wine Consulting, a private label winemaker. This wine is 100% Pinot Noir, which is nice to see when Petite Sirah and Syrah are added to give Pinot Noir some…
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The Pine Ridge Chenin Blanc Viognier 2020 is 80% Chenin Blanc and 20% Viognier. The Chenin Blanc is sourced from ten plots in contracted growers in the Clarksburg AVA; the Viognier uses vineyards in the Lodi AVA. Both Clarksburg and Lodi are situated inside the greater Central Valley AVA. The bulk of California wines come…
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The Game Day Rosé 2020 is a $6.99 ALDI wine. ALDI typically owns the trademark to their brand names, but that is not the case here. The producer’s name, Cattlemen Ridge Wine, is owned by a large family-owned winery headquartered in Greenfield in Monterey, California. The Greenfield winery makes several wines for ALDI and Trader…
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The Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Napa Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 is a $14.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. This is a blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Petit Verdot sourced somewhere in Napa Valley. Trader Joe’s says, “This is a very, very, very (very) special wine that comes from one of the most prestigious wineries in Napa.”…
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The Michael and David Petite Petit 2019 is 85% Petite Sirah, and 15% Petit Verdot sourced from vineyards in the Lodi AVA of California. This is technically a Petite Sirah single varietal wine since more than 75% of this wine is Petite Sirah. But the Petite Petit name is more fun. Michael and David Phillips…
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The Santa Rita 120 Sauvignon Blanc 2020 is a wine sourced from vineyards in the Central Valley of Chile. The Central Valley is an Intermediate Depression between the Andes Mountains and the Coastal Mountain Range. The Santa Rita Winery was founded in 1880, and their 120 brand of wines (which has been around for 50…
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The Tanner Park Carneros Chardonnay 2019 is $9.99 for Trader Joe’s wine. In doing what research you can do on a Trader Joe’s wine, it seems that the Tanner Park brand may be an older defunct brand, and Trader Joe’s is reusing the name. This Chardonnay uses grapes grown on the Sonoma side of the…
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The Grifone Primitivo 2020 is a $4.99 Trader Joe’s import exclusive sourced from vineyards in Puglia, the heel of Italy’s boot. The Primitivo grape and the Zinfandel grape are two separate clones of a grape from Croatia named Crljenak Kasteljanski. That grape is extremely obscure, so, amazingly, it found its way to Italy and California,…
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The Gruet Sauvage Rosé Bubbly is 100% Pinot Noir produced from grapes grown in New Mexico, Washington, and California. The Sauvage is a French word meaning wild and free, outside of modern society, something in its natural state. This Bubbly is a no dosage Sparkling wine. The dosage is typically the last production detail performed…
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The Louis Jadot 2020 Mâcon-Villages Chardonnay is sourced from vineyards in the Mâconnais region of Burgundy in France. Chardonnay is THE grape of this area in southern Burgundy. For reference, Beaujolais is the southernmost region of Burgundy and Champagne in the north. Loius Jadot has been in the wine business since the 1850s. They traditionally purchased…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Dry Creek Zinfandel 2020 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. TJ’s sells many versions of these Reserve wines every year. They are wines sourced from vineyards in high-end AVAs that sell at a bargain price. You never get much information on the wine, so just how exclusive these vineyards are never…
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The Trader Joe’s Petit Reserve Central Coast Rosé 2020 is a $7.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. The Petit Reserve designation indicates that this is a one-time deal with limited quantities. These Trader Joe’s Reserve wines are California versions of French Negociant wines. A Negociant buys leftover or excess wine from wineries and sells them under their…
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The Estancia Monterey Pinot Noir 2018 is another wine brand that was a part of Constellation Brands sale of its value-priced wines to E and J Gallo. The sale was finalized in early 2021, so these brands will not be fully Gallo wines until the 2021 vintage. These are brands that are currently caught in…
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The Chateau Ste Michelle Chardonnay 2019 is sourced from various vineyards in the Columbia Valley of Washington State. This is a wine that you should find for around ten bucks; I purchased a bottle for $8.99 on sale. The Columbia Valley comprises the vast majority of Washington’s vineyards, and there are 11 different sub-AVAs inside…
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The Tailslide Pinot Noir 2019 is a $6.99 ALDI wine, and that is all I know about this wine. If you go to this link and search by Tailslide, you will find out which winery produced the wine. Since the winery name is not on the bottle, I do not like to say that this…
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The Franciscan Monterey Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 is a wine with a very particular story. The Franciscan winery was founded in the 1970s, started with humble beginnings, and rose to become a well-respected winery. Over the years, ownership has changed hands several times, and the last change is the subject of this story. Franciscan Estates is…
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The Brancott Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2020 is the first winery to plant Sauvignon Blanc grapes in the Marlborough Region of New Zealand’s South Island. In 1973 the Montana Winery (now Brancott Estates) planted the first Sauv Blanc vineyard, and by 1979 they had their first wine. The rest, as they say, is history. Brancott Estates…
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The Prophecy Pinot Noir 2019 is an $11 or $12 wine available at supermarkets and wine shops. The Prophecy brand is one of E and J Gallo’s large family of wines. The first thing of interest you notice about these wines is the labels designed by Victo Ngai, a talented illustrator from Hong Kong. She…
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