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The Motif Red Hills Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 is a Trader Joe’s $4.99 exclusive. The Red Hills AVA is located inside the Lake County AVA which is north of Napa Valley and east of Mendocino.
Clear Lake is the largest lake in California and it is situated in Lake County. The Red Hills AVA is on the southwestern shore of Clear Lake. The red from Red Hills comes from volcanic flows deposited there over ten thousand years ago.
Most of the vineyards is planted 2000 feet above sea level. During the growing season, the days are warm and the nights are cool. This warm-up cool-down cycle allows the grapes to have a long, full growing season. The volcanic soils are full of minerals and impart interesting flavors to the grapes.
I am talking about the Red Hills AVA for two reasons. The first is we also never see $4.99 Red wines come from sub-AVAs of interesting growing areas. And second, we know virtually nothing about the Motif Red Hills Cabernet Sauvignon 2020.
I looked this wine up in the California Wine Cola Public Registry and found it is registered to a Mobile Bottling company. Many wineries do not want to invest in a bottling line that they will only use for 2 weeks in the fall. Contracting with a mobile bottler allows them to pay for only the services they need.
The company also has a bonded wine storage warehouse and barrel storage. The back label says “vinted and bottled by” which suggests that someone else produced the wine and the name on the back label may have aged the wine a certain amount of time and bottled the wine.
With the wine and barrel storage facility, I would imagine that they have the opportunity to receive deals on lots of wine. Maybe this is how the Motif Red Hills Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 ended up selling for five bucks on Trader Joe’s shelves. The alcohol content is 14.5%.
The packaging and label are very attractive and do not suggest a wine selling at this low price.
The Motif Red Hills Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 Tasting Notes
The color is a deep dark raspberry jam red. The nose is blackberry, plum, dark chocolate, black pepper, a little spice, and ripe black cherry. The Motif Red Hills Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 is smooth, with ripe fruit flavors and spice.
This Cabernet Sauvignon tastes like blackberry, licorice, dusty tannins, a slap of spice, and plum, The mid-palate adds a little dark chocolate, sour cherry, and blueberry.
The Summary
- The Motif Red Hills Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 is way better than any $4.99 has a right to be.
- My favorite Cabernet Sauvignon? No. My favorite $4.99 Cabernet Sauvignon? Easily.
- This is a real Cab Sauv with tannins and real Cabernet flavor.
