Send us a text Can a $20 champagne really hold its own against the high-end bottles with posh labels? Join me, Domain Dave, as we uncork the mystery behind Costco’s Kirkland Signature Brut Champagne, crafted by none other than Manuel Janison, a winemaker with roots in the elite grand cru towns of Champagne. Despite its…
Read More
.The Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Napa Meritage 2022 is a $17.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. The back label says this wine was “vinted and Bottles by” JBA Cellars in Rutherford, California. Vinted and bottled legally means they bottled the wine and possibly did some aging, so JBA Cellars is a company set up to keep us…
Read More
Send us a text Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon 2022-Spooky Name-Not Spooky Tasting Yeah, It's October 2024, and time for Halloween Party wines. The Casillero del Diablo (Cellar of the Devil) will work as a party wine, but it isn't. This is a wine from Chile's Central Valley which is a great place for value-priced…
Read More
The Casillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon 2022 is a wine selling for $5.99 at Costco and from $8 to $12 elsewhere. Casillero del Diablo is sourced from vineyards in the Central Valley of Chile. It is a brand from Concha Y Toro a large well respected winery from Chile. The Cellar of the Devil name…
Read More
The Rosa Dell’Olmo Langhe Nebbiolo 2021 is an $8.99 Trader Joe’s imported wine sourced from the Piedmont region of Italy. This is a DOC-designated wine. Rosa Dell’Olmo is a winery or brand owned by Vite Colte a state-of-the-art winery founded in 2000 and situated in the heart of the Barolo region in Piedmont Italy. Barolo…
Read More
The Tenebres GSM 2022 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s import wine, in 2019 it sold for $5.99, and in Canada, it is priced at $19.50. It is designated an IGP. Pay d’Oc wine, Pays d”Oc indicates that this wine is sourced from the Languedoc Roussillon Wine region of southwest France. The Languedoc Roussillon region is…
Read More
Send us a Text Message. Trader Joe's Reserve Knights Valley Cabernet Franc 2021- Have U Had A Knights Valley Wine? TJ's is great for sub-AVA wines at very low prices. I learned I love Santa Barbara wine from Trader Joe's Reserve program. Knights Valley AVA is a smaller AVA featuring more boutique wineries so a…
Read More
The Trader Joe’s Reserve Knights Valley Cabernet Franc 2021 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. The back label says this wine was “vinted and bottled by” ABJ Wines. Vinted and bottled by means that whoever ABJ is bottled this wine, vinted sounds important but does not legally mean much. The Knights Valley AVA is in…
Read More
Send us a Text Message. Motif Red Hills Lake County Cabernet Sauvignon 2022-New Vintage Of TJ's Wonder $5 Red This is a $4.99 wine. Lake County is the AVA that is on the Northern border of Napa County! Red Hills is located on the southern side of Clear Lake, the largest lake in California….
Read More
The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Santa Barbara GSM 2022 is a Trader Joe’s $12.99 exclusive. A GSM wine is the main blend from the Southern Rhone Valley in France. This blend is 42% Grenache, 395 Syrah, and 19% Mourvedre. The back label says this wine was produced and bottled, which means they made it, by…
Read More
The Claire Patelin Sauvignon Blanc 2023 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s import exclusive produced from grapes grown in the Cote De Gascogne in southwest France. It was made for Trader Joe’s by LGI Wines a custom wine brand producer from France. Gascony is south of Bordeaux in the foothills of the Pyrenean mountains to the…
Read More
The Starpointe Sauvignon Blanc Semillon 2022 is a $7.99 Trader Joe’s wine produced for them by DNA Cellars from grapes grown in the Yakima Valley of Washington. DNA Cellars is located in the Russian River AVA of Sonoma County, they produce their labels and an extensive list of private labels, such as Trader Joe’s or…
Read More
Trader Joe's Platinum Reserve Cachapoal Valley Red Blend 2021- $14.99 @TJ's-$35 Elsewhere- Listen to the Podcast! This is an almost 1800s Bordeaux blend, there is no Merlot and they added Syrah. In the past few vintages, leading Wine Reviewers have given the San Pablo Sideral Red Blend 95 and 96 points. So why is the…
Read More
The Daou Paso Robles Sauvignon Blanc 2022 is a wine listed for $17 and often found for several dollars less. I found it for $15.99 at Trader Joe’s. The Daou winery is one of the premier facilities in Paso Robles (halfway between Las Angeles and San Francisco). Daou was founded in 2006 by two brothers…
Read More
Outlander Paso Robles Meritage 2022-Aldi-$8 Of Juicy Goodness If you like your California Bordeaux ripe and juicy this is your wine. It is a Blend Of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Malbec, and Merlot, the only Bordeaux-approved grape missing is Cabernet Franc. Meritage is a California organization dedicated to the research and education of Bordeaux grapes,…
Read More
The Outlander Paso Robles Meritage 2022 is a $7.99 Aldi exclusive, Aldi has trademarked the Outlander name. It is produced by a winery located in Greenfield, California, (Monterey AVA) which happens to be the home of a family-owned winery in business since 1972. A Meritage (rhymes with heritage) wine is a California wine that exclusively…
Read More
Trader Joe's Platinum Reserve Saint-Emilion 2022-The Best $15 Merlot? Saint-Emilion is a village on the Right Bank in Bordeaux and they do Merlot, between them and Pomerol they produce what may be the best Merlot in the world. American value-priced wine drinkers barely know what Merlot is. There are plenty of high-end California and Washington…
Read More
The Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Saint-Emilion 2022 is a 414.99 Trader Joe’s import exclusive. Saint-Emilion is on the Right Bank of the Garonne River in Bordeaux and along with nearby Pomerol is arguably the best place in the world to grow Merlot. The Merlot grape comprises 79% of the vines, 15% of Cabernet Franc, and…
Read More
The Aldi California Heritage Merlot is a $4.99 exclusive, produced by a branch of E & J Gallo for ALdi. This is a non-vintage wine, meaning grapes picked in different years are included in this bottling. Producers do this to keep costs down and use a more upscale wine from a previous year to “improve”…
Read More
The Aldi’s Specially Selected Napa Valley Chardonnay 2021 is a $10.99 ALd exclusive new to the Specially Selected brand as of April 2024. The Aldi Specially Selected line includes wines from premium growing regions like Napa, Rioja, Marlborough, Bordeaux, etc. Napa Valley is a large AVA, so simply showing Napa Valley as the place of…
Read More
Trader Joe's Reserve Rasteau Cru 2022-What Is A Rasteau? This is a Trader Joe's $9.99 wine that just happens to have a Cru designation. Cru is the top of French wine designations, in Bordeaux, there are First Growth wines, but in the Southern Rhone Valley, this is it. TJ's does not give any info on…
Read More
The Substance Cs Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 is a wine I found selling for $13.99 it is sourced from the Goose Ridge, Painted Hills, Badger Mountain, and the Sportfisher vineyards in the Columbia Valley of Washington State. This is a wine brand from The House of Smith wines (Charles Smith) whose stated goal for this wine…
Read More
The Kirkland Signature Sancerre 2022 is a $14.99 Costco exclusive. Sancerre is a town in the Loire Valley of France and the grape is Sauvignon Blanc. The White wine of the Loire Valley is Sauvignon Blanc, the regular affordable wines are a spring day in a bottle, pure joy to drink. The best Sauvignon Blanc…
Read More
The Kidia Estate Sauvignon Blanc 2023 is a $5.99 wine, at Trader Joe’s it sells for $5.99, it seems to be a $10 wine elsewhere. It is an Estate wine produced by Vina del Pedregal (VDP), a family-owned winery located in Loncomilla Valley in the Maule Valley of Chile. They were founded in 1825 with…
Read More
The Chateau de Gretels Prestige Cahors 2021 is a $7.99 Costco import wine and it seems to sell for about $12 in places that Costco does not serve. Cahors is a village in southwest France, the surrounding vineyards are known for growing the Malbec grape. In recent years Malbec from Argentina has become a trendy…
Read More
