11 Years of Value-Moon X Red Blend 2024

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Hey, welcome. It's Domain Dave again, uh, cheapwinefinder.com. Another uh value price for wine review. This one is a wine, uh, I'll explain, I'll give you the name and I'll explain its history. It's the Moon X Red Blend 2024. $6.99 at Trader Joe's. And I think the first time we reviewed this uh wine was 2015, which might have been the 2013 vintage, I don't know. And it was $6.99 then and $6.99 now. I don't know how that happens. Nothing is the same. So Moon X, there used to be a whole bunch. There used to be Honeymoon, VA, uh, Purple Moon, you know, whatever. Uh, they had all these different names. But the red wines, this is the red blend. Um, back in the day in 2015, it was kind of a dupe for the prisoner and me, and they had a Pinot Noir too, Miyomy, because back then, not so much today, but the prisoner was this very extracted, uh red blend. It was really rich, it was big, it was it was just a big one, and the Miomi was a really big Pinot Noir, which is kind of an oxymoron, a little bit. Pinot Noir should be liked. But nope, it and you know, and that became a style. So back then, I'm gonna take a sip of this one here just to get it going. Both those wines are far more expensive. I think the Miami was like 25, and the prisoner might have been 40. And for $6.99, you got a reasonable facsimile of what was going on with those wines, and they must have done a good job because 11 years later they're still offering this wine, and it has something rare for a Trader Joe's exclusive one. It has its own website. I mean, it doesn't say anything, but it you know, it's pictures and writing, you know. I don't know what you get from it all, but there you are. And what you get is still an extracted red blend. Um, Google AI says the the grapes could possibly be, because over the years it's changed. Zinfandel, Syrah, Merlot. Don't know what's in this one. Um, and since it is kind of um it's made in a way that there's a lot of chocolate, um, maybe some vanilla, some a little bit of spice, not a lot of tannins. Take another sip. Chocolate and vanilla are flavors that will come from toasted American oak barrels. Though at $6.99, I don't know if they actually use toasted American oak barrels. Don't know. Um, there's other ways, you know, that there's other ways to getting the oak flavor in. But it has some real oak flavor. Um, higher-end red wines would probably more likely have French oak, which is different species in American oak, and and maybe because it's American wine, they might have a you know, a certain amount of French, amount of uh American, just to blend all those flavors in, because American wine drinkers do like the American oak flavors. I mean the rest of the world, well, not since they don't like it, because there's a lot of American oak in Spain and Italy. So it's um so it's it it usually a lot of American oak kind of implies that it is not a high-end wine, but you know, that's in the eye of the beholder, right? I mean, it's if you like it, it's then it's high-end, you know. You know, you you don't we don't like low-end wine, not us. This is an easy sipper. Um, doesn't have much tannins, it's got rounded flavors. Nothing jumps out. This is actually a fairly balanced wine. I don't remember what the 2015 was. I do remember that it tasted good and that it was kind of back in the day when everything was because in 2015 there were still Shiraz wines with 16% alcohol, and Zinfandels were the spiciest things you could ever find. Things have calmed down since then. But this one's still rich and creamy, and it's more balanced for the style. I mean, you probably wouldn't, you know, call it a balanced wine, but for the style, it's nicely balanced. I keep on taking sips. Uh pairing, uh this is this is comfort food. I mean, um you're talking Chipotle, uh burrito or burrito bowls, you're talking from Chicago, an Italian beef. You got a pizza? This will you know, this isn't uh Italian red, but it will do. And uh and it would cut through. I mean, this there's enough acidity balanced acidity that would cut through flavors and help you with the next sip. So for $6.99, after all these years, they're doing something right. So there you are, the Moon X red blend. Sometimes they call it the dark red blend, but here's just a red blend. So adios keep it cheap. I've got a couple of GSMs coming up. Uh uh a Paso Robles and a Rhone Valley one. We'll do a kind of well, we're not gonna do them side by side, but we'll do them in the next couple next couple days or so. So adios keep it cheap. This was a fun wine, it's been around forever, and it oh, it's still satisfied. So adios, keep it cheap. Bye bye.