Run Don’t Walk-TraderJoe’s Platinum Reserve Stags Leap Cabernet Sauvignon 2023

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TraderJoe’s Platinum Reserve Stags Leap Cabernet Sauvignon 2023

Stags Leap District is a very exclusive AVA.

Value-priced wines are definitely not the norm.

One of the wineries won the Judgment of Paris award for Cabernet Sauvignon in 1976!

These wines are the real deal.

And now, in 2026, these wines can be value-priced!

Buy them now and figure it out later.

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Hey, welcome. It's Domain Dave, cheapwinefinder.com. Another one of our many in a series, value price wine reviews. And we kind of kind of got a theme going here. We had a uh Costco Stag's Leap Um Cabernet Sauvignon Subs Stag's Leap District. You gotta say that. There is a Stag's Leap winery that is in the Stag's Leap District. And you have to differentiate because we I don't know if any of these are actually from the winery or just from different wineries in the district. So um we just had a Costco one that was $19.99, and today we've got the Trader Joe's Platinum Reserve Stag's Leap District, Gabonet Sauvignon, uh 2023 at $17.99. It's a couple of bucks cheaper. So there we go. So the uh Stag's Leap is a very, very high-end uh AVA in Napa. Stag's Leap the Winery. Um their Cabernet won the um Judgment of Paris wine competition in 1976, and has been a superstar ever since. And what do we have here? This is not probably not from Stag's Leap District. Man, I have no indication that it is from any of the uh any of the wineries there or the growers. I mean, I don't know who made it. It's good. One of the interesting notes on the back is that it um back label says isolated cellars, Napa, cellared and bottled the wine. Cellared and bottled means they bottled it. No more, no less. I mean, um somebody else made the wine. And isolated cellars is the negotiant arm of um precept. Precept changed their name recently, and I off the top of my head I can't remember what it is. But if you've been following our wines, precept has been making wines for both Brater Joe's, uh Costco, and I imagine they have some for Aldi too. And they have their own labels there, they're good. A negotiant is someone who buys surplus wine and sells it under their own label. Um in this case, it would be Brater Joe's own label. They don't have to just simply buy someone's wine, completed wine, and put a new label on it. They can buy wine from multiple people and blend it. They can get uh they can buy the wine right after it's fermented and then age it themselves. They can do a whole slew of different things. So um that's what we kind of expected. You know, you no uh at uh no today. No Staggs Lee District wine was ever made to be $17.99. You can get high uh top dollar for these wines. Making one for $79 is not what it was intentionally uh made. So when we get one, it had to come from somewhere. And we I don't know. I mean, I literally I can't track it down, I have no idea. I think there's only 14 or 15 wineries in uh Stag's Leap District and maybe eight um additional growers. So, you know, everybody there is good. I mean, it's not like the grapes came from somewhere terrible. But here's the thing about uh Trader Joe's wine. This wine is featured in the Fearless Flyer. And the Fearless Flyer says something that you almost never see in a value-priced wine. It says that this wine, as of 2023, I mean, it's already uh, you know, more than halfway through 2026, could be cellared for a year or two. Value-priced wine is ready to go when it's ready, when it's released. You do if you cellar a typical $12 wine, it's not gonna be better in five years. It's just gonna be the it might be the same as before, or it might lost a little bit of his luster. Wines that are made to be cellared, and this isn't doesn't seem to be made to be cellared for 20 years, but wines that are made to be cellared have a more complex ochre barrel program. They're made in a way that brings out uh the chemicals and the grapes and the um you know the tannins that need to calm themselves down to sell them, and when you know, so the more time it takes, and you can't fake that, a value-priced wine is made in a specific way that kind of eliminates all these things that cause a wine to take more time to come together. Where a wine that's made in the more upscale, they'll take the time. This is not a wine that's made to be a value-priced wine just because we're telling you we we can sell it. You typically would not suggest cellaring a $10, $12, $15, yeah, or $17.99. Here we go. I'm gonna take another sip. It's rich. Sleek. Got some kind of cool uh kind of cool uh flavors coming up. There's some like some odd textures, there's some spicy textures. The blackberry is like really extract almost cassis. There's maybe some brown sugar, but not sweet. We're not talking sweet. Maybe more molasses. Again, not sweet. Maybe some blueberry. A hint of vanilla. Maybe two different types of spice, because it's got some edginess to it. Yeah. It's got a good length. It hits your mouth well, got a good mouthfeel. Not a $12 wine. Yeah, I don't know if this is actually a $50 wine selling for $17.99. From Atlas Peak, they're gonna have a um a higher price just because where it's from. Um I don't know if there's too many, you know, $20 Atlas Peak uh not Atlas Peak, uh, Stag's Leap wines out there. So $17.99 is not the price that these things go for. And it it's a good gib. It it has some weight to it. And a lot of um, a lot of times with the value price wines, they're kind of fun to drink and they're light and they're juicy and they're fruit forward. I like that. This one isn't really that. This is more complex and more detailed. It's got some flavors in there that go, hmm. It makes you want to ponder it a little bit. What's going on here? So it's like, what's going on here? It tastes good. So there you go, you're getting a higher priced wine. I don't know how much how much higher. But the Trader Joe's Platinum Reserve, Stag's Leap District, Gabernet Sauvignon 2023. Yeah, buy it. I mean, it's not gonna last forever. You don't get these kind of wines. And even if it's not your favorite wine, it's probably gonna be just uh an experience if you're just used to the the you know, and there's nothing wrong with the value price cabs. I like them, write about them all the time. But to go a little upscale and not have to spend upscale money, that works for me. Bye bye.

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Don’t tell anyone, but there is absolutely no correlation between the cost of wine and the quality of wine.

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