Check us out at http://www.cheapwinefinder.com
or email us at [email protected]
Speaker 1
0:07
Welcome it's Domain , dave , chief of Winefindercom . With the first review of 2025 , year 16 for us . Yeah , we've been drinking a lot of wine and we're starting out the Trader Joe's wine , out the Trader Joe's wine For old time's sake . Trader Joe's in the early days , and in the middle days too , were some of the best places to find wine . They seem to have fallen off lately , but they have . Today we got the Trader Joe's Grand Reserve Russian River Pinot Noir 2023 . This is a release that comes out every so often . I think I left a link for the 2020 vintage , which we reviewed .
Speaker 1
0:50
That was a different um producer who made that for them . This , this one , is dna sellers . Dna sellers has made a lot of trader joe's wines over the years still make them , but they had a list of all the wines they made on their website . I got a link to that on the website and I was like , oh my , some of my favorite Trader Joe's exclusive brands were from DNA Cellars , that's DNA's Dennis and Andrea . They have 40 years experience . Well , dennis has 40 years , andrea has 25 . And they've been making wine for you know , ever . And I think they actually own a vineyard in the russian river valley , though I don't think this is theirs . Theirs is a certified organic or no certified . It's a family farm . There's no , there's no certification on the bottle , so so this must be . What must this be ? It says cellared and bottled by DNA Vineyards . Cellared and bottled by basically means they bottled it and then they set it aside for a while , because after you bottle the wine , it comes out of the barrel , into the machine , pumped into it , needs to calm down , but who made it is a whole other story . So I don't know . It comes out of the barrel into the machine , pumped into the . It needs to calm down , but who made it is a whole other story . So I don't know . They've been there forever , they've been in the region , they know everybody . Is this a negotiant wine ? Did he buy a finished wine from somebody else , the leftover , and then put their own label on it ? Is this grapes they purchased and they made it ? Then that's not what the label says , because it has DNA Vineyards . Does it have another brand that does the making of these Trader Joe's wines ? I don't know .
Speaker 1
2:37
Russian River is an AVA that runs along the coast parallel . It goes north-south or south-north , I think it didn't used to . It used to be an east-west river , but a long , long time ago some coastal activity that they have out there changed the whole direction . Now it runs along the coast . It is a river valley . The lower part of it is cool and is great for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay . When you do , it's more Burgundian . If you get the French style of wines , it comes from the cooler section . The northern section is a little warmer and you get different grapes up there . I'm not sure where the actually I don't know . It's not that I'm not sure . I have no clue where the vineyards were located . Just for reference , there is an AVA in Sonoma which is in Sonoma . That is further west . It's along the coast of Sonoma Coast AVA and that one's in the river .
Speaker 1
3:44
Rugged river valleys , mountain river valleys or mountain valleys along the coast , and they're again , again a pinot noir and chardonnay area , another really good , high-end one . And then so we have the russian river . Russian river is a great place for pinot noir and what do we got here ? I'm gonna take a sip of it . It is you could read through this . I mean you could . You could read your mail on your phone through this thing . It's so clear . Got a nice nose . It's got that kind of cherries and mushrooms and autumn leaves crushed up , autumn leaves , that kind of nose to some kind of exotic spices . The flavor's smooth and sleek up front with the cherries and maybe plum Touch of vanilla , I think . I'm not sure . Mid-palate has some exotic spices on it , little rougher edges , which is really nice with the smoothness up front . It's not super complicated but it's complicated enough to catch your attention .
Speaker 1
5:01
This isn't just a sip and forget wine . You can kind of pay attention and go back to each sip . On this one you don't have to . It's $12.99 . You can just have fun with it . But it's got a little more to it .
Speaker 1
5:23
I took another sip . Yeah , it's really easy to drink that smooth and that combination of yin-yang . It's smooth and a little rougher part of it . There's cranberry , there's tart , there's nice rounded fruit . It's not sweet at all but if the fruit has anything to it it's like nectar , sweet , like biting into a plum or something , that kind of sweetness which isn't sugar sweetness , and it's fine . The tannins are sweet . The acidity allows it to have some decent length . That's $12.99 at Trader Joe's from Russian River . It's not a bad wine at all and it's only $13.1 .
Speaker 1
6:01
On the alcohol Lately I've been seeing 14.5 all the time on Pinot Noir , and you know that's a little bit too much . This should be a light . You know light to medium bodied wine and you know winemakers now know how to let it carry that wine or that alcohol with it . But if it doesn't have it , it's probably even better . So that's it for me . This is a decent little number here . The Trader Joe's Grand Reserve Russian River Pinot Noir 2023 . It's worth drinking . If you like Pinot Noir , it's worth having . So , adios , keep it cheap . We've got a whole year of wine ahead of us , so stay warm and I'll be talking to everybody in a couple of days . I'm not quite sure where we're going we just started the year off , but we'll go . So hang in there , keep it cheap . Bye-bye .
