The High Guard Chardonnay 2019 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive sourced from vineyards located in several California AVA’s. This is a wine produced for Trader Joe’s by a custom wine company making wine for TJ’s for several years. I read that half of the wineries in California are faux-wineries, meaning that they do not…
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The Los Vascos Cromas Gran Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 is 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Syrah, and 5% Carménère sourced from Estate vineyards of Domaines Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) Colchagua Valley vineyard and winery in central Chile. This Estate was founded in 1988 and was the first French wine project in modern Chile. Barons de Rothschild…
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The Vin Seven Unoaked Chardonnay 2019 is a $4.99 wine that I found at Trader Joe’s, but the 7 in the Vin Seven name stands for 7/Eleven. At one time, the Vin Seven Unoaked Chardonnay 2019 was a 7/Eleven exclusive wine. Sonoma Bespoke makes custom private-label wines for Walmart, Trader Joe’s, Aldi, grocery store chains,…
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The Poppy Santa Lucia Highlands Chardonnay 2017 is sourced from Poppy’s Highland vineyard in the Santa Lucia Highlands sub-AVA inside the Monterey AVA, which is inside the Central Coast AVA of California. The Santa Lucia Highlands is exactly what the name suggests; it is located in the foothills of the Santa Lucia coastal mountains. This…
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The Boneshaker Old Vine Zinfandel 2019 is sourced from two vineyards in the Mokelumne River AVA inside the Lodi AVA in the Central Valley of California. Boneshaker is one of the Hahn Family Vineyards wine brands. They purchased the Smith and Hook vineyard in 1979 and soon had a winery located in the Santa Lucia…
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Kings Of Prohibition Cabernet Shiraz Blend – Weird Bottle Good Wine An $8.99 from Trader Joe's, though not a TJ's wine, though this edition may well have been made for Trader Joe's The Red Blend on the Kings of Prohibition website is different than this. Barossa Valley is maybe the equivalent of Napa Valley in…
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The Don’t Mind If I Do Pinot Noir 2019 is a $7.99 ALDI wine with 85 calories, zero fat, and no sugar every 5 oz. serving. Eighty-five calories are 30% less than a typical California Pinot Noir, and the alcohol content of similar wines is 13% to 14.5%. Most wines have some sugar content. We…
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Snoop Dogg wine? It's got to be a gimmick. Wrong. It has 10.5% alcohol; the typical California Rosé is 12.5% to 13.5%. This is old school Rosé, the kind you sip while sitting at a cafe on a plaza while watching the world walk by. Maybe a little more nectar sweet than the old school…
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The 19 Crimes Snoop Cali Rosé 2020 is a brand from Treasury Wine Estates, a mainly Australian company with wines from all over the world, including American wines like Beringer and Stags’ Leap. The 19 Crimes brand lineup features Australian wines, but the Snoop Dogg wines are sourced from California vineyards. The 19 Crimes wines…
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The Federalist Lodi Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 is a wine brand from Terlato Wines International. They are the folks who imported Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio to the United States. Before they brought the wine Pinot Grigio was not a “thing,” now it is definitely a “thing.” Santa Margherita spun off a few years ago, but Terlato…
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No sugar, no fat, low carbs, 9% alcohol usually means the wine will taste like something is missing—usually flavor and mouthfeel. But not with is $7.99 ALDI Sauv Blanc from California. It isn't big and bold, more leaner and balanced. But the flavor is still there. The winery that possibly produced this Sauvignon Blanc also…
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The Don’t Mind If I Do Sauvignon Blanc 2020 is a $7.99 ALDI low-calorie wine. This is a wine with 85 calories, sugar-free, 3.4g of carbohydrates, .4g of protein, and 0% fat. One of the reasons for the low calories is this Sauvignon Blanc has only 9% alcohol content. The brand name Don’t Mind If…
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The Los Vascos Chardonnay 2020 is sourced from the estate vineyards of Barons de Rothschild (Lafite) property in the Colchagua Valley of Chile. This is a wine that is often available for under ten dollars, and the 2020 vintage received 90 points from a leading wine critic. You would think that Domaines Barons de Rothschild…
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The Attack of the Clones!!! Not so fast. A grape clone is a grapevine that exhibits excellent characteristics and is grafted onto rootstock to create enough vines to be categorized and indexed. Most wine grape vines today are some type of clone. The Noble Vine 337 Cabernet Sauvignon is a Lodi wine made from a…
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The Noble Vines 337 Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 is one of the many labels from Delicato Family Vineyards, a family-owned winery since 1924. The Noble Vines line of wines is dedicated to showcasing grapevine clones. A clone is when a grapevine with particular characteristics, resistance to pests and disease, and growing and flavor traits is grafted…
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Sea Sun Pinot Noir 2019 This is a wine from Charlie Wagner, the son of Chuck Wagner from Caymus Napa Cabernet Sauvignon and the head of Wagner Family Wines. Joe Wagner, Charlie's younger brother, did Meiomi Pinot Noir before he sold it for a crazy amount of money. Jenny Wagner has a wine brand that…
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The Sea Sun Pinot Noir 2019 is a wine from Charlie Wagner, a part of Wagner Family Wines, including Caymus Napa Cabernet Sauvignon, Conundrum wines Mer Soleil Chardonnay, and a younger son Joe Wagner founded Meiomi Pinot Noir that was recently sold for a staggering amount. The Wagner family has been in California wine since…
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The Honey Moon Viognier 2019 is a $5.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. It is part of the Moon series of wines produced for Trader Joe’s by a large family-owned winery from Lodi, California. Their Moon X Black Pinot Noir was our most popular review in 2019 and 2020. The honey in Honey Moon Viognier 2019 does…
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The William Wright Monterey Pinot Noir 2018 is a $9.99 Aldi exclusive. It is exclusive to Aldi in the United States but a quick check of the internet saw this wine selling for $34 (Canadian) and for the equivalent of $25 in Denmark. I am not sure as to what to make of the price…
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The William Wright Monterey Pinot Noir 2018 is a $9.99 Aldi exclusive. It is exclusive to Aldi in the United States but a quick check of the internet saw this wine selling for $34 (Canadian) and for the equivalent of $25 in Denmark. I am not sure as to what to make of the price…
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The Apothic Red 2018 is one of E & J Gallo's multitude of wine and spirits brands. Gallo was founded in 1933 and is the largest winery in the United States, and is still family-owned. They offer around 80 different wine brands, from Andre's Sparkling wines to single-vineyards high-end wines. Gallo also owns some of…
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The Apothic Red 2018 is one of E & J Gallo’s multitude of wine and spirits brands. Gallo was founded in 1933 and is the largest winery in the United States, and is still family-owned. They offer around 80 different wine brands, from Andre’s Sparkling wines to single-vineyards high-end wines. Gallo also owns some of…
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The Blackbird Vineyards Dissonance Napa Sauvignon Blanc 2019 is 87% Sauvignon Blanc and 13% Semillon. The Sauv Blanc sourced from the Hudson Vineyard, located on the Napa side of the Carneros AVA. The Semillion was taken from the Bavarian Lion Vineyard in the Knights Valley AVA of northeast Sonoma County.The Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon blend is inspired…
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The Blackbird Vineyards Dissonance Napa Sauvignon Blanc 2019 is 87% Sauvignon Blanc and 13% Semillon. The Sauv Blanc is sourced from the Hudson Vineyard, located on the Napa side of the Carneros AVA. The Semillion was taken from the Bavarian Lion Vineyard in the Knights Valley AVA of northeast Sonoma County. The Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon blend…
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The Elevation 1250 Paso Robles Red 2018 is a $7.99 Trader Joe's wine made for them by Riboli Family Wines, who have been producing wine since 1917 and have been in Paso Robles since the early 2000s. The typical Trader Joe's wine conceals the producer, but the winery name and the winemakers' name are on…
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