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…
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Send us Fan Mail 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 value-priced…
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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…
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Send us Fan Mail 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. The…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Send us Fan Mail 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….
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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…
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Send us Fan Mail 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…
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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…
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Send us Fan Mail 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…
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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…
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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”…
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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…
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Send us Fan Mail 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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Send us Fan Mail Trader Joe's Petit Reserve Maule Valley Carmenere 2021-$8 And Really Good This is a limited edition Trader Joe's wine from Chile. Carmenerein Chile has an interesting story (sorry, you have to listen to the Podcast). In the 1800s it was an integral part of the Bordeaux, and phylloxera hit. It somehow…
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The Trader Joe’s Petit Reserve Maule Valley Carmenere 2021 is a $7.99 exclusive sourced from vineyards in the Maule Valley in the south-central portion of the Central Valley in Chile. The back label says this wine was vinted and bottled by TerrAral Wines and here is a link to their website, they seem to own…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Santa Ynez Valley GSM 2022 is a Trader Joe’s $9.99 exclusive. The blend is 47% Mourvedre, 34% Syrah, and 19% Grenache, so it is an MSG blend. The Santa Ynez Valley is located in southern Santa Barbara County, between 2 mountain ranges. The western part of the valley gets cool Pacific…
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The Cannonball California Sauvignon Blanc 2022 is a wine I found selling at a local wine shop for $11.99. Cannonball Wine was founded in 2016 with the mission goal of making “the best California Cabernet under $20“, they have since branched out to include Melot, Chardonnay, and Sauvignon Blanc. The Cannonball California Sauvignon Blanc 2022…
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The Kirkland Signature Napa Valley Red Blend 2021 is a $10.99 Costco exclusive. Costco often names the producer of their Signature wines, but not here. This is a Bordeaux Blend with 62% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot, 10% Malbec, 6% Cabernet Franc, and 3% Petit Verdot. Carmenere is the other Bordeaux-approved Red grape, but it is…
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