The Story The Inverted Red Blend 2017 is an ALDI $6.99 wine sourced from vineyards in the Central Coast AVA of California. And that is about all I know about this wine. It does not show up on the internet or under COLA name search, except there was an Inverted Red blend out of the Monterey…
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Send us Fan Mail The StoryThe J. Lohr Seven Oaks Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 is 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Petite Sirah, 5% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot, and 1% Syrah sourced mainly from J. Lohr's 7 Oaks vineyard as well as other estate vineyards in the Paso Robles AVA of the Central Coast AVA in California. J. Lohr…
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The Story The J. Lohr Seven Oaks Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 is 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Petite Sirah, 5% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot, and 1% Syrah sourced mainly from J. Lohr’s 7 Oaks vineyard as well as other estate vineyards in the Paso Robles AVA of the Central Coast AVA in California. J. Lohr is a family-owned…
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Send us Fan Mail Trader Joe's Petit Reserve GSM 2018The StoryThe Trader Joe's Petit Reserve GSM 2018 is a Trader Joe's $6.99 exclusive. A GSM is Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre blend in this case sourced from vineyards in the Arroyo Seco AVA inside the Monterey AVA which in turn is inside the Central Coast AVA of California….
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The Story The Trader Joe’s Petit Reserve GSM 2018 is a Trader Joe’s $6.99 exclusive. A GSM is Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre blend in this case sourced from vineyards in the Arroyo Seco AVA inside the Monterey AVA which in turn is inside the Central Coast AVA of California. This is a wine made exclusively for Trader…
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Send us Fan Mail The StoryThe Flora and Stone Gewürztraminer is a non-vintage dated $4.99 ALDI exclusive wine sourced from vineyards in Monterey County AVA in the Central Coast AVA of California. Normally, $4.99, non-vintage, and a store brand would be a cause for concern, but I did a little digging and there is more to…
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The Story The Flora and Stone Gewürztraminer is a non-vintage dated $4.99 ALDI exclusive wine sourced from vineyards in Monterey County AVA in the Central Coast AVA of California. Normally, $4.99, non-vintage, and a store brand would be a cause for concern, but I did a little digging and there is more to this wine than…
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Send us Fan Mail The StoryThe Castle Rock Mendocino Pinot Noir 2017 is an inexpensive Pinot Noir, I found it for $7.99 at Costco that should provide a solid value. Castle Rock is an interesting wine company, they have been around for 25 years and have a unique business model. They own no vineyards, all their…
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The Story The Castle Rock Mendocino Pinot Noir 2017 is an inexpensive Pinot Noir, I found it for $7.99 at Costco that should provide a solid value. Castle Rock is an interesting wine company, they have been around for 25 years and have a unique business model. They own no vineyards, all their grapes come from…
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Send us Fan Mail The StoryThe Moon Willow Riesling 2018 os a $6.49 ALDI exclusive sourced from sustainably farmed vineyards in the Monterey AVA of California's Central Coast AVA. ALDI virtually never gives out technical information about their wines, so who, how, and where will be a mystery. But at this price point taking a chance…
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The Story The Moon Willow Riesling 2018 os a $6.49 ALDI exclusive sourced from sustainably farmed vineyards in the Monterey AVA of California’s Central Coast AVA. ALDI virtually never gives out technical information about their wines, so who, how, and where will be a mystery. But at this price point taking a chance isn’t too big…
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The Story The Bogle Vineyards Chardonnay 2018 is sourced from 3 locations, the Clarksburg AVA, the Dunnigan Hills AVA, and the Monterey County AVA. Both Clarksburg and Dunnigan Hills are located in the Central Vally AVA, Dunnigan Hills is east of Napa on the other side of the mountains and Clarksburg is west of Lodi…
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The Story The Flower Keeper Sauvignon Blanc is an $8.99 ALDI exclusive sourced from grapes in the Monterey County AVA of the Central Coast AVA of California. ALDI does not offer much technical information on the production of this wine other than it was fermented and aged in stainless steel tanks, which is very common…
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Send us Fan Mail The Trader Joe's Grand Reserve Santa Lucia Highland Pinot Noir Lot 80 2017 is 100% Pinot Noir exclusive Trader Joe's $12.99 wine sourced from a vineyard or vineyards from a very high-end exclusive Pinot Noir growing area in Monterey County, California. Here is a Trader Joe's Grand Reserve from Carneros. The Santa Lucia…
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The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Santa Lucia Highland Pinot Noir Lot 80 2017 is 100% Pinot Noir exclusive Trader Joe’s $12.99 wine sourced from a vineyard or vineyards from a very high-end exclusive Pinot Noir growing area in Monterey County, California. Here is a Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve from Carneros. The Santa Lucia Highlands are located on…
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Send us Fan Mail The Trader Joe's Cotillion Pinot Noir 2016 is a $9.99 Trader Joe's exclusive sourced from vineyards in 56% Monterey County, 33% Sonoma County, and 11% Santa Barbara County. These 3 counties are very solid Pinot Noir growing region and the bottle could have indicated California as the grape origin, since 2…
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The Trader Joe’s Cotillion Pinot Noir 2016 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive sourced from vineyards in 56% Monterey County, 33% Sonoma County, and 11% Santa Barbara County. These 3 counties are very solid Pinot Noir growing region and the bottle could have indicated California as the grape origin, since 2 of the AVA’s are…
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The Chiare’ Blanc de Blanc Sparkling Wine (Chiare’ is Italian for clear) is a $7.99 ALDI’s vintage dated Bubbly sourced from vineyards in Monterey, California. CWF reviewed the 2014 vintage (it was $6.99 then) and thought it was worth twice the price. ALDI must have showcased the 2014 in its advertisements, because we learned that vintage…
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The Meiomi Rose’ 2017 is mainly a Rose’ of Pinot Noir sourced from vineyards in 54% Monterey County, 36% Sonoma County, and 10% Santa Barbara County which are all first class areas for growing Pinot Noir. In a side note, wines that feature grapes from both the Central Coast AVA and the North Coast AVA, such as…
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The Gnarly Head Old Vine Lodi Zinfandel 2016 is sourced from 35 to 80 year old grapevines farmed in vineyards in the Lodi delta region. Gnarly Head is one of the labels from Delicato Family Vineyards, a family owned winery and vineyards founded in 1924, some of their other brands include Both Box, Handcraft, Twisted, and…
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The Coppola Diamond Collection Pavilion Chardonnay 2016 is a limited edition wine sourced from vineyards in 60% Santa Barbara and 40% Sonoma, the regular Diamond Collection Chardonnay is sourced from Monterey. In a side note, this Chard could have shown California on the front label, since Santa Barbara is part of the Central Coast AVA and…
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The Ménage à Trois Lavish Merlot 2016 is 81% Merlot, 8% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Petite Sirah, and 5% Petit Verdot (other than the Petite Sirah, it’s very Bordeaux, at least in grape selection) sourced from vineyards in Monterey, the Lodi Delta region, and the North Coast AVA, all in Northern California. Ménage à Trois is one of…
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The Edna Valley Vineyard Central Coast Chardonnay 2016 is sourced from vineyards in both the Edna Valley AVA (inside San Luis Obispo County, about 1/2 between L.A and S.F.) and the Monterey County AVA, both inside the Central Coast AVA. Edna Valley Vineyards were one of the pioneers of the Edna Valley AVA (founded in 1982)…
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The Coppola Rosso & Bianco Pinot Grigio 2016 is 86% Pinot Grigio and 14% Chardonnay, the Chardonnay is sourced from the Central Coast AVA and while Coppola does not say where the Pinot Grigio for 2016 is farmed, it has in the past and the 2017 vintage been taken from Monterey in the Central Coast AVA…
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The Trestoria Rose’ 2017 is a $6.99 ALDI exclusive sourced from vineyards in California, that’s it, the grape or grapes used and any info that narrows down where the grapes came from are sadly omitted. The back label says this Rose’ was produced by a company from Modesto, Ca. that seems to be related to E…
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