The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2022 Lot 124 is a $12.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. Unlike most Trader Joe’s Reserve wines, we know who produced this Pinot Noir. The back label says this wine was: Produced and Bottled” by DW Hinman Cellars. Doyle Hinman planted his first grapes in 1972 and by…
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The Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Carneros Pinot Noir 2021 is a $14.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. There was a 2020 Vintage TJ’s Platinum Reserve Carneros Pinot which also sold for $14.99. This seems to be a reoccurring Thanksgiving wine. The Carneros AVA is located on the San Pablo Bay, east of Oakland, and about half of…
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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 Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir 2021 is a $12.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. In January of 2022, Trader Joe’s offered the Platinum Reserve SLH Pinot Noir. That wine sold for $14.99 and if you click on the link you will find that we thought it had too much alcohol and wasn’t…
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The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Sta. Rita Hills Chardonnay 2021 is a $12.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. TJ’s at one time had a chart that said that this tier of Reserve wine is equal in quality to this price range of retail wine. They no longer publish those claims, but a Grand Reserve wine should to…
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The Trader Joe’s Petit Reserve Aix Provence Rosé 2022 is a $7.99 Trader Joe’s import exclusive. The Coteaux d’ Aix-en-Provence is the second-largest AOC in Provence, the largest is Côtes de Provence, producing 75% of the wine in the region. Aix is located to the far west in Provence and if you have ever seen…
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The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel 2021 is a $12.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. The Dry Creek Valley first planted Zinfandel vines in the 1870s, phylloxera hit the California vineyards in the 1890s and destroyed most of the vines. The vineyards were replanted and several of those ancient (by grapevine standards) are still…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Santa Barbara Pinot Noir 2021 is a $9.99 TJ’s exclusive. This wine was “produced and bottled by” Bozzano and Company. That indicates that they actually made the wine and used grapes from their vineyards or contracted grapes they control. They produce several brands seen on Trader Joe’s shelves. It is rare…
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The Trader Joe’s Roseta Rosé 2022 is a $5.99 Rosé wine from Portugal. The back label lists a bottler, Goavni Bottling, a Portuguese custom wine producer. The flask-style bottle is very reminiscent of the bottle used for Matuse Rosé, a brand of Rosé wine that has been around for 70 years. Matuse Rosé was probably…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Paso Robles Meritage 2021 is a $9.99 TJ’s exclusive. The back label says this Red was “vinted and bottled by Healdsburg Wine Cellars.” That is a division of Delicato Family Wines, they make Gnarlyhead wines, along with many other brands. They recently purchased Coppola WInes and also have holdings in Napa….
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The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 is a $12.99 TJ’s exclusive. The back label says it was vinted and bottled by Ashford Court, which is a faux winery. These Trader Joe’s Reserve wines are negociant wines; negociants never tell where they got their wines. The Alexander Valley is the upper half…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Santa Barbara County Chardonnay 2021 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. The back label says it was made by Ashford Court who also made Trader Joe’s perennial favorite, Cotillion Pinot Noir. The actual producer of Cotillion is Plata Wine Partners of Napa, California. You may have not heard of Plata Wine…
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The Trader Joe’s Grower’s Reserve Red Wine 2021 is a $5.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. This wine is produced for Trader Joe’s by ASV Wines who have been in business since 1982 and own several sustainably farmed vineyards in the Central Coast AVA and an organic vineyard in southern Monterey County where they grow Cabernet Sauvignon…
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The Trader Joe’s Grower’s Reserve Organic California Chardonnay 2022 is a $5.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. It is produced for Trader Joe’s, or at least “vinted and bottled by”, ASV Wines. ASV Wines is a family-owned winery in business since 1981 and they own 1,500 acres of vineyards. Vinted and bottled by does not indicate that…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Columbia Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. The Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer says this wine would sell for around $25 at a retail wine shop. A quick web check showed a 2017 vintage Cabernet Sauvignon selling in 2023 for a range of $20 to $70. Most wines,…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Syrah Wahluke Slope Organic 2021 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. This wine is 96% organic Syrah and 4% Merlot. For some reason, they do not label the Merlot grapes as organic. The wine was certified organic by California Certified Organic Farmers. The USDA requires 100% of the grapes to be…
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The Trader Joe’s Petit Reserve Paso Robles Chardonnay 2021 Is a $7.99 limited exclusive wine. Usually, Trader Joe’s wine has no production notes, but this wine is featured in the Fearless Flyer so we have a few things to go on. To make a short story even shorter, Trader Joe’s says that a wine partner…
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The High Guard Chardonnay 2021 Trader Joe’s is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. It is produced for them by a family-owned winery located in Napa Valley, though the grapes are from California. A wine produced from grapes grown in California must show California as the place of origin f the grapes are not from one…
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The Purple Moon Chardonnay 2020 Trader Joe’s is a $3.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. This wine is one of TJ’s perennial wines we first reviewed the 2011 vintage, it was $3.99 9 years ago. How they keep the price the same after all these years is a small miracle. This wine along with other wines in…
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The Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Napa Valley Petit Verdot 2021 is a $14.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. Petit Verdot is one of the five grapes approved to be included in the blend for the Red wines of Bordeaux, France. The other Red grapes are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Malbec. The name Petit Verdot roughly…
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Trader Joe’s French Blanc de Blanc and Brut Rosé both Trader Joe’s exclusive $6.99 import Sparkling wines. The Fearless Flyer indicates that these are proprietary blends from the South of France near the Mediterranean Sea. These French Sparkling wines probably do not include Chardonnay or Pinot Noir the mainstays of Champagne Sparkling wines. It is…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Santa Barbara Syrah 2021 is a Trader Joe’s $9.99 exclusive. This Syrah is produced by the Miller Family Wine Company they are a fifth-generation wine company that owns 1,500 acres of vineyards in Paso Robles. They are also part of Thornhill Companies which own the acclaimed Bien Nacido and French Camp…
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The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Estate Single Vineyard Uco Valley Malbec 2019 is a $12.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive produced for them by Belhara Estates, a small independent winery located in the Uco Valley region of the Mendoza Valley in Argentina. They own three vineyards and specialize in single-vineyard wines. Belhara Estates does not seem to…
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The Trader Joe’s Diamond Reserve Oakville Napa Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 is a $19.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. This is the third-ever Diamond Reserve wine last year saw the $19.99 Trader Joe’s Diamond Reserve Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 and the $14.99 Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Diamond Mountain District Napa Cabernet Sauvignon 2017. Trader Joe’sgives very…
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The Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Sonoma County Brut Rosé is a $14.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive produced for them by Rack and Riddle from Sonoma, California. Rack and Riddle is a custom Sparkling wine producer making Bubbly in the Traditional Method (Champagne-style). The Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Sonoma County Brut Rosé is mostly Pinot Noir and…
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