The Trader Joe’s Reserve Wahluke Slope Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s wine, 93% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 7% Merlot sourced from the Wahluke Slope AVA in the south-central section of the Columbia Valley AVA of Washington. This wine was produced and bottled by (that indicates they made the wine) by CC Vineyards of…
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Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Russian River Pinot Noir 2020 is an exclusive wine of $12.99 Trader Joe’s. This Pinot was produced for Trader Joe’s by MWK Wine Consulting, a private label winemaker. This wine is 100% Pinot Noir, which is nice to see when Petite Sirah and Syrah are added to give Pinot Noir some…
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The Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Napa Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 is a $14.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. This is a blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Petit Verdot sourced somewhere in Napa Valley. Trader Joe’s says, “This is a very, very, very (very) special wine that comes from one of the most prestigious wineries in Napa.”…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Dry Creek Zinfandel 2020 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. TJ’s sells many versions of these Reserve wines every year. They are wines sourced from vineyards in high-end AVAs that sell at a bargain price. You never get much information on the wine, so just how exclusive these vineyards are never…
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The Trader Joe’s Petit Reserve Central Coast Rosé 2020 is a $7.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. The Petit Reserve designation indicates that this is a one-time deal with limited quantities. These Trader Joe’s Reserve wines are California versions of French Negociant wines. A Negociant buys leftover or excess wine from wineries and sells them under their…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Russian River Chardonnay 2020 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s wine made for them by Owl Creek Wine Services, a custom wine company operating in the Russian River AVA for the last 12 years. The Russian River AVA is located near the Pacific Ocean. The Sonoma Coast AVA is west and closer…
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The Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Diamond Mountain District Napa Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 is a $14.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive; this is also Lot #92, which may be important in this series of wines. For the last six months, TraderJoe’s has offered a line of small-batch wines featuring grapes from premier Napa Valley sub-AVA’s. Are these wines…
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The Trader Joe’s Blanc de Blancs Brut is a $5.99 Sparkling wine from France. Trader Joe’s has been selling Bubbly for years; Cheapwinefinder first reviewed this wine in October of 2013. Blanc de Blanc translates to White wine from white grapes. In Champagne, it means the Bubbly was made with Chardonnay. But here, they could…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Oak Knoll Zinfandel 2019 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive sourced from grapes farmed in the Oak Knoll AVA inside Napa Valley. This is a one-off wine; when it sells out, it is gone for good, so if you like it, buy all you need. Oak Knoll is located in the…
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The Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Sonoma Brut NV (2020) is a Trader Joe’s $14.99 non-vintage blend of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Meunier sourced from vineyards in Sonoma County AVA in Northern California. The back label says this Bubbly was “produced and bottled by” Rack and Riddle, Healdsburg, California. They are an independent wine company…
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Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Not 2019 Lot #96 The Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Pinot Noir 2019 is a $14.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive from the vineyard(s) in the Santa Rita Hills AVA. Which is found inside the Santa Barbara County AVA in the southern section of California’s Central Coast AVA. Santa Barbara…
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The Trader Joe’s Napa Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon 2018, actual name on the bottle is Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 Lot #97. The name was too long to fit in the title section. Trader Joe’s features an array of Napa Valley sub-AVA Cabernets. I saw Atlas Peak, Yountville, and Spring Mountain…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Carneros Chardonnay 2019 is actually Carneros Napa Valley Lot #204. There is Lot #205 which I imagine is from a different producer. Some Trader Joe’s get the 204 and others get the 205, both are $9.99. Carneros is an interesting AVA, it is located half in Sonoma and half in Napa….
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The Story The Trader Joe’s Petit Reserve Russian River Sauvignon Blanc 2019 is a $7.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive sourced from grapes grown in the Russian River AVA of western Sonoma County. This Sauvignon Blanc is produced for TJs by Owl Ridge Wine Services. Owl Ridge is a custom crush and private label facility located in…
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The Story The Trader Joe’s Reserve Anderson Valley Pinot Noir is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. Anderson Valley is located in coastal Mendocino and is situated between two mountain ranges. Two more things to note are this the 2018 vintage and is Lot #201. Anderson Valley has a growing reputation for the production of fine…
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The Story The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Napa Chardonnay 2018 Lot 85 is a $12.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer says “expect to pay twice as much elsewhere for a similarly pedigreed Napa Chardonnay.” And they called this wine producer their winery partner. That sounds about right, if a winery from Napa releases…
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The Story The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Chalk Hill Cabernet Sauvignon 2018, actually the complete name includes Lot 96 and it is a Trader Joe’s $12.99 exclusive wine. This wine is featured in Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer, but there is no mention of any technical details, is it 100% Cabernet Sauvignon? What are the rough details…
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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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The Story The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Carneros Pinot Noir 2018 Lot #23 is a $12.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive sourced from vineyards in the Carneros AVA which is half inside the Sonoma AVA and half inside the Napa AVA. This is the 10th vintage of TJ’s Grand Reserve Carneros Pinot Noir, we last reviewed the 2017…
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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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The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Carneros Pinot Noir 2017 Lot 23 is a $12.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive sourced from the Carneros AVA which is located about half in Sonoma and half in Napa. There are 3 top-notch Pinot Noir and Chardonnay growing areas in coastal Sonoma, the Sonoma Coast AVA which is situated between 2 coastal…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Meritage Napa Valley Lot #176 2015 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive, it’s a Red blend with Merlot as the main grape, followed by Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Verdot, Cabernet Franc, and Malbec sourced from vineyards in the Napa Valley of Northern California. The word Meritage is a combination of merit and heritage…
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The Story The St. Somewhere AlexanderValley Chardonnay 2018 is a $7.99 Trader Joe’s single-vineyard exclusive. Trader Joe’s seems to use the St. Somewhere label when a winery has excess wine to sell. The last time they used the name was an Oregon Pinot Noir that accidentally has 1.5% of California Pinot Noir blended in, their mistake…
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The Korbel California Brut Rosé Champagne is a Sparkling wine I found selling for $11.99. The Champagne in the name is legit. In 2006, when California and Champagne, France, agreed to use of the term “Champagne”. Certain wineries were grandfathered in, so Andre’s, Cook’s, and Korbel retained the right to call their Method Traditional (Like…
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The LaCheteau Chinon 2023 is a $8.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. If you see Chinon on the label, that means this is a Cabernet Franc wine sourced from vineyards surrounding the town of Chinon in France‘s Loire Valley. The Story Vignobles (means vineyards) LaCheteau is the negotiant brand of GCF Group, the leading exporter of French…
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