The 3 Rein Never Tame Red Blend 2020 is a $7.99 Aldi exclusive. It was produced for Aldi by Precept Wines the largest privately owned wine company in the Northwest and it uses grapes farmed in the Columbia Valley AVA of Washington. That is the extent of what we know about this wine. The back…
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The Tuatea Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2022 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s wine. This wine is imported to the US by WX Imports. It seems this wine sells in places where there is no Trader Joe’s for $13.99. CWF reviewed the 2017 vintage Tuatea and the Fearless Flyer back then mentioned his wine had some oak…
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The Kirkland Chianti Classico Reserva 2020 is an $8.99 Costco exclusive. It is produced for Costco by Villa Cafaggio who also produced a different Chianti for Costco in 2020. Villa Cafaggio has a history that goes back to 1408, and the Chianti region in Tuscany dates to 1716. Sangiovese is the main grape of Chianti….
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The Highland 41 Black Granite Paso Robles Red 2020 was picked as the #1 wine in Wine Enthusiast’s Top 100 Value Wines ($15 and under) of 2022. It is widely available but Costco has it for $11.99. It is a blend of 45% Zinfandel, 20% Petite Sirah, 15% Malbec, 10% Syrah, and 10% Merlot all…
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The Don’t Mind If I Do Red Blend 2021 is a $7.99 Aldi sort of exclusive. It is a wine that has zero sugar, 85 calories, is gluten-free, and has only 9% alcohol content. It is made for Aldi by Scheid Vineyards and family-owned operation located on the Monterey AVA. The reason I say that…
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The Peaks And Tides Sonoma Coast Chardonnay 2021 is a $9.99 Aldi exclusive. The Peaks and Tides name is owned by Aldi, but the back label says it was vinted and bottled by a wine company in Geyserville, California. A quick check of the web showed this wine is credited to Delicato Family Vineyards who…
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The Domaine Condorcet Chateauneuf du Pape 2021 was found at Aldi for $9.99, it originally sold for $24.99 which was Aldi’s most expensive wine. A Chateauneuf-du-Pape wine is a Red blend from the southern Rhone Valley in France. It translates to the Pope’s new Chateau or in the 1300s, Castle. The Pope did not always…
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The Kim Crawford Hawke’s Bay Rosé 2021 is 70% Merlot and 30% Sauvignon Blanc sourced from vineyards in the Hawke’s Bay region of New Zealand’s North Island. Kim Crawford has been a wine brand since 1996 and was started in Marlborough on New Zealand’s South Island. The majority of the wines Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot…
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The Motif Red Hills Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 is a Trader Joe’s $4.99 exclusive. The Red Hills AVA is located inside the Lake County AVA which is north of Napa Valley and east of Mendocino. Clear Lake is the largest lake in California and it is situated in Lake County. The Red Hills AVA is on…
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The Gearbox Pinot Noir 2020 is $5.99 at Trader Joe’s. This is a wine that had retailed for an average of $15 at wine retailers, though it seems that there has been a recent price reduction occurring. So this may be a wine close-out. The Gearbox Pinot Noir 2020 is produced by Precision Wine Company,…
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The Spy Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2022 sells at Costco for $13.89, on the web for an average of $17, and for $21 on the Spy Valley website. Spy Valley is a family-owned winery founded in the 1990s in the Waihopai Valley in Marlborough of New Zealand’s South Island. This is an extremely rural, isolated location and…
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The Kirkland K Vine Rosé 2022 is a $9.99 Costco exclusive produced for them by Charles Smith of K Vintners of Walla Walla, Washington. K Vine is a label created for their Costco wines, there is currently a Chardonnay, a Rose, with a Cabernet Sauvignon soon to come. The Kirkland K Vine Rosé 2022 is…
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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 Mumm Napa Brut Rosé is a blend of 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay sourced from up to 50 growers in Napa County. GH Mumm is a Champagne House founded in France in 1827. Mumm Napa was established in the late 1970s. The Mumm Napa Brut Rosé comes from almost 200 years of Champagne-making…
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The Fess Parker Santa Barbara Chardonnay 2021 sells for $13.89 at Costco and an average of $17 elsewhere, though the prices vary greatly. The grapes were sourced from 7 high-end vineyards situated throughout Santa Barbara County. Santa Barbara County is located about 100 miles north of Los Angeles, which should be too warm to grow…
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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 Joel Gott California Sauvignon Blanc 2021 is sourced from vineyards in Sonoma, Lake County, Lodi, Monterey, and Santa Barbara AVAs. Joel Gott Wines was founded in 1996 and specialized in wine from California, Washington, and California. The Joel Gott California Sauvignon Blanc 2021 is #5 on Wine Spectators’ list of top ten value wines…
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The Durante Toscana Rosso 2020 Aldi is an $11.99 Red Blend from the Tuscany region of Italy. Tuscany is the home of Chianti and the Sangiovese grape. The best Chianti wines are DOCG-designated wines. The DOC and DOCG (G stands for guaranteed) are Italian government commissions that set the rules and standards for each Italian…
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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 Quarter Cut Bourbon Barrel Malbec 2020 Aldi is a $5 Aldi wine imported from Argentina. The $5 price tag may be unique to my local Aldi, the wine seems to normally sell for $7 or $8. Wine from Argentina typically will show a vineyard location even if it is as general as the Mendoza…
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The Paton Clemente Tempranillo Crianza 2019 is a $4.99 Trader Joe’s import exclusive, sourced from vineyards in the La Mancha D.O. of central Spain. LaMancha is the largest wine-producing region in Spain and one of the largest in the world. Crianza is a Spanish wine designation, these wines must have two years of age with…
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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 3 Rein Horse Heaven Hills Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 Aldi is a $10.99 Aldi exclusive made for them by Precept Wines, the largest independently owned wine company in the Northwest. Horse Heaven Hills AVA comprises about a fourth of the grapes grown in the Columbia Valley in Washington State. The Horse Heaven Hills AVA is…
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The Kirkland Bordeaux Superieur 2020 is a $6.99 Costco exclusive, a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot. The Superieur designation is a step up from plain Bordeaux wines, the best Bordeaux wines are from specific locations such as Medoc or Pomerol. Over half of the wines from Bordeaux sell for under $25. The…
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