The Sphere Lodi Zinfandel 2012 is a Trader Joe’s $5.99 exclusive. TJ’s says the grapes came “from a premium winemaker’s vineyards in Lodi“, which makes the Sphere an estate grown, single AVA, 6 buck California wine, that is something you do not see very often. There is a top-notch Lodi winery that produces a…
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The Trader Joe’s Coastal Sauvignon Blanc 2012 is a $4.99 TJ’s exclusive, sourced from grapes grown in California’s Central Coast AVA. Vinted and bottled by Castoro Cellars, who have grown grapes and produced wine in Paso Robles since the early 80s. Vinted and bottled by indicates that Castoro aged the wine and bottled the…
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The Kendall Jackson Grand Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2011 is 94.8% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4.4% Petit Verdot, 0.5% Merlot and 0.2 Cabernet Franc sourced from Kendall Jackson estate vineyards (about 2/3’s from Alexander Valley and the rest from Knights Mountain) in Sonoma County, California. The grapes selected are in the top 7% of all grapes grown on KJ’s…
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The 2012 Four Vines Naked Chardonnay is sourced from vineyards in the Santa Barbara County AVA on the southern end of California’s Central Coast AVA. Santa Barbara is about 1 1/2 hours north of Los Angeles in Southern California, but it gets cooling fog in the morning and while the days can be hot, the…
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The 2012 Garnet Monterey County Pinot Noir is sourced from Garnet Vineyards estate vineyards near the Santa Lucia Highlands AVA in Monterey County, California. This Pinot Noir lists for $14.99, but its tech sheet reads like a far more expensive Pinot. First, Garnet grew the grapes themselves, then they aged the Pinot Noir in 100% French…
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The 2011 Four Vines Truant Old Vine Zinfandel is 90% Zinfandel, 7% Barbera and 3% Petite Sirah sourced mainly from the Lodi, Paso Robles and Mendocino AVA’s. Here is a brief run down on “old vine” Zinfandel in California, it was first planted by Italian immigrant farmers in the late 1800s as a taste…
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The 2008 La Villa Real Crianza is a blend of 50% Cabernet Sauvignon and 50% Merlot from grapes grown in the La Mancha DO of Spain. La Villa Real is produced by Bodegas La Remediadora a co-op of 350 vineyards (covering 3,700 acres) who band together to build their own winery, hire a wine-maker and…
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The 2008 AllozO Tempranillo Reserva is sourced from grapes grown near the town of Tomelloso in the Ciudad Real Province of Castilla La Mancha in Spain. AllozO is produced by Bodegas Centro Espanolas (they also make exceptional Reserva, 25 and 100-year-old Brandy), even though Tempranillo is The Red wine of Spain, it was not…
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The Gnarly Head Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 is sourced from vineyards located in 6 of the 7 sub-AVA’s in Lodi, California. The bottle says the grapes are sourced from California, which means that more than one AVA is involved with no AVA producing 85% of the grapes, but Gnarly Head’s technical information says this is…
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The Notorious Pink 2013 is a Rose’ made from Grenache grapes grown in the south of France. The bottle is impressive, it is extra tall and made from smoked glass and there is no cork or screw-cap, but a glass stopper, it is a very nice presentation, the label looks a little subdued…
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The 2012 Gnarly Head Pinot Noir is sourced from vineyards in Monterey, the North Coast AVA (includes Mendocino, Napa Valley, Sonoma And Lake County) as well as vines from Lodi. Delicato Family Vineyards, the makers of Gnarly Head as well as BraZin, Bota Box and others is located in Lodi, California. The name Gnarly…
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The 2012 Natura Cabernet Sauvignon is 92% Cabernet Sauvignon and 8% Merlot sourced from certified organic and sustainably farmed vineyards in the Rapel Valley in the northern half of Chile’s Central Valley. The Natura label is one of Emiliana Organic Vineyards line of 100% organic, sustainable frown and sometimes bio-dynamic wines. The Rapel Valley…
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The 2012 Novas Gran Reserva Sauvignon Blanc is sourced from certified organic vineyards in the San Antonio Valley DO of Chile. Novas means “birth of a star” and is one of Emiliana Vineyards line of 100% sustainably farmed, organically grown wines. Many of the wines from Chile in this price range (lists for $16, but…
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The 2012 DeLoach Cabernet Sauvignon Heritage Reserve is sourced from sustainably farmed grapes grown in more than one California grape growing AVA. DeLoach was founded in 1975 in the Russian River Valley of the Sonoma AVA and the Heritage Reserve line is their value wine. DeLoach is part of the Boisset Family Vineyards group of…
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The 2012 Milestone Cabernet Sauvignon is sourced from vineyards in more than one California grape growing AVA. Milestone Winery is one of Constellation Brands 121 different wine labels, Constellation is the largest wine producer in the world, their labels include Ravenswood, Robert Mondavi, Toasted Head and Kim Crawford. Milestone Wines were created by Brian…
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The 2012 Left Foot Charley Pinot Gris is sourced from a 2 acre vineyard (Tale Feathers) in the Old Mission Peninsula AVA near Traverse City on Lake Michigan in Upper Michigan. They have been growing grapes on the Peninsula since 1870, but didn’t really get serious about it until the 1970s. The Old Mission Peninsula…
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The flipflop Pinot Noir is sourced from grapes that are, according to the front label, from the Left Coast of Chile. The last time we tried a flipflop Pinot Noir is was a vintage designated (2010) California wine, this time around it is a non-vintage wine from Chile. As a California wine it was $7…
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The 2011 Raimat Tempranillo is sourced from Estate vineyards in the Costers del Segre DO in the Province of Lleida of Catalonia near Barcelona in Northeast Spain. The climate in Coster del Segre is hot during the day and cold at night and that wide daily variation in temperature allowed the grapes ample time to…
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The 2013 Legaris Verdejo is 100% Verdejo sourced from vineyards in the Province of Valladolid inside the Rueda DO in northwest central Spain near Portugal. Verdejo is THE grape of Rueda and has been grown in the region for over 1,000 years. This Verdejo was fermented in stainless steel vats, then racked (racking is transferring…
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The 2013 Domaine Berrien Cabernet Franc is sourced from grapes grown on their 40 acres of Estate vineyards near the town of Berrien Springs, Michigan in the Michigan Shores AVA along Lake Michigan. Berrien Springs is 94 miles from Chicago on the opposite site of Lake Michigan and is probably not the first place…
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The 2013 Septima Chardonnay is sourced from (50%) two areas in the Uco Vally (one of the elite growing regions in Argentina) and (50%) vineyards near the region of Agrelo in the Lujan de Cuyo district inside the larger Mendoza grape growing area of Argentina. One thing I commonly hear when people talk about Chardonnay is that they do not…
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The 2013 Raimat Albariño is sourced from two sustainably farmed Raimat estate vineyards in the Costers del Segre DO, just west of Barcelona in Spain. This is a young wine, with only a small amount of aging, “on lees,” in stainless steel tanks and is intended to be consumed within 2 years of release. “On lees”…
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The Illinois Sparkling Company Brut is a non-vintage Champagne-style (Traditional Method) sourced from the St. Pepin grape grown a vineyard just south of Kankakee, Illinois, not too far south of Chicago and near the Indiana border. The Illinois Sparkling Co is located in Peru, Illinois, which is west and a little south of Chicago, in…
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Cheap Wine Ain’t Cheap There are tens of thousands of different labels of wine produced each year, Italy alone makes 7,000 separate wines, you add in the wine produced by every single other wine region and you have a mind-boggling number of wine choices. To take this vast amount of wine…
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The 2011 Jacob’s Creek Cabernet Merlot is 74% Cabernet Sauvignon and 26% Merlot sourced from vineyards in South Eastern Australia. Jacob’s Creek has been making wine since 1847 and South Eastern Australia is a huge grape growing area with a wide variety of climates and produces half of all Australian wines. This is a…
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