The Story The Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Atlas Peak Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 Lot 89 is a $14.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive sourced from grapes, like the title says, farmed in the Atlas Peak AVA of Napa Valley in Northern California. Atlas Peak is a unique region inside Napa since it is the highest elevation growing region….
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The Story The Kirkland Napa Valley Red Blend 2016 is a $10.99 Costco exclusive, a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, and Malbec. That mix of grapes is a Bordeaux Blend and in California is referred to as a Meritage Blend. There is a Meritage organization that promotes and helps develop these grapes…
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The Story The Kirkland Ti Point Sauvignon Blanc 2018 seems to be a $6.99 Costco exclusive sourced from grapes grown in the Marlborough region of New Zealand’s South Island. Ti Point Vineyards produced and bottled this Sauv Blanc (that technically means they made at least 75% of the wine) and they are a winery that started…
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The Story The Crusher Petite Sirah is 82% Petite Sirah and then smaller percentages of Syrah, Tempranillo, Malbec, Merlot, and Zinfandel sourced mainly from 2 vineyards, one in the Clarksburg AVA and another in the Lodi AVA, both areas have good growing conditions for Petite Sirah. The Crusher line of wines is one of Don Sebastiani and…
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The Story The Domaine de La Noblaie Chinon Goutte de Rose’ 2018 is a Rose’ of Cabernet Franc sourced from 2 Estate hillside vineyards in the Chinon district of the Loire Valley in west-central France. The vineyards have been certified organic since 2005 and Domaine de La Noblaie has been worked by the family for four…
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The Story The Caretaker Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir 2017 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive produced for TJ’s by the Central Coast Wine Warehouse. They are a full-service wine company that makes contract wine and brand wine, is a certified sustainable facility and own some of the finest vineyards in the Central Coast AVA….
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The Story Dave talks about one of his favorite categories of value-priced wines…Bubbly. When folks want to splurge of expensive Bubbles they buy Champagne, that leaves all the other Sparkling wines competing in a more value-oriented price range. Wines from all other the world, that would be glad to charge you more if they could, but no, you only…
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The Story The Garnacha de Fuego 2018 is an old vine (between 39 and 79 years old) Garnacha sourced from mountainside vineyards in the Calatayud district of the Aragon DO in northeast Spain. This is one of Jorge Ordóñez Selections line of imported wines, he is a major importer of Spanish wines and his wines…
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The Story The Cline Estate Sonoma Coast Syrah 2017 is 100% Syrah sourced from two Cline Estate vineyards in the Petaluma Gap AVA inside the Sonoma Coast Ava that is also located inside the Sonoma County AVA in Northern California. Cline Cellars is a family-owned vineyard and winery founded in 1982 and was one of the…
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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 Story The Delas Ventoux Red 2017 is a blend of 80% Grenache and 20% Syrah (this is a blend that is produced every year and there can be minor variations in the blend from vintage to vintage) sourced from vineyards in and around the villages of Mazon and Goult in the Ventoux region of…
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The Story Of The Podcast Dave talks about why Chardonnay is different from other White wine grapes in this price range. Mainly, Chardonnay can be simple or it can be complicated. Chardonnay can go thru varing percentages of several winemaking processes that will greatly affect the overall taste and texture. There is the oak program,…
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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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Let’s Talk About Cheap Wine Part #2 Dave rambles on in the 2nd edition about what the different categories of wine are. Plus, how to get the most out of Box Wine. We talk about cheap, everyday wine from Spain and making Sangria. How to decipher the Trader Joe’s Reserve wines, which are great bargains…
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The Story The Maricool Muscadet 2018 is a $4.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive, an AOC designated white from the Loire Valley in France. The grape used for Muscadet (the “det” is pronounced day) is Melon de Bourgogne a grape that long ago was prevalent in Burgundy and now is found in the Loire Valley. This is one of…
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Let’s Talk About Cheap Wine Part #1 Podcast Dave talks about what is cheap wine? It is actually or at least was the #3 Google search term for wine. Internet slang, kind of like searching for cheap 4K TVs, or cheap hotel, or cheap airfare. You’re looking for the best value, not something shoddy…
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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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The Story The Freakshow Lodi Cabernet Sauvignon, along with a small amount of Petit Sirah, is sourced from a Michael & David Winery estate vineyard in Lodi AVA of California’s Central Valley. Michael and David are the Phillips brothers and their family has farmed in Lodi since the 1850s. Most of the West Coast grape-growing…
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The Story The La Ferme Julien Rose’ 2018 is a $5.99 Trader Joe’s not very exclusive Rose‘ blend of Cinsault, Grenache and Syrah sourced from vineyards in France. Not very exclusive since the La Ferme (The Farm) is the same wine as Famille Perin’s La Vielle Ferme Rose’. Each wine, La Ferme and La Vielle…
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The Story The Purple Moon Chardonnay is a non-vintage $3.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive sourced from vineyards in more than one California grape growing AVA. There is not going to be much of a story here, I am pretty sure which winery produced this wine, and they are a quality winery. But other than that there isn’t…
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The Story The Federalist Bourbon Barrel-Aged Red Blend 2016 is 76% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 4% Carignane sourced from vineyards in the Mendocino County AVA of Northern California. This blend is aged in American oak casks for 6 months (35% new oak) and then transferred to Bourbon barrels (they do not specify the whiskey brand) for another…
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The Story The Hopes End Red Wine Blend 2016 is a blend of 42% Shiraz/Syrah, 38% Grenache, 13% Malbec, and 7% Petit Verdot sourced from vineyards in South Australia (near Adelaide). Hopes End is one of Trinchero Family Estates line of wines, other brands include, Joel Gott, Menage a Trois, Folie s Deux, Charles &…
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The Story The Federalist Mendocino Chardonnay 2017 is like the name says, 100% Chardonnay made from grapes farmed in Mendocino County in Northern California. Mendocino has all of the grape growing advantages of Sonoma, it is directly north of Sonoma, but does not have the name recognition of Sonoma. There are top-notch vineyards and wineries, that…
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The Story The Domaine Lafage Bastide Miraflors 2016 is a blend of Syrah and old-vine Grenache farmed in estate vineyards in the Roussillon growing area of southeast France, just above the border with Spain. The Roussillon is the Catalonian district of France, to the south in Spain, the Catalonian area includes Barcelona and is the…
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The Story The Plus and Plus Brut (or +&+ on the label) is a non-vintage blend of 3 indigenous Catalonian grapes, 30% Xarello, 50% Macabeo, and 20% Parellada has grown on the Penedes region of eastern Spain, near Barcelona. The +&+ is produced by Bodegas Pinord a family-run winery that was founded over 150 years ago….
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