The 2010 The County Fair “I have Seen The Elephant” Mendocino County Chardonnay is a Trader Joe’s ($6.99) exclusive. The wine is produced by the HHD, LLC, which has been buying up vineyards and wineries in California and they control or have ties with some first class vineyards and wineries. Like most Trader Joe’s wines…
Read MoreThe 2009 Liberte‘ Cabernet Sauvignon is a Trader Joe’s ($9.99) exclusive made by Familia Nueva from grapes grown in Paso Robles, California. Familia Nueva is a label owned by Ancient Peaks Winery and the packaging here is a step or two up from the usual ten dollars wines. The bottle is a heavy Cabernet bottle…
Read MoreThe 2010 Primal Roots Red Blend is 43% Merlot, 37% Syrah and 20% Zinfandel sourced from multiple California grape growing AVA’s, though they say that 90% of the grapes came from the North Valley, which is a combination of several AVA’s from Lodi on up. The wine was aged in French oak barrels and the…
Read MoreThe Foxglove Zinfandel is 94% Zinfandel and 6% Petit Syrah sourced from the Dos Ninos and the Hog Canyon vineyards in the Paso Robles AVA of California. Foxglove is the entry level label for Bob and Jim Varner, who are very well known for their Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The wine was fermented in stainless…
Read MoreThe 2010 Brander Sauvignon Blanc is 100% Sauvignon Blanc sourced from the San Ynez AVA in Santa Barbara County and San Ynez both part of the larger Central Coast AVA. This Sauvignon Blanc uses grapes from Brander’s estate vineyards along with grapes grown from other vineyards in the Los Olivos sub region of San Ynez….
Read MoreThe Trader Joe’s Petit Reserve Edna Valley Pinot Reserve is 100% Pinot Noir, cellared and bottled by DNA Vineyards. DNA Vineyards is a project by winemaker Dennis Patton and they are responsible for some of Trader Joe’s best exclusive wines. The term “cellared and bottled” legally indicates that the listed winery aged the wine before…
Read MoreThe 2009 Vampire Vineyards Pinot Noir is sourced from vineyards in more than one California grape growing AVA. Vampire Vineyards is an actual Winery the label indicated they produced and bottled this wine, which legally means they crushed, fermented, aged and bottled at least 75% of this Pinot. Their website has tons of information on Vampires,…
Read MoreThe 2009 Stargroves Paso Robles Chardonnay is 93.2% Chardonnay, 6.6% Sauvignon Blanc and 0.2% Pinot Blanc (a mutation of Pinot Noir), I got that information from a wine sellers website from Taiwan. Stargroves seems to be a label produced by Vintage Wine Estates (Cosentino, Grove Street, Girard Wines, among others) made for the Asian market….
Read MoreThe 2009 Estancia Monterrey County Chardonnay is sourced from Estancia’s Estate Pinnacles Ranch Vineyard located in the Salinas Valley of Monterrey County AVA, California. Half of the Chardonnay is aged in oak barrels and the other half aged in stainless steel vats, giving the wine both the buttery, smooth oak influence and the bright, fresh…
Read MoreTrader Joe’s +Cabernet Sauvignon+Napa Valley=$4.99. Spiral Wines is a custom label produced by Fior di Sole, a custom and private label winemaker. The back label says Spiral Wines vinted and bottled this Cabernet and legally that indicates that Spiral Wines fermented a minimum of 10% of the wine. The term “Reserve” on the bottle has…
Read MoreThe 2010 Dynamic White Table Wine is 51% Sauvignon Blanc and 49% Chardonnay in certified organic and bio-dynamic Estate vineyards in Lake County, California. Dynamic Vineyards are part of the Ceago VineGarden Group, which is in turn owned by Jim Fetzer of Fetzer Vineyard fame. The Lake County AVA is north of Napa Valley, east…
Read MoreThe Shakedown White Blend is 75% Sauvignon Blanc (50% grown in Paso Robles and 25% grown in Santa Ynez Valley), 20% Muscat Blanc (Paso Robles) and 5% Viognier (Paso Robles). The grapes are grown by an association of 300 farmers who grow grapes using sustainable farming practices. This is a non-vintage wine, which means at…
Read MoreThe Shakedown Red Blend is 75% Mourvedre, 15% Grenache and 10% Viognier sourced from the Central Coast Vineyard Team, a group of 300 local farmers growing grapes with sustainable farming practices. The grapes for the Shakedown Red come from the Paso Robles AVA of the Central Coast. Viognier is a White wine grape and is used…
Read MoreThe Barefoot Bubbly Moscato Spumante is a non-vintage Sparkling wine sourced from several California grape growing AVA’s. Spumante is the general Italian term for Sparkling wine. The Barefoot Bubbly is made with the Charmat Method, which is where the second fermentation takes place in large vats (in Champagne the 2nd fermentation take place in each…
Read MoreThe 2009 Concannon Conservancy Crimson & Clover Red Blend is 50% Petite Sirah, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Syrah and 10% Zinfandel sourced from vineyards in the Livermore Valley AVA near San Francisco in Northern California. Concannon Vineyards have quite a history, the founder, James Concannon planted the vineyard from Bordeaux grapevine cuttings in 1883, they…
Read MoreThe 2009 Pennywise California Pinot Noir is 94% Pinot Noir and 6% Syrah of which 60% is sourced from a single vineyard in the Clarksburg AVA, 30% from the River Junction AVA (a very cool section of the Central Valley) and 10% from the Monterey AVA. Pennywise is one of Don Sebastiani & Sons labels,…
Read MoreThe 2008 Erotic Cellars Forplay Chardonnay is a label made by Stanger Wines out of Paso Robles, California. If you see “California” on the wine label, that indicates that the grapes were sourced from more than one AVA(American Viticulture Area). If you notice, Forplay is misspelled, that is because Naked Winery of Washington already has…
Read MoreThe 2009 Three Knights Los Carneros Pinot Noir is a Trader Joe’s exclusive ($8.99), produced by Bronco Wine Company, the makers of 2 Buck Chuck and many other Trader Joe’s labels.There is no actual Three Knights Winery and Bronco Wines makes their wines as inexpensively as possible, so they don’t spend money on information on…
Read MoreThe 2008 Cline Sonoma County Syrah is 100% Syrah sourced mainly from Cline’s family owned and sustainable farmed vineyard in the Sonoma Coast AVA along with grapes that are also sustainably farmed from 2 vineyards located on the Sonoma side of the Carneros AVA in Northern California. The Syrah is aged on French oak barrels…
Read MoreThe 2009 Wine Guerrilla Zinfandel is 85% Zinfandel and 15% Petit Sirah sourced from vineyards in the Dry Creek Valley and Russian River Valley AVA’s of Sonoma County, California. The seems to be 2 bottlings of the Sonoma County Zinfandel, there is another bottle that also has Cabernet Sauvignon and Carignan blended in, 1,100 cases…
Read MoreThe 2009 Trader Joe’s Reserve Carneros Pinot Noir sells for $9.99, at least 85% of the grapes are grown in the Carneros AVA of California and the alcohol content is 13.9%, is about all I know for sure about this wine. This is a Trader Joe’s negociant wine, so who grew the grapes and who…
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