The Dove Creek Monterey Cabernet Sauvignon 2014 seems to be a $11.99 ALDI exclusive sourced from estate grown grapes from 2 vineyards, one located in the San Lucas sub-AVA and the other in the Hames Valley sub-AVA of the Monterey AVA which is inside the Central Coast AVA of California. I say this seems to be an…
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The Robert Mondavi Heritage Red Bland 2013 is a blend of 64% Syrah, 31% Merlot, 3% Zinfandel, 1% Thompson Seedless, and 1% Petite Sirah sourced from 82% Monterey County, 13% Paso Robles, 3% Valley South, and 2% Santa Barbara County, all of these inside the larger Central Coast AVA in California. Most table grapes (the ones you…
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The Sterling Vintner’s Central Coast Chardonnay 2014 is sourced from multiple vineyards in the Central Coast AVA of California. The Central Coast AVA is large, it includes 6 Counties, 27 sub-AVA’s and over 90,000 acres of planted grape vines. The Sterling Vintner’s Chardonnay underwent malolactic fermentation and was at least partially aged in oak barrels. Malolactic changes…
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The Sterling Vintner’s Collection Meritage 2013 is a blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot sourced from Sterling’s Paris Valley Ranch Vineyard near Monterey Bay along with other vineyards in California’s Central Coast AVA. A Meritage wine (rhythms with heritage) is a Red Blend wine based on the wine-making tradition of…
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The Sargent Canyon Cabernet Sauvignon 2013 is a $6.99 ALDI’s wine sourced from vineyards in the Central Coast AVA of California. The Sargent Canyon Cabernet is Estate grown and sustainably farmed. So who or what is Sargent Canyon? A quick check with Google shows that Sargent Canyon is a trademark owned by Scheid Vineyards, vineyards and winery…
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The 2013 Woodwork Pinot Noir is sourced from vineyards in coastal regions of the Central Coast AVA of California. Woodwork is one of The Wine Bars brands of wine that include Snap Dragon, Ensemble, Uppercut and many others. The key to the Woodwork line of wines is their use of oak staves, instead of oak…
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The 2013 Wente Louis Mel Sauvignon Blanc is sourced from Wente’s estate-grown “Louis Mel” vineyard in California’s Central Coast (for you specific folks, that’s the southern part of Livermore Valley). Who the hell’s Louis Mel? Well he was this French dude with two first names that came to the U.S. in the 1870’s. Instead of becoming…
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The Layer Cake Central Coast Chardonnay 2012 is sourced from vineyards in Monterey (south of San Francisco) and Santa Barbara (just north of Los Angeles) in California. Even though northern California is cooler than southern California, both regions have similar climates due to the influence of the Pacific Ocean, cool breezes and morning fog. Layer Cake…
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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 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 Magnolia Court Pinot Noir is sourced from vineyards located inside several Central Coast grape growing AVA’s. Magnolia Court is part of the Thornhill Company who own some of the best vineyards in the Central Coast AVA, though they do not say if any of those vineyards are used for the Magnolia Court. This…
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The 2012 Bonny Doon Albarino is sourced from two vineyards, 73% from the Kristy Vineyard in the Salinas Valley and 27% from the Jespersen Vineyard in the Edna Valley, both located inside the Central Coast AVA of California. Albarino is a grape that is usually found in northwest Spain and Portugal and is becoming increasingly…
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The 2011 Snap Dragon Cabernet Sauvignon is 91% Cabernet Sauvignon, 6% Petite Sirah and 3% Merlot sourced from multiple vineyards in the 81% Lodi AVA (the bottle front label lists California for the grape origin, but since 75% of the grapes came from Lodi, the bottle could have legally shown Lodi) and 19% from the Central…
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The 2012 Estancia Pinot Noir is 100% Pinot Noir sourced from vineyards in Monterey County, inside the Central Coast AVA of California. Monterey County is just north of the Paso Robles AVA and Northern Monterey County is a very cool grape growing area with a long growing season, which is just the conditions that Pinot…
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The 2011 Chateau St Jean California Cabernet Sauvignon was sourced from vineyards in Santa Barbara and Paso Robles in the Central Coast AVA and vineyards in Sonoma to Lake County in the North Coast AVA. Chateau St Jean is known for their high-end Estate wines, but the this is their entry level Cabernet Sauvignon and…
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The 2011 Robert Mondavi Private Selection Coastal Crush Red is a blend of 67% Syrah, 24% Merlot and 9% Malbec sourced from vineyards, primarily in the Monterey County, San Benito County and Paso Robles grape growing areas in California’s Central Coast AVA. This wine was aged in French and American oak barrels for 10 months…
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The 2010 Sterling Vintner’s Collection Syrah is sourced from several vineyards in California’s Central Coast AVA. Syrah has become the forgotten grape, wine shops, at one time, had whole aisles of Australian Shiraz and Washington State Syrah and now there might be only 2 or 3 different Syrah/Shiraz available. Sterling didn’t even have information for…
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The 2012 Trader Joe’s Coastal Zinfandel is a $4.99 TJ’s exclusive, sourced from grapes grown in California’s Central Coast AVA and produced by Castoro Cellars. Castoro Cellars is a family owned winery located in the Paso Robles AVA, they have been in business since 1983 and produce their own line of Estate grown wines. The…
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The 2011 Creme de Lys Chardonnay is 95% Chardonnay and 5% Viognier (Viognier gives the wine a rich floral nose) sourced in vineyards from 50% Lodi, 45% Central Coast and 5% North Coast AVA’s in California. Creme de Lys is one of Diageo Wines many brands, others include Rosenblum, Snap Dragon, Chalone and Sterling Vineyards….
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The 2011 Robert Mondavi Private Selection California Pinot Noir is 80% Pinot Noir, 12% Syrah, 7% Petite Sirah and 1% Thompson seedless (Thompson seedless is the most widely planted grape in California, these are the grapes you buy in the produce department and are made into those little boxes of raisins, they usually are used…
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The 2011 Liberte’ Pinot Noir is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive, sourced from Estate vineyards in San Luis Obispo County in the southern part of the Central Coast grape growing AVA in California. The Liberte’ label and the winery, Familia Nueva is owned by Ancient Peaks Winery (Paso Robles), they have produced some of Trader…
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The 2011 Cloud Break Pinot Noir is sourced from vineyards in more than one California grape growing AVA. Cloud Break is a brand owned by O’Neill Vintners and Distillers, a contract maker of wines and Spirits. They own their own vineyard and have long term contracts on 15,000 acres of vines thru-out California. O’Neill also…
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The 2010 R & B Swingsville Contra Costa Zinfandel is 91% Zinfandel (sourced from a single vineyard in the Contra Costa AVA), 5% Barbera (sourced from the same vineyard) and 4% Petite Sirah (sourced from a vineyard in Napa Valley). Contra Costa is located in the northern section of the Central Coast AVA, near the…
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The 2011 Donati Family Vineyards Sorelle per Sempre (Latin for Forever Sisters) Chardonnay is an unoaked blend of 79% Chardonnay and 21% Pinot Blanc, a White grape mutation of the Pinot Noir grape. The grapes are sourced from the Paicines AVA located south of San Jose and east of Monterey inside the Central Coast AVA….
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The 2009 Emerald Bay Central Coast Merlot is a blend of about 90% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from multiple vineyards in California’s Central Coast AVA. Emerald Bay is an entry level label for Chateau Julien, a family owned winery located in the Monterey AVA, in operation since 1982. The Emerald Bay wines are…
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