The Story The Inverted Red Blend 2017 is an ALDI $6.99 wine sourced from vineyards in the Central Coast AVA of California. And that is about all I know about this wine. It does not show up on the internet or under COLA name search, except there was an Inverted Red blend out of the Monterey…
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The Granite Coast Vineyards Red Blend 2013 is a $4.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive, estate grown and produced in Monterey, California. Granite Coast Vineyards seems to be a brand name and not an actual vineyard and winery, so if you want to know which estate grew the grapes and made the wine, look up wineries in…
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The Kamiak Rock Lake Red 2012 is a blend of 53% Syrah, 44% Merlot and 3% Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from vineyards in the Columbia Valley AVA of Washington. Kamiak is the entry-level label for Gordon Estates, a family owned winery founded in 1980. Gordon Estate is known for estate grown and produced wines made under…
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The Cooper’s Hawk Romance Red is a sweet, non-vintage wine. The bottle shows American as the place of origin for the grapes, they source grapes from California, Washington, Oregon and Michigan. When you see American on the label that means that grapes grown in more than one state were used. Cooper’s Hawk is a winery and restaurant…
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The Ca’ di Rajo Raboso Del Piave 2007 Notti di Luna Piena (translates to Full Moon, is 100% Raboso Del Piave grown in an estate vineyard by the Piave River near the city of Treviso in Veneto, Italy. Raboso Del Piave is indigenous to the eastern Veneto region and is a grape that exhibits strong tannins and acidity….
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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 Bernard Baudry Chinon Les Granges (translates to the barns) is 100% Cabernet Franc sourced from organic Estate vineyards in the Chinon AOP inside the Loire Valley in central Western France. If you see Chinon on the label of a Red wine the grape will be Cabernet Franc, usually as a single varietal, but…
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The 2011 Intermingle California Red blend is a $5.99 ALDI exclusive sourced from grapes grown in more than one California grape growing AVA. ALDI does not provide much information on the particulars of the wine, “Cherry and berry notes with a touch of oak in the finish” and this is a semi-sweet Red, is about…
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The 2012 Chariot Gypsy Red is a $4.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. Every year since 2000, Jim Neal has been selling his Chariot Gypsy wines through Trader Joe’s. When it first debuted, $10 buck wines were an iffy proposition, a $4.99 wine and a Red wine to boot, that was flat out delicious was truly a…
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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 2012 Goats do Roam Red is a blend of 46% Syrah/Shiraz, 23% Grenache, 17% Mourvedre, 11% Cinsault and 3% Durif/Petite Sirah sourced from multiple vineyards in South Africa’s Western Cape wine region. The name, Goats do Roam, is a play on the Cotes du Rhone AOC grape growing area in the Rhone Valley in…
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The 2011 Pontificis (translates to Pope) Grenache (50%) Syrah (30%) and Mourvedre (20%), also known as a GSM blend is a Vin du Pays d’Oc wine sourced from vineyards in the Languedoc region of southern France and is a Trader Joe’s $6.99 import exclusive. This blend is produced for Trader Joe’s by Badet Clement and…
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The 2012 Coppola Votre Sante (French for “to your health”) Chateau Red is a blend of Rhone grape varietals, mainly Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre with a few other grapes added in small amount to season the stew, sourced from several California grape growing AVA’s, but primarily from Monterey, the North Coast and Lodi. This blend…
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The 2011 Babble Mendocino County Red is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive blend of ZInfandel, Petit Sirah, Syrah and Carignane (one of the main Red grapes of the Languedoc) produced for them by DnA Vineyards. DnA Vineyards is Dennis Patton and Andrea Silverstein, Dennis Patton has been making wine in and out of Mendocino County for…
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The 2010 BV Coastal Estates Red Blend is produced from Zinfandel grown in the Lodi AVA, Barbera and Merlot from adjacent vineyards in the Paso Robles AVA and the Petite Sirah from the Lake County AVA. BV stands for Beaulieu Vineyards which was founded in the Rutherford AVA of Napa Valley in 1900, though BV…
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The 2011 Coppola Diamond Collection Black Label Claret (Claret is the term used in England for Red wine blends from Bordeaux, France) is 79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Petit Verdot, 3% Merlot and 3% Cabernet Franc sourced from Coppola Estate vineyards in Sonoma as well a long term contracted vineyards in Napa, Sonoma and El Dorado AVA’s…
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The 2010 Gnarly Head Authentic Red is a blend of Zinfandel, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah and Syrah sourced from the vineyards of long term contract growers in Lodi, California. The 2010 vintage provided a long, cool growing season, which is ideal for developing complex. fully ripe grapes. The Zinfandel portion of the blend was…
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The 2011 Menage a Trois California Red is a blend of 46% Zinfandel, 36% Merlot and 18% Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from vineyards in more than one California grape growing AVA. Menage a Trois is produced by Folie A Deux Winery, who is in turn part of the Trinchero Family Estates line of wines that include…
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The Zestos Old Vine Garnacha is 100% Garnacha (also known as Grenache) sourced from high altitude vineyards located in the San Martin sub region of the Vinos de Madrid (DO) in Central Spain. Old vines in this case means 40 to 50 year old dry farmed (not irrigated, the only water the vines get is…
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The 2010 BB King Signature Selection Red Blend is a mix of Garnacha Tintorera (not the same as Garnacha/Grenache, but a cross of Garnacha and Petit Bouschet, also known as Alicante Bouschet) and Syrah with a small amount of Cabernet Sauvignon added in. This wine is produced for BB King by Bodega Santa Cruz de…
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The 2011 Chariot Wines Gypsy Red is a $4.99 US exclusive for Trader Joe’s. Jim Neal has been producing the Chariot Gypsy wines since 2000 and these wines where one of the first 5 buck wines that tasted like far more expensive wines. 13 years ago, $5 wines were MD 20/20, Andre’s Cold Duck and…
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The 2009 Whiplash Redemption Red Blend is 65% Syrah, 25% Barbera and 10% Zinfandel sourced from more than one California grape growing AVA. Whiplash wines are the value brand for Reata Wines from Napa Valley. The Barbera grape was the 2nd most planted grape in Italy until 1985 when a group of idiotic producers added…
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The 2011 Spiral Wines California Red blend is a $5.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive, made for them by private label producer Fior di Sole, Napa, California. The blend is 58% Merlot, 15% Petite Sirah, 16% Zinfandel and 11% Syrah sourced from grapes grown in more than one California grape growing AVA. Trader Joe’s offered a $4.99…
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The 2009 Peirano Vineyards The Unknown is a blend of 70% Syrah, 20% Petite Sirah, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon, along with 5% Viognier sourced from their Estate vineyard in the Lodi AVA of California. Viognier is a white wine grape, it is used to put a “shine” on the fruit flavors and add some structure, though they…
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