The Trader Joe’s Reserve Oak Knoll Napa Merlot 2020 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. The Oak Knoll AVA in Napa is located at the southern end of Napa on the Valley floor. It is just above the Napa side of the Carneros AVA which borders to the south on the San Pablo Bay. Most…
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The Trader Joe’s Diamond Reserve Stags Leap District Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 is a $19.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. The Diamond Reserve wines are their double-secret super rare wines; if you are interested, do not wait to try one because when they are gone, they are gone forever. Twenty bucks are beyond the usual price range for…
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The Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Napa Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 is a $14.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. This is a blend of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Petit Verdot sourced somewhere in Napa Valley. Trader Joe’s says, “This is a very, very, very (very) special wine that comes from one of the most prestigious wineries in Napa.”…
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The Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Diamond Mountain District Napa Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 is a $14.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive; this is also Lot #92, which may be important in this series of wines. For the last six months, TraderJoe’s has offered a line of small-batch wines featuring grapes from premier Napa Valley sub-AVA’s. Are these wines…
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The Blackbird Vineyards Dissonance Napa Sauvignon Blanc 2019 is 87% Sauvignon Blanc and 13% Semillon. The Sauv Blanc is sourced from the Hudson Vineyard, located on the Napa side of the Carneros AVA. The Semillion was taken from the Bavarian Lion Vineyard in the Knights Valley AVA of northeast Sonoma County. The Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon blend…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Oak Knoll Zinfandel 2019 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive sourced from grapes farmed in the Oak Knoll AVA inside Napa Valley. This is a one-off wine; when it sells out, it is gone for good, so if you like it, buy all you need. Oak Knoll is located in the…
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Lakeville Napa Valley Brut Róse 2019 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive, a Sparkling wine made from the Pinot Noir grape sourced from vineyards in Napa Valley. There are a couple of odd details concerning the Lakeville Napa Valley Brut Róse. First, if you look at the title, the “o” in Rose has the punctuation,…
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The Trader Joe’s Napa Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon 2018, actual name on the bottle is Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Oakville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 Lot #97. The name was too long to fit in the title section. Trader Joe’s features an array of Napa Valley sub-AVA Cabernets. I saw Atlas Peak, Yountville, and Spring Mountain…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Carneros Chardonnay 2019 is actually Carneros Napa Valley Lot #204. There is Lot #205 which I imagine is from a different producer. Some Trader Joe’s get the 204 and others get the 205, both are $9.99. Carneros is an interesting AVA, it is located half in Sonoma and half in Napa….
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The Fleur de Napa Sauvignon Blanc 2019 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. If Napa Valley is not your first thought when you think of American Sauvignon Blanc, that is ok because Napa has concentrated on the other Sauvignon, Cabernet Sauvignon. But back in the 1960s, Robert Mondavi kick-started the whole Sauvignon Blanc craze with…
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The Story The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Napa Chardonnay 2018 Lot 85 is a $12.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer says “expect to pay twice as much elsewhere for a similarly pedigreed Napa Chardonnay.” And they called this wine producer their winery partner. That sounds about right, if a winery from Napa releases…
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The Story The Tempest Bay Carneros Chardonnay 2018 is a $7.99 Trader Joe’s wine sourced from grapes grown on the Napa side of Carneros, the Carneros AVA is half in Sonoma and half in Napa. The Carneros AVA is located a good distance from the Pacific Ocean, but its southern border is the San Pablo Bay (the bay…
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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 Trader Joe’s Reserve Meritage Napa Valley Lot #176 2015 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive, it’s a Red blend with Merlot as the main grape, followed by Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Verdot, Cabernet Franc, and Malbec sourced from vineyards in the Napa Valley of Northern California. The word Meritage is a combination of merit and heritage…
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The VINTJS Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2016 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive sourced from a vineyard or vineyards in Napa Valley, California. Trader Joe’s says this Sauv Blanc came from a well-known Napa winery/vineyard with whom they have had a 10 year relationship. I think I know who that is, but I can’t be certain,…
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The Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Yountville Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 Lot 74 is a $14.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive, Yountville is one of the 16 sub-AVA’s inside Napa Valley. The typical Yountville Cabernet Sauvignon is a cellar worthy wine that sells for $50 and up, so is this a $50 wine that somehow is priced at…
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The Trader Joe’s 2013 Grand Reserve Meritage Napa Lot 63 2013 is a $12.99 TJ’s blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, and Malbec (these are 5 of the 6 grapes approved for Bordeaux Red blends, the only grape missing is Carménère) sourced from vineyards somewhere in the Napa Valley of California. When dealing with…
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The Avalon CAB California Cabernet Sauvignon 2012 is 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Syrah, 7% Zinfandel and 4% Merlot sourced from vineyards located in Napa Valley (the largest % of the grapes come from Napa), Lodi, Paso Robles and Monterey County in Northern California. This Cab was aged for 8 months in French and American oak…
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The 2012 Caymus 40th Anniversary Cabernet Sauvignon celebrates Caymus Vineyards 40th year of wine-making in Napa Valley, California. Caymus Vineyards is still and family owned and operated vineyard/winery and in 1972, their first vintage of Cabernet Sauvignon sold for $4.50 a bottle. In 1987, Wine Spectator proclaimed Caymus, “The best damn Cabernet Sauvignon in California,” and twice…
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