The McBride Sisters Hawke’s Bay Brut Rose is a non-vintage blend of 64% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay, and 6% Merlot vineyards located in Hawke’s Bay growing region on the North Island in New Zealand. The Pinot Noir and the Chardonnay are iconic grapes used in Champagne wines, so the uncommon addition of Merlot is an…
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The VINTJS Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 2019 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. The Sonoma Coast AVA runs along the California coast from San Pablo Bay to Mendocino County to the north. The Sonoma Coast AVA is located in mountainous terrain, with most of the vineyards located high up in the foothills, well above 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 Love Noir Pinot Noir 2018 is one of the new, bolder styles of Pinot Noir sourced from grapes farmed in several regions of California. This Pinot Noir is one of The Wine Group’s families of wines. Love Noir Pinot Noir 2018, as a brand wine, is not tied to a single winery. Brand wines…
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The Castor and Pollux Pinot Noir 2019 is a $6.99 Aldi import wine from the Languedoc growing region of Southeastern France. The Languedoc is the largest wine region in France and this is the area that supplies a great deal of the every-day wines that the French drink every-day. I know that many Americans think…
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The Bread and Butter Pinot Noir 2019 is sourced from vineyards in California. Their motto is” Good. Honest. Simple. Do not overthink it.” In keeping it simple they do not go into a great deal of detail about the production of this Pinot Noir. Bread and Butter are one of the WX Brand’s families of…
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The Veuve Monsigny Champagne Rosé is a $19.99 Aldi exclusive, 65% Pinot Noir, 25% Pinot Meunier, and 10% Chardonnay sourced from vineyards across the Champagne region in France. I imagine when a lot of folks see a store brand twenty buck Champagne they figure that there is no way it can be very good. Most…
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The Liberte Pinot Noir 2017 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive sourced from vineyards in San Luis Obispo County inside the Paso Robles AVA which is inside the Central Coast AVA of California. Liberte has been a Trader Joe’s brand for some time, I think we first reviewed these wines with the 2009 vintage. The…
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The Peaks and Tides Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 2018 is a $12.99 ALDI exclusive. The Sonoma Coast AVA is located between Coastal Mountain ranges on the Pacific Coast of Sonoma County. ALDI typically owns the trademark for the brands of wine they sell, so it is difficult to find out who exactly is responsible for…
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The Etienne Doue Brut Champagne is a blend of 60% Chardonnay and 40% Pinot Noir from a Grower/Producer (look for an RM somewhere on the label) sourced from estate vineyards near the town of Montgueux in the Aube section of Champagne in France. Étienne Doué is the father-daughter team of Étienne and Virginie. A Grower/Producer…
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Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Sta. Rita Hills Pinot Not 2019 Lot #96 The Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Pinot Noir 2019 is a $14.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive from the vineyard(s) in the Santa Rita Hills AVA. Which is found inside the Santa Barbara County AVA in the southern section of California’s Central Coast AVA. Santa Barbara…
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The Poppy Monterey Pinot Noir 2017 is sourced from vineyards in the Arroyo Seco AVA inside of Monterey County in California’s Central Coast AVA. Arroyo Seco translates to a dry riverbed and is located southeast of Monterey Bay. This area is a deep valley close to the Pacific Ocean and has warm days cooled by…
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The Eola Hills Classic Pinot Noir 2017 is sourced from 7 vineyards in the Willamette Valley
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The Story The Aria Pinot Noir Brut Cava is a non-vintage Bubbly from the Penedes region of Catalunya, near Barcelona in Eastern Spain. Aria is part of the Segura Viudas family of Sparkling wines. Segura Viudas is in turn part of the Freixenet group that includes Mionetto Prosecco and Gloria Ferrer wines. Cava is produced…
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The Story The VINTJS Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir 2018 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive sourced, like the name says, from the Sonoma Coast AVA located along the Pacific Coast of Sonoma County. The AVA border goes far enough inland to include some of the Russian River AVA. I was in Trader Joe’s looking for…
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The Story The Opaline Sparkling Pinot Noir Brut Rose is a non-vintage $7.99 Trader Joe’s wine imported from France. That is the bulk of the information concerning this Bubbly. The label says Product of France which does not narrow wines’ origin down to any great extent. The Opaline does have a very nice bottle. The…
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The Story The Hyland Estates Old Vine Pinot Noir 2018 is sourced from the Hyland Vineyard which was planted in 1971. The Hyland Vineyard is situated in the foothills of Oregon’s Coast Range inside the McMinnville sub-AVA of the greater Willamette Valley AVA. It is one of the oldest and finest vineyards in the Willamette…
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The Story The Pinot Project 2018 is a $10.99 Pinot Noir from Costco, it is also available at Trader Joe’s and most other wine retailers. This is a wine label from Skurnik Wines and a Pinot Grigio, a Chardonnay, and Rose’ are other wines in the project. Skurnik Wines is a major wine importer (they…
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The Story The Loudenotte Pinot Noir Pays d’Oc 2018 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s import exclusively sourced from grapes from the south of France. The Oc in Pays d’Oc refers to Occitania which runs from the border with Spain to the Rhone Valley to the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean. The wines from this region are…
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The Story The Trader Joe’s Reserve Anderson Valley Pinot Noir is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. Anderson Valley is located in coastal Mendocino and is situated between two mountain ranges. Two more things to note are this the 2018 vintage and is Lot #201. Anderson Valley has a growing reputation for the production of fine…
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The Story The Bluebird Monterey Pinot Noir 2016 seems to be an orphan wine. All the social media for Bluebird Wines and they had everything, Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Instagram, all stopped posting in 2015. There is a single webpage, for the 2013 vintage of this wine. They seemed to have produced other wines from past…
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The Story The Anne Amie Rose of Pinot Noir 2019 is an estate farmed, produced, and bottled Rose‘ sourced from vineyards in the Yamhill-Carlton and Chehalem Mountain districts of the Willamette Valley in western Oregon. Anne Amie Vineyards is a privately owned winery founded in 1999. This Rose‘ is a brand new wine for Anne…
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The Story The Cotillion Pinot Noir 2017 is a Trader Joe’s $9.99 exclusive brand sourced from vineyards in 56% Monterey County, 33% Sonoma County, and 11% Santa Barbara County in California. Under usual circumstances, this is a wine that would show ‘California‘ on the front label as a place of origin since 67% of the…
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The Story The Trader Joe’s Reserve Monterey Pinot Noir 2018 lot #191 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive produced for them by an unspecified winery from grapes farmed in the Monterey County AVA inside the Central Coast AVA of California. The listed producer, Ashford Court, also is the name used for Trader Joe’s Cotillion Pinot Noir….
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The Story The Anna de Codorníu Brut Rosé Cava is a blend of 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay sourced from estate vineyards near the town of Lleida in the Cava D.O. of northeast Spain (near Barcelona). A typical Cava uses the three indigenous grapes, Macabeo, Xarello, and Parelada, but since this is a Rose’ and Red…
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