The Trader Joe’s Roseta Rosé 2022 is a $5.99 Rosé wine from Portugal. The back label lists a bottler, Goavni Bottling, a Portuguese custom wine producer. The flask-style bottle is very reminiscent of the bottle used for Matuse Rosé, a brand of Rosé wine that has been around for 70 years. Matuse Rosé was probably…
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The Picton Bay Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc 2022 is $7.99 at Trader Joe’s and sells for about $12.99 in places that Trader Joe’s does not serve. There is an actual Picton Bay winery. Usually, these wines are a brand made especially for TJ’s by a custom wine producer. The Picton Bay is a brand by Mount…
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The Federalist Ben Franklin Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 is a wine I found for $10.99 and the prices on the internet range from $10 to $20. This wine is over 90% Cabernet Sauvignon with small amounts of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Sirah, and Sangiovese added. This is a brand from Terlato WInes which is the company…
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The Oyster Bay Rosé 2022 is made from Pinot Noir grapes from grapes farmed in the Wairau Valley of the Marlborough region on the South Island of New Zealand. This is a wine found on sale in Chicago for $10.99 while the average price on the internet is $14. When New Zealand wine first broke…
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The Kirkland Signature Rioja Reserva 2018 is a $7.89 Costco exclusive. This Tempranillo is produced for Costco by Vina Egula a Rioja winery with over forty years of experience. The Vina Egula Reserva sells under its own label for $13 to $19. The Kirkland Signature Rioja Reserva 2018 is 100% Tempranillo and was aged for…
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The JaM Cellars Butter Chardonnay 2021 is 100% Chardonnay and is a wine I found at Costco selling for $9.99 and is found on the web for 13 to $17. The JaM in the name stands for John and Michele Truchard. John is a second-generation California winemaker his father owns Truchard Vineyards in Napa. In…
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The Les Allies Blanc de Blanc Brut is a French Sparkling wine I found at a local Chicago wine shop selling for $9.99. This is a Cote d’Or wine from Burgundy, France, and is a Vin Mousseux wine meaning it was produced in a method different than the Traditional or Champagne Method. That usually means…
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The Sand Point Sauvignon Blanc 2021 is a wine I found selling for $9.99. The Sand Point brand of wine is part of the Lange Twins Family Winery and Vineyards located in Acampo, California inside the Lodi AVA. The Lange Twins are 5th generation farmers whose families started working the land in the 1870s. The…
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The Cecilia Beretta Millesimato Valdobbiadene Prosecco 2021 is an $11.99 Trader Joe’s wine though it is available at a higher price elsewhere. Cecilia Beretta is a brand and winery owned by the Pasqua family since the early 1980s and they have a history in wine starting in the 1940s. Millesimato means that this is a…
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The Exquisite Collection Cotes de Provence Rosé 2021-Aldi is a $9.99 Aldi exclusive. This is a wine that in Aldi Europe and for a couple of years in the US sold out in a matter of hours. The 2016 vintage of this wine won an award for one of the best Provence Rosé wines in…
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The Firesteed Oregon Pinot Noir 2020 is produced from grapes from several growing Oregon regions. Willamette Valley is the most well-known, but there are 23 AVAs, including Rogue Valley and Umpqua Valley. The Firesteed Winery (founded in 1992) is located in Dundee, Oregon. This is their entry-level offering with their wines focusing on different areas…
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The Bar Dog Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 is 95% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Petit Verdot, 2% Petite Sirah, and 1% Merlot sourced from vineyards in California. Bar Dog is one of the family of wine brands from Vintage Wine Estates that has an excellent assortment of brands, they have high-end wines, affordable, and specialty wines. I like…
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The Rough And Ready Cabernet Franc Vs Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 is an $8.99 Trader Joe’s wine, but in places that don’t have a Trader Joe’s this wine sells for $15 to $18. It is a wine made for Trader Joe’s by Bozzano & Co., they have produced other quality wine for TJ’s in the past….
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Paso Robles Meritage 2021 is a $9.99 TJ’s exclusive. The back label says this Red was “vinted and bottled by Healdsburg Wine Cellars.” That is a division of Delicato Family Wines, they make Gnarlyhead wines, along with many other brands. They recently purchased Coppola WInes and also have holdings in Napa….
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The Woop Woop Shiraz 2020 is an Australian Red wine you should be able to find in the $12 range. In the early 2000s value-priced Aussie Shiraz wines were the rage and Woop Woop was always a bang-for-the-buck bargain. Here is a link to a write-up on the 2013 vintage, the last time we featured…
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The Angeline California Sauvignon Blanc Reserve 2021 is a wine I found on sale for $7.99 (Binny’s Chicago area), this vintage received 92 points from James Suckling, the leading wine reviewer. Angeline is an affordable line of wines from Martin Ray Winery (family owned since 1990) a high-end winery located in the Russian River AVA…
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The Kirkland Signature Extra Dry Prosecco Rosé 2021 is a 7.99 Costco exclusive. The traditional Prosecco grape, Glera, and Pinot Noir are used for additional flavor and color. This is an Extra Dry or slightly sweet wine, which is the way the Italians prefer it. The natural acidity balances the extra sugar, so this is…
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The Cloudline Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 2021 is 100% Pinot Noir sourced from several vineyards in the Willamette Valley AVA of Oregon, about an hour south of Portland. Cloudline is a brand (this is its 20th year) from Domaine Drouhin in collaboration with their importer Dreyfus, Ashby, and Co. The Drouhin Family has one of…
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The Sainte Celine Chablis 2022 is a $14.99 Trader Joe’s import wine. It is produced for trader Joe’s by Domaine Jean-Marc Brocard a noted Chablis producer (since 1973) who has made some of the first organic and bio-dynamic wines in Chablis and Burgundy. Chablis is the northernmost growing region in Burgundy and Champagne is north…
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The Outlander Meritage Paso Robles 2021 is a $7.99 Aldi exclusive. The Meritage in the name indicates that this is a Bordeaux blend, with Cabernet Sauvignon, Petit Verdot, Merlot, and Malbec grapes. To be a Meritage wine a license is purchased from the Meritage Alliance. They are an industry group promoting education and working on…
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The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 is a $12.99 TJ’s exclusive. The back label says it was vinted and bottled by Ashford Court, which is a faux winery. These Trader Joe’s Reserve wines are negociant wines; negociants never tell where they got their wines. The Alexander Valley is the upper half…
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The Kirkland Signature Cotes de Provence Rosé 2022 is a $7.99 Costco exclusive. It is produced for Costco by Oliver Sumeire (winemaker) for Famille Sumeire a winemaking family with roots in Provence that go back to the 1200s, though the history of the modern wine business dates to the 1880s. The Cotes de Provence is…
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The Kendall Jackson Grand Reserve Santa Barbara Chardonnay 2021 is 100% Chardonnay sourced from sustainably farmed Kendal Jackson Estate vineyards in Santa Barbara County, The Santa Maria County AVA (the northern boundary of the Santa Barbara AVA and Monterey County. To show Santa Barbara on the label 75% of the grapes have to be grown…
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The Don’t Mind If I Do Pinot Grigio 2022 is Vegan-friendly. You might ask how can something made from fruit not be ok with vegans? It is the fining process, fining is where the solids, grape skin residue and spent yeast are removed from the wine after aging and before bottling. They have traditionally used…
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The Caretaker Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive bottled for them by Miller Family Wines. Bottled for them means just that, they officially bottled the wine, and who knows who did the rest. Miller Family Wines are the parent company of the Central Coast Wine Warehouse which 10 to 15…
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