The Story The Trader Joe’s Reserve North Coast Brut is a Trader Joe’s $9.99 non-vintage exclusive and is a blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. The North Coast AVA consists of Sonoma, Napa, Lake, Mendocino, along with the lesser-known Marin and Solano AVAs. This Bubbly is made for Trader Joe’s by Rack and Riddle, a company…
Read More
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…
Read More
The Story The Klinker Brick Old Vine Zinfandel 2016 is sourced from 16 “old vine” vineyards in the Mokelumne delta region of Lodi, California. Klinker Brick is family-owned and they are 5th generation fruit growers and have produced Klinker Brick wines since 2000. You hear about old vines when talking about Zinfandel on a regular basis,…
Read More
The Story The Sienna Glen Chardonnay 2018 is a $6.99 ALDI exclusive sourced from grapes from more than one California grape growing AVA. This is one of those wines where there isn’t much to say. It is a contracted store brand, they rarely give technical details on their wines. The winery that produced the wine,…
Read More
The Story The Pure Bred Lodi Old Vine Zinfandel 2017 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s (maybe exclusive). The reason I say maybe is this wine seems to be a close-out wine of some sort. The listed winery on the back of the label, West Coast Wine Group, Lodi, California, no longer has a website. Their URL,…
Read More
The Story The Flora and Stone Gewürztraminer is a non-vintage dated $4.99 ALDI exclusive wine sourced from vineyards in Monterey County AVA in the Central Coast AVA of California. Normally, $4.99, non-vintage, and a store brand would be a cause for concern, but I did a little digging and there is more to this wine than…
Read More
The Story The Raisins Gaulois Beaujolais 2018 is a Gamay wine from Marcel Lapierre sourced from vineyards in the Morgon area of Beaujolais in France. The name “Raisins Gaulois” simply translates to French Grapes and from there we will begin our story. Marcel Lapierre is one of the icons of Beaujolais, pioneered a return to the…
Read More
The Story The Wente Morning Fog Chardonnay 2017 is 98% Chardonnay and 2% Gewürztraminer sourced from Wente estate vineyards in the Livermore Valley AVA located across the Bay from San Fransico in the northern section of the Central Coast AVA. Wente Vineyards started in the 1880s and has been in continuous operation since then (they didn’t close…
Read More
The Story The Castle Rock Mendocino Pinot Noir 2017 is an inexpensive Pinot Noir, I found it for $7.99 at Costco that should provide a solid value. Castle Rock is an interesting wine company, they have been around for 25 years and have a unique business model. They own no vineyards, all their grapes come from…
Read More
The Story The Saint-Hilaire Brut 2017 is a blend of 90% Mauzac, 5% Chardonnay, and 5% Chenin Blanc sourced from grapes farmed in the Limoux area of the Languedoc in Southwest France. The Sparkling wine of Limoux is 100 years older than the Bubbly of Champagne. Saint-Hilaire is the Abbey were history first records monks producing…
Read More
The Story The Stick Figure Red Blend 2016 is a Trader Joe’s $8.99 exclusive sourced from a selection of cool climate and warm weather vineyards in the Central Coast AVA of California. As per usual, Trader Joe’s does not offer technical information for the Stick Figure Red, so let’s see what we can figure out on…
Read More
The Story The Fetzer Sundial Chardonnay 2018 is sourced from sustainably farmed vineyards in more than one California grape-growing AVAs. Fetzer was founded in 1968 and is a Certified B Corp, which is a designation given to companies that are sustainably and ethically managed, others are Patagonia and Ben and Jerry’s. The Sundial Chardonnay sells over…
Read More
The Story The Mumm Napa Brut Rose’ is a blend of 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay sourced from as many as 50 different vineyards (depending on the vintage) in the Napa Valley AVA. Mumm Napa started in the early 1970s is the California project of GH Mumm founded 150 years earlier in Champagne, France. Mumm…
Read More
The Story The Delicious Monster White Blend 2019 is a $5.99 Trader Joe’s import wine, a blend of 60% Chenin Blanc, 20% Muscat, and 20% Chardonnay from McGregor Winery vineyards in South Africa. McGregor Winery is a co-op of 33 farmers who have banded together to produce wines in the foothills of the mountains in…
Read More
The Story The Moon Willow Riesling 2018 os a $6.49 ALDI exclusive sourced from sustainably farmed vineyards in the Monterey AVA of California’s Central Coast AVA. ALDI virtually never gives out technical information about their wines, so who, how, and where will be a mystery. But at this price point taking a chance isn’t too big…
Read More
The Story The If You See Kay Paso Robles Red 2016 is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah, Zinfandel, and Petit Verdot grown in vineyards in the hills and valleys of San Juan Creek and Estrella District of inland Paso Robles AVA of the Central Coast AVA of California. There seems to be or has…
Read More
The Story The Dearly Beloved I Thee Red 2016 is a kitchen sink blend, Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Franc, and Petite Sirah sourced from vineyards in the Central Coast AVA of California. Trader Joe’s sells this blend for $7.99 and the Dearly Beloved website shows they produce 2 Red blends and a Chardonnay…
Read More
The Story The Moon X Black Pinot Noir 2017 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s wine, but I don’t think it is a TJ’s exclusive a website from New York sells it online for $9.99. The 2016 vintage of the Moon X Black Pinot was the #1 page on CheapWineFinder for about a year and a…
Read More
The Story The Lindenman’s Bin 65 Chardonnay 2018 is one of CheapWineFinder’s perennial favorites it is an amazingly inexpensive Chardonnay (this time we found it on sale for $2.99, Binny’s Chicago) that delivers year after year. Sourced from multiple vineyards in Southeast Australia, Lindeman’s is no longer an operating winery, it is a brand. A large…
Read More
The Story The Time Waits For No One Monastrell 2017 is 100% Monastrell (Mourvedre in France) produced by Finca Bacara (Finca translates to farm or vineyard) in the Jumilla DO of southeastern Spain. This wine is designated a DOP wine which is Spain’s highest wine category and Monastrell is the #1 Red grape in Jumilla accounting…
Read More
The Story The Kirkland Asolo Prosecco DOCG Extra Dry is a $6.99 Costco import exclusive sourced from grapes farmed around the town of Asolo in the center of the Prosecco region in Veneto, Italy. In California, the wine grape growing regions comprise of unique territories known as AVA’s, such as Paso Robles, Sonoma, Dry Creek, etc.,…
Read More
The Story The Violet House Central Coast Red Blend 2017 is an $8.99 ALDI exclusive wine. And that is about all I know about this wine, there is no mention on the web and ALDI doesn’t say a thing. The back label says this is a non-traditional blend and a 2017 vintage is decent age…
Read More
The Story The Federalist Dry Creek Zinfandel 2016 is 98% Zinfandel and 2% Carignane primarily sourced from Orsi vineyards in the southern end of Dry Creek Valley about a mile from the Russian River. The Zinfandel grapes came from 6 separate blocks of the vineyard and were fermented separately. The 6 lots were then blended and…
Read More
The Story The Trader Joe’s Petit Reserve Russian River Chardonnay 2018 is a $6.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. And this is an unexpected Chardonnay, the Fearless Flyer didn’t have much of anything interesting to say and the front label is the usual Tj’s exclusive label. But the back label tells that these grapes came from a…
Read More
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….
Read More
