The Trader Joe’s Reserve Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir 2023 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive. This is a repeat wine for Trader Joe’s. We reviewed the 2021 vintage here.
The Story
This wine is produced and bottled by Bozzano & Company, who also made the 2021 vintage. They are a bulk and custom wine producer who have made multiple wines for Trader Joe’s. They have an excellent track record.
Santa Barbara is about 100 miles north of Los Angeles, which should be too warm to grow wine grapes. A freak of geography has a section of the Santa Barbara coastline jutting out just enough into the Pacific Ocean to have cool Ocean water and breezes to the south, west, and north. It isn’t a peninsula, but it is enough to change the climate. The town of Santa Barbara is referred to as America’s Riviera.
There are several sub-AVAs within Santa Barbara County, and this Pinot Noir appears to be a blend of two or more of these growing regions.
There is a write-up in the Fearless Flyer for the Trader Joe’s Reserve Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir 2023, but they are indexing the wrong current vintage, plus some of the information may be for the last version.
The 2021 vintage was an excellent value, a well-made, great-tasting wine, so let us sample the 2023.
The alcohol content is a stiff for a Pinot Noir, 14.5%
The Trader Joe’s Reserve Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir 2023 Tasting Notes
The color is a see-through garnet red. Pinot Noir grapes have thin skins, so the color of the wine is not as dark as that of thicker-skinned grapes. The nose is ripe cherry, spice, and herbs, cola (not sweet or fizzy), plum, and cranberry. The Trader Joe’s Reserve Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir 2023 has excellent length and a satisfying array of flavors.
This Pinot Noir tastes like black cherry, plum, exotic spice, tobacco, tart cranberry, and a hint of vanilla. The flavors linger on and on.
The acidity is well-balanced.
The Summary
- The Trader Joe’s Reserve Santa Barbara County Pinot Noir 2023 is another TJ’s Pinot Noir bargain.
- I am partial to Santa Barbara wines, and this wine fits right in.
- I preferred this $9.99 Reserve wine over some of the more recent Grand Reserve wines and above.
