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 the Robertson Valley district of South Africa. If you notice this is a 2019 vintage and we still have 2 months of 2019 left, South Africa’s winter and summer are reversed from North America. This is a young wine with just a little bit of aging, meant to be consumed in the first year of release or so. I think McGregor wines are for sale in other parts of the world and TJs have rights to this blend in the US. I was perusing the McGregor website and I found out why TJs is importing the Chenin Blanc based blend and not the McGregor Chardonnay. They named the Chardonnay after a local rain tree, which I suppose is very beautiful but unfortunately named, because the wine is called the Golden Shower Chardonnay. It makes me wonder if a delicious monster has a different meaning in South Africa. Chenin Blanc does extremely well in South Africa so I have high hopes for this inexpensive White blend. Chenin is one of those grapes that are versatile, young and crisp, oak-aged and age-worthy, Bubbly and everything in between. The alcohol content 12.5%.
The Tasting Notes
The color is clear, pale wheat yellow. The nose is, well, delicious, there is a lemon, honey, grapefruit, pear, crisp green apple, candy spice, and apricot. This is a wine that feels like it is about to be a sweet wine but never gets sweet, I guess the 20% Muscat gives it that feel. It tastes of melon, lemon, and lime, the Muscat adds sweet hard candy, but tart apple, and pear bring the wine back to Dry. The mid-palate mirrors the body of the wine but does add unsweetened pineapple. The acidity is closing to being lip-smacking good, but not quite. The finish is vibrant and lengthy.
The Summary
- That slap of sweetness in what is essentially a dry wine is in fact, delicious. I wouldn’t call it a monster but tasty is well deserved.
- The Delicious Monster is a very drinkable, change-of-pace $5.99 White blend.
- This is one of those wines where you need to buy 2 bottles because the first bottle will be empty in a hurry.
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Excellent description and review – especially spot on is this statement (from The Summary): “This is one of those wines where you need to buy 2 bottles because the first bottle will be empty in a hurry.” For sure.
I live near Trader Joe’s so it’s easy to get and affordable.