The Story The Bear Bros Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 is an ALDI $8.99 exclusive sourced from vineyards in California. That is about all the information on the production of this Cab that is available. And that is ok because this is a lockdown wine, if you take a chance and head out to ALDI is grab…
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The Story The Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Chalk Hill Cabernet Sauvignon 2018, actually the complete name includes Lot 96 and it is a Trader Joe’s $12.99 exclusive wine. This wine is featured in Trader Joe’s Fearless Flyer, but there is no mention of any technical details, is it 100% Cabernet Sauvignon? What are the rough details…
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The CasaSmith Vino Rosso 2016 is a 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Sangiovese blend sourced from seven vineyards located in various AVAs inside the Columbia Valley AVA of Washington State. CasaSmith is one of Charles Smith’s Wines of Substance line of wines intended to pay tribute to his favorite wines of Italy. You may know Charles…
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The Story The Poppy Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 is sourced from the Sunny Slope and the San Juan vineyards inside the Paso Robles AVA which is also inside the Central Coast AVA of California. Poppy (which is the state flower of California) is a brand started in 2003 by the Silva Family who has 45…
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The Story The J. Lohr Seven Oaks Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 is 82% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Petite Sirah, 5% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot, and 1% Syrah sourced mainly from J. Lohr’s 7 Oaks vineyard as well as other estate vineyards in the Paso Robles AVA of the Central Coast AVA in California. J. Lohr is a family-owned…
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The Story The Chateau Le Grand Moulin Bordeaux 2016 is a blend of 80% Merlot, 15% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 5% Malbec from the Estate vineyard in the Blaye Cotes de Bordeaux AOP. This is wine available at Costco for $7.99, I don’t think this is a Costco exclusive, on-line retailers seem to sell the same wine…
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The Story The Technique Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2018 is a wine that sells for $6.99 at Trader Joe’s. Is it a Trader Joe’s exclusive? I don’t know since this wine does not conform to the typical Trader Joe’s exclusive wine brands. The Technique label is owned by the Precision Wine Company which has 9 different…
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The Story The Federalist Honest Red Blend 2016 is 46.4% Merlot, 24% Zinfandel, 22% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 7.6% Malbec from grapes sourced in 76% Mendocino, 16.4% Napa, and 7.6% Sonoma. If my math is correct, the Malbec came from Sonoma, and part of the Merlot came from Napa and the rest came from Mendocino. A…
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The Story The Légende Pauillac Bordeaux 2015 is a 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30%Merlot blend sourced from Domaines Barons de Rothschild estate Lafite vineyards near the village Pauillac in the Medoc region of Bordeaux. That is about the fanciest sentence CheapWineFinder ever had to write. While these vineyards are very, very upscale vineyards, the grapes were…
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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…
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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….
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The Story The Freakshow Lodi Cabernet Sauvignon, along with a small amount of Petit Sirah, is sourced from a Michael & David Winery estate vineyard in Lodi AVA of California’s Central Valley. Michael and David are the Phillips brothers and their family has farmed in Lodi since the 1850s. Most of the West Coast grape-growing…
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The Podcast This is a Quake And Dave Podcast about the Federalist Honest Red Blend 2016 a wine that they first got to sample while at a Cubs game at Wrigley Field. The game didn’t work as a welcoming place to do wine reviews, so we retreated to the rooftop Cheapwinefinder Podcast Studios high above…
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The Story The Federalist Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 is 93% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Zinfandel, and 2% Petite Sirah, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc farmed in vineyards in the Lodi AVA in California. Lodi is located in California’s Central Valley, in the delta region of the San Pablo Bay, which is the northernmost inland region of the San…
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The Story The TJ’s Grand Reserve Sonoma Meritage 2013-Lot 92 is a Trader Joe’s limited edition $12.99 Bordeaux Blend comprised of Merlot, Malbec, Cabernet Franc, and Cabernet Sauvignon. A 12.99 Sonoma Meritage Red Blend isn’t all that unusual, but where the Tj’s Grand Reserve separates itself from the other $12.99 wines, is this blend is aged…
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The Story The Grifone 1967 Toscana 2014 is a $5.99 Trader Joe’s wine, sourced from grapes from the Tuscany region of Italy. This wine is also known as a “Super Tuscan“, which is Sangiovese blended with French varietal grapes, in this case 10% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Syrah. There is a story about how these IGP…
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The Story The Rain Cloud Red Blend 2016 is a $5.99 wine from Trader Joe’s. This is a bit of a mystery wine, there is no official information for it on the web. The Rain Cloud Red won a Silver Medal in the Cabernet Sauvignon based Red blend category at the San Fransisco Chronicle Wine Competition,…
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The Collection Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 (Target) is a $9.99 Target exclusive sourced from vineyards in California. Target also offers their California Roots line of $5.00 wines, which I thought were “ok” but not anything special. It is hard to be too critical of a decent five buck wine. Should we expect a wine twice as…
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The Oxte The Silence Red Blend 2017- Trader Joe’s is a Trader Joe’s $5.99 import exclusive, a blend of 40% Tempranillo, 25% Syrah, 25% Garnacha (same as Grenache) and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from vineyards in the Cariñena region of Northeast Spain. Oxte is the Spanish word for “shoo” as in shoo fly, to swat something away….
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The Motto Gung Ho Red 2014 is a Red Blend, 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Petit Verdot, 12% Petite Sirah, and 10% Zinfandel, all sourced from California vineyards, that is currently selling for $3.99 at Trader Joe’s. This isn’t a Trader Joe’s exclusive, it is selling on the internet for 6 to 7 bucks (though a few…
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The Louis M Martini Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignon 2016 is Cabernet blended with a bit of Petite Sirah, Petit Verdot, and Merlot sourced primarily from a vineyard in the Dry Creek Valley AVA and another in the Alexander Valley AVA of Sonoma County. Louis M Martini was founded in Sonoma in 1933, but is now one of…
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The Burning Cavalier Merlot Cabernet 2017 is a rather morbidly named $5.99 Trader Joe’s import wine, a blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon from vineyards in the Languedoc region of France, just north of the border with Spain and along the Mediterranean Sea. The Languedoc is the largest grape growing region in France and while there…
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The Trader Joe’s Reserve Meritage Napa Valley Lot #176 2015 is a $9.99 Trader Joe’s exclusive, it’s a Red blend with Merlot as the main grape, followed by Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Verdot, Cabernet Franc, and Malbec sourced from vineyards in the Napa Valley of Northern California. The word Meritage is a combination of merit and heritage…
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The Hedges CMS Red 2014 is sourced from vineyards in the Columbia Valley AVA of Washington, it is Hedges Family Estates iconic Red blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah, with the blend changing from year to rear. The blend also seems to change during the year, the Hedges website gives the 2014 blend as 40%…
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