My daughter Rachel is home from Thailand and one of the first messages I get is, “Where’s the nickel sale wine you saved for us?”
I had to laugh at that one!
So it was no surprise when a few days later Rachel had an idea for this blog. She and D’Aun were shopping at Trader Joe’s when she said, “Dad has blogged about the nickel sale at BevMo, but he should do a blog about the bargain wines at Trader Joe’s.”
Hmmm … good idea!
But our local Trader Joe’s has crazy parking and I tend to avoid the place. Besides, you really need to do this sort of thing with a group so there is reason to open a lot of different bottles.
And then it occurred to me … we have a crowd coming over for The SOLD Project planning meeting on Sunday night. Why not ask everybody to bring their favorite bottle of $10 or less Trader Joe’s wine? Thus a party was born. Well, okay, D’Aun’s great cooking and off the charts hospitality were what made it a party, but the wine helped!
With the help of Rachel, Kevin, D’Aun, Nate, Rachie, Kathy, Linda, Chuck, and Jen, and with the occasional entertainment from Sadie, Berkeley, and Ooshkie, we sampled 11 bottles of under $10 wine, one over $10, and one bargain wine you can’t find at Trader Joe’s. And yes, we had lots of half full bottles at the end.
Keeping in mind that the 1-10 ratings were awarded knowing that each bottle cost less than $10, here are the scoring results and comments:
The Incanto Rose Vino Frizzante from Italy ($5.99) was a nice way to start. More like Champagne than Prosecco, this Rose was mostly a hit. One sampler called it “dull” but others called it “great buy”, “nice summer day wine”, and “it might look like Kool-Aid but close your eyes and you’ll think you’re in Tuscany.” Okay, so nobody actually said that last line, but it fits. On a scale of 1 (grandpa might have sold this as snake oil) and 10 (nectar of the bargain gods), it averaged 7.34 with a high rating of 8 and a low of 5.
The Zonin Prosecco from Italy ($6.99) was also considered a good buy. This is a non-vintage sparkling wine from the largest producer of Prosecco in Italy. It contains a soft taste that “should be really cold to be a 7.” Critics said it was “uninteresting” and one said the “finish is not so great”, but most agreed they “would buy it again.” Rating: 6.12 with a high of 8 and a low of 4.
The Trader Joe's Chardonnay was the highest rated wine of the evening.
The 2009 Jacques Bourguignon Chablis from France ($7.99) had weak reviews. Most of the comments were simply “blah”, “plain”, “nothing special”, “not a lot of sass”, and “boring”. As one taster put it, “there is nothing not to like, but nothing to like.” A few mentioned a “salty” aftertaste. Rating: 5.00 with a high of 6 and a low of 2.
The 2009 Trader Joe’s Chardonnay Reserve from Rutherford ($9.99) allowed the white wines to finish strong. I personally thought it was the classic “overdone” California style chardonnay, but if you like that then this is a good wine. It came in with the best numbers of the evening, rating 7.73 with a high of 9 and a low of 4.
Moving to the reds, the 2009 Trader Joe’s Syrah from Paso Robles ($9.99) started us off with a thud. Comments included “not good at the front”, “bad”, and “sour.” Enough said about this Syrah. Rating: 4.13 with a high of 7 and a low of 2.
The 2008 Woodenhead Zinfandel from the North Coast ($9.99) was a split decision. One taster wrote down “don’t like”. Pretty clear, eh? Another described it as a “barn flavor” and gave the wine a 2, so I guess they weren’t keen on it either. But others said “easy”, “smooth”, and “full bodied”. One said “just okay”. That would be me. Rating: 6.63 with a high of 9 and a low of 2. Yeah, kind of all over the map on this one.
The Trentatre Rosso was arguably the "best buy" of the evening.
The 2009 Trentatre Rosso from Italy ($5.99) was probably the great bargain of the evening. Trentatre means 33 in Italian, representing the percentage of each red wine in the bottle: Cabernet, Merlot, and Montepulciano. The comments were all positive, including “tastes like a $20 bottle”, “great bargain”, and “a good combination of grapes!” Rating: 7.38 with a high of 9 and a low of 5.
The 2009 Hamilton-Stevens Zinfandel from Dry Creek Valley ($8.99) was another good buy. By now the taste buds were starting to fade and the focus was wavering, but the consensus was growing. This California Zin was warmly received and received a rating of 7.60 with a high of 8 and a low of 7. Like I said, consensus had set in.
We closed the Trader Joe’s under $10 tasting with a 2009 Leonhardt Zinfandel Reserve from the Dry Creek Valley ($9.99). I really like this wine and gave it an 8 (which was my highest score of the night). Others were less excited, but it still managed a rating of 6.84 with a high of 8 and a low of 5.
Not everybody sampled the red wines, so we also had a 2008 Wente Riva Ridge Chardonnay open ($15 or thereabouts). A good wine that all agreed is an excellent staple when you just don’t know what else to buy. We didn’t rate the wine because it didn’t seem fair given that it was over $10.
We also had a bottle of RockRidge Meritage ($4.99) that one taster had picked up at Grocery Outlet. Definitely a contender for best bargain. Rating: 7.00 with a high of 9 and a low of 6 (to be fair, the high of 9 came from the person who brought the wine!).
Finally, yes, we did open a bottle of our own Ranch Hands. By this time I figured all taste buds would be overworked, but eyes lit up at first taste. As one person said, “This is in a whole different league.” Yes, yes it is.
So there you have it … now if I could only find a parking place at Trader Joe’s.