Sommelier André Hueston Mack returns for another edition of World of Wine, and this time he's putting twelve bottles of Trader Joe’s wine to the test. With each bottle costing under $30, will they give you a bang for your buck?
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00:00Hey, I'm Sommelier Andre Houston Mack,
00:01and today I'm going to taste over a dozen wines
00:03that you can only get at Trader Joe's.
00:10So word on the street is that TJ sells about 40 million bottles
00:14of wine a year.
00:15That's quite a bit.
00:16Today, we decided just to only focus
00:18on the wines that were branded under the Trader Joe's brand,
00:21and then one of them that made them pretty famous.
00:23So I think we'll start there.
00:25OK, we're going to start off here with the Charles Shaw.
00:27This is the Merlot, California.
00:29And this is $4.49.
00:32So this was affectionately known as two-buck Chuck.
00:35I don't have a lot of hang up on inexpensive wine.
00:37I'm really always been about wine for the people.
00:40And because you, the people, asked
00:42me to try the wines from Trader Joe's,
00:44that's why we're here today.
00:45So as we're looking at this, this is a 2022 vintage.
00:48It just says California on front.
00:49That means that the grapes for this bottle of wine
00:52can be sourced from anywhere in California.
00:54A sign of quality is more detailed
00:57on where the grapes come from.
00:58So California is pretty broad.
00:59If it had more detail on it, I would
01:01expect a little bit more detail in the quality of the fruit
01:04and the quality of the product.
01:05But I don't know.
01:06That's just me judging a wine by its label.
01:08All right, we're going to crack this thing open.
01:10There's a little greenness on the nose
01:12here, so slightly vegetal.
01:14Underneath that, there's some plum, raspberry,
01:16black currant.
01:20On the palate, it's probably more like chocolate-covered
01:22raspberries or currant.
01:24Tastes somewhat smoky.
01:25Generally speaking, less expensive wines,
01:27in order to make them affordable,
01:29they don't spend a lot of time in new oak barrels.
01:31Valued style wines under a certain price point,
01:33definitely at this price point, tend
01:35to be done in stainless steel.
01:36But a lot of times what they do is
01:37they'll have wooden staves inside of the stainless steel
01:40to impart some of the flavoring that you get from oak.
01:42They could use oak chips.
01:43I've seen people use sawdust.
01:45So there's lots of ways to kind of achieve the oak
01:48or mimic the oak flavoring.
01:50It's not authentic, right?
01:51So you can tell it right away.
01:52On the nose, it felt like it was vibrant
01:54with lots of fresh fruit.
01:55But on the palate, it feels somewhat dull
01:57and not giving anything.
01:58Kind of almost shut down.
01:59Numb, if you will.
02:00But then really, like, am I really going
02:02at this $4.50 bottle of wine this way?
02:05I think if it delivers you pleasure
02:06and you like to drink it, it's great.
02:08But to me, I think it's mid.
02:09At worst, at a higher price point.
02:12Moving right along, this is Trader Joe's Reserve.
02:14This is their Pinot Noir from Santa Barbara County.
02:16And this is $9.99.
02:18Pinot Noir for under 10 bucks.
02:20That's definitely a rare find, especially domestic.
02:22Let me explain how Trader Joe's accomplishes this.
02:25It's called white labeling.
02:26Trader Joe's doesn't own a winery or anything like that.
02:29Trader Joe's is just basically selecting the wines
02:31and working with producers that they like.
02:33Then they ask them to put the Trader Joe's logo
02:35and label on it.
02:36And hence, this is what we have here.
02:37It has the name of where it was produced and bottled.
02:40It'll tell you whose license it is.
02:42And so that will give you some insight
02:43to who actually made the wine and what brand it is.
02:47And then a lot of them also have these lot numbers on it.
02:49The idea is that you'll be able to recognize
02:51the particular lot that you enjoyed.
02:54First off, this has what I like to call the P Funk,
02:56Pinot Noir always kind of has this funk element to it.
02:58Underneath that, there's just a hint of cherry,
03:00more raspberry, tad bit of earth,
03:02but just more like dry dirt.
03:05This wine is too alcoholic.
03:07All you get is this burning sensation in your mouth,
03:09just heat.
03:10Right now, this wine is somewhat undrinkable to me.
03:11It's pretty hot.
03:12I would dunk this in some ice.
03:14By dunking this wine into some ice cold water
03:16or chilling it, we'll just kind of take away
03:17some of the burning sensation that you get
03:19from high alcohol wines.
03:20When red wines are served warmer than they should be,
03:22just really accents the alcohol in the wine.
03:25And so it just kind of makes your mouth flare up.
03:27Red wine temperature, I generally like around 65 degrees.
03:30When I say chilled, I'm thinking around 55 degrees.
03:33The reason why I don't like this wine
03:34is because it's too much alcohol and not enough fruit.
03:37So this is Trader Joe's Pinot Gris.
03:40This is from the Willamette Valley in Oregon.
03:41This is 2023 and this comes in at a whopping $9.99.
03:46Pinot Gris is pinot, but it's gray.
03:48Pinot Gris almost looks like red grape.
03:50It's spotted with like some green on it and red.
03:52It has a darker skin than most white wine grapes do.
03:55Pinot Grigio, Pinot Gris, same grape.
03:57The Willamette Valley is located in Oregon.
03:59It runs from Portland proper all the way down to Eugene.
04:02What you want when you're growing wine grapes
04:04or generally anything, you want really hot days
04:07so the grapes can ripen phenolically,
04:08but then you also want very cool nights
04:10so the grapes can retain some form of acidity.
04:13So in the Willamette Valley, they do that.
04:14All right, we're gonna open this bad boy up.
04:17So lemon lime, somewhat like a lemon custard.
04:20There's something confectionary about it, the wine.
04:22It smells somewhat like cotton candy,
04:24a little bit of peach, nectarine.
04:27There's some residual sugar in the wine,
04:29but the acidity is pretty high,
04:30so it finishes pretty clean,
04:32but you do get the sweetness on the palate.
04:34Pretty good, this is pretty good, I like this.
04:36When we talk about residual sugar,
04:37you hear people say the wine wasn't ferment all the way dry.
04:40Yeast is gonna eat the sugar and produce alcohol.
04:42That's called fermentation.
04:43At any given point, you can stop the fermentation,
04:46so not all the sugar has been consumed by the yeast.
04:49If you wanted the wine to be sweet,
04:51this tastes like it has a very small tad bit
04:53of residual sugar left in the wine.
04:54So it wasn't fermented all the way dry.
04:56Yeah, I think $9.99, this is great.
04:58If I could get it for $4.49 and the same bottle,
05:00I would buy truckloads of it.
05:02For a Willamette Valley designate
05:03and not just Oregon or California,
05:05already that means that you're getting some type of quality.
05:08This is a winner for me.
05:11So moving right along, this is Trader Joe's.
05:13This is the Platinum Reserve.
05:14This is Cabernet Sauvignon for $17.99.
05:16And what's interesting, I get the platinum,
05:18I get the play here, so we're moving a step up.
05:20There's a little bit more detail on the bottle.
05:22This is Cabernet Sauvignon, but it's from Napa Valley.
05:24But to be more specifically,
05:26it's from a sub-appellation called Oakville.
05:28Oakville definitely is the home of King Cabernet Sauvignon.
05:31They tend to be some of the most elegant wines.
05:34The more detail that you can give me about any wine,
05:36the higher the cost of the wine.
05:37And to be honest with you, for $17.99,
05:39this is still well below the average wine
05:41that you can get from Oakville,
05:42or that has the Oakville designate on the label.
05:44So it's still a bargain
05:45because these wines cost triple the amount,
05:47mainly starting, like I don't think
05:49you can really get anything under 50 bucks from there,
05:51but can they deliver the quality
05:53of this particular sub-appellation at this cost?
05:55We'll see.
05:58Okay, okay.
06:00There's cedar, there's leather,
06:02there's black currant, red currant,
06:05tad bit of bitter chocolate.
06:06This smells like every bit of high quality Cabernet
06:10from Napa.
06:14There's quite a bit of tan in there,
06:15but like pretty well integrated.
06:16It's not too crazy.
06:17But other than that,
06:18it has everything that you would be looking for
06:20in a California Cabernet.
06:22It's pretty polished.
06:24Yeah, this is very pleasant.
06:25It feels like it has some bottle maturity.
06:26I mean, it's got three years,
06:28but it has some of those aromas and flavors
06:31that generally come from a wine being aged.
06:33It's all integrated.
06:34The alcohol is not out of whack.
06:36It's not overly fruity.
06:37All of those things have come together.
06:39It's a well-balanced, polished wine.
06:42And for $17.99, it feels like an incredible price.
06:45And I think the only problem that I have with the wine
06:47is that it falls a little short on the finish.
06:49It feels a little light on the back palate.
06:51The wine just stops mid-palate.
06:52As I swallow it, it doesn't coat my throat.
06:55It doesn't go down.
06:56I'm not tasting it afterwards.
06:57It's almost like you get to chew the food,
06:58but you don't get to swallow it.
06:59But other than that, this is a thumbs up.
07:01$17.99, like I would drink this wine.
07:03I would pay like 35 bucks for it.
07:05This is Trader Joe's Grower's Reserve.
07:08This is the red wine blend.
07:09This is 2023, and it comes in at $5.99.
07:14Grower's Reserve means nothing.
07:15It's a marketing term.
07:17It doesn't mean anything.
07:18It's not regulated by the government.
07:19If you look on the back here,
07:20it says Certified Organic
07:21by California Certified Organic Farmers.
07:23Has the little stamp of approval on it.
07:25Definitely doesn't mean that it tastes good at all,
07:27but we're gonna find out.
07:28First thing that jumps out of the glass is violets,
07:30raspberry, smells like vanilla,
07:32maybe with a little bit of cinnamon.
07:33Just smells a little chemically induced there.
07:42Yeah, I can't do this.
07:44I can't, I can't do this one.
07:46It's not bad, but I feel like it misses on a lot.
07:48I can't put my finger on it.
07:49It's saying that it's organic, but it tastes,
07:51tastes manipulated in a way.
07:52It makes me feel like, ugh.
07:53And then I'm getting like this fingernail polish remover.
07:56I think there's some, definitely some $5 wines out there,
07:58sub $5 wines that bring value.
08:01But in my opinion, this one probably doesn't.
08:02I wouldn't drink this.
08:04Now we have Trader Joe's Grand Reserve.
08:06This is the GSM, and it's $12.99.
08:09GSM, this is an acronym for the grapes
08:11that you find in this particular blend.
08:1342% Grenache, 39% Syrah, and 19% Morvedra.
08:17Grenache, Syrah, Morvedra are some of the standout grapes
08:21that are used in the Rhone Valley
08:24that make up or comprise some of the great wine blends
08:26from that particular region.
08:27You can't name a wine outside of that region
08:30the same name because it's illegal.
08:32You can only get Cote Roti from Cote Roti
08:35because Cote Roti is a name of a place.
08:37In Santa Barbara, they named this a GSM
08:39because they wanted to emulate Cote du Rhone style wine.
08:42In the United States, we name wines
08:44after the grape varietals in which they're from.
08:46Otherwise, this would be called Santa Barbara.
08:48Yeah, we're gonna go ahead and get in here.
08:50So I kind of get like iron, metallic.
08:53That's generally for the Morvedra.
08:54It's like really savory.
08:55It's almost kind of like when you bite your tongue
08:57or bite the inside of your lip,
08:58like that little bit of blood that comes out.
08:59I always kind of associate that with Morvedra.
09:01Syrah, there's this pepperiness, this kind of spice,
09:04and then there's like this cranberry slash currant.
09:07It's pretty tannic from the Syrah,
09:09but like it's sucking the moisture out of my mouth.
09:11Generally speaking, tannin sucks all the moisture
09:13out of your mouth, so it gives that drying out feeling
09:15that you get in the insides of your cheek.
09:16This has tannin, but no body,
09:19and I'm thinking I wanted to see
09:20a little bit more lush fruit or depth of fruit,
09:23and I think that's what we're lacking here.
09:24It's high in alcohol.
09:25It's almost 15% alcohol, but it's no grip to the wine.
09:28There's no layers.
09:29This is all like one rush, no nuance to it in any way.
09:33I had high hopes for that wine.
09:34I think that you can find a better Cote du Rhone
09:37from Cote du Rhone, far superior at this price point,
09:39and you can get some stuff that's even better cheaper.
09:42So we're stepping away from today's theme.
09:44This is Ernest Rapinoe.
09:45This is Champagne from Champagne, Blanc to Blanc, $26.99.
09:49So you're probably wondering why this is here.
09:51We just had to know.
09:52We had to know if Trader Joe's could sell a bottle
09:54of Champagne cheaper than Champagne could sell it.
09:57It is from a real producer.
09:58This is Blanc to Blanc.
09:59This means white from white,
10:00so they're using only Chardonnay grapes.
10:02These tend to be more coveted and more expensive.
10:05Champagne is expensive because there's a secondary
10:07fermentation that happens in the bottle,
10:09so it takes quite a bit of time to make Champagne.
10:11So there's lots of things that happen and happen by hand,
10:14and generally, the more times you touch something,
10:15the more expensive it is.
10:18I'll get like this toasty brioche.
10:21It's a little bit of pear.
10:25It's got great depth of flavor.
10:27It's got layers.
10:28It's got nuance.
10:29It just seems like it's lost some of its spunk.
10:32So the bubbles kind of fall off fast,
10:34and now it's almost flat, and I just pour this.
10:36Now we can deduce why Trader Joe's can sell Champagne
10:39for cheaper than Champagne.
10:40It's just not good Champagne.
10:41Champagne is about the bubbles and the dance.
10:43I think this has flavor,
10:45but doesn't really embrace the true excitement of Champagne.
10:48This is lackluster.
10:49I don't think this would even be good in orange juice.
10:52Now we're off to Bordeaux.
10:54This is the Trader Joe's Reserve.
10:56This is a Lussac Saint-Emilion 2022,
10:59and this is for $9.99.
11:02Lussac Saint-Emilion is on the right bank of Bordeaux.
11:04They're generally known for making wines
11:06that are Cabernet and Merlot heavy,
11:10and these are lower-level tier wines from Bordeaux
11:14that actually carry some weight.
11:15Lots of people drink them.
11:16Generally, these are where you go to to find value.
11:19What's prominent on this label is a name
11:21that most people can't even pronounce.
11:23So Lussac Saint-Emilion is a particular area
11:26within a certain region of Bordeaux,
11:28and they all have their different laws and rules
11:30that you have to abide by, what grapes you can use.
11:32They put the name on there so it means something.
11:34It's not a generic name or a fanciful name.
11:36Lussac Saint-Emilion does garner some respect
11:39for the quality and some distinction
11:41of how these wines are made and how they taste.
11:43This will be the second wine,
11:44well, first wine outside of Champagne
11:45that we taste that's an import.
11:48First off, I smell a little Barnyard here,
11:51followed by Black Currant, a little bit of Cherry Cola.
11:56That's a fun little wine for $9.99.
11:58Like, I think you get the nuances,
11:59the complexities of the wine.
12:00It's fresh, it's new, it's only two years old,
12:03but it's still accessible and drinkable.
12:04Some people would be surprised to find
12:06like this style of wine in Trader Joe's.
12:08Their track record tells everybody
12:10that they are a force within the wine world,
12:12and they know that their customers have different tastes,
12:14and I think this is a great call.
12:15Entry-level Bordeaux, everyday drinking Bordeaux
12:18that tastes fantastic, that delivers on taste
12:20of Bordeaux without the price point.
12:22This is a no-brainer.
12:24We're moving up.
12:25This is the Trader Joe's Grand Reserve.
12:26This is Meritage.
12:27This is Paso Robles, 2021.
12:30This is $12.99.
12:32So it's Merit, which signifies the quality of the grapes,
12:35and then Heritage, which is the homage to Bordeaux.
12:37So they kind of put those words together.
12:39They started putting this on bottles
12:40that were Bordeaux-style blends.
12:42This one is from Paso Robles.
12:43What I would say is I don't know
12:44if the name carries any weight behind it,
12:46the use of the term Meritage.
12:47To me, it was never used as a standard of quality.
12:50It was more about the blend
12:52and where the inspiration came from.
12:54I'm not real sure if I would be able to use that
12:56or could stand by that that was a merit of quality,
12:59but I don't know.
12:59I'm gonna taste and find out today.
13:01A lot more pronounced fruit.
13:02There's a little bit of plumminess to it,
13:04like ripe plum, red currant, cocoa.
13:07There's vanilla from the oak,
13:09and there's a little bit of cherry.
13:14All right, I like this one.
13:15Out of all of the wines that we tasted today,
13:16like this wine, what it's advertising on the label
13:19is definitely found in the glass and on the palate.
13:22When I think about Paso Robles fruit,
13:23you think of rich, ripe, this harvest of fruit,
13:26bountiful, that's kind of how the wines taste.
13:29It delivers on all those categories.
13:31This wine is selling what it advertised.
13:33Trader Joe's Reserve, this is Rosé of Pinot Noir,
13:362023 for 9.99.
13:39Rosé is a light skin contact red wine.
13:42Rosé comes in contact with the skins
13:44for a little bit of time and it produces rosé.
13:46Generally, rosé is made from red grapes
13:50with some skin contact.
13:51Conversely, orange wine is skin contact white wine.
13:55On the label here, they wanna signify
13:56that it's from Pinot Noir.
13:57Generally, that makes it expensive.
13:59All right, we're gonna hop in here.
14:02You get a little bit of that peafunk
14:03that you generally get from Pinot Noir.
14:05There's a little bit of raspberry,
14:06but more like kiwi, strawberry.
14:08And there's kind of a little bit,
14:09kind of a moussaka, kind of gummy thing going on here.
14:12The greenness or a freshness,
14:14this brightness that you smell.
14:16That smells somewhat like mowed lawn.
14:19It's smoky, but I don't find that as a bad thing.
14:22I don't dislike it, but I know that it's there.
14:24This is juicy, this is fun.
14:26It's fragrant, it's aromatic.
14:27Not only is this from Napa Valley,
14:29this is from Los Caneros,
14:30which is a sub-region within Napa.
14:32We're starting to get more detailed
14:33about where the grapes are coming from
14:34and how this wine was made.
14:36You can taste that in this wine.
14:37$9.99, I would drink this.
14:39Trader Joe's Reserve Sauvignon Blanc,
14:42and this comes in at $9.99.
14:43I love a good Sauvignon Blanc.
14:44I don't drink enough Sauvignon Blanc, I wish I did.
14:46Out of all the wines here,
14:47this is kind of one of the ones
14:48that was at the top of my interest.
14:51It almost smells a little bit like cotton candy,
14:53like vaguely.
14:54There's some grassy elements to it, it's herbaceous.
14:56Smells a little bit salty,
14:58like a little bit like ocean.
14:59But I think what I'm really smelling
15:01is this warmthness and this richness.
15:05Great acidity, it's got a rich mouthfeel to it,
15:08so it has this creaminess and richness,
15:10so the wine has texture.
15:11Lemon, Lemon Verbena, $9.99.
15:13This wine doesn't disappoint.
15:14This is spot on, exactly what I was hoping for
15:17and what I thought you would get
15:18from a Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc.
15:19This is solid.
15:20For me, my baseline is,
15:22does it taste like what it's supposed to taste like?
15:24And I think this wine does.
15:25And for $9.99, you're getting a bargain here.
15:28This is Trader Joe's Petit Reserve,
15:31and this is Carmenere, and this is from Chile.
15:33This is 2021.
15:34This comes in at $7.99.
15:36So this grape, Carmenere,
15:37is really championed by the Chileans.
15:39It was one of the missing Bordeaux grapes
15:41that migrated over.
15:42It's kind of not even grown in Bordeaux anymore,
15:45but it has flourished over in Chile,
15:47and it's something that they've raised the flag up
15:48and made it their own.
15:50Petit, but normally means small.
15:51It raises a red flag,
15:52considering that the wine is in French.
15:54I don't know how it pertains to this wine in particular.
15:56I would just think more about price point.
15:58On the imported wines, obviously, by law,
16:00they have to list importer there.
16:01Importing them in at this particular price point,
16:04I think their price goes up,
16:05but not enough to affect a United States consumer.
16:07I have to say, this is one of the most colorful labels
16:09that we tried all day.
16:12So there's a little bell pepper here, green pepper.
16:14First thing that you pick up off the nose
16:15is some cranberry, cinnamon, blackcurrant.
16:20This wine has flavor, depths and depths of flavor.
16:23It's astringent, but not overly crazy,
16:25just the right amount.
16:27Lots of fruit, so there's depth and breadth of it.
16:29It's really ripe fruit.
16:30For $7.99, it hits on the mark
16:32of what you want a wine to have.
16:34It has impact, it has flavor, it has ripeness,
16:36it has richness to it.
16:37It's lacking in just a tad bit of acidity,
16:39but I think this is a really fun bottle to explore
16:42without lots of financial repercussions.
16:44For $7.99, I think this is a fun pizza,
16:47Netflix and chill kind of movie vibe.
16:50Trader Joe's has everybody's wine taste covered.
16:52They have a sea of wine, an ocean of wine.
16:53You can try a plethora of wines that won't break the bank.
16:57It seems like a great place to start
16:58if you're a novice and a beginner in wine
17:00and wanna just taste different flavors
17:02and different styles of wine.
17:03I think it's a cool place to shop.
17:06We're not even rolling, are we?
17:08We're not, right?
17:08He didn't even do the, did he do the thingy?
17:10He did the thingy thingy?
17:11I'm not trying to fuck with anybody's job.
17:13I'm just saying, I didn't see it.
17:14I'm completely in your guys' hands.
17:16I'd be here all day.