What Trader Joe's Wine Are You Drinking?

Colorado, my home state, has odd liquor laws so Trader Joe’s can’t sell wine, except for one, double secret location of their choosing and I am not making this up.
So I am in South Carolina this weekend visiting family and tonight’s dinner revolves around ingredients obtained from the local TJ’s. So I took the opportunity to peruse the wine section. One lap…nothing. Second lap, ah nothing. Third lap desperation settles in. Maybe a $9 Argentinian Cab will do. Good values from Argentina, right? So here is my selection:
2014 Gestos Cab. Simple, ripe. Bitter and tart with air. 83.
Sigh.

Search “trader” in this forum and you’ll get some interesting and colorful tasting notes on Trader Joe’s wines.

Should be ok to make the pasta sauce with, no?

I’ve given up on Trader Joe’s wines selections.
Their wine buyer should be drawn and quartered…

TTT

And braised in the in-store plonk.

I overheard the “wine guy” at TJ’s giving a woman some guidance. He said she should buy a Bellini (must be some premixed version of the Italian cocktail) because it is so sweet even people who don’t drink, drink it. Wha? He then proceeded to tell her, but they are out of it. Wha, wha!!

Trader Joe’s is notorious for sourcing a decent quality, value wine for one vintage, but then the next year that same wine is far less tasty. Not sure if they ramp up production and lose quality or what…

I far prefer buying QPR wines at Costco.

The home of tart, oaky wines whose banal fruit notes rarely upstage the prickly alcohol, proving that cheap wines can nonetheless cost way too much.

Laughed out loud on that one…especially because it’s true.

Have never found anything interesting at TJs…although I still look every time were there (because let’s not kid ourselves…we all do that every single time we stumble across wine no matter where we are)

I once bought a 2003 Amarone there for $26. The wine tasted like a way to pawn off surplus chalk dust.

Not much good wine at Traders for me. Have tried many times only to be disappointed when I thought I had something interesting.

+1

Once in a great while TJ’s get a decent QPR in. Then the next vintage is rubbish. And every once in a great while they get a killer slightly older vintage of something in for cheap. Which I assume is a distributor or producer closing out excess older stock. Grab all you can when that happens.

It’s always worth a walk through at least but I rarely buy anything. There is the occasional score that makes it worth it though.

Remember the '06 Lance and Windmill PS that was really a Quixote @ $10.

We’ll sometimes pick up the NV Espiral Vinho Verde as a cheap summer sipper at <$5. Other than that, we very rarely buy wine there anymore.

2010 Poggio al Casone Toscana IGT - surprisingly drinkable

Never had one and never care too. Wine world is so much bigger and better than 2-buck.

Schramsberg BdB.
Trader’s Joe has the lowest price so far.

My TJ has a lot of schrambergs which is always a winner in my book

I don’t know about the TJ’s branded efforts, but the local stores in my area usually have something interesting, although selection is small, all things considered. 2010 La Tour Figeac $34, halves of NV Ernest Rapenau (sp) champers for $10, 2010 Talbot $60 etc.

I bought a 20 yo tawny Port last fall. It was kind of sweet and simple, but under $20 and passed for dessert wine on stormy evenings. That same description applies to the last TJ WV Pinot Noir and Napa Cab served by in-laws. Fortunately, there were other wines on the table.

P Hickner