Kunde Family Estate 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma Valley

March 21, 2012

Matt $11-$20 Price Point, 2008, Cabernet Sauvignon, Kunde Family Estate, Next-Wine-Please!, Sonoma , , 1 Comment

The Wine:

Kunde Family Estate 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma Valley

Not all grapes and subsequent wines they produce are equal. Typically wineries have 2-3 tiers of wine varying in qualities and prices. Barrels which don’t make the ‘reserve’ or ‘select’ wines are usually bottled in a more mass produced offering – these are very often the price point wines which make it to grocery store shelves. Without a doubt the Kunde Family Sonoma Valley Cab is their lower end, more mass produced tier. I’ve had several of their ‘premium’ offerings ($25-$35) from  Kunde and enjoyed them, so I was looking forward to trying their more widely available, $13 price point wine.

The Experience: 

Color: Very deep purple – looks very young still.

Nose: Jammy dark plum, earth, some ‘dustiness’, olives, and a little vanilla.

Palate: The same as the nose but really not that enjoyable due to a disjointing harshness between the elements. On the second day, the finish of the wine really took on a bitter quality. Over extracted seed tannin?

Bottom Line:  Next-Wine-Please

At the $13 price point, I think I would consider trying another vintage of this wine or look elsewhere on the shelf. I’m pretty sure this is or close to, ‘last run-juice’. (The last juice from the grape press which is typically less fruity, more tannic) I think you could find more value at the $7-$10 price point or a significantly better wine for $20-25. But I would encourage you to try other Kunde Family Estate wines.



Lance and Windmill 2006 Petite Syrah – Stag’s Leap

March 14, 2012

Matt $11-$20 Price Point, 2006, Buy-A-Case, Napa Valley, Petite Sirah, Stag's Leap 28 Comments

The Wine:

Lance and Windmill 2006 Petite Syrah

Stop what you’re doing. Go to Trader Joe’s and get this wine. A legit $60 dollar wine for $15. (ok, they relabeled it, but the crew cap is the same and the cellar name is “Q Cellars”) This a diamond in the rough. From what I’m reading over at fellow wine blogger Jason’s Wine Blog, and my Dad who looked for this wine at his local TJs, this wine is already out of supply, so get moving!

Ignore the screw cap. This is top quality Petite Sirah. (Oddly, they spell it Petite Syrah, could there be some Syrah in this wine?!) Having worked at a winery which produces amazing Petite Sirah (and Syrah!), I’ve come to love this tannic monster – especially with some years of bottle age to mellow out but pack a punch.

The Experience:

Color: Very inky – deep garnet, plum.

Nose: Dark blueberries, mushrooms, earth, oak – power

Palate: This is what makes great wine great, you experience so many different components – blueberries, boysenberries, earth, mushrooms, oak/vanilla. You can’t quite put your finger on what you’re experiencing, so you sip more. And more… This wine packs extremely fine tannins which coat your mouth and beg for this food to be paired with some big foods or will live for quite a while in a cellar. Simply awesome.

Bottom Line: Buy-A-Case (before I do!)

It might be a long while before Trader Joe’s gets another deal like this in. If you like big, bold wines – this is it! If you have friend or family member who buy expensive wines they will be shocked to learn what you paid for this, $15! It’s a bummer to see a quality producer having to move some inventory like this, but it’s hard to complain about reaping the benefits! What did you think of this wine?



Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve 2009 Meritage Napa Valley

December 28, 2011

Matt $11-$20 Price Point, 2009, Buy-Half-A-Case, JBA Cellars, Meritage, Napa Valley, Trader Joe's Exclusive, Trader Joe's Grand Reserve 7 Comments

Trader Joe's Grand Reserve Meritage 2009 Napa Valley

The Wine: One of my first wine reviews was of the 2008 Grand Reserve Meritage. And to be honest, it was the wine which got me to cross the Rubicon and start this blog. Trader Joe’s has some wines worth talking about. I was excited to see Trader Joe’s kept its relationship with it’s ‘super’ source in Napa Valley for a sequel vintage of Meritage. This wine must have been a success and there is now a choice between a 750ml bottle and 1.5 litre (two bottle) Magnum for the 2009 vintage. But 2009 presented some challenges to Napa Cab growers. Two storms in October presented a fork in the road and wineries/vineyards had only two choices: Let the fruit hang and risk rot/mold or harvest not fully ripened Cabernet Sauvignon. Will this wine live up to the great 2008?

(A quick refresher, a Meritage is a proprietary blend of Bordeaux grapes – Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, etc… Click here for more info.)

The Experience: *Wine was decanted by Menu aerator - it wasn’t a sample.

Color: Fairly deep purple/garnet – young.

Nose: Kinda wound up and not offering up too much. Some dusty notes, dark fruit – but oddly, no real noticeable barrel tones. (Vanilla, espresso, wood, etc…) The austerity and non-’green’ or ‘black olive’ components to this wine are leading me to believe this is not a Cabernet Sauvignon dominant blend, Merlot or Malbec dominant perhaps? Is this wine from grapes which were harvested too early?

Palate: Like the nose, austere. Some young and grippier tannins, and not really fruit driven. Typical dark berries, but toned way down. It’s clearly a younger wine. There was even a very noticeable lack of barrel tones to this Napa Valley wine, which was a nice treat. The alcohol heat was also rather in check at 14.30%. Balanced for the most part, but lacking distinguishing features.

Bottom Line: Buy-Half-A-Case

I like’d the 2008 more. BUT! This wine has ‘super’ origins from Napa Valley, literally. I’m giving this recommendation to someone who likes pricer wines ($20+) and is searching for a suitable Tuesday night wine or a’second’ or ‘bottle that isn’t going to break the bank at $13. I had this wine along side some $45+, 93-94 Robert Parker point wines and its lack of ‘great’ concentration showed, but it wasn’t a total wash out by any means. The 2010 Cocobon however… no one revisited it. It’s holiday time, people are opening nicer and additional bottles of wine, this should seriously be a wine to consider.

Wine Tech Stuff: 43% Merlot, 39% Cabernet Saugvignon, 6% Cabernet Franc, 6% Petit Verdot and 5% Malbec.

**Note: I revisited the 2008 Meritage over the holidays; it’s drinking quite nicely but starting to lose structure. It should be drank in the next 12-18 months.


Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

March 9, 2011

Matt $11-$20 Price Point, 2008, Cabernet Sauvignon, Maxwell Creek, Napa Valley, Trader Joe's Grand Reserve, Worth-Buying 4 Comments

Trader Joe's Grand Reserve 2008 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

The Wine: I really like the Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve line of wines. It’s really speaks for the quality of business people TJ’s employees on their wine sourcing side. These wines are almost always sourced from very reputable vineyards/wineries who have too much juice or juice which doesn’t quite fit into a vintage’s program. The result, great or very good wine needs to be sold under a new name costing much less than the pedigree sister. This wine is no different. TJ’s has/had several bottlings by Maxwell Creek, and I’ve really liked them all. You’d be ‘Super’ ;) impressed by this wine’s origins, but how does it play out in the glass?

The Experience:

Color: Rather dense plum violet. Still looking very young.

Nose: Right out of the bottle, the nose is really restrained on this wine. I’m only able to pick up notes from barreling, I’m led to believe this was aged in new French oak. Some red fruit comes through, but at first, I thought I had a dirty glass with the amount of dust I was sensing, oh wait, this is Napa Cab!

Palate: Just like the nose, the barrel dominates this first impression of this wine. Lots of vanilla, but you’re treated to a rather crisp and tight experience of tannins on the mid-palate. Not much in the way of nuance with this wine. It’s an oaky wine. You’ll pick up some rich dark fruit, some toast, 10-15 second barrel driven finish and a decent amount of acidity with this wine. At 14.1%, this not an alcohol driven wine, I like!

Bottom Line: Worth-Buying/Buy-A-Few

I’m really on the fence with this wine. I wish it wasn’t SO atypical Napa Valley Oak Monster, as Gary Vaynerchuck would say. This wine has some great potential in it, but the oak just really dominates what is otherwise really good wine. It’s not going to get Old World Winos excited, but it’s going to sing well to New World Winos. The only real flaw in my opinion is the amount of oak. Otherwise, this wine is really good. It’s crisp, has just the right amount of tannins and acid, but the oak hides the fruit; decanting helped somewhat. The main reason I’m on the fence is trying to determine if this wine is worth $13. I think it’s more approachable as a daily drinker than most of the $20 Napa Cab counter-parts and has a few years left in it before it’s at its prime. I’ll more than likely grab 1-2 more bottles and forget about them for 2-3 years.

Wine Info:

  • Price: $13
  • Appellation: Napa Valley
  • Alcohol: 14.1%
  • Vintage: 2008
  • Cellar: Maxwell Creek

Spotted Owl Vineyards 2007 Mountain Cuvée

February 14, 2011

Matt $11-$20 Price Point, 2007, Mount Veeder, Napa Valley, Spotted Owl Vineyards 1 Comment

The Wine: One of the most intimidating aspects of getting into wine is the introduction of many new words, many of which are of a foreign origin – namely French. The term Cuvée translates into ‘vat’ or ‘tank’, meaning the wine at some point of its life spent time in one of these cylindrical devices. Simple enough, but typically Cuvée also means the wine is a blend of several different vats/tanks, and could possibly imply the wine is of a higher quality, but this is yet another one of those unregulated terms which wine makers can use at their own discretion. This wine is a 52% Cabernet Sauvignon and 48% Syrah blend from the Mount Veeder AVA in Napa Valley. I read somewhere that the winery is actually a bonded garage in Napa, I think that’s really cool. So what about this wine, is it Cuvée of a higher order?

The Experience:

Color: An amazingly deep plum violet, similar to a prune. You can tell this wine is unfiltered by the fogginess in its hazy clarity. I prefer unfiltered or fined wines.

Nose: Barreling (oak, vanilla), toasty, gravel, earthy – not much in the way of a fruit driven nose.

Palate: The first note I make is about the barreling qualities of oak and herbaciousness, most certainly from the Syrah. The next notes make notes refer  to stoney, gravely, earthy qualities. The body of this wine is medium-high, there is certainly tannin and some acid to this wine.

Bottom Line: Give-A-Try

Here’s a wine which has a bright future, it’s just not there yet. When you cut the foil, you will notice it’s thick; the quality of cork also let’s you know this wine was meant to lay down for awhile. Right now, the wine is still trying to come together to form something a bit more balanced, but has a ways to go. Even after plenty of time in a decanter and re-visiting several days later, it’s still a young and classically powerful Napa wine. It stems from the Mount Veeder AVA which has lots of great volcanic properties to its soil which is definitely leaves its mark on this wine. If you were going to open this wine anytime soon, make sure it’s with a piece of red meat and potatoes. It’s not really a wine for sipping or for subtle dishes. This wine is a hustle-buy and Trader Joes’ warehouse (in Northern California) doesn’t have anymore, buy this wine and have it with your Memorial Day 2014 BBQ.

Wine Info:

  • Price: $19
  • Appellation: Mount Veeder AVA, Napa Valley
  • Grape Varietals: 52% Cabernet Sauvignon, 48% Syrah
  • Alcohol: 14.8%
  • Barrel Aging: 18 months French oak – 50% new (Seguin Moreau, Marques; med toast)
  • Cases Produced: 500

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