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?



Buena Vista 2008 Pinot Noir Carneros

March 7, 2012

Matt $10 Price Point, 2008, Buena Vista, Buy-A-Case, Carneros AVA, Pinot Noir , , , 3 Comments

Buena Vista 2008 Pinot Noir Carneros

The Wine:
What do you get when you combine Napa and Sonoma counties? Los Carneros AVA, nestled at the base of the two world famous wine regions. Carneros is the first AVA to be defined by its [cool] climate rather than geography. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay thrive in cool climate, foggy environments, generally resulting in wines with bright acidity. It’s no wonder why so many sparking wine producers have set up shop in this AVA. With so much wine on the market, sometimes a $24 bottle of wine finds itself at $10 on the shelves of Trader Joe’s. Awesome, just the kind of wine I want to try!

The Experience: 

Color: A lighter, translucent garnet, ruby red.

Nose: Earthy, earthy, earthy! Mushrooms, minerals, slightly vegetal, some dark berries and as the wine is exposed to air, the oak barreling becomes more pronounced, but in balance.

Palate: Layers of earthiness, some dark fruit, toasted oak, with very bright minerality and acidity. Balanced and NICE!

Bottom Line: Buy-A-Case

Here’s a wine which will introduce new Pinot drinkers to the flavors, lightness yet presence good Pinot can and should have. I’ve tasted Pinots 3x’s the price which don’t show the balance and layers this wine does. If you’re a Pinotphile, you’ll wow your friends with this wine (for $10!!!) and it will make a comendable ‘second bottle’ or wet your whistle for a good Pinot on a Tuesday night. What did you think of this wine?



Trader Joe’s Reserve 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon Dry Creek Valley

May 30, 2011

Matt $10 Price Point, 2009, Buy-A-Case, Dennis Patton, Mazzocco, Trader Joe's Petit Reserve, Woodenhead 4 Comments

Trader Joe's Reserve 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon Dry Creek Valley

Firstly, apologies about the delay in putting up another post; believe it or not, it can be tough to find the time do these! But I think it was worth the wait, because we get to talk about a wine I really enjoyed: Trader Joe’s Reserve 2009 Cabernet Sauvignon from Dry Creek Valley.

The Wine: On the back label, this wine clearly states its origin, Mazzocco Winery, in Dry Creek Valley. This past weekend, I saw a Mazzocco advertisement in the San Francisco Chronicle for $99 cases of wine; I think this winery might be riding out rough economic waves, which would make sense why they are putting some of their product under the TJ’s label. (UPDATE: Mazzocco had purchased another winery and was trying to clear a lot of that winery’s inventory.) Mazzocco (to me) is known as a Zinfandel House, so I was pleasantly surprised to see a Cab offering from them. I haven’t been that taken by the last few Cabs I’ve had, so I looked forward to trying a brand I’ve liked before.

The Experience:

Color: Very nice plum and violet color. Not too dark, not too light.

Nose: Great nose of dark berries, spiciness, little black olive, oak barreling and over all very inviting and youthful. Not complex, but not flawed.

Palate: Fruit is going to hit you square in the tongue. Lots of rich dark berries, not too much depth on the mid-palate, but shows some dark olive notes; drying tannins of Cab Sauv make themselves known in a very pleasant way. On the finish, I pick up a slight vegetative component.

Bottom Line: Worth-Buying/Buy-Half-A-Case

I really liked this wine. There is a higher amount of residual sugar in this wine and not so much acidity, so I’m led to believe these grapes may have been picked a bit late in the season. But the end result is a wine which will be widely accepted by Chardonnay drinkers and red wine drinkers. The alcohol was restrained to 14.7%, which could have easily gone higher. This is not a ‘hot’ wine, which is nice. This wine went awesome with the pizza I cooked up. How did you find this wine?

Tribunal 2009 Red Wine Sonoma County

April 7, 2011

Matt $10 Price Point, 2009, Buy-A-Case, Buy-Half-A-Case, Red Wine, Sonoma, Tribunal 17 Comments

Tribunal 2009 Red Wine Sonoma County

The Wine: Think back just a few months ago…circa Thanksgiving and Christmas 2010, there was a wine at Trader Joe’s by the name of Tribunal, a 2008 vintage; a supposed clone of a much more famous wine known as “The Prisoner” by Orin Swift. At the time, I worked at Trader Joe’s and this wine was HOT, as in, couldn’t keep it on the shelf, selling by the case hot. It’s back…

Judging by how quickly this wine sold (and made it’s maker, K___ Family Estates) profit, probably kicked their tail into high gear to release a sequel, the 2009 vintage. The label reports a Sonoma County origin. Sonoma County has gained lots of wine media attention as of late as discussions continuously are brought up about splitting this area into smaller AVAs (American Viticultural Area), because it’s so large and comprised of so many different climates and soils; so this could be a good thing, if you really like to know more about your wines’ origin(s).

Since the 2008 Tribunal was such a hyped wine, I decided I to open a bottle of that as well to taste next to the 2009 (I bought six 2008′s to age for a while, but this seemed an appropriate time to sacrifice one of them.) The 2008′s recipe is as follows: 37.1% Zinfandel, 24.4% Petite Sirah, 10.3 Cabernet Franc, 7.7% Sangiovese, 7.4% Promativo, 6.9% Grenache, 4.8% Syrah, 1% Merlot and 0.4% Barbera. Wow, I could  be a wine snob and say that 0.4% Barbera is about what I thought I sensed. This is what’s called a ‘kitchen sink blend’, a little bit of, literally, everything. It’d be great of some of you who currently work for Trader Joe’s and emailed me letting me know this wine was about to be released, can you confirm what the current blend is? OK, so how is the the 2009 and how does it live up to the beloved 2008 vintage?

The Experience:

Color: Very deep and rich plum violet. This is clearly a very young wine.

Nose: The forward sweetness and grape notes again, tell you this is a very sweet wine. But after some time decanting, vanilla becomes more pronounced and some herbacious qualities as well. The alcohol and it’s 15.1% of sweetness is also rather apparent as well.

Palate: Wow is this a big wine. As you begin to sense of the sweetness of fruit, the massive tannins rush in to dominate your entire mouth. There is also a snap of acidity as well. The finish lingers on for a bit with some oak and vanilla tones. But this wine right now is way to young to be in balance.

2008 & 2009 Tribunal

Bottom Line: Buy-Half-A-Case/Buy-A-Case

I think this wine has potential that it’s not fully living up to at the moment. The 2008 is a bit calmer, more enjoyable and showing more complexities. The 2009 components are not very in-sync making this not a very harmonious wine. It’s a wine in its teens; it has no idea what it is, what changes are going to happen and its hormones are kinda out of whack. Is it going to be a doctor or a lawyer some day in the future? Only time will tell. For the moment, this wine is very big and pretty intense and a bit all over the place. But, I rather liked it, and so will the majority of American palates. It’s packs LOTS of punch, but not so much flavor at the moment. (The 2008 has more berry notes and smoother tannins at this time.) I encourage you to buy a few bottles of this, try one now and open the next ones during that Christmas 2011 roast, or even better Summer 2012 BBQ and beyond. If you do open this wine now, I can’t urge you enough to decant this wine for at least an hour, it needs air! For $10 bucks you’re making an investment in some pretty solid California styled Red Wine down the line. I think you would be really hard pressed to find a better Sonoma Red Wine at the $10 price point.

But that’s my opinion, what’s yours?

Wine Info:

  • Price: $10
  • Appellation: Sonoma County
  • Alcohol: 15.1%
  • Cellar: Tribunal Cellars – Kenwood, California

Leonhardt 2009 Zinfandel Dry Creek Valley

March 28, 2011

Matt $10 Price Point, 2009, Buy-A-Case, Dry Creek, Give-A-Try, Leonhardt 7 Comments

Leonhardt 2009 Zinfandel Dry Creek Valley

The Wine: Do you want to be the first of your friends to snag a mega deal? Then read on.

Get down to Trader Joe’s and buy the 2009 Leonhardt Zinfandel. It’s selling on their website for $48 bucks per bottle, but you are about to snag it for $9.99. Leonhardt says on their website, this is their best vintage. If you’ve been reading my site for a little while, you will remember I reviewed the 2007 about two months ago. That wine received the “Buy-A-Case” rating, the highest score I give. This Zinfadedal stems from a winemaker and vineyard manager who typically produce solid grapes/wines in the $20-$80+ dollar range and have even been served at the White House.  The 2009 offering is much different and worth exploring.

I recently worked at an event called Zinfandel Advocates and Producers (ZAP) festival in San Francisco; where I tasted (not drank) 150 Zinfandels from 90% California vineyards. There are definitely different styles of Zinfandel emerging in California:

  1. The typically ‘New World’ huge wine in your face and enough alcohol to make your mouth burn style (mainly from Amador County, in my experience).
  2. An ‘Old World’ Renisance of returning to back down to more subtle and wines where you have to really think about what it is your tasting, because it’s not so ‘obvious’ but rather much more faint.

Leonhardt 2009 is more Option 2. The winemaker, Michael Dashe, has accrued work experience at Château Lafite-Rothschild, Château La Dominique, Ridge Vineyards, Cloudy Bay, Far Niente, Chappellet, and Schramsberg Wine Cellars. I’d best describe this wine as very Ridge’esque, but probably that’s one of the two wine houses I’ve been able to try  (afford, barely) listed above. But let’s get to the wine.

The Experience:

Color: The wine presents a very pure and youthful plum hue. It’s hard to describe a radiant clarity other than ‘pure’. Very nice.

Nose: Not big or open at all, even after 15+ minutes in a glass; I got the decanter out. Still restrained and smelling of Gamay (another grape varietal). It’s incredibly young and not very developed at all. I really doubt anyone would peg this as Zinfandel in a blind tasting. It’s very reminiscent of the Lockwood Estate Syrah I recently reviewed, but much more subtle. This wine is 85.26% Zinfandel, 14.8% Petite Sirah. After decanting, some very fine white pepper comes forward along with just a hint of wood. (The next day, this was a much more open wine with red fruit, oak, spice and alcohol.)

Palate: Very restrained, for being a Zinfandel. You get a layer of very young fruit yet the wine is gone before you can get your finger on it. Then the exit (after decanting) has some of the spice you’d expect along with an alcohol zing. But it’s not huuuuge, like you can find pretty often. I think this wine no doubt needs more cellar time; a few years would reward the patient handsomely.

Rating: Buy-A-Case/Worth-A-Try

Wow, so different than the 2007, which I recently tried. This wine is so much more restrained and subtle. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t Pinot Noir, but it’s much different than a lot of Zinfandels you’ve had. This is a wine which will definitely age well and will be drinking closer to its prime after at least 2+ years. Which is why getting several bottles (or more) could very well be worth it. This wine is and will be fantastic. The only reason for the ‘Worth-A-Try’ part of the rating is the wine’s youth, it’s really not a ‘pop and pour’ daily drinker at this point. I don’t know your wine buying habits. If you buy wine to cellar at least some, make this an offering to pick up. If you want a bottle to drink now, I still think you can’t get better than the Canard Sauvage Zinfandel.

I really look forward to your thoughts on this wine if you do buy and try it. So please do share!

Wine Info:

  • Price: $10 ($48 on the website)
  • Appellation: Dry Creek
  • Wine Maker: Michael Dashe
  • Vineyard Manager: Ulises Valdez
  • Alcohol: 14.5%
  • Grape Varietals: 85.2% Zinfandel, 14.8% Petite Sirah


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