Hot New Wines at Trader Joe's!!!

Hello Readers.  There are two new wines at Trader Joe's that I am highly recommending.

(1)  Trader Joe's 2009 Reserve Carignane (Kare-in-yawn) for only $9.99 a bottle.  My wife and I tried this wine a few nights ago and we both had an OMG eye-popping first sip experience.  The entire bottle was consumed with our meal.  Lots of pepper, blackberry, and raspberry.  As you probably know, Carignane is generally used as a blending grape in the Southern Rhone Valley of France.  This domestic version was bottled in Paso Robles by Castoro Cellars.  Yup,  only $9.99 a bottle.

(2)  Cotes De Provence 2010 Rose' bottled by Quinson & Fils.  This Rose' is bone-dry with a tinge of watermelon, spice, and some minerality.  But only $4.99 a bottle!  That's almost highway robbery at that price.

Get thee to your nearest Trader Joe's and stock up on these two wines.

I'd upload photos but I'm having trouble with the server.  Sorry.

How does Trader Joe's Do IT???

Greetings readers.  Just back from a trip to Europe which included Alsace region in France, then to Prague in the Czech Republic; next to  Dubrovnik, Croatia, and then back to Lyon, France before heading to Paris.

My question above has to do with TJ's pricing of wines.  In Lyon, we went to a market looking for an inexpensive bottle of red wine.  Much to my surprise and delight, they had a shelf of Vidal-Fluery Cotes Du Rhone which we sell at Trader Joe's for $6.99 a bottle.  Unfortunately, the price in the French store was 6.90 Euros which translated to $9.32!

How does TJ's do it?  I mean they sell it here in the USA for $2.32 LESS a bottle!  Kudos to the TJ wine guys for bringing well-priced wines to all of us TJ shoppers...and they have it shipped a long way to get to the stores.  Sheesh, amazing.

Here they are for 33% more in Lyon France.

On another subject, I was disappointed in the Alsace white wines but it's a personal thing in that I drink very few sweet wines.  We did find some dryer Rieslings and Gewürztraminers which were quite nice but generally speaking, I couldn't live in a region that doesn't have some heftier reds.  Just my preference.


"Tom da Wine Guy"