CheapWineFinder Podcast

Send us Fan Mail The Troublemaker by Austin Hope 13 is not your ordinary Red blend. For one, the 13 stands for the thirteenth edition; this is a non-vintage wine. It is a blend of grapes from three different vintages. Hope Family Wines has been in Paso Robles inside the Central Coast AVA of California, making wine for more than 30 years. They have five labels, including Liberty School and Treana....

Send us Fan Mail The Painted Wolf The Den Chenin Blanc 2019 is part of The Den line of wines from the family-owned Painted Wolf Winery of Swartland, South Africa. The Den is their line of every day easy to drink wines. The name Painted Wolf is a reference to the endangered indigenous wild dogs that once roamed freely. A major part of the winery's mission is to raise money to help these animal...

Send us Fan Mail The Bortolomiol Bandarossa Prosecco 2019 is an extra dry, DOCG designated, vintage-dated Prosecco from a family-owns winery with roots dating back to the mid-1800s. The central Prosecco region in Veneto is rated a DOC, but a section in the middle of Prosecco called Valdobbiadene is where the DOCG wines are located. The Italian wine authority ranks the various wine regions and issu...

Send us Fan Mail The Trader Joe's Reserve Oak Knoll Zinfandel 2019 is a $9.99 Trader Joe's exclusive sourced from grapes farmed in the Oak Knoll AVA inside Napa Valley. This is a one-off wine; when it sells out, it is gone for good, so if you like it, buy all you need. Oak Knoll is located in the southern part of Napa Valley, just north of Carneros. Carneros, located in both Sonoma and N...

Send us Fan Mail Lakeville Napa Valley Brut Róse 2019 is a $9.99 Trader Joe's exclusive, a Sparkling wine made from the Pinot Noir grape sourced from vineyards in Napa Valley. There are a couple of odd details concerning the Lakeville Napa Valley Brut Róse. First, if you look at the title, the "o" in Rose has the punctuation, not the "e." I checked Google to see if that is...

Send us Fan Mail The Tribunal North Coast Red 2018 is a $9.99 Trader Joe's exclusive. A blend of Zinfandel, Syrah, Merlot, Petite Sirah, Barbera, and Grenache. The North Coast AVA includes Napa, Sonoma, Lake County, Mendocino, and Marin Counties, and Solano County. The Tribunal North Coast Red 2018 has been a Trader Joe's wine for at least a decade; CWF wrote a review of the 2008 vintage...

Send us Fan Mail The Vintjs Napa Sauvignon Blanc 2019 is a $6.99 Trader Joe's exclusive sourced from grapes farmed in Napa County in Northern California. The Vintjs brand and the Vintjs Napa Sauvignon Blanc have been around for over a decade, which is good staying power for a store brand. This Sauvignon Blanc is not actually blue, the bottle was photographed against a blue backgroundIt seems...

Send us Fan Mail The Evanta Malbec 2019 is a $4.49 Aldi exclusive sourced from vineyards in Argentina's Mendoza region. Considering that Aldi had to pay an importer and ship the wine from Argentina, this Malbec falls well within Charles Shaw/Two Buck Chuck range. The Evanta Malbec 2019 is a store brand (Aldi), and store brands have price advantages over standard retail wines. No marketing and...

Send us Fan Mail The Love Noir Pinot Noir 2018 is one of the new, bolder styles of Pinot Noir sourced from grapes farmed in several regions of California. This Pinot Noir is one of The Wine Group's families of wines. Love Noir Pinot Noir 2018, as a brand wine, is not tied to a single winery. Brand wines are typically aimed at a certain niche of wine drinkers in terms of style and price. If yo...

Send us Fan Mail The Burgans Albariño 2019 is sourced from vineyards in the Rias-Baixas DO in northwest Spain's upper corner. This White wine is made by Bodegas Martín Códax, a wine collective formed in 1986.Collectives or communes are common in Spain. Bodegas Martín Códax has 600 members, all small farmers with relatively small vineyards. One of the odd things about vineyards in the poorest...

Send us Fan Mail The Peachy Canyon Lodi Zinfandel 2017 can be found at Trader Joe's for $7.99. This is a mystery wine since it does not show up on Peachy Canyon's website or have much of a web presence. Peachy Canyon Winery, founded in 1988, is located in the Paso Robles AVA inside California's Central Coast AVA. It is owned and operated by the Beckett family and features wines made...

Send us Fan Mail The Beurré Chardonnay 2019 is a $6.99 Trader Joe's import wine a Pays D'Oc designated wine from the Languedoc in southeastern France. The Languedoc is the largest wine-producing area in France, and this is where French every day, drink-it-now wines are produced. Beurré is French for butter, and most of the writing on the front label is singing the praises of buttered bre...

Send us Fan Mail The Aviary Birds of Prey Red Blend 2018 is a blend of 51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 36% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Malbec sourced from vineyards in Napa and Sonoma Counties. The Aviary line of wines is one of the Folktale Wine Group brands of wine; here is a link to their website for more information. I am familiar with their Alias brand, and as I recall, those wines were a good...

Send us Fan Mail The Allan Scott Sauvignon Blanc 2020 is sourced from estate vineyards planted in the flat land of the Wairau River Valley in the Marlborough district in the Northeast of the South Island in New Zealand. Allan Scott founded his winery in 1990 but has been part of the New Zealand wine industry since the early 1970s. The company name is actually Allen Scott Family Winemakers, so the...

Send us Fan Mail The Castor and Pollux Pinot Noir 2019 is a $6.99 Aldi import wine from the Languedoc growing region of Southeastern France. The Languedoc is the largest wine region in France and this is the area that supplies a great deal of the every-day wines that the French drink every-day. I know that many Americans think that a $6.99 wine is too inexpensive to be any good. But in countries w...

Send us Fan Mail The Aiolas Red Blend 2019 is a $5.99 Trader Joe's import wine, a DOC designated wine from the  Dão region of Portugal. TJ's does not offer any information concerning this Red blend. This is somewhat unfortunate since the wines of Portugal tend to be unique. they often use indigenous grapes such as Touriga Franca or Tinta Barroca. While new grapes are exciting for someone...

Send us Fan Mail The Légende Pauillac Bordeaux 2016 is a blend of 60% Cabernet Sauvignon and 40% Merlot sourced from Rothschild (Lafite) vineyards in the Pauillac AOC inside the Haut-Medoc AOC on the Left Bank or westside of the river in the Bordeaux region of France. The Légende line of Rothschild (Lafite) is their drink-it-now export brand. It features wines from the premier Bordeaux growing are...

Send us Fan Mail The Bartolomiol Ius Naturae DOCG Prosecco 2018, Ius Naturae translaties to Natural Law, is farmed in certified organic Estate vineyards in the DOCG Valdobbiadene district of the Prosecco region of Veneto in northern Italy. This is a vintage Prosecco, from the 2018 vintage, which is a bit different from the usual seemingly available everywhere non-vintage Prosecco. While a non-vint...

Send us Fan Mail The La Granja 360 Cava Brut NV 2020 is a $6.99 Trader Joe's import Bubbly using two of the three traditional Cava grapes, Xarel-lo and Parellada farmed in the Cava DO of northwest Spain, near Barcelona. La Granja 360 translates to the Farm 360 and is a brand owned by Axial Vino, a Ditch company producing Spanish wine. La Granja 360 wines use grapes from a group of small local...

Send us Fan Mail The Raventos I Blanc Textures de Pedra 2014 is a vintage, bio-dynamic, Estate grown Sparkling wine from the Penedes district of the Catalonia region of Spain (think Barcelona). While this is a Sparkling wine produced with the traditional method (like Champagne) it is not Cava. Raventos I Blanc is part of a wine family that has been producing wine at this estate since 1497. Another...

Send us Fan Mail The Domaine Ste Michelle NV Brut 2020 is a non-vintage Champagne-style Sparkling wine from Chateau Ste Michelle in the Columbia Valley of Washington. This is a value-priced Bubbly, it lists for $13 and I found it for $8.99 on-sale. Even though it is a reasonably priced Sparkling wine it is produced in the same production style as Champagne (Cava too) which is a rather involved win...

Send us Fan Mail The Bread and Butter Pinot Noir 2019 is sourced from vineyards in California. Their motto is" Good. Honest. Simple. Do not overthink it." In keeping it simple they do not go into a great deal of detail about the production of this Pinot Noir. Bread and Butter are one of the WX Brand's families of wines. They are one of the top 20 largest wine companies in the U.S. T...

Send us Fan Mail The Veuve Monsigny Champagne Rosé is a $19.99 Aldi exclusive, 65% Pinot Noir, 25% Pinot Meunier, and 10% Chardonnay sourced from vineyards across the Champagne region in France. I imagine when a lot of folks see a store brand twenty buck Champagne they figure that there is no way it can be very good. Most Champagne starts at $35 and goes up and up. And while I have not tasted the...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, we switch things up & talk spirits! Local spirits! Specifically we chat with Eric McMillan, Brand Ambassador for Wolf Point Distilling in Chicago. We talk about what Wolf Point is & taste through their Jackscrew Vodka, Florence Field Gin, Captain Santa Vapor Infused Moonshine & an extra tasty treat or two as well. So what is "Wolf Point"? Wha...

Send us Fan Mail The Trader Joe's Platinum Reserve Sonoma Brut NV (2020) is a Trader Joe's $14.99 non-vintage blend of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Pinot Meunier sourced from vineyards in Sonoma County AVA in Northern California. The back label says this Bubbly was "produced and bottled by" Rack and Riddle, Healdsburg, California. They are an independent wine company that specia...