I am so excited about this first ever post in the Trader Joe’s Wine Review series! Just a little info on how this will go.  Each week on Wednesday for the next two months (or however long you all keep enjoying it), I will be reviewing two wines, one white and one red, from Trader Joe’s.  We are going to start from the bottom (cheapest) and work our way to the top!

Hopefully we can all find some new loves in our wine choices and maybe stay away from the not so hot wines.

I will be giving you my honest opinions on the wines; this series is not in any way sponsored.

Trader Joe’s Wine Review

Week 1

RED OF THE WEEK

The red for this week comes from the $3.99 (no, that is not a typo) column and is our starting point at the very bottom. It is exclusively sold at Trader Joe’s.

Grifone Primitivo is a red wine from Zinfandel vines. It is from the Puglia region in Italy and imported to the United States through a California wine corporation. Sounds so fancy right?  image

At first, the bottle is… meh. It isn’t something that is going to draw you in. However, this 2012 Primitivo is beautiful sitting in the glass. It has a deep cherry color to it and it smells like grape jelly, but like a fancy grape jelly with notes of cherry and some spice.

The flavor of this wine is really bold, especially for the price tag. I did not expect it to have the intense flavor profile that it did. I get notes of black cherry right from the start, and it is a pretty immense hit of flavor (in a good way). Then it has other notes of spices, a variety of berries, and vanilla. I really enjoyed all of these and was pleasantly surprised with them.

The one thing that I was unsure about at first was the finish of the wine. It hangs on the palate for a quite a while with the lasting notes of spice and something I could not quite put my finger on until the end. You get a little bit of sweetness, almost a rich chocolate flavor and then you get the same taste that you lingers after you take a bite of black licorice. I wasn’t sold the first taste because I was a bit surprised at the finish, I don’t think I have had a wine like this before. But after a little while, I found all the flavors to work quite well together.

For $3.99, this is one of the best bang-for-your-buck wines that I think I am going to find at Trader Joe’s, AND THIS IS ONLY WEEK ONE! It is delicious, and while it obviously isn’t extremely fancy, I have had wines that this tramples over that are four times the price. This one gets 4 stars from me!**** (P.S., I had this with pasta and it was DELICIOUS)

WHITE WINE OF THE WEEK

The white wine I found also comes with a $4 price tag, coming in at $4.49.  The 2013 Vinas Chilenas Sauvignon Blanc is an import from Valle Central, Chile. It is also sold exclusively at Trader Joe’s.

This white wine as an interesting vintage picture of a vineyard on the label with some colorful wording. The bold print stating that it was from Chile is actually what intrigued me (besides of course it being the cheapest white wine).

imageAt first, this wine gives off a sweet floral scent, combining peach with lemons and flowers, which will make you want to drink it from the bottle. (Is that just me?:) )

The first taste gives you an abundance of apple flavor with some added citrus to it, lemony with almost like a grapefruit flavor. It has a pretty good flavor to it, nice and balanced. It has some notes of peach and a little  bit of spice in the mix. This is not, by any means, a deep or full-bodied wine. Overall, it gives off a sort of pink grapefruit lemonade, but somewhat dry, vibe to me, which isn’t bad! But, it also isn’t something that could just drink at anytime.

It would a nice wine for someone who likes a more mild flavor, and also someone who favors the citrus in their wine. This could be a great wine to have in the summer with a green salad. And for $4, why not invite some friends over and share a FEW bottles! I would give this wine 2.5-3 stars***, so a happy medium for the first white wine from the Trader Joe’s series.

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*Cheers to many more weeks of wine tastings and finding hidden treasures at Trader Joe’s*

Joanna

-My opinions are all my own and are not sponsored-