Aldi vs. Trader Joe’s Wine Review

In this episode of Sommelier Reacts, Certified Sommelier, and our lovely host, Vince, tries 8 wines under $10 from Aldi and Trader Joe’s – Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Malbec, & Cabernet Sauvignon. You don’t have to break the bank to drink good wine. Aldi and Trader Joe’s are among one of the most affordable grocery stores in America.

If you’re wondering if Aldi and Trader Joe’s are truly a bargain for wine…keep watching to find out!
🍷

00:00 – Intro
01:10 – Where do these stores get their wine?
03:45 – Round 1: Aldi vs. Trader Joe’s Sauvignon Blanc
08:32 – Round 2: Aldi vs. Trader Joe’s Chardonnay
12:24 – Round 3: Aldi vs. Trader Joe’s Malbec
16:28 – Round 4: Aldi vs. Trader Joe’s Cabernet Sauvignon
19:30 – Winner!
20:18 – Vince’s Recommendations
23:02 – Outro
23:26 – Bonus Round

After watching our channel you’ll understand the wine you’re drinking, buy it with confidence, get better deals, and share your experience and passion for wine with others! Whether you’re a newbie or a pro, V is for Vino makes wine theory easy to understand and accessible to all.

Like. Comment. Subscribe Here 👍https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNhuAy0BYe3r6TxFw_l8zeQ?sub_confirmation=1

V is for Vino New Videos Every Friday!

🍷 Until Next Wine 🍷

ah it’s not good now it’s a competition hi everyone welcome back to another episode of sony reacts my name is vince anner i’m a certified sommelier and today we’re going to be seeing who has the better bargain wines trader joe’s or aldi it’s a question i’m asked a ton are wines from stores like trader joe’s or aldi worth it before we get into it let me start here if you can buy wines from a small wine shop or even a medium sized wine shop you should do that instead in fact i’m releasing a video next week about why that’s so important and will get you more consistently better wines for the same or less than the grocery store but i know a lot of you are still curious about these wines and i kind of am too so here’s what we’re gonna do i’ve got eight wines back there four from aldi and four from trader joe’s and each has a matching partner so for instance we’re gonna compare an aldi cabernet to a trader joe’s cabernet i’m going to taste them blind which means i’m not going to know what they are rate them which one i like better and then i’m going to rate them in general and at the end of the video i’m going to pick a winner and don’t worry i’ve got a tie breaker on hand if we need it but before we do this it’s important to talk about how these stores get their wines believe it or not these stores were actually founded by two brothers from germany they founded aldi together but then they split up over business differences and one went on to start trader joe’s despite this though they’re completely different stores they’re not related or partnered together or anything like that let’s start with aldi their wines occasionally win awards a fact that their marketing team makes very well known when it happens you may remember a few years ago when its eight dollar provence rose went viral and you couldn’t even find it anywhere it could be a bit tough to know exactly how all these wines are produced but here’s what i’ve found they seem to have three tiers of wine their winking owl brand which are bottles under five bucks and my best guess is that they have long-standing contracts with the people making bulk juice from somewhere fairly inexpensive to get it from like central inland california then they have their exquisite selection and other wines that you’re likely only going to find at albe this is most of their wine selection aldi has partnerships with producers all over the world that bottle these wines just for aldi and then all these slaps their label on them so for instance these producers may make their own wine also a private label for aldi also a private label for another grocery store but a lot of times these vineyards aren’t traditional wineries in the standard sense it’s not like it’s a winery you can go visit they’re kind of like contractors and then the third tier you have wines that all be just flat out buys from other wineries things you may find in other stores sometimes these are close outlines maybe a producer needs to move some product quickly before the next vintage or maybe they have too much stock on hand so aldi buys it up trader joe’s has pretty much the exact same model in place at the bottom it’s got its very famous two buck chuck or charles shaw which is produced by bronco wines in california and some other entry-level stuff under five dollars which i believe is produced by the same bronco wines then they’ve got their trader joe’s reserve and other wines produced by partners across the world and they too have some wines they buy just from producers usually probably at a discounted price for one reason or another but they actually have a really big selection of this there’s a lot of traditional producers in the trader joe’s wine aisle all right for our tasting today we’re gonna go with the middle tier i don’t really want to mess around with the super cheap bulk juice but i do want wines that are being contracted by the stores and are a price point similar to what i may spend at an actual wine shop so let’s get started round one all right so here we go round one it’s two sauvignon blancs they’re both from marlboro new zealand so they’re both new zealand sauvignon blancs they’re both 2021 vintage and they’re only a dollar apart so this is the exquisite collection one from aldi that is 9.99 this is the trader joe’s wine which is 8.99 now i’ve never tried any of the wines we’re going to taste today i haven’t tried any all of your trader joe’s lines ever if you can believe it so it’s not like i know what to be looking for so i’m pretty encouraged with this round because light crisp whites are actually the best wines to get sort of cheaply one like they’re easy to make you don’t need oak or things that would make the wine expensive and number two you can kind of hide some of the quote unquote flaws or nuance with high acidity and that chilling that you’re gonna do because it’s a light crisp white wine so these should be pretty good and new zealand is really known for having cheaper good value wines so we will see this is about the price point they should be i’m going to go off camera my wife’s going to pour the wines and mix them up and then when i come back i will not know which one is which but you will i’ll put it on the screen okay i’ll be right back round number one i’ll start on the left wow so one thing we look for in new zealand savion blanc is gooseberry and for some reason new zealand sauvignon blanc always has that more than a lot of other sauvignon blancs and i get it from this which is that’s a good sign i get some green some grassy trying to see if i get some jalapeno there’s a little funk and i can’t determine if that’s something i like or don’t like i think it’s something i don’t like but overall i think it’s a pretty solid nose let’s put on the palette lots of acid real country acidity really salivating ah that’s what i want the palette is confirming a lot of what i got on the nose citrus gooseberry not a ton going on but uh i don’t really expect too much going on with sauvignon blanc so not terrible not bad all right let’s go with this one this is completely different shockingly different no gooseberry no green no nothing maybe a little but it’s very faint this nose is way more poppy i’m having trouble getting anything that’s kind of weird okay oily texture which i actually don’t mind in some wines but that’s not what i want for my sauvignon blanc i want bright crisp acidic happy um yeah not a lot going on some citrus not nearly crisp enough um this isn’t even a contest i actually thought this one would be like a really close contest this round anyway from an analysis standpoint we judge a wine we look kind of for three things look for complexity balance and finish now complexity is how much you get and i said you’re not getting a ton but i’m not expecting a ton of different flavors from sauvignon blanc it’s savion blanc especially in the lower end balance is how well is the acid integrated with all the other characteristics you know the acid and the fruit and the sugar and all the things mixing together and then finish is how long it stays on your palate so as we go through these rounds that’s kind of how i’m gonna judge the lines against each other it’s not even a contest it’s this one so i guess we should see which one it is right who do you think it is oh yeah that’s right you know what it is all right ready okay it’s trader joe’s buy a mile uh it’s the trader joe’s softblanc from new zealand so if you’re rooting for trader joe’s that’s one in the books for them uh so then obviously this is the aldi uh yeah sorry about that aldi not not my favorite from a let’s give it a one out of ten i would give this a solid eight and a half from just a general wine standpoint this is pretty good new zealand sauvignon blanc for the money um it’s it’s not the most complex thing i’ve ever had but it’s balanced it’s well made and finishes it’s fine it’s medium short finish but again it’s ten dollars so i’m not too hung up on that this just doesn’t have enough going on for me a four it’s not i was gonna say five but i i kind of a four i’m not in love with it um so all right round one goes to trader joe’s okay so full disclosure here this wine seemed a little too good to be true so after our tasting i did some googling this wine was labeled in the store as found only at trader joe’s which would have meant some sort of custom buy just for them which is what i wanted to compare and i took their word for it but once i looked it up i found out this is actually a fairly established producer and not a true custom order for trader joe’s because they’re found at a bunch of other places near me too i still think it’s a fair comparison because it was in the same price point but trader joe’s may have had a leg up in this round okay so round two is the chardonnay round this is again the exquisite collection chardonnay from aldi california 2020. uh when you say california 2020 it just means the wine could come from anywhere in california probably inland i would guess again like i told you where they make kind of cheaper easy to buy grapes and then this is the trader joe’s reserve chardonnay what’s interesting about this is it’s from the alexander valley which is a specific ava in sonoma a lot of times when you get more specific you get better wines because there’s just other yield controls in place so we will see obviously when we get into it um this is 9.99 this is 8.99 again super comparable price points i’m gonna go off set and i’ll be right back all right here we go the chardonnay round i’m more nervous about this round chardonnay is a wine that in cheap versions they tend to want to get those oak flavors without actually using oak and so you use artificial stuff or they use too much mallow or things i don’t know chardonnay is an easy grape to screw up even though it’s very easily planted and grown so i don’t know we will see we’ll see i’ll start on the left i’ll always start on the left how about that right off the bat that buttery buttered popcorn flavor that i would expect and that’s honestly that’s pretty much it and it’s not super strong it’s actually not the most aromatic nose i’ve ever come across buttered popcorn but like artificial butter like this tastes a little artifice smells a little artificial to me rather let’s get into it let me let me say something before we get into more i try not to i try to hate on wine every wine has people who put a lot of time and effort and work into it and so i i do think that it’s important to always remember every tasting wine that every bottle is a miracle the fact that it got you for the price it got to all that being said i’m you guys are watching for my honest opinion for me personally not not very good not very balanced with your acidity and your you know your body and other flavors the flavors taste a bit artificial there’s not a whole lot going on there’s some buttery oaky presents and that’s about it i’m not really getting the fruit coming through that i would want let’s go to the next one let’s see okay so this has that smell of of kind of skim milk honestly it’s got that like attempted butter flavor which comes from all active fermentation which is common in chardonnay but smells kind of skim milky the balance is better there’s good acidity here there’s not as much of that artificial weirdness happening all right i’ll get into my verdict then what i think the score is of the two wines but i do have a winner for this round and it’s it’s whatever this one is not really a ton happening again if i’m being honest but at least it’s better balanced and better integrated all right let’s open it up uh here we go again trader joe’s again so two for two trader joe’s uh i i am sorry aldi here’s my thing with these though i mean if you let’s let’s give a score to these i’d give this again like a four or five and i’d probably give this like a a six maybe maybe six and a half i’m not in love with either of these wines if i’m being honest this is this is fine wine if you just want something that has some that reminds you of chardonnay but as far as could i get better quality chardonnay in the 10 price point i think i could so overall trader joe’s uh with the win but i would probably say not in love personally with with either of these wines all right round three i wanted to do another international round from a place where i could give everybody a fighting chance because it’s a value country it’s argentina and you can usually find good value wines from argentina this is lafinka from trader joe’s and this is ivanta malbec from aldi uh i don’t have much to say about these except for the fact that they were five dollars each so even though it’s a value country that’s really really low but i wanted to see how they performed at this price point maybe i’ll find a five dollar wine that’s amazing i don’t know so we’re gonna find out right now i’m gonna go off camera i’ll be right back all right the mail background here we go starting on the left they both look very very similar kind of a pale purple ah pleasant pepper lots of pepper which i would honestly expect from a syrah shiraz not from a malbec but i like it nice ripe purple fruits i really like the nose i’m i might be pleasantly surprised let’s try the palette that is a lights out for five bucks whichever one it is it’s not amazing the finish is very short it’s not exceedingly complex but it’s balanced i love that peppery component maybe i’m a little biased because i really like syrah so i love kind of peppery gamey wines you know the tannin structure the tannins are the thing to dry your mouth out is there there’s some which you know i want a little bit of tannin and a better wine i might you know expect more that’ll help the wine have a little longevity but we’re not buying five dollar wine to lay down or buying it for this evening right pleasantly surprised all right let’s go here no again i really hate being mean about wines i’m not i don’t that’s not why i’m in the wide space but this again whichever wine this is just kind of has nothing happening there’s no fruit there’s no you know the purple fruits i love from malbec there’s no flowers there’s not there’s nothing i just get a weird kind of almost like a plastic plastic-y smell it’s it’s not that great let’s put on the pellet it’s not good yeah it’s just it’s sour it’s tart the fruit isn’t developed not my favorite this however whatever this one this one is pleasantly surprised for five dollars like blown away for five dollars if i’m being honest it’s not the most magical wine but you got to take the price into account yeah so let’s see which one it is is it is it continuing with the trend that’s my question you know oh no they bucked the trends this is the aldi wine i thought for sure it was gonna be trader joe’s because trader joe’s won the first two rounds very very surprised wow like i said not a mate like and so obviously this is then the the trader joe’s we put the paper towels here so i can’t see the top either by the way if you’re wondering why there’s paper towels flying off albie is still in this if it wins the last round it’s a thai game i could probably make this wine like a seven maybe like six and a half but that’s because it’s five dollars and for that that is a totally drinkable wine uh this on the other hand i’m not gonna give it a score because like i said i don’t want to be mean but just something i probably personally wouldn’t buy for myself so aldi wins this round we’re going to the final round where all we could potentially pull an upset bring it back to a tie and then we’d have a tie breaker but they got to win the last round first so let’s not get ahead ourselves so let’s let’s do that i said this is fun it wouldn’t have been fun if it was if trader joe’s had won this one because then it’s over there’s no the last round doesn’t matter but now it’s a competition all right here we go round four so it can already pull it out so this is the outlander from aldi this is a passive roll blaze cabernet paso robles is in middle of california central coast again a good place for value so i trust a 10 cabernet from paso robles and this is the liberte cabernet sauvignon both same vintage 2019 and this one’s from trader joe’s i really like this bottle they put a lot of effort into the label in the bottle but as we know from my other video cheap versus expensive which you need to check out if you haven’t the label is not everything sometimes they’ll put more money into the label to get you to buy but not as much into the juice so that doesn’t mean anything i’m encouraged by both of these pasta roll place cab at ten dollars should be achievable to have some decent wine nine dollars from aldi this is ten dollars from trader joe’s let’s do it all right we are on to the final round paso robles cabernet as always start on the left oh nice nose really nice really juicy dark black fruit like black cherry not super super rich like i’m not like super creamy cassisland but i am in really ripe fruit land which is what i want for cabernet and i get some beautiful spice box character that i expect from cabernet too good more red fruit on the palate i would wish it was a a little richer on the palate but still really nice lots of vanilla lots and lots of vanilla which is a an oak signature a little i think residual sugar it’s got a little bit of that candied fruit character i think it’s coming from leaving a little bit of residual sugar which means sugar from the grapes when they ferment they don’t let it all ferment it also gives it a bit of a richer mouth feel that’s why sometimes they’ll do that but overall not a bad wine all right this guy again there’s a clear winner whatever this is is uh i’m not getting the fruit care i just a lot of these i’m getting really off smells and i’m sorry to whoever i’m talking about with this but i’m just getting really off non-wine smells like things i shouldn’t smell and wine they’re almost like a plasticky almost like dirty smell i just i don’t like it no fruit no oak slightly better on the palate good acidity on whatever that is but not a lot of flavor it’s definitely a way too tart in my opinion for cabernet cannon structure is actually there but it’s kind of abrasive it’s been amazing to me how there’s pretty much been clear winners every time that being said it’s a little sweet for me but it’s not bad so this is it this is the big reveal we’re either gonna have a tie ball game or we have a winner so if this is trader joe’s it’s over if this is all b we’re going to the extra innings that’s trader joe’s right that’s trader joe’s so it’s over aldi i’m sorry you put up a good fight in the one round i thought your malbec was was incredible but this this kind of clinched it for me trader joe’s wines winning three out of four rounds here if i had to rank these wines even like scores i’d give this wine a seven a solid seven i would pay to i would easily pay ten dollars for this like ten dollars for that is actually a a pretty good deal so uh trader joe’s you get the win congratulations i need to sum up here in a minute all right so let’s get into our final conclusions first off all of this is my preference a hundred percent this is my preference and if you like any of the wines that i said i didn’t like that’s totally fine that’s why they make a whole bunch of wines on the planet is there’s wine for everybody maybe if i would have picked different wines right maybe aldi would have come out to victor if i picked different wines versus the ones i actually picked all that being said i do think trader joe’s had a stronger showing here for a couple reasons not just the fact that their wines won this competition but because they had a much bigger wine selection and it seemed like it was a managed wine selection they actually seemed like a person there who runs that wine department which i thought was really nice and they had a huge variety of price points aldi was like very much they have a maybe 20 wines that most and they were all kind of the same price point there was actually wines in trader joe’s not produced by trader joe’s or for trader joe’s basically from other actual wine producers that you can run the gamut of what you could get there there’s actually a really really big selection which i liked a lot and their their wines that they contract out are not that bad so i was pleasantly surprised by by the trader joe wines today they put up a good showing i still stand by what i said i mean you saw kind of the inconsistency right there was some wines that were good or even you know i’d say very good but then there were some lines that were like and they’re from the same place the difference when you go to a small wine shop is that they’re going to curate every single wine whereas trader joe’s they get what’s handed to them right so they might have hey listen we have a contract with these people we’ve got 10 000 cases to move so it’s going in our stores whereas a small wine shop only brings in things they truly believe in number one number two they go for like smaller batch smaller production things with more care and they can help you find things you like when you talk to them that being said this was a lot of fun and if you have strong opinions by the way if you completely disagree maybe there’s an aldi wine that you love you’re like dude you didn’t try this wine this is the wine you should have gotten uh let me know maybe i’ll go pick it up because like i said their malbec totally outperformed for for five dollars so i’m not totally opposed to trying some other things from aldi if you take away nothing else from this video i hope you maybe understand a bit more about how these stores get these wines you know a lot of times people go to grocery stores and they say look at the selection look at all these wineries and understanding that they’re not all wineries in the traditional sense i think is really important for consumers to understand it’s not to say they’re always bad wines we found a couple gems that we really liked here but i think understanding that not everyone is a traditional winery that has an estate that you can go visit is an important thing to know to sum up if you like this video do me a favor give me a like and give me a subscribe we post new videos every single friday i’m doing more challenges like this some wine tasting tutorials and then we obviously have our full episodes which you should definitely check out thanks for watching i’m actually going to pour a little bit more of this because it’s pretty good i’ll see you next time until next wine hey real quick i didn’t get to do my tie breaker because we had a clear winner but i figured we’d just do it for fun so this is very very famous charles shaw what they call two buck chuck although inflation it is no longer two dollars first it was 199 a long time ago then it was 299 which still was two dollars now it’s 350. um but nevertheless this is from trader joe’s made him famous and then this is the winking owl about the same price point from aldi they’re both cabernets so let’s just see which one which one wins actually not the i mean listen not not not amazing but not not terrible oh that’s super fruity it’s like jolly ranchers i mean listen neither one is by any means the most exciting wine i’ve ever had but i would give this a tie they’re both pretty good as far as like if i wanted to just chill and have fruit flavored juice they’re you know that that’s what they are and they taste like alcoholic fruit juice but uh yeah they got a lot of residual sugar a lot of fun fruity flavors die decide which one she goes towards all right she picks all these so see it’s it’s really a tie game she went to this way