Five Wines Reviewed from TRADER JOE’S

In today’s video, Bob Paulinski Master of Wine is at Trader Joe’s in search of extreme value in Italian wine from Trader Joe’s. Five bottles, one white and four reds will be assessed. Price and availability may vary by location.

The wine assortment at Trader Joe’s is constantly being refreshed. Some wines are available year-round, others are seasonal. The wines tasted in this video are generally available on a year-basis, but that may vary by location. The wines in this video were purchased in Northern California.

2022 Villa Molino Soave Classico – Veneto $5.99
2022 Villa Cerrino Montepulciano d’Abruzzo $5.99
2021 Epicuro Primitivo – Puglia $5.99
2019 1967 Red Blend – Tuscany $5.99
2019 Fior di Vino Chianti Classico Riserva – Tuscany $7.99

Trader Joe’s does not offer volume discounts, the bottle price is the same for single-unit or case sale purchases.

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today’s video will focus on Italian wine values available through Trader Joe’s I went to my local store perused the shelves found five wines that caught my attention one white and four Reds these are from regions that generally bring very good value for the money I’ll taste through the wines along with providing an opinion of each hi I’m Bob Pinsky I’m a master of wine I’ve been in the wine trade for more than 40 years and I post YouTube videos as often as I can there are nearly 600 Trader Joe’s across the US most stores stock around 400 different wines some of which are available year round others are available seasonally it’s a good curated mix with a focus on value the Prices range from3 to about $60 with the majority coming in between six and 15 for this video I’ve invested $32 into five bottles of wine let’s get to the taste the first lne up is the 2022 Villa Molino Suave Classico from the Veno region of Italy this wine goes for [Music] $5.99 the color is pale with a slight greenish appearance exactly as expected for this sort of wine so just a quick comment on the packaging for this wine they’ve opted to use a cork very basic cheapy cork seems to have done the job just fine my preference would be a screw cap uh this is the type of wine that is not meant to have any longevity to it two maybe three years from the Vintage at the very most this being a 22 really best to consume this over the next few months screw cap helps to preserve the wine now this is a Classico and what that ties back to is more the historical site within the region bit more elevation uh generally a little low lower yield as well which often times can help to improve the quality the aroma on this is all primary fruit it’s pear honeydew there’s a little bit of a Teragon Aroma to it as well moderate intensity there’s no alcoholic burn at all I mean it’s fresh bright really clean has that bright fruity characteristic to it on the pal all those bright fruit characters follow through again that melon pear note to it there is a little bit of that that herbal characteristic to it as well uh this wine is definitely all out of stainless steel this did not see any Oak I mean this did not even kiss a toothpick so that stainless steel helps to preserve the freshness and the Vitality of the wine uh fairly low in alcohol it’s around 12% but it’s very soft decent length on the pette I mean for a very basic clean style wine this is actually made quite well if you’re a fan of Pino gregio if you like some saon blancs maybe want something a little bit more tapped down than what you’ll find with some of the New Zealand saon Blan this would be a good choice you want to serve this chilled and definitely drink this 22 vintage over the next few months the second wine is the 2022 Villa Serena monapo Pio diuto for [Music] $5.99 this wine has a moderate depth of color purple red appearance with a bit of fade at the edge of the glass so when I spotted this one on the Shelf I had to pick it out I love monano di Bruto little bit nostalgic I would say and I’ll get to that in just a moment but matano being the gra variety AB Bruto is the region Central Italy this is about a three-hour Drive East of Rome up against the Adriatic it’s a place that’s going under tremendous change in recent years all the steps to move up to a more premium level are playing out but the history and very much the current business is based on the cooperatives uh these are wines where I think back 30 40 years ago if I just had a few dollars in my pocket this is what I’d looked for now the wine in my glass is is from a cooperative and uh it’s the core of what’s produced in the region as of today it’s essentially many small Growers that pull their their fruit sources together and the fruit is then fed into one Central Co-op that then produces wine and sells it all around the world the character of this wine the aroma uh this smells quite good it has a Mell Cherry character it’s those little dark uh tar cherries and it has very much that character that jumps out of the glass but good intensity a little Savory Spice note it really smells quite good and sometimes with wines coming out of these cooperatives they can be an underlying green element where the fruit may be ripe uh in terms of sugar level but it’s not ripe in terms of the phenolics and the wines can be kind of green and vegetable this doesn’t have any of that character So based on the aroma I’m I’m actually quite hopeful this is going to turn out on the pallet uh quite weighty 133% alcohol which is quite typical in this region sometimes a bit higher uh but very smooth round soft tannins just moderate acidity really nice I mean the wine has good structure to it and I tell you for for the price I’ve had so many inexpensive wines wines around this price that are just God awful this is a solid well-made glass of wine it’s fermented completely dry there’s some nice structure to it not a lot of nuance not layering it’s not something you want to keep very long but for an inexpensive red this is Rock Solid if you’ve subscribed to my channel thank you very much if you haven’t done so please consider doing it right now also hit the like button and definitely hit the notification Bell that way you’ll be kept up to speed on all things happening here one number three is the 2021 Epic curo Premo from pulia for [Music] $5.99 the color here is a bit deeper than the previous wine it’s denser at the core with a bit of fade at the edge of the glass with this wine we are off to pulia this is down in the southern part of Italy if we continued from a Bruto along the Adriatic coast south eventually we would end up here which is the heel of the boot in Italy Primo is very broadly grown in this area number of other places in southern Italy and Sicily as well there is a connection to this grape variety that links back to Croatia along with zinfindel in California as well it’s a bit of an odd grape variety it’s one that does not ripen evenly and if you were ever out in a Vineyard around Harvest time you’ll find some grape clusters that are perfectly ripe others that are a little raisiny The Grapes Skins are a little bit shriveled you can find some others that are actually still a bit green all on the same Vines this is a part of Italy that tends to be very warm and some of the wines can show a stewed fruit or prun like character for me I’m not crazy about that but when the wine is on it can really be very good so I’m I’m curious to see what’s happening here this has some red fruit there’s a a spice note a little peppery character there is some elevated alcohol see the the back label shows 14% my guess is it would have been higher there is some alcoholic heat here on the pallet there’s some good weight uh it doesn’t have any of that stewed or prune character uh it’s more red fruit but there’s an underlying uh under rpe characteristic there’s a bit of a vegetal note uh little lean mean green on the palette uh not words that are really associated with something that’s all that enjoyable I think there’s better examples out there and enough said on this wine the fourth wine is the 2019 1967 red blend from Tuscany for you guessed it $5.99 this wine is moderately deep in color with considerable fade at the edge of the glass it’s showing signs of age and now for the last two wines both of which are from tusky uh this is a 2019 vintage so it does have a little bit of bottle age to it it’s made from sanio vasi 85% with 10% Cabernet subon and 5% SRA the aroma has some of that tar Cherry characteristic that’s very common with sanio vasi it’s also a little bit of a mushroomy soy sauce characteristic that’s very common with some wines that have some bottle age so this has a bit of that tertiary note on the pallet uh medium bodied very soft decent length uh not a lot of nuance or layering to this wine uh I wonder why this is a 2019 I think something a little fresher brighter showed a little primary fruit character would probably show better but this is a decent glass of wine there’s nothing off-putting about this and for the minimal cost you know it’s it’s actually quite solid uh I think there’s an underlying story to this that I don’t know but uh this is a decent glass of wine and the fifth and final wine is the 2019 Fiora deino Kiante Classico Reserva from Tuscany this is the Splurge in today’s video at $7.99 this wine is moderately deep at the core showing a good amount of fade at the edge of the glass very much in line for this sort of wine so at this point it’s on to the fifth and final wine up to this point everything has been $6 a bottle this one has a $2 premium searching for Value here today this is the kante Classico Reserva 2019 this wine has spent a couple of years in wood and it’s quite obvious when you look at the color of this there’s a fair amount of fade as you get out to the edge of the glass and at The Rim there’s actually a slight Amber tone as well the aroma uh it’s it has that tar Cherry characteristic which is very typical with San oasy based wines there’s also a bit of a a leathery note and something that reminds me of black olive toonot interesting aromatics but has those characteristics that are very much in line with a wine that has some some bottle maturity on the palette decent weight very soft good length uh not a lot of range I mean it’s really quite narrowly focused on the palette but there’s nothing about this that’s off-putting I think the wine is actually made quite well it’s solid it’s certainly fully mature this is not something that I would suggest you keep for any length of time Deon Classico Reserva maybe the bar would be set a bit higher but this one has a crazy price of $8 so in terms of the price point I think this delivers quite well this is an interesting glass of wine I’m curious to see how this develops over the next hour or so Trader Joe’s is a great place to search out wine values I hope this video pointed out a few that caught your interest for me certainly the Suave Classico and the monano DI Brut so were standouts as always thank you very much for supporting my Channel please stop back again before too long and until next time cheers so I mentioned that I’d like to come back and revisit the last wine the keante Classico Reserva this has been open around two almost two and a half hours at this point and I’m curious to see did the added ation actually benefit this wine in terms of the aroma no doubt that it has that tarte cherry leather black olive toenut it’s all there but it’s become much more intensified this is not a wine that has a tremendous amount of range but it’s really quite solid in terms of what it does have it it has good Purity good intensity I like the way this wine smells on the palette it’s also improved not as much as the aroma but it’s balanced the structure structure is there there’s decent length on it I mean it really ticks all the boxes it’s a very well-made wine now if someone told me this was a keante classical Reserva what do you think I’d say this is solid it’s decent it’s a good glass of wine throw in the fact that it’s $8 it’s really quite compelling this is a solid wine but it does need some ation that definitely will improve the wine