South Carolina Wine Joe

We love Willamete Valley Vineyards Pinot Noir.  We order their estate, reserve, and specialty wines directly from the winery and enjoy them on special occasions.  On Thanksgiving, we enjoyed the widely available Whole Cluster Pinot Noir.  On Christmas day, we paired the 2016 Estate Pinot Noir (see my previous review here ) with our Turkey and Dressing and on Christmas Eve we paired the 2017 Founders Reserve Pinot Noir with Lasagna. Willamette Valley Vineyards 2017 Founders Reserve Pinot Noir is a relatively small production wine with only 222 barrels produced.  It is not widely available but can be purchased from the winery for $40.  There are flavors of cranberry, Raspberry and toasted oak.  I find the wine to have a creamy texture.  This is a fantastic special occasion wine.  SC Wine Joe rating = 92 points. There are many great wineries in Oregon to visit and Willamette Valley Vineyards is one of the best.  If you visit, please tell We...

It is less than 2 weeks until New Years Eve and it may be time to select a sparkling wine for your celebration.  If you are looking for an enjoyable but low priced wine, Proseco is a good alternative.  A friend of this blog brought Allini Conegliano Valdobbiadene from Lidl to my attention.  I purchased a bottle and realized that it was very similar to the Cecilia Benetta Prosecco Conegliano Valdobbiandene from Trader Joe's I reviewed a couple of years ago.  See my review HERE .  Both wines are priced at $9.99 and are quite enjoyable. The Allini Prosecco is labeled as "extra dry" and that is a correct description.  The taste leans toward minerality without sweet fruity flavors.  The bubbles of carbon dioxide are small and the aftertaste is pleasant.  Either this wine or the Trader Joe's wine make for a nice party wine. SC Wine Joe does not assign numerical ratings to white wines.

It has been two years since I last wrote about a version of this wine.  Back then, it was labeled as Napa Valley Meritage.  I do not know the reason for the name change, but this is still a blend of Bordeaux grapes.  This 2016 version is a blend of Merlot (67%), Cabernet Sauvignon (24%), Petit Verdot (4%), Cabernet Franc (3%) and Malbec (2%) with the alcohol content listed as 14.5%.  This blend has more Merlot and less Cabernet Sauvignon than any of the four vintages I previously have reviewed. As in the past, this is a rich, smooth wine with flavors of black cherry and plum with a long lasting spicy finish.  At first, I did not notice the oak in the finish and really enjoyed the wine.  By the time that we finished the bottle, I became more aware of the oak.  Therefore, I really recommend that you drink this with food.  This wine is only $10.99 and is an exceptional wine for that price. SC Wine Joe rating = 89 points

Earlier this year, Trader Joe's released a series of terrific Patinum Reserve Cabernet Sauvignons from the sub-AVA's of Napa Valley incuding Atlas Peak and Howell Mountain and from Knights Valley in Sonoma County.  The current Fearless Flyer is featuring another wine in this series, Trader Joe's Platinum Reserve Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon 2017.  When my Fearless Flyer arrived, I took a trip to the local Trader Joe's to snag a bottle. I am not sure why this wine is labeled Rutherford Napa County and not Rutherford Napa Valley.  The Fearless Flyer indicates it is from Rutherford, Napa Valley and that it is 100% Cabernet that was aged in oak barrels (50% American, 50% French) for 6 months.  That is not a long aging time, so you expect this to be a fruit forward, easy drinking wine.  The alcohol content is stated as 14.6%. Some of the previous Platinum Reserve Cabernet Sauvignons mentioned above had, in my opinion, an over abundance of vanilla flavors.  ...

Firesteed Pinot Noir Willamette Valley used to be my favorite low priced Pinot Noir.  You could buy it for around $12 and it was very good.  In fact, on this blog I rated the 2014 vintage at 90 points and I remember the 2015 vintage being just as good.  Then there was a change in ownership of the brand and the 2017 vintage did not meet my expectations.  I rated the 2017 vintage as 87 points, although some other online blogs rated it higher.  Today, Costco is selling the 2017 vintage, but the new 2018 vintage has been released to other vendors. I found the 2018 Firesteed Pinot Noir at Trader Joe's for $11.99 and decided to see if the wine has regained its past quality.  I am happy to report that is the case.  Do not expect tannins or oak influences.  The wine is fermented and mostly aged in stainless steel.  However, there is a lot of fruit forward, cherry/ raspberry flavor with some black cherry at the end.  It is a very enjoyable, eve...