Trader Joe's Grand Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Chalk Hill Sonoma County 2018 is featured in the current issue of the Fearless Flyer. As far as I can tell, this is the first version of the wine for Trader Joe's. Since I usually find the Grand Reserve wines to be excellent choices, I placed this on my shopping list.
Chalk Hill is an AVA carved out of the northeast corner of the larger Russian River Valley AVA and it gets it's name from the white volcanic ash in the soil. Although Chalk Hill is best known for Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, you can also find Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot.
From the nose, you expect plum and blackberry, but in the mouth I also found cherry and blueberry with a spicy finish. To my taste, the wine is dominated by light fruit flavors and needs more dark fruit into the finish. All in all, this is good wine for the $12.99 cost, but not as good as some other recent Grand Reserve and Platinum Reserve Trader Joe's Cabernet Sauvignons.
SC Wine Joe rating = 88 points
Chalk Hill is an AVA carved out of the northeast corner of the larger Russian River Valley AVA and it gets it's name from the white volcanic ash in the soil. Although Chalk Hill is best known for Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, you can also find Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot.
From the nose, you expect plum and blackberry, but in the mouth I also found cherry and blueberry with a spicy finish. To my taste, the wine is dominated by light fruit flavors and needs more dark fruit into the finish. All in all, this is good wine for the $12.99 cost, but not as good as some other recent Grand Reserve and Platinum Reserve Trader Joe's Cabernet Sauvignons.
SC Wine Joe rating = 88 points
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