How Good Are Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Wines? (TJ’s is a great, inexpensive place to expand your wine horizons, is high-end cheap worth the price?)

Show Notes

Episode 112: How Good Are Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Wines?  00:00

Hello! And welcome to The Wine Pair Podcast. I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and my wine pairing partner in crime, Carmela. And we are The Wine Pair! 

Ok, a quick orientation for those of you who may be new to the podcast - in each episode we learn about, taste and give our honest review of three wines that are reasonably priced - meaning under $20 each -  and should be easy for you to find. And our podcast is made for people who want to learn more about wine, find new wines to enjoy, and just want someone to talk about wine in a fun way that regular people can understand. So, if that sounds like you, you are in the right place! And we are proud to say that we are recommended by the editors of Decanter Magazine who call us fun, irreverent, chatty, and entertaining

Carmela, I can’t believe it has been so long, but we are finally back, after about a year, with another review of Trader Joe’s wines. Our listeners know that we do several episodes a year on Costco’s Kirkland Signature wines, and in those episodes we choose usually one Kirkland Signature wine and taste it against two other similarly priced wines of the same varietal. So, for instance, a few weeks ago we did a Costco Kirkland Signature Pinot Noir challenge, and we felt that the Kirkland Pinot Noir was not only the best of the three, it was a pretty darn good wine.

However, for the Trader Joe’s wines, just so we are not being too samey-samey, we are going to try a set of just Trader Joe’s wines from a specific quality tier. If you were at all curious, Trader Joe’s sells their own house labeled wine in a variety of tiers which you are supposed to be able to understand the quality of based on their descriptive names and price points. 

So, as you would expect, the Trader Joe’s Reserve wines are better than Charles Shaw 2 buck Chuck wines and Petite Reserve wines, and they sell for about $10. The next step up are the Grand Reserve, and those sell for about $12.99 and are expected to be of pretty decent quality. If I were to make an assumption, I think we could generally expect that a Trader Joe’s private label wine is going to sell for about a quarter to a third less in price than a wine of similar quality with a winemaker branded label. 

And the reason for that is because Trader Joe’s private label products, like would be the case for all private label or house brand products, are manufactured at high volume and without the commensurate marketing costs that come with branded wines. Trader Joe’s just sells these wines at high volume in their stores, so they don’t need to pay a distributor, so they avoid that markup, and they don’t have to pay for other marketing costs like advertisements, or store stocking fees, or paying for employees to market and distribute their products, or going to trade shows, or any of the other things that independent brands have to figure out. And because of that, they are able to charge less.

But back to our story. The two highest tier wines at Trader Joe’s are the Platinum Reserve, which we are covering today, and the elusive Diamond Reserve. The Platinum Reserve wines are made in limited quantities, and sell for around $15 - and in the Trader Joe’s I went to to buy these wines, all of the Platinum Reserve wines were $14.99. The Diamond Reserve are very rare, and they generally sell for around $19.99. 

So, the Platinum Reserve are about as hoity-toity as Trader Joe’s private label products get. In fact, Trader Joe’s says this about their Platinum Reserve wines: The Platinum Reserve label, in particular, represents top wines from top winemakers in some of the most prestigious wine-growing regions in the country, sold at a fraction of the price they’d normally command elsewhere.

So I thought it would be interesting to grab a few of these top tier Trader Joe’s wines and see what we think overall of their quality. Afterall, the typical Trader Joe’s that sells wine tends to have a most of their wines around the $4-$20 price range, and so the question is do we actually think the wines are any good. 

And, to make things fair, we have a mix of different kinds of wines, and two of the varietals or types are ones that we generally like. So, we have a Pinot Noir and a Sparkling Brut, which we tend to really like, and a Bordeaux wine from Saint-Emilion France, which I am not as sure about, and so I am really excited to taste and review these wines . . .

But first . . . we have to do our shameless plug.

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You can also follow us and see pictures of the wines we are tasting and trying today on Instagram  at thewinepairpodcast, and you can contact us on our website thewinepairpodcast.com, and you can sign up for our email newsletter there and get news and food and wine pairing ideas and more!

And, as we do every week, we’ll tell you someone we think you should tell about The Wine Pair Podcast. This week, we want you to tell anyone who loves Trader Joe’s private label products, and likes to brag about how good they are. 

ARTICLES and LINKS

• https://www.reversewinesnob.com/search/label/trader-joes/ 
• https://condimentmarketing.com/food-biz-advertising-costs/ 
• https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/platinum-reserve-brut-sparkling-wine-sonoma-county-061550 

Topic: What’s the Deal with Trader Joe’s Wines? 9:20

But let’s get back to Trader Joe’s wines for a minute before we talk about the wines we chose for this episode.

I will be the first to say that I have not always been the biggest fan of Trader Joe’s. Now, people love Trader Joe’s, and our kids love Trader Joe’s, and I think your parents love Trader Joe’s. But me, I’ve always been a bit skeptical. 

Without going into too much detail on it, I will just say that there is a price to pay for low priced items that you don’t feel as a customer the cash register. To get low cost products into places like Trader Joe’s, their buyers have to negotiate pretty hard, which means that someone’s profit margins are getting squeezed, and that’s generally not Trader Joe’s. 

They are also pretty careful about where they put their stores, and so, although the prices are low and the quality is pretty good, you are not going to find them in lower-income neighborhoods. In fact, Trader Joe’s tends to focus on areas with generally high incomes, and then finds less expensive places in those neighborhoods to open their stores. 

Finally, Trader Joe’s sells a lot of processed products. Although they are not unique in that, and I have noticed they have expanded their fresh fruit and produce, they focus on foods that have long shelf lifes or frozen foods, and that is a less expensive way to manage inventory and costs, however, ultra processed foods are usually not the healthiest foods.

So, I just think that we should be a tiny bit skeptical when we find something that seems too good to be true. 

But I digress. We are supposed to be talking about wine, right?!?

Trader Joe’s sells a lot of wine. In fact, they sell about 40 million bottles of wine a year. I was trying really hard to find a list of the top selling wine stores in the United States, but I just could not find the stats, so we’ll just say that TJ’s is up there. Not the biggest, but a top seller for sure. 

And people flock to Trader Joe’s for well-priced wines - in general, the wines at Trader Joe’s are between $5 and $20, which is really the sweet spot for our podcast anyway. It used to be that Trader Joe’s was most famous for Two Buck Chuck, which is now like Four Buck Chuck, but I am honestly not sure how many people that are not just post-undergrad age are really buying that stuff. ‘Cause it’s not good. I don’t care what you say. In fact, we should do an episode on the best of the shitty wines some day. In fact, We are going to do it. Mark my words!

The fun thing about Trader Joe’s is that they do pack a lot of variety into a small space - generally selling wines from places like Italy, Spain, France, Argentina, Chile, Portugal, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States among many other countries and regions. And not only do they have good prices, they do a nice job of setting out labels that explain some of their wines, letting people know what they should expect, which is really helpful, and often give a little hyper-local flavor by having people in the store comment on what their favorites are. 

And, if you listen to us, you know that we appreciate it when people get exposed to wines that are not just Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. Please, friends, if there is nothing else you get from our podcast, we just want you to know that the wine world is so, so, so much bigger than those wines!

So the next time you go to Trader Joe’s, maybe try a wine varietal or a wine from a country you have never tried before. Why not, right?!? In fact, Trader Joe’s is a great, inexpensive way to expose yourself to a wider world of wine.

So, on that note, I think it’s time to learn a little more about the Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve wines we are drinking today. Whaddya say?

ARTICLES and LINKS

• https://bordeaux.guides.winefolly.com/regions/saint-emilion/ 
• https://www.decanter.com/wine-reviews-tastings/trader-joes-the-best-wines-available-at-the-us-grocery-chain-502886/#:~:text=Annually%2C%2040%20million%20bottles%20of,levels%20of%20the%20Reserve%20range.
• https://www.eatingwell.com/article/7676943/confession-i-cannot-shop-at-trader-joes-heres-why/
• https://www.allrecipes.com/article/where-trader-joes-opens-stores/
• The Real Reason Trader Joe’s Sells $2 Wine | Reader’s Digest (rd.com)
• Why you should absolutely be in love with wines from Trader Joe's. — Wine Talk With Ellen

Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Wines We Chose for This Episode 16:54

As usual, all of the wines we have chosen for this episode are under $20, and in fact, all of our wines were $14.99, and all of them should be relatively easy to find because I bought them all at Trader Joe’s.

We have mentioned this before, but not every Trader Joe’s sells wine because, in some states or cities like New York, for instance, grocery stores cannot sell wine or liquor, although they can sell beer and mead. Yes, I said mead. So, if you are in one of the states where Trader Joe’s does not sell wine, I am not sure what to tell you other than I am sorry.

I will also say that, like a lot of wines that are private label, Trader Joe’s does not give much information out about the wines. No tech sheets or anything like that, so we don’t know things like how the wines are fermented, what their specific blends are, if they are fined and filtered, or other stuff like that. So, we will just tell you what we found or can assume about these wines going in. 

The first wine we are going to drink today is the 2022 Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Saint-Emilion. The reason I am careful to say 2022 is because the 2021 version was labeled as a Grand Cru, but this one is not. In France, Grand Cru is the title given to the best wines in a particular region, but in different areas, the rules are different, which just makes French wines very confusing. 

There is a link to aWine Enthusiast article in our show notes, but just know this: Grand Cru, sometimes also referred to as first growth, are supposed to be the best. However, in Saint-Emilion, there are classifications above it called Premier Grands Crus Classés and Grands Crus Classés. These are all based on what Chateau or specific vineyard area they are from. Don’t worry about it too much. All I can say is that the 2022 version of this Trader Joe’s wine is probably not of the same quality as the 2021 version despite both being the same price and both being called Saint-Emilion.

Another thing that makes French wines confusing is that you really need to know what the region of wine is known for making because it will not be on the bottle. So, Saint-Emilion is in Bordeaux, and Bordeaux style blends are typically made up of some combination of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and Malbec - known as the 5 noble grapes. However, Saint-Emilion is a Merlot and Cabernet Franc focused blend, and is known for being lush and smooth. So, don’t get fooled into thinking that all Bordeaux wines are Cabernet Sauvignon based!

I could not find ratings or much information for this vintage of the wine, just the 2021 Grand Cru version, and so we’ll just have to see what we think. 

The next wine we are going to try is the 2021 Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Pinot Noir from Carneros. Note that there are two versions of the Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Pinot Noir, but the other one is from Santa Lucia in the Monterey area of California, which is several hundreds of miles south of Carneros. 

I am generally a little suspicious of Pinot Noirs from California because they can be made in a very Cabernet Sauvignon type style - higher in alcohol, more oaked up and smoky, and more extracted. I prefer the more subdued Pinot Noirs that have a lighter body and a very cherry smell and taste. Carneros, which is in Sonoma County, is known for making a more elegant style of California Pinot Noir. 

The reason for this is that Carneros has a cooler climate, mostly because of its proximity to San Pablo Bay, which brings in fog and cooler temperatures. This is good for Pinot Noir, and generally makes the wines a little smoother and delicate.

Based on what I am seeing, this wine is very limited, so depending on what we think when we taste it, it may be a wine you want to run out and find at your local Trader Joe’s before it sells out.

The last wine we are going to try is the Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Sonoma County Brut which, like many sparkling wines, is non-vintage. This wine is made using the Champagne Method, which takes longer to make than sparkling wines like Prosecco, because the second fermentation takes place in the bottle. 

This wine is also made using a Champagne style blend. Although they do not give the exact proportions of the blend, they do say it is made with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and a dash of Pinot Meunier. And, because it is a Brut, it is a dry wine, meaning it has low residual sugar after the second fermentation, which we like!

Trader Joe’s says this about the Sonoma County Brut: Made for us by an experienced winery partner in the rolling, coastal hills of Sonoma, this bewitching bubbly exhibits all the light fruitiness and crisp edge characteristic of a Méthode Campenoise Brut. Part of me wonders, based on the location of the wine and the look of the bottle, if this might be made by Piper Sonoma, but that may just be wishful thinking. Because we do like Piper Sonoma sparkling wines! 

The San Francisco Chronicle called this wine “crushable” - which is a good thing. Just note that there is a Reserve Brut as well that people have really liked and is about $5 cheaper, but all of the wines we are covering in this episode are the Platinum Reserve. 

Alright, that is enough talk. Let’s get to drinking. And, if you have any of these wines, or want to head down to your local Trader Joe’s to find them and drink along with us, that’s cool with us. We’ll just wait if you have to put us on pause!


ARTICLES and LINKS

• https://www.wineenthusiast.com/basics/what-is-a-cru/ 
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bordeaux_wine#:~:text=Red%20Bordeaux%20is%20generally%20made,to%20still%20retain%20Carm%C3%A9n%C3%A8re%20vines. 
• https://www.sonoma.com/blog/what-makes-sonoma-county-pinot-noir-so-special/ 
• https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/tj-plat-res-pinot-noir-carneros-lot-79-060349 
• https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/platinum-reserve-brut-sparkling-wine-sonoma-county-061550 
• https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/wine/article/best-sparkling-wines-Trader-Joes-17674177.php 

Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Saint-Emilion, Pinot Noir Carneros, and Sparkling Brut Sonoma County Wine Pairing Tasting and Reviews 26:59

Wine: Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Saint-Emilion
Region: France, St. Emilion
Year: 2022
Price: $14.99
Retailer: Trader Joe’s
Alcohol: 13.5%
Grapes: Not sure, but likely Merlot and Cabernet Franc

What we tasted and smelled in this Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Saint-Emilion:
On the nose: A bit hot, probably young, black cherry, plum, rich, vegetables, earth, pepper spice, touch of leather
In the mouth: Black pepper, spice, good mouthfeel, elegant, can tell it will be balanced in a few years, still young, a lot of tannin, plum, blackberry, smoke, firewood, touch of dark chocolate, touch of coffee, mocha, Old World style

Food to pair with this Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Saint-Emilion: Perfect with a juicy steak, steak house wine, stew, comfort food, beef stroganoff, pasta bolognese, pasta with meat sauce

As a reminder on our rating scale, we rate on a scale of 1-10, where 7 and above means that we would buy it, and 4 and below means that we are likely to pour it down the sink, and a 5 or 6 means we are likely to drink it and finish it, but we are probably not going to buy it.

Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Saint-Emilion Wine Rating:
Joe: 8/10
Carmela: 7/10


Wine: Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Pinot Noir
Region: California, Carneros
Year: 2021
Price: $14.99
Retailer: Trader Joe’s
Alcohol: 14.5%
Grapes: Pinot Noir


What we tasted and smelled in this Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Pinot Noir:
On the nose: Cherry, alcohol, potpourri, raspberry, strawberry, vanilla extract, oak hiding the fruit, rose, and clay or earth when swirled
In the mouth: Tart, not smooth, young, acidic, hot, astringent, rubbing alcohol, too high in alcohol, cranberry, unripe strawberry, Kirsch liqueur, like a cherry dipped in hard alcohol, cherry pit, harsh

Food to pair with this Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Pinot Noir: Grilled food, hamburger, charred food, fatty foods, cheese dog. Not a great food wine.

Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Pinot Noir Wine Rating:
Joe: 5/10
Carmela: 5/10


Wine: Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Sonoma County Sparkling Brut
Region: California, Sonoma County
Year: NV
Price: $14.99
Retailer: Trader Joe’s
Alcohol: 12.5%
Grapes: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and a touch of Pinot Meunier


What we tasted and smelled in this Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Sonoma County Sparkling Brut:
On the nose: Honey, sweet bread, pear, canned fruit juice, syrupy, candy, touch of vanilla
In the mouth: Pear soda pop, crushable, very easy to drink, smooth but not sophisticated, good party wine, pineapple, pear juice, foamy bubbles

Food to pair with this Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Sonoma County Brut: Spicy foods, fish and chips, potato chips, french fries, fried foods, onion rings, Thai food, fried shrimp, baked clams


Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Sonoma County Sparkling Brut Wine Rating:
Joe: 7/10
Carmela: 9/10

Which one of these are you finishing tonight?
Carmela: Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Sonoma County Sparkling Brut
Joe: Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Saint-Emilion

Our verdict: The Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve wines are generally good, but hit or miss in our opinion because while we loved the Saint-Emilion and the Sparkling Brut


Taste profiles expected from Saint-Emilion, Pinot Noir, Champagne-style Sparkling brut   44:59

• Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Saint-Emilion
  • Typical: Lush, soft textures, plums, blackberry, licorice, chocolate, cherry, flint, raspberry, cinnamon, violet, coffee
  • Reverse Wine Snob (2021): dark fruit, leather, chocolate, licorice and some vanilla
• Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Pinot Noir
  • Typical for California: Raspberry, black cherry, mushroom, vanilla, hibiscus, clove, coca-cola, and caramel.
  • Winery: Lively and delicate fruity aromatics, complex and fascinating flavors of dark red fruit, baking spice, and black tea, all of which culminate into an exquisitely balanced, refined finish.
  • Cheap Wine Finder: Black cherry, vanilla, slightly sharp spice, tea, and faint, not sweet, Dr. Pepper. The midpalate brings orange zest, raspberry, herbs, and blueberry
• Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Sonoma County Sparkling Brut
  • Typical: Citrus, apple, pear, yeast, brioche, almond
  • Winery: It’s smooth and easy-drinking, with gentle notes of sweet apple and ripe pear
  • Cheap Wine Finder: Green apple, a hit of sweet peach, lemon, spice, stonefruit, and candy spice (not sweet). The mid-palate offers a creamy sensation, crusty bread, and soft tropical fruit. The acidity is very well-balanced and allows the flavors to fully unfold.

Outro and how to find The Wine Pair Podcast 47:21

Ok, so, Carmela, it is just about time for us to go, but before we do, we want to thank you very much for listening to us - and if you haven’t done so yet, now would be the perfect time to subscribe to our podcast and also a fantastic time to leave us a nice rating and review on our website or Apple podcasts or other podcast service - and it is an awesome and free way to support us and help us grow listeners.

We would also love to hear from you about a wine you would like us to taste and review. You can, leave a message for us on our website thewinepairpodcast.com and you can join our email newsletter there, too, or you can just email us at joe@thewinepairpodcast.com and tell us about a wine you are curious about, or curious what we think of it. And, follow us on Instagram and Threads so you can see pictures of all of these wines we are tasting and reviewing.

Alright, with that, we are going to sign off, so thanks again, and we will see you next time. And, as we say, life is short, so stop drinking shitty wine.


Show Description

Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve wines are meant to compare with wines twice their price, and are said to be top wines from top winemakers in some of the most prestigious wine-growing regions, but just how good are they really? We seek to answer that question to save you time and money. In this episode, we try three different Platinum Reserve wines from TJ’s, give our honest opinion on their taste and quality, and let you know if we think they are worth grabbing the next time you are shopping at your favorite store. We were a little surprised by what we found! We also bring some clarity to French Bordeaux wines, and give a short critique of Trader Joe’s related to the true costs of high-end cheap.Wines reviewed in this episode: Trader Joe’s 2022 Platinum Reserve Saint-Emilion, Trader Joe’s 2021 Platinum Reserve Carneros Pinot Noir, and Trader Joe’s Platinum Reserve Sonoma County Brut.

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