Good Grape Wine Company

October 25 2009

The Blending Trials

While I am a fan of Trader Joe’s and love their wine selection and prices, I find most of their private and one-off labeled wines to be deficient in at least one discreet way. 

Sometimes the nose is muted, the finish is short, the fruit isn’t developed or perhaps there is a bit of heat, etc. 

Many of the TJ wines are like a beguiling woman on a first date – the package seems like the real deal – she’s beautiful, smart and sexy while not being high maintenance.  Anticipation is high!  Then, in the blink of an eye, upon uncorking, she goes into an anecdote about putting a restraining order on her ex-boyfriend from three days ago while she nervously and incessantly giggles with a laugh that is part rooting pig and part hyperventilating hyena.  Your fifteen minute flash love connection has been dashed at the 17 minute mark and you’re figuring out a graceful exit.  Such is life and so goes Trader Joe’s branded wines, too. 

In my ever present quest to unearth the perfect Trader Joe’s wine find, undaunted by wisdom, I picked up a bottle of the 2007 Trader Joe’s Yountville Grand Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon for $12.99.

I suppose it’s inevitable that high-end finished wine that is left unbottled (for any number of reasons) would hit the bulk wine market only to be bottled for TJ’s.  These days, in particular, you expect a high level of quality of juice to trickle down to the “deal” portion of the private-label market.

The TJ “Grand Reserve” is such a wine.  Sourced from “Hole in the Hedge Winery,” a winery that, apparently, exists only in name and a bottling line somewhere in Napa County, this wine shows incredible potential pedigree at price point, emphasis on “potential.”

A straight cab, it is inky garnet in the glass with a well-developed nose, an appealing first impression on the palate and a nice, high-quality finish.  However, like the incessant giggle that detracts from the whole of the package, this wine, made in a Bordeaux-style, is missing a little something – notably some stuffing to round out the mid-palate.  Showing an abundance of earthy complexity, nice mouth feel and depth, it seems to be a wine that was intended to go into a Bordeaux blend with a dash of Merlot, a smidgen of Cab Franc, and a pipette of Petit Verdot.

Alas, it was bottled as a straight varietal offering, which is too bad because a little artful blending could have made this $12.99 wine a deal of the century – major quality at a discount price … a $12.99 offering comparable at $50.  Seriously.

However, absent straight-line creative problem-solving by TJ’s (I’m on to you), evidenced by the fact that putting together a meal from the store requires nine purchases thereby transferring the success of the end product to the consumer (the Tikka Masala simmering sauce needs chicken, basmati rice, frozen peas and naan, at a minimum, and TJ’s otherwise low prices lulls me into a sense of bargain when I’m actually paying $21 for a meal for two—more than two all-you can-eat Indian buffets),  and consumers quite rightfully should make some adjustments to the wine.

I grabbed a 2002 Caparone Merlot from my stash, a Central Coast winery that stylistically produces rustic table wines with an Italian bent, and blended in a splash to give a boost to the mid-palate of the TJ’s Cab.  It worked.  The results were remarkable, despite the blending incongruence between a Bordeaux-style Cab and a vin da tavola-style wine.

Obviously, this is a clue that kitchen sink blending more artfully considered than my own could yield something even better.

Here’s my recommendation – run out to Trader Joe’s and pick up a bottle of the TJ’s Grand Reserve Cabernet from Yountville.  Likewise, pickup a bottle of Merlot.  Don’t overthink your Merlot choice, as long as it carries some fruit heft it’ll be fine.  The Grand Reserve has enough depth and finesse everywhere except for a thin mid-palate to carry the wine.  Add some Merlot at a 1:5 ratio and enjoy.

I think most wine enthusiasts view wine in a linear fashion – an end product that is what it is.  However, with more private-label wines coming to market and with Trader Joe’s wines, in particular, where costs are reasonable and risk is low, I’m finding that a dash of this and splish of that creates a more satisfactory whole experience.  Give your own kitchen sink blending experience a try and let me know which wines you used to create your own winning combination.

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