Black Opal 2007 Chardonnay

Overall Grade: B
Price: $5.99
Purchased at: Cost Cutter
Brand: Black Opal
Variety: Chardonnay
Origin: South Eastern Australia
Vintage: 2007
Serving Temp: Coolish, Room Temp.
Best Season: Spring/Summer

Overall not a bad wine at all; not great cold though. I usually prefer chardonnay cold, but this one is much better a little warmer, not quite room temp, but only a little cool. Good once it has warmed up and breathed a bit, when it's cold it smells of melon and a little grapefruity and is unusually sweet and sour all at once. A little like a slightly dry reisling with a slightly sour finish. When it is warmer, it's more mellow and has an apple tone to it and a nice dry finish.

Black Mountain 2006 Pinot Noir

Overall Grade: C-
Price: $4.99
Purchased at: Trader Joes
Brand: Black Mountain Vineyard
Variety: Pinot Noir
Origin: California
Vintage: 2006
Serving Temp: Warmish, Room Temp.
Best Season: Fall/Winter


I think that the wines from TJ's, with the exception of well known ones, are a little hit or miss. This one is sort of stuck in the middle. It's not particularly good, but not a bad wine either. Slightly oaky/woody, a tiny hint of vanilla and a bit of a smokiness on the finish, not a hugely multi-tonal wine, as all the flavors sort of tend to blend together. Subtle tanin flavour, not too acidic, and kind of off-dry (which is nice), but still slightly bland. I don't know that we'll be buying this one again, but it will probably be kept around as an option should we want something simple and inexpensive.

IronStone - Symphony

Overall Grade: F
Price: $4.99
Purchased at: Trader Joes
Brand: IronStone
Variety: "Symphony"
Origin: California
Vintage: 2007
Serving Temp: Please don't serve this to people
Best Season: Summer if you really must


This wine is deeply unpleasant. Normally I have something good to say about a wine, or at least I can simply say it's not a very good wine or is not to my tastes, but this... we couldn't finish the bottle; we poured it out. This says a lot.

Let me take a brief moment to mention that the couple previous years of this wine received RAVE reviews. Spectacular reviews, a 94.6/100 on cork'd even. It may just be an off year, it may be that they made a change (they made a special point of saying on the bottle that they ferment in stainless steel, not oak), but this one, was not good.

This is another cheap Trader Joe's find. I saw it in the wine racks and recognized the grapes that the hybrid "Symphony" grape comes from. These are good grapes, they result in some tasty wines. This is not one of them. It smells like apricot, boozy boozy apricot. Not at all like wine, and worse than those fruity "wines" you see at the bottom shelf in the wine section of the store. As my dear husband said, it smells "like an apricot that lives in a trailer park and drinks colt 45." It tastes about the same way it smells. It has a slightly floral flavour, and a heavy apricot flavour, and is sweet, too sweet, but has an acrid, alcohol type bite to it. This is a definite do not buy again, and I wouldn't recommend it even to our friends who enjoy sweeter wines. If you are looking for a sweeter white, one you'll enjoy, try Hogue's Late Harvest Reisling (only about $7, so really not breaking the bank). We hoped this would be a good one, and at $5, a good buy, but really it's just $5 down the drain.

Lindemans South African Shiraz

Overall Grade: C
Price: $4.99
Purchased at: Trader Joes
Brand: Lindemans
Variety: Shiraz
Origin: South Africa
Vintage: 2006
Serving Temp: Room Temp
Best Season: Fall/Winter

We were shopping in Trader Joe's Today, and happened by this wine while looking for something new and different. Well, I suppose it's new, but not what I'd classify as "different" at all. It's a very straight forward wine, even though the Winery's site says there are hints of mulberry, plum, and licorice; I only tasted a little plum a slight oaken flavour, and not much else. It has a nice body, and definitely is nicer once it breathes a bit. Overall it is a fairly well balanced, but not very exciting, or interesting wine, and a bit monotone. Not sure if we'll be grabbing this one again, it's not bad for the price, but there are always more out there to try.

Pinot Evil - Pinot Noir 200?

Overall Grade: D
Price: $4.99 (typically runs about $7-8)
Purchased at: Haggens
Brand: Pinot Evil
Variety: Pinot Noir
Origin: France
Vintage: 200?
Serving Temp: Cold
Best Season: Fall, I guess

Tried this one after seeing it in a flier and thinking the label looked neat. Well, the label is interesting, but the content is boring. A single note wine, smells of cherry, and a little bit of a cherry flavour. This is not a particularly dry wine, and quite light on body, very light considering the deep color, characteristic of a pinot noir. It's actually better cold than warm, as There isn't much to say about it; it's not a terrible wine, but not a particularly good one, for a couple dollars more, there are other wines I'd much rather drink.