Bulk Buy! The Trader Joe's Reserve Chalk Hill Merlot Lot 213 from Sonoma County.
Merlot from Chalk Hill in Sonoma County, California.
This wine is available exclusively at Trader Joe's and sells for just $9.99.
The tiny Chalk Hill AVA is located in the northern corner of the Russian River Valley, just to the south of Knights Valley and Alexander Valley. The soil, while not actually chalk, is made up of white volcanic ash. With only 5 wineries within the AVA, this is an exclusive area with not many bottles available under $20 so we were quite excited to see this one at Trader Joe's.
From the bottle:
The 2018 Trader Joe's Reserve Chalk Hill Merlot Lot 213 opens with quite an attractive aroma of dark berry fruit, vanilla, spice, cedar, a little mint, a little caramel and a little chocolate.
The balanced wine tastes smooth and round in the mouth and is packed full of flavor. All those notes from the nose translate over wonderfully when tasting. This is good stuff and would make a fantastic burger wine.
It ends dry, long, a bit grippy and delicious with some lingering spice.
Unlike a number of the other Trader Joe's Reserve and Grand Reserve wines we've tried recently which seem to be creeping up in terms of residual sugar, this is one is nice and dry just the way we like it. This one really hit us right, we loved it.
Taste: 9 Cost: 8
OVERALL RATING: 8.8
As always you can find an updated list of our recommended wines from Trader Joe's as well as more info on their pricing model and some tips and tricks for shopping the store in our giant guide.
You can also find more of our favorite Merlot here!