Single varietal Petit Verdot that goes great with real Swiss Gruyere cheese, we review the Trader Joe's Platinum Reserve Napa Valley Petit Verdot Lot 106.
Petit Verdot from Napa Valley, California.
This wine is available exclusively at Trader Joe's and sells for $14.99.
There's not much info available on this wine but we've had decent luck with single varietal Petit Verdot from Trader Joe's in the past. In particular the Grand Reserve Rutherford Petit Verdot and the Reserve Paso Robles Petit Verdot were great, while the Reserve Napa Valley Petit Verdot was a bit of a letdown.
From the bottle:
Cellared and Bottled by Isolated Cellars
15% Alcohol
The 2021 Trader Joe's Platinum Reserve Napa Valley Petit Verdot Lot #106 opens with loads of ripe fruit and a little leather.
Tasting the wine reveals this one is all about the fruit (dark berries mostly), but it's good fruit, so that's not necessarily a bad thing. Add in plenty of firm tannins and a smooth mouthfeel and this is pretty nice after it has plenty of air.
Even better was how magnificently it went with the real Swiss Gruyere AOP cheese that we were sampling, especially the Reserve that was aged for 10 months. You may have read the recent court case that found that "gruyere" is a generic term that can be used on cheese made anywhere, but if you want the good stuff, you need to go to the place where they've been making it for 1,000 years!
The wine ends dry, a bit grippy and with good length. It might be a bit one dimensional but it's a tasty example of single varietal Petit Verdot nonetheless.
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.