Take a moment to think about your happy place. What did you picture…a white sandy beach with turquoise waves kissing the shore? The safe and cozy arms of your S.O.? Well friends, if you asked me (and I’m quite aware no one’s asking), I would tell you my happy place is Trader Joe’s Wine Shop. Full freakin’ stop.
For those who have somehow never stepped foot in this cultural institution, allow me to explain: Trader Joe’s Wine Shop is a holy mecca for vino lovers. Sometimes a wing of a regular Trader Joe’s supermarket and sometimes its own separate entity, this little slice of heaven is packed from floor to ceiling with bottles from across the globe just ready to be loaded into your cart and unloaded onto your bar cart. Some are Trader Joe’s private-branded, while others are from wine companies you may already know and love.
And while the variety of wines they offer is truly impeccable, typically organized by country and varietal, the best part about Trader Joe’s Wine Shop, in my humble opinion, is how unfreakinbelievably cheap it is. I’m talking so cheap I literally bring the backpack I bought to travel Europe and stuff it full of bottles every time I visit so I can take *full* advantage of every TJ’s trip. (Mom, if you’re reading this, no I don’t.)
But wait, you say, how will I know which wine to buy if there’s such a big selection? A great question indeed. That’s where I come in. Because I am a #giver, I decided to go ahead and test many of the bottles of wine you can buy at Trader Joe’s Wine shop for $25 or less so I could find the best of the best. I also had three wine-loving friends join in and help because A. not everyone’s tastebuds are the same as mine and B. I wouldn’t have been able to wake up for work the next morning if I tested them alone.
Together, the four of us blind taste-tested a variety of vinos—reds, whites, rosés, oranges, sparkling whites, and sparking rosés, to be exact—and first ranked them based on taste alone. We then graded the bottles based on attractiveness (because sometimes you need to give a beautiful boozy gift, ya know?), and finally gave one final score for “overall value” after hearing the price of each bottle.
Simple but scientific, right? At the end of the night, we were a little worse for wear (and v embarrassed bringing out the recycling) but we had our top 10 best Trader Joe’s wines based on all of that criteria. Are you ready for it? *Taylor Swift voice*
But first, some (valid) questions you may have…
Why is Trader Joe’s wine so damn cheap?
Trader Joe’s has it’s own private-label wine brands. Most of these brands (like their famous Charles Shaw brand, which makes the legendary “Two Buck Chuck”) are made by a family-run company called Bronco Wine, in California. Bronco is known for focusing on making quality wines for low prices. In addition to these private-label brands, Trader Joe’s is also said to purchase most of the other brands they sell in bulk, which also helps keep the price down.
Okay, but like… is Trader Joe’s wine actually any good?
Ummmm, yes! I recently took an incredible wine tasting class in Porto, Portugal with Rafael de Lima, a wine producer and sommelier, who told us that he loves stopping by Trader Joe’s Wine Shops when he’s in the U.S. for work. I believe his exact words were, “For bottles between $10 and $18, you can’t get much better than Trader Joe’s.” If you don’t believe me, believe him.
Now, without further ado, ze dranks…
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