Hey , it's Domain Dave . Again CheapWineFindercom With another wine . This week we've got a 499 wine . A cheap beer , a real cheap wine finder , cheap wine . We write up on the CheapWineFinder website , com . Three value price wines a week . And then we plug in the microphone and well , that's where we're at right now price wines a week . And then we plug in the microphone and well , that's where we're at right now .
Speaker 1And this one is from Trader Joe's . Is the motif Monterey Pinot Noir 2023 . The motif brand has been around for a while . They the past they've been doing a Red Hills AVA , cabernet Sauvignon . Red Hills is a sub AVA of Lake County , lake County's due north of Napa , and it's been rocking a little $5 wine . Now Pinot Noir is a little bit different . The one thing about these ones this one's from Monterey County , so it's again it's from a sub-AVA of the Central Coast AVA . The labels on these things are great . The other , the Red Hills one , has a blue kind of I'm not sure what the name for these things are , but this is really pretty design . This was a brown design .
Pinot Noir is one of the tougher grapes to grow , so that's when you see $4.99 for a Pinot Noir you go , hmm , it needs a long growing season . It needs to be somewhere where it's going to have cool nights . It can get a little warm during the day , but as long as the night times get cold , where the grapes kind of go into hibernation for the night . And even better if you get fog in the morning so the sun doesn't have a full day at them . Maybe the sun doesn't burn the fog off until 11 o'clock noon , so you only get the afternoon of that heavy sun , which is even better . I mean some grapes Merlot , cabernet , sauvignon , zinfandel they like the sun Pinot Noir you want it to be cool , you want a long full growing season . So that's why when you see $4.99 , you go . I don't know about that .
Speaker 1Another thing $4.99 wines . I always thinka white wine would be a better wine , because you don't expect a lot of value price white wines to have oak Chardonnay sometimes do , but sometimes don't . And then you get the Savion Blancs which only have oak . Well , not only have bloke , but in Bordeaux oak , not bloke . And so a lot of the Rieslings for value price wines you don't . So you kind of get the full flavor . There's nothing missing , because sometimes you don't have oak in a red wine and you go hmm , I'm kind of used to that oaky thing going on and here you don't have it
. There's no way they can't get oak barrels for a $4.99 wine .
Speaker 1So how is it ? I'm going to take a sip and it isn't the greatest Pinot Noir I've ever tasted . Surprise , surprise . Even thinking that it should be or even it's in that category . $4.99 is wrong , but this is a not-too-bad-at-all back porch wine . This is a not-too-bad-at-all party wine . It's $4.99 . You can get four bottles for $20 . You have people come over , you pour them a glass , it doesn't matter .
Speaker 1It tastes like cherries . For the most part it's got spice , it's got black pepper , it's got maybe dried strawberry , which kind of changes that red flavor a little bit , maybe some ripe plums , that sort of thing . So it's not necessarily . It's got a little bit of rough edge spice , which is fine for a Pinot Noir . It's got a little bit of a rough edge spice , which is fine for a Pinot Noir . So it's not like it's flavor . You know . It's not like it has difficulty tasting like something . It tastes like something but it just doesn't taste like the more expensive Pinot Noir and that's because it's not . But it is a decent little red wine . You know , pinot Noir is maybe my favorite outside of champagne , which is kind of weird for a cheap wine finder to have a couple of the more expensive wines to like , but that's just the way it goes . So it's always like hmm , it's not really Pinot Noir , but that's just fine .
Speaker 1It is Pinot Noir . It's just an inexpensive Pinot Noir and it drinks way better than an EZ drink . It's got good fruit , it doesn't go overboard anywhere . It's not a fruit bomb , it's not an acid bomb . It is kind of well made for $4.99 .
Speaker 1I think it's actually made by some division of Bronco wines , which is I'm not positive , but from looking at the web I see the name of the people who supposedly did some work on it . From the back label and back 10-15 years ago Bronco wines looked like they made like half of Trader Joe's wines . Maybe not be that much , but Bronco wines is everywhere and over the years Bronco's kind of pulled away from Trader Joe's Two . Buck Chuck is still there , but it's kind of rare to see them
in the other Trader Joe's exclusive wines They've gone in a different direction . But this is what that is and Bronco wines always , you know , brought some value for the money .
Speaker 1Was it always the greatest wines in the world ? No , but were they always drinkable Usually , and were they always the right price ? Yes , they were . So here we go with the Motif Monterey Pinot Noir 2023 . Gonna take another sip before we go , bye-bye . Yeah , not the greatest Pinot Noir in the world , but a pretty good representation of a $4.99 red wine . On On the lighter side , it's got some good flavors . It's for the price , it's fine . I mean , if you see it , buy it . I mean , if you just know what you're using it for , this isn't one you'd pour over the steak or the meal . You could , but I wouldn't . But that's me , because I probably wouldn't anyway . So that's it for me . Domain Dave cheapwinefightercom . I got a French rosé coming up in the next couple of days . So , adios , keep it cheap . We'll probably talk to you in April . So , adios , bye-bye .