Trader Joe's Diamond Reserve Rutherford Meritage- Napa Style Bordeaux on a budget

Ever wondered if you could find a legitimate Napa Valley wine for $20? The Trader Joe's Diamond Reserve Rutherford Meritage 2022 might just be that unicorn. This isn't your typical grocery store wine – it's a serious Bordeaux-style blend from one of Napa's most prestigious growing regions.

The Rutherford AVA sits in the widest part of Napa Valley, benefiting from abundant sunshine and dramatic temperature shifts (90°F days to 50°F nights) that create perfect conditions for developing complex flavors. This particular Meritage combines all five classic Bordeaux varieties – predominantly Cabernet Sauvignon (68%), supported by Merlot, Petit Verdot, the rarely-seen Malbec, and Cabernet Franc. What makes this especially intriguing is that it's crafted by a company owned by a Master Sommelier, bringing expert blending skills to an accessible price point.

Don't let the modest price tag fool you – this wine received premium treatment with 20 months aging in French oak (30% new barrels), a regimen typically reserved for much more expensive bottles. The result is a fruit-forward yet balanced wine offering layers of blackberry, blueberry, pomegranate and plum, complemented by savory notes and subtle spices. At 15.3% alcohol, it delivers impressive structure without veering into sweetness. Current challenges in California's wine industry likely explain how such quality has found its way to Trader Joe's shelves at this price.

Whether you're a curious wine explorer or a seasoned Napa enthusiast looking for a weeknight bargain, this Diamond Reserve deserves a spot in your glass. Try it alongside your next special meal and see if you agree it drinks like a wine at twice the price. Then let us know what you think – have you found other hidden gems in Trader Joe's wine section?

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introducing Trader Joe's Diamond Reserve
• 1:02 Understanding Rutherford AVA Terroir
• 4:24 Tasting Notes and Oak Aging
• 5:50 Value Assessment and Final Thoughts

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

Hey, welcome. It's Domain Day from CheapWineFindercom again, like always, here to do a podcast for a wine we wrote up on the CheapWineFindercom website Three a week we do and three times a week we do a companion podcast and we got one of the more expensive Trader Joe's wines. This is the Trader Joe's Diamond Reserve, rutherford AVA, napa Valley, meritage 2022. Meritage means Bordeaux Blend. There's an organization in California that promotes and studies the Bordeaux grapes and the blends in California and you have to pay a fee to put the name on there, which I always find it funny because sometimes you get these Trader Joe's reserve wines that are $8.99. Someone paid so much a bottle to put the Meritage Reserve name on there. But that's what this is. It's a Bordeaux wine. It's mostly Cabernet Sauvignon, I think, like 68%. I thought it was like 15% Merlot, 10% I'm going off memory so I could be wrong Petit Verdot and then like 4%, malbec and 3% Cabernet Franc, and those are the five grapes of Bordeaux red grapes. The Malbec you do not see very often the Malbec that grape was decimated during the phloxera days of 1800s in Bordeaux and a lot of those vines did not get replanted after they were decimated and they end up getting shipped to Argentina, and that's where you get good Malbec nowadays. So there you go. So one bad thing turned into something good, so there we go. So we have this $20 Rutherford AVA.

Speaker 1: 2:02

Rutherford is in Napa Valley. It's in the widest part of Napa Valley so it gets a lot of sunlight. It doesn't have the steep walls blocking the sun. The bench land on the west side is the best stuff and that's where a lot of these really fancy, fancy wineries and vineyards are. But the whole area is pretty, pretty pristine. It's pretty good.

Speaker 1: 2:28

Where these grapes came from, I don't know. Uh, it was made by a um a company that's owned by a master sommelier who mostly makes wines in passeroble area, uh, of um central coast. So this isn't one of their um strongholds. But uh, they obviously know how to make wine and they actually made it a lot of times. It's dummy companies. This is produced and bottled by it's ACE 1542, which is part of Myria Vineyards. The links are on the website of cheapwinefindercom. So Rutherford is legitimate.

Speaker 1: 3:05

It has 90 degree weather during the days In the summer it can, but then it can go down to 50 at night and that temperature differentiation is wonderful for the grapes because the sunlight gets all there, the photosynthesis going nuts, and then the cool hits and they go to sleep. And then the cool hits and they go to sleep and then so it actually kind of allows it in warmer temperatures to have a longer growing season. It also makes it kind of riper. This is 15.3, I think on the alcohol, like 10, 12 years ago when Shiraz from Australia with all the rage you know they were typically 15 and 16% alcohol because it's kind of cold on the south side of Australia and they are thought to be mad dog wines. But like 12 years later it's starting to be kind of normal in California.

Speaker 1: 4:04

Let me take a sip. It's fruit forward, slightly jammy, but it's not a sweet wine. With all those five grapes going on, you've got a bunch of different flavors. You're going to have a blackberry, blueberry. You're going to get pomegranate. You're going to get plums. You're going to get some savory notes. You're going to have a blackberry, blueberry. You're going to get pomegranate. You're going to get plums. You're going to get some savory notes. You're going to get some cool spices.

Speaker 1: 4:34

It was 20 months in French oak barrels, 30% new. That's kind of a lot of new barrels. New barrels give off more influence than a used barrel, depending on how you know. Some barrels can be used two, three times, three, I think by five times it doesn't they're considered neutral. But 30 new barrels for 20 months is a legit, high-end california napa uh red wine, um barrel program which you don't get in 1999 wines, you know.

Speaker 1: 5:07

I've always wondered it's like can I get a wine from a at a retail store for close to this, from napping in the? You never know, because they don't know anything about this. They don't tell you anything, you don't know what side it's from, who made it the? The people who made it aren't really napa vintners, um, so you don't really know what you're getting, though the place is run by a master sommelier who doesn't know how to taste wine. So we, you know the blending is the key, since he knows what he's doing. So, um, I always wonder you get towards 20 bucks, but but then again there was a Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa, just I think. Last week we did another black-labeled Diamond Reserve and that was a single vineyard in Napa which they couldn't tell you where it was from, it was so exclusive.

Speaker 1: 6:02

So these wines seem to be coming from places that are a little bit ahead of what the price is, and there's problems in California and wine right now. So these things happen. So keep an eye out for these bargains, because this is a bargain. It's worth $20. Even if it's not a $30 wine, it's still worth $20 wine and it might be a $30 wine. So there you go. This is the Trader Joe's Diamond Reserve Rutherford Meritage 2022. Keep it cheap. So there you go. This is the Trader Joe's Diamond Reserve Rutherford Meritage 2022. Keep it cheap. This is Domain Dave cheapwinefindercom. Check us out and like us where you like your podcasts and adios. Keep it cheap. I'll be talking to everybody later. Adios, bye-bye.