Trader Joe’s Wines: Winners and Losers

With Chef Janet Ebright churning out one fabulous dish after another, our Cooking with Class spring dinner and tasting of Trader Joe’s wines was a home run. Not that I wasn’t a bit nervous about it beforehand, because I was.

The quality:price value of the Friexenet Cordon Negro Cava is tough to beat.

The source of my jitters: all the empties plonked down behind the school’s demonstration kitchen, most of which were the TJ wines that didn’t make the cut. It wasn’t a pretty sight. Night after night and with high hopes, my co-tasters and I had tasted through all of them, kissing a lot of frogs. Finding bottles on a budget that would be worthy of Chef Janet’s food and effort, and that would uphold my wine cred, turned out to be tougher than I thought.

Undaunted, we found wine redemption, charging through the TJ aisles to find these five winners you too might want to try or share proudly with friends.

We began with bubbles, of course, giving the value nod to the Freixenet Cordon Negro Brut Cava. Housed in a classy frosted black bottle, this Spanish sparkler – made in the traditional style used in Champagne but with native Spanish grapes – pours with a fine mousse, delivering refreshing citrus and peach flavors with a hint of nuts and flowers. Paired with the mixed charcuterie platter that had everyone abuzz, this lovely bubbly makes a perky partner for other appetizers and light dishes (tempura is especially divine). It flies solo too, a fitting companion for the warm days ahead. For only $8, it will beautify your table any day of the week or, at this price, you might find yourself reaching for it all week long.

This taste of Latour delivers at Trader Joe's.

Next, we uncorked the Maison Louis Latour 2013 Grand Ardèche Chardonnay, a $9 steal that often sells for two or three times as much. Diners who were not fans of Chardonnay were instead asking for another taste of this juice. Medium in body, the Grand Ardèche has lovely balance with citrus and apple fruit, a touch of oak and bracing acidity. Try it in honor of the recently passed Louis Latour, who ran the tenth-generation company from 1958–1998, the sixth Latour named Louis to do so. He saw the promise of the warm Ardèche region south of Beaune, where he expanded the business and built a winemaking facility in 1986. Merci, Monsieur Latour.

The third course was accompanied by two reds: the Château Roudier 2010

Montagne-Saint-Emilion and TJ’s own, the Trader Joe’s Reserve 2013 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel, Lot #71.

 These two bottlings brought big smiles to the red wine lovers. 

Whoa, you might wonder at first, good 2010 Right Bank Bordeaux at TJ’s? And what, for $13? Yup. Though lacking the conversation-stopping complexity of pricier Bordeaux, the Château Roudier allows you to experience one of the best Bordeaux vintages in the past 20 years at an everyday price. The wine shows characteristic Saint-Emilion dark, plummy fruit with cassis flavors and a velvety texture. Drink this one now and over the next 1–5 years with a grilled steak or, at this price, your favorite hamburger, pizza or steak sandwich.

The second red for the main course was just as popular as the Château Roudier, if not more – Trader Joe’s Reserve 2013 Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel, Lot #71, one of TJ’s new tiers of wine. Medium in body, this Zin had plenty of Zinny character without the harshness and raisiny overripe fruit often found in low-priced bottlings.

To finish with a perfect ending, Chef Janet dazzled everyone with a luscious dessert that featured different elements that all go well with Port – walnuts, blue cheese (Gorgonzola, in this case), pears and chocolate.

Try this affordable and thoroughly enjoyable introduction to Port, the Noval Black.

The final tasting treat was the Noval Black Porto, an absolutely lip-smacking Port in the fresh and fruity ruby style. Much like the ‘I don’t like Chardonnay’ drinkers who were clamoring for more of the Grand Ardèche, the non-Port drinkers were dumbstruck to have found a new drinking buddy, especially for only $15, nearly half of the usual retail price. Housed in a slick black box, this wine, like the Cava, makes a terrific gift. Just remember to keep your opened, tightly corked bottle in the frig at home and nurse it to emptiness over the course of a week or two.

An honorable mention must go to one of my TJ favorites that wasn’t in the tasting but easily could have been: the Marques de Caceres 2014 rosé from La Rioja. This fruity Tempranillo-based beauty is a must-buy every vintage. With its screwcap and a $7 price tag, you can savor a taste of springtime all year long.

In the next installment, we’ll discuss TJ’s new tiers of wine and offer a few conclusions. Meanwhile, let us know your favorite TJ wines in the comments section. No slams, please.

Lastly, join us for our last food and wine pairing dinner of the season on Saturday, May 21^st starting at 6 pm. Even though it won’t be Trader Joe’s, you can be assured of going home happy, well-fed and juiced about your evening’s food and wine adventure.

Remembering Serge Renaud

The wine world lost a force provocateur with the passing of Serge Renaud late last month. The Bordeaux-based scientist caused a disruptive moment with his 1991 appearance on the CBS program 60 Minutes, an episode credited with embedding the term French Paradox in the American lexicon. In the segment, Renaud described studies that linked lower rates of heart disease among the French to their consumption of healthy fats and custom of washing down fat- and cheese-laden meals with wine. When asked to explain why even the northern French, whose diet contains very little olive oil, had lower rates of heart disease than Americans, Renaud said, "My explanation is, of course, the consumption of alcohol."

By up-ending the prevailing view at the time that only considered alcohol's potential for harm, televised comments by Dr. Renaud and epidemiologist R. Curtis Ellison, MD created an ensuing buzz that helped propel funding and research activity to delve deeper into the paradox and, by extension, the nature and prevention of cardiovascular and other inflammatory diseases. The segment, which provided enough fodder to prompt 60 Minutes to revisit the story in 1995 and again in 2009, also caused Americans to rethink wine. What followed into the 1990s was a dramatic upswing in American wine consumption, and a new taste for reds. 

While not all of Dr. Renaud's theories gained traction, the University of Bordeaux professor offered the scientific community a new lens with which to study heart disease and diet. Specifically, Dr. Renaud's work shed light on alcohol's anti-clumping effects on platelets and how this action appeared to prevent the formation of blood clots that set the stage for heart attacks or strokes. His groundbreaking papers in the 1960s and 1970s challenged conventional wisdom regarding cholesterol and saturated fat through experiments that linked atherosclerosis and fatal clots with effects of dietary fats on platelet function and biochemical changes to blood vessel walls.

Perhaps his most far-reaching findings involved studies published during the 1980s and 1990s on effects of dietary change on health, specifically, the heart-protective Cretan or Mediterranean diet. A 1995 study by Renaud published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition criticized the so-called prudent diet, which the American Heart Association championed for heart patients at the time. Renaud's paper showed the prudent diet was clinically inferior to the Cretan Mediterranean diet of the 1960s, with more than a 70% reduction in cardiovascular events, heart attacks and overall death rates in heart patients who followed a Mediterreanean diet that gave less emphasis to meat and was richer in olive and canola oils, grains, fish, legumes – and red wine.

Cardiologist Tedd M. Goldfinger, Chairman of the Renaud Society, an association of medical professionals with an interest in the wine-health connection to which this author belongs, called the Society's patriarch "a champion of health through nutrition," whose many contributions included scientific insights into fatty acid metabolism and the range of benefits associated with a Mediterranean diet on cardiovascular health.

With Serge Renaud, Ph.D., (right) and R. Curtis Ellison, MD, Walla Walla, Wash. 2009

Looking back at his prolific career for an article in the Lancet published on the first day of the new millennium, Renaud reflected to author Bruno Simini, “If I hadn’t lived with my grandparents and great-grandparents on a vineyard near Bordeaux, perhaps this idea wouldn’t have occurred to me. When you see people reach the age of 80 or 90 years, who have been drinking small amounts of wine every day, you don’t believe wine in low doses is harmful.”

Renaud passed away within sight of his seaside home in Carcans Maubuisson in the Médoc, a few weeks shy of 85^th birthday. We are grateful for his contributions, and thankful to have shared in his gentle presence.