Are Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Wines Good? (Reviews of their Chardonnay, Meritage, and GSM)

The Wine Pair Podcast

A common question we get is just how good are in-house wine brands like Trader Joe’s or Costco Kirkland Signature wines. This week, we tackle the 3rd highest tier of Trader Joe’s in-house wines, the Grand Reserve level, which is usually priced at $12.99 - which is a killer price IF they are any good. This week we also went out on a limb to try wines that we would not normally choose but that we know are very popular for the majority of wine drinkers, so we give our review of the Chardonnay, GSM, and Meritage. If you don’t know what GSM or Meritage wines are, don’t worry, we give a quick run-down of what they are, and these are blends you really need to know because they are two of the class red wine blends, and are the basis for most red wine blends. We found two of the wines to be quite good, but one was a clunker that may have burned a hole in our stomachs. We also give a quick review of our recent trip to Barcelona, Spain and some things we learned there about traveling to wine areas in Catalonia. As an extra bonus, Joe’s eyes were dilated during this episode. Just thought we’d share that with you. Wines reviewed in this episode: Trader Joe’s 2022 Grand Reserve Russian River Chardonnay, Trader Joe’s 2022 Grand Reserve GSM, Trader Joe’s 2021 Grand Reserve Meritage.

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1. Intro, and why the Grand Reserve tier and wines we chose (00:00:00)

2. Topic: WTF is a Meritage, and WTF is GSM? (00:09:43)

3. Trader Joe’s Grand Reserve Wines We Chose for This Episode (00:15:21)

4. Trader Joe’s 2022 Grand Reserve Russian River Chardonnay Wine Tasting, Pairing, and Review (00:21:03)

5. Trader Joe’s 2022 Grand Reserve GSM Wine Tasting, Pairing, and Review (00:26:58)

6. Trader Joe’s 2021 Grand Reserve Meritage Wine Tasting, Pairing, and Review (00:32:52)

7. Taste profiles expected from Chardonnay, GSM, and Meritage (00:39:06)

8. Listener Q&A: A Review of our trip to Spain (00:42:23)

9. Outro and how to find The Wine Pair Podcast (00:49:43)