Trader Joe’s Top Picks – GSM Reserve Lot# 96

52% Syrah, 38% Grenache and 10% Mourvèdre from Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma, California.

Purchased for $9.99.

From the bottle:

Bright strawberry, cherry, and raspberry notes with hints of spice and vanilla oak leading to an exceptionally well-balanced finish.

14.5% Alcohol

Today we begin the long anticipated 2014 version of our Trader Joe’s top picks series! Last year we featured ten of our favorite wines from Trader Joe’s and this year we’re back with even more all new selections. So many more, in fact, that we’ll be expanding to our series to two weeks this year.

To start off this year’s festivities we’ve selected a favorite type of blend, a GSM (Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre), from one of our favorite regions, the Dry Creek Valley.

The 2012 Trader Joe’s GSM Reserve Lot# 96 Dry Creek Valley begins with a very pleasant aroma of strawberry, black cherry, spice, a little vanilla and smoked meat and even a few earthy notes. Tasting this medium-bodied wine reveals lots of tasty, juicy black cherry, blackberry and plum. It ends dry with medium-long length and lingering fruit and spice notes. A wine that is mighty fun to drink and has fairly good complexity to boot, just the way we like it.

Available exclusively at Trader Joe’s.