Trader Joe's Diamond Reserve Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon – Worthy?

Checking out Trader Joe's new top of the line wine, the $19.99 Diamond Reserve Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Lot #1.

Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley, California.

The Trader Joe's Diamond Reserve Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is available exclusively at Trader Joe's and sells for $19.99.

There's no information on the bottle except that the wine is vinted and bottled by Russian River Winery in Santa Rosa, which doesn't appear to be an actual winery. Trader Joe's also declined my request for more information on this wine. It has 14.8% alcohol.

The 2017 Trader Joe's Diamond Reserve Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Lot #1 begins with a very pleasing, distinctly Napa Cab-ish aroma of dark fruit, spice, licorice and vanilla. The smooth and balanced wine tastes just like you would expect it to. It features nice depth of flavor, plenty of delicious juicy fruit and elegant touches of spice and vanilla. This is just a really nice example of a high quality Napa Cab. Fine tannins lead into the dry, quite long finish which also features a hint of graphite minerality.

At the end of the day this is a very good wine, but not quite good enough to get a Taste Rating of 10, which given the $20 price tag means it only gets a Recommended Buy rating. Based on that, I'd say you're better off spending your money on some of the Trader Joe's Platinum Reserve Napa Cabs (Atlas Peak or Rutherford) which have the same Taste Rating but cost $5 less, giving them a Highly Recommended rating and a bit more bang for your buck.