Blind Tasting Of Private Label Wines

Today the focus is on finding the best $15 bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley that falls under one of the exclusive labels sold by the largest retailers in the U.S. I'll taste an example from Costco, one from Trader Joe's, and another from Total Wine and More. All three are from the 2023 vintage, a year that's generally highly regarded for Napa Valley. As for the tasting itself, it'll be a single blind tasting, meaning that I know which wines will be poured, but I won't know the order. Let's get right to it. From Costco, I picked up a bottle of the Kirkland Signature Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. When available, it's typically sold on all-palette displays through most of their club stores. It's not stock year-round. From Trader Joe's, I bought a bottle of Momentum Legacy. The wine is typically part of the regular assortment, and it's available most times of the year. And the third wine is from Total Wine and More, South Napa Vintners. It's widely available in their stores, routinely available year-round. My neighbors removed the capsules and the corks, along with popping the bottles into numbered bags in random order. The deal is this. When the video is complete, they get two of the three bottles, but I choose the one to keep for myself. The wines were opened about one hour before the tasting. Wine 1 has a youthful appearance, medium deep at the core, with some fade at the edge of the glass. Wine 2 has the same youthful appearance as Wine 1, similar with the medium deep core, with fade at the edge. Wine 3 has a noticeably deeper core, more concentrated appearance, with greater depth of color extending to the edge of the glass. Here's a side-by-side comparison of the three wines. You can see the one on the right has a bit more color density versus the other two. If you've not yet subscribed, please do it right now. Hit the like button, definitely hit that notification bell. If hype is an option, please hit that, and share with your like-minded wine friends. All of this helps to grow my channel. It's much appreciated. Let's see what's going on with the aroma. Wine 1. This is dark cherry and plum. It's really quite expressive, just moderate intensity, but there's good purity here. You can tell the fruit is ripe. The oak component is subtle. It's much more in the background. Smells like what I would expect from Cabernet Sauvignon. I'm not so sure that I'd put this in Napa Valley if I were tasting this wine, but this is not a bad start. Wine 2. Very different characteristic. This has more of a dark fruit note to it, that cassis character. It's also that bit of a smoky charred oak note here, and this does have the slightest whiff of alcohol heat. It's not off-putting, but you can certainly tell it's there. The fruit is ripe. There's nice density here. This smells like Napa Valley Cab. Wine 3. Again, the character is quite different. This has that dark fruit note. That much is the same, but there's also a bit of a minty note here, a bit reminiscent of spearmint. It's like floral characteristic. There's also a bit of that smoky wood note to it. Yeah, this smells really nice, and this also gives the impression that the wine actually is a bit more serious. Time to taste each of the wines. Wine 1. The fruit character is really bright. Again, that dark cherry plum note is there. The wine is really well-balanced. It's well-structured. There's good weight here. The fruit is ripe. The oak component very much underlying, and it's a really straightforward style of wine. I think this is made well, but it's nothing that brings a nuanced or layered sort of characteristic to it. Back palate has medium length, really soft and smooth. This is the type of wine that I think really could be a crowd-pleaser. I think this is good. $15 sounds about right. I don't think it's a fantastic value, but it's solid. Second wine. Quite different than the first. This has more structure, more weight, more density to it. It's well-balanced. You can tell the fruit character is ripe. Now, this did have a little bit of alcohol heat when I first tried the aroma, and on the palate, you do pick it up as well. A little bit of oak there. In the back palate, there's also a bit of tannin. It's not like it's coarse or rough in any way. You certainly can tell it's there. I think this is a wine that actually could benefit from some aeration. I think the wine is very, very nice, and it really does feel typical of what you'll find in Napa Valley. This one's quite solid. Wine three. Okay, with this wine, the color was a bit deeper than the other two. For me, the aromatic range was a little better versus the other two. On the palate, this has some nice structure to it. There's some weight. There's some density. That dark fruit character really shows through a little bit of that oak note. This has a little more of a layered sort of characteristic to it. The tannins are certainly evident on the back palate. There's a little bit of a drying characteristic, and this is another wine that I think really would benefit from some aeration. I think this is really quite good, and really across the entire range. It's not like there was a dud here. Some of this really comes down to stylistic preferences, but now for the verdict. So this was actually more difficult than expected, but I'm looking at it from the perspective of which wine would I really prefer to drink most. So my order is this. The wines were poured one, two, three. My preference was actually at the top was three, two, one. So here's the reveal. The wine that was number one, and again, I think the wine was nice. It was good. It was just something that I felt was really more of a simple, straightforward style. It lacked a little bit of layering and nuance, but I could see this really appealing to people who maybe are not so much Cabernet Sauvignon drinkers. I think they would find it appealing because of the soft, very round character, and this is the South Napa Vintners. This is the one from Total Wine. The second wine, and obviously once I reveal this, the other will be known immediately, but wine two was one I thought had a little more structure, a little more weight, depth, more complexity to it. Also gave me the feeling that it needed more aeration, and this is wine that I'll come back to a little later tonight to see how it develops. But based on how it performed when I tried it just a short time ago, the next one is the Kirkland Napa Valley Capsaw of 2023. Now this one I don't believe has been at Costco over the last couple of vintages. I think it was either the 19 or the 20 was the previous vintage, so they skipped a couple of years. And the final wine, which is quite evident of what's my top choice, is the Momentum Legacy. I think this is the one from Trader Joe's. Now for me this really does have a little more weight, complexity, a little more interest to it. Also I think this is a wine that really does need a bit of aeration, so wine two and three I'll probably play around with a little bit later tonight to see what the preference is. But it looks like the wines going to my neighbors will be wine one and two, and I'll keep three for myself. If you enjoyed the format in today's video, please drop a comment down below. I'd love to hear from you. Any ideas for future videos would be very much appreciated. Now with the three wines in today's video, oftentimes it's not immediately apparent who actually produced the wines. I did a bit of a dig, I think I cracked the code. I listed all of that in the description of this video, but the short story is it's what are called custom crush operations. These are wineries that build wines based on the need for their clientele, oftentimes large retailers. It's an area that I worked in for many years back when I was in the corporate world. Now recently I posted a long format video highlighting under $10 bottles of wine under the Kirkland Signature Label. If you'd like to watch that, please click the link. As for me, I'll be drinking some Napa Cabernet tonight. I hope you're drinking something interesting as well, and please stop back again before too long. Cheers!