October 1, 2025 • 36 mins
Looking for everyday white wines that please your palate and don’t drain your wallets? Melanie and David went to Trader Joe’s to find 12 white wines all under $10 (total cost under $100). They discuss their selections and share their favorite picks and pairings. Eat, Drink & Explore with The Connected Table.
The Connected Table is broadcast live Wednesdays at 2PM ET and Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
The Connected Table Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-connected-table-live--1277037/support.
The Connected Table is broadcast live Wednesdays at 2PM ET and Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
The Connected Table Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-connected-table-live--1277037/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The topics and opinions express in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not
those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No
liability explicitor implies shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio
or its employees or affiliates. Any questions or comments should
be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
(00:21):
W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Hello and welcome to the Connected Table Live. We're your hosts,
Melanie Young and David Ransom. You're in sociably curious culinary couple.
We love to travel the world and bring you the
people in places we meet, where we eat, drink and
explore and hopefully inspire you to step outside your comfort
zone and explore the world and savor it like we
(01:04):
do because we're insatiably curious. We are, and we're gonna
try something new today.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
We don't have a guest, we don't have a guess.
It's just us.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
It's just us, but we're doing something kind of fun.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Normally when we go on a trip, it's to another place,
to another country, to another to a wine making region,
and we report on what we find while we're there
and usually have a guest on to talk about them
making their wines. Well, this one's a little different because
the trip that we took was to Trader Joe's to
(01:34):
find out what kind of wines they have there, and
so today we're reporting back on that.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
So here's the premise. We're trying something new and if
you like this format, we'll do more of them. We
like to mix it up. We've been doing this for
twelve years. So we all know that wine consumption is
down wah wah, and people are drinking less, but people
are also watching their pocketbook. Yet they just want to
enjoy wine. They don't want it to be complicated, you know,
(02:00):
for every day drinking. David and I like to just
have everyday wine that we can enjoy. Sure, we like
to go into our cellar and grab like we did
last night, that nineteen ninety seven Brunello de Montalcino. But
that's not every day.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
No, we drink every day. One's just like everybody else.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, you know, whether it's on the porch or at
the pool, or casual meal or whatever, and we're on
a budget. Hey, we're journalists like you, we're on a budget.
So we decided that we would follow what we do anyway.
We would go to Trader Joe's, where we do a
lot of shopping here in New Orleans. There's wine sold
at many supermarkets, but we tend to go to Trader Joe's.
There's some other wonderful as well as well as very
(02:37):
good wine shops who are our friends. But for this
economical I don't say budget economical everyday wines, we'll just
go pick them up at Trader Joe's. So we're going
to walk you through twelve wines and maybe a bonus
thirteen wines.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
White.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
We decided to start with white. White wine sales are
up right now and it's still hot in New Orleans,
and they're all under ten dollars.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Actually they are under nine. Yeah, so even more of
a bargain. So we picked up a dozen wines a
Trader Joe's while we were there, and we thought we'd
give this a whirl. And all of them were nine
dollars or less. Most of them were around six or
to seven, so really good deals, and all of them
were from Europe. We didn't try any of the American mines.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, and there's a reason for that. We try to
steer away from your basic shortenay whatever. We try to
find wines that had a sense of place the best
we could. We know these are probably all manufactured somewhere,
but a sense of pace was important. We chose white
because white wine sales are up, and frankly, we don't
have a lot of white wine here at our house.
(03:41):
So and it's hot, so we want to drink white wine.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
It doesn't seem to last long. It didn last long.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
It's so hot. It's October one and it's still in
the nineties, and it's We just like white wine, and
I think a lot of our colleagues and friends will
agree that if you just want something light and apper, TV,
you want to start with something white. And also with
all that Asian food.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Now, Trader Joe's does sell more expensive wines, yes, and
brand names that you would know, but they have a
lot of wines that I'm assuming come from cooperative wineries,
wine making facilities that are inexpensive and made in the
regions that they come from, and very inexpensive but also
very high quality. Many of these doing.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Our research, and we looked at a couple of sites.
This is not we're not the first to review wines
from Trader Joe's Reverse Winesnop who one of a writer
in a front of ours on press trips has done
a great job too. But these wines again under ten dollars,
and many are exclusive to Trader Joe's, which means they
have a deal and you're right it could be a
(04:41):
cooperative whatever. But looking them up and doing our research,
there's some interesting producers in here as well. And David's right,
there are wines that are more and there's a whole
category of rents which we didn't try because we thought
we'd start with white.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Maybe we'll get to that this winter.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Well, if you like the show and give us feedback
at the Connected table on Instagram, or write to us
and tell us you like this, we'll do some other ones.
It's just a little step outside our comfort zone of
interviewing leaders in the industry.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
So the wines came from a variety of countries. A
lot we're from France. They're twelve lines, so a lot
came from France. Thirteen sorry, came from France. We had
also a couple from South Africa and some from Germany
as well in Austria and Austria and Italy, all good
wine producing countries, and we haven't okay.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
We haven't tasted them all because it's a lot of wines.
We've tasted about half. But we're going to hold the
bottles up. Then it's a little combersome because they're right
behind David's computer, but we're going to talk about them,
and we're going to start with France.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
I think we should cheers first because day drinking with
David and Melanie.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, and we are going to try to taste a
few as well.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Very nice. So let's talk about the first one, shall we? Yes?
So this is a J. L. Quinsan leis abiatal. How
about Tiala Sorry, Macon Village from twenty twenty three. This
was one of the more expensive ones. I think it
was like seven dollars.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
A bottle and it's what I think the only one
hundred percent shortenay we actually opted for.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Uh, this is it. It's actually up in the background too,
but this is an actual bottle. The Macon Village Shortenay
twenty twenty three. Mecon Valanche is all Shortenay.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Right, and where are we talking about in France.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
We're talking about.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Burgundy, the southern part of Burgundy, so it's really neat
about you know, Burgundy wine. So the north they're very expensive,
but to the south also one hundred percent shortenay. The
Macon has some gems, really great est. My dad, who
was a wine educator, always said, go for the Mecons if.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
That's what you want, if you like French shardonnay, if you.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Like French shortenay. And it's very different it is.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
In Burgundy, but it's a lot more expensive than are
a lot less expensive than the good white Burgundy that
they get from some regions.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Now, we did taste this wine because we love this wine,
and it's only thirteen percent AVV, which is, interestingly, David,
is the highest of the abbs, most of them. We're
ten to eleven in this group. It is you know,
basic permitted and stainless aged and stainless eighteen eight to
ten months steirring on the leaves to soften it. It's
(07:16):
fairly classic and very enjoyable. We did drink this one
and it would pair with a lot of things.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Yeah, and you know, my confie Lodge tends to be
easily parable because yeah, that too, and it doesn't spend
a lot of time in oak. Most of them this
is staying they do. They do it all and stainless,
so it's really expressing the shortening grate.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah, the lea stirring softens. It's a very pleasant wine
and you can't beat it. How much was this eight?
Speaker 3 (07:42):
I think it was. I think it was six ninety
nine or seven something like that.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, I mean we didn't keep.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
It depends on what state you're buying in because the
prices do vary by state at Trader Joe's for the
ones that you get that we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
So so if.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
We're talking seven ninety nine here, it could be six
ninety nine somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Yeah, whatever, maybe more in New York, who knows. Fun fact,
Trader Joe's where we go and Metarie just opened a
big location and it was huge news in mid city,
so it's it's a big store here. Anyway, that was
the Macon. Then we're continuing through France.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
First, what do you think about the one?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
I liked it. I liked it. We had this earlier
and we had it. I think we had it with
a chicken. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Nice nice citrus notes, nice, nice little nice limits. A
little bit of apple in there too, green apple. Yeah,
I can't remember we had a city to it. I
think all these ones have good at city, they all
have most.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Of them have good a city. Yeah, most of the
ones we've tried. I've always liked Macon.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
So so that's the jail Quinsan liz Abatillas.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
And in general in general, if you're looking for an
affordable wine from this area of France, Macon is a
good bet. There's probably others. Like I said, we went
to Trader Joe's.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
And this one's pretty average for white wine. It's about
thirteen percent of ball.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah, there's dry, fruity, floral, that wonderful blend. Now we're
taking you completely somewhere else in France, which I think
is one of the most versatile regions period. It's the
Laois Valley, and I think we have two wines in
the Loire in this mix.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
We actually have three three and they are and we're
going to go west to east in the Laire Valley,
not east to west, which some people would think we
go downstream. We're going to go upstream. So the first
one we're going to take you to is the Vignyo
la Chateau. Musca Day, surely, which is a surly aged
(09:35):
Muska Day. Muska Day's great is Milon de Borgogne, super
high acidity, lots of citrus notes, a wine that you
and I love to drink during the summer. Yeah, and
it's still summer here, that's for sure, and it's.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Six twelve percent ABV. Now, Muska Day is, as David said,
closest to the Atlantic. You're gonna well, we went to
the Syria. We went to the oyster beds. It's a
classic peering with fresh oysters.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Which you get here right. The Atlantic Ocean.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Absolutely just loves the seafood loves it and also any
kind of fish dish. The sur lee is really important
because that means it stirred on the lee, which softens
it up because it's a very crisp, dry, high acid wine.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
You know, it was fun when we when we went
and visited Muska Day, which was I think four or
five years ago. We went out to the oyster beds
and they actually had a had a food truck in
the form of an old Citron delivery van that they
had converted into a food truck and they were serving
us oysters that were literally coming out of the oyster
beds right there. This is a drinking and drinking Muska day.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
This is a great partif wine as well. It's just
got that wonderful Chris dry acidity. As we said, a
lot of lemon characters, a little bit of grass. Definitely
a salinity because you get that sea breeze and you
always look for several and men and surly that's a
characteristic of this area. Again, the grapes melon de Bogonia.
What's neat about the loires all how different grapes. Yeah,
(11:01):
in East West definitely a favorite region of mine, Yes,
for sure.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
And you know, most of the time Muska Day is
served young, but it has the ability to age for
a long time depending on how they make it. This
is a twenty twenty three, so this is a twenty
twenty three, but I've actually had twenty five year old
Musca Days that have been popped open for me and
(11:26):
they're still drinking beautifully. That's right.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
We did taste some age. This is a terrific wine.
And the price point six ABV. If you're into that,
I am twelve percent because on those hot days you
do not want to hide alcohol wine. The second of
the two loars that I think that's because that one
is the terrain. So this is Vignobo Terrain Sauvignon Blanc
(11:49):
twenty twenty four from the Central War. I'll hold it,
he said, to hold it. There were great there, right,
And so the Law Valley is the Wall Valley is
known for snyr Block. You've got your Central War, You've
got your Eastern Ware, which is the Songsaire and the Steelier.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
This one is a little bit in the middle.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Yeah, this one, it was vibrant. You either love it
or you don't because it's very intense. It's more in
your face than the ones to the eastern part of
the Flintier ones. It's got a lot of citrus and
very pronounced acidity, with a lot of floral notes, a
little bit of pepe dis chat. You know that grassiness.
(12:30):
There was lemon and there was glass, but that lemon grass.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
It's classic.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Yeah, it's pretty classic. A lot of pronounced citrus and
grassy and hay, very classic. And goat cheese, leaks, vinaigrette,
grilled seafoods. One of the suggestions from the back of
(12:54):
the bottles. They say maybe Italian sausages kind of fatty
or it's an interesting area. The region is called Turan.
It's a subregion of the Central wir where you're going
to find saubion blocs. We've been there and it's a
major It's it's eclipsed by Sunsair, which is much more prestigious,
and the ones are more expensive and very different because
(13:15):
you're gonna get more of a flinty note. They're all
part of the massif Central. I don't think we have another.
I think we're moving into the Langa Doc now I.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Think we are. We don't. We don't have a Salsare
to try, which would be the eastern end of the
Lawire Valley, but that's also Souvenium law.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
They're also very popular and probably at a higher price point.
But if you can get your hands on an affordable
sun Saier, grab it because that's one of the best
sauvion blanc in the war. And even though we don't
have one in the bunch here, if you can find
a Shennon, which is the other great white of the
Laire Valley, go for it. We will talk about some
South African s. Sheennon's further on in the In this episode,
(13:56):
now we're going to take you to the Launa Doc,
which is the southwestern part of France. Again, David and
I have been to all these regions. The Langa Docs
used to be like the center for bulk wine, right,
It's like it produces like a lot of bulk wine
and probably got a short trift for that reason on
terms of the wine's reputation. But we had the chance
to visit langadac Ruslona hosted trip and learned a lot
(14:19):
more about the region and the quality wines and the
unique wines in this area. And there's some really nice wines.
So one we have is a class sect. There's some
wonderful small producers, family owned producers down in the Langa
Doc and Russio in southwestern France and Longa Dooc is
i think the second largest wine region in France. Yes,
and it produces a lot of wine, a lot of
(14:41):
the lot, a lot of the non classified wine or
the payid doc comes from that region if you have
any if you have that in your purchasing repertoire, shall
we say, some some very good wines down there as well.
And one of my favorite regions one. I've written a
lot about yea Pine, which is down in the It's
(15:04):
along the coast, just kind of north of north of
Perignon and in kind of the curve of the French coast,
and it's just wonderful stuff. Peak Pool very acidic, very fruity,
nicest salinity to it because it's literally right on the
(15:26):
coast and it's there a famous lake, the Tang Lake,
so there's a whole region around there. Pickbull actually means lipstinger.
So the pick poles when the hens would go pecking
in the in the gravel, and they called the lipstinger.
The wines are this one's wines are sourced from higher
elevations of the pick bullpen a appellation. Uh, it's always in.
(15:51):
What's interesting about pick pull is the bottle again a
whole of this. The bottle is always green. With this,
you really can't stay it on the scrave. But the
it has like a Maltese cross. There's a symbol of
all Peak Pool to pinnas from this appellation. It is crispy.
These are always crispy, refreshing. I love them. They're always
(16:14):
really reasonably priced. I think a lot of times I
did an article for a wine magazine where they asked
me to compare it to Pino Grigio. I think it
was like, if you like Pino Gregio dry piple.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Well, I think this one's a lot more people. Is
very very aromatic as well, much more aromatic, which so
and you kind of get that that Greek character to it,
the herbal notes that you that you find in the
in the plantings that are in that region. It's a dry,
dry region with a lot of scrub land, yes, as
well on the coast, so you kind of get those
(16:44):
notes in the wine too. I love people well, and.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
I think it's important to underscore that most of the
people is in this appellation. You can get a little
bit of it also in the Southern Rome, and I
know it's one of the umpting grapes in the in
in the blends of like certain wines there, but it
is predominantly from the Longa Doc area. And if you
do go there and really grown in that one region, yeah,
(17:08):
get some enjoy it, enjoy it with oysters. See again
this these are white wines, so we're talking seafood fish.
A lot of this wonderful Cajun wines and dishes and
Creole dishes we have here in Louisiana really terrific. And
we're still staying in the Longa dooc with this netch
wine which we have an empty bottle because we've already
drinked had it.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
We had this, we had the next dinner. Yeah, it
was great.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
I'll try to hold it up and it's target because
we're on a screen. We don't if you can see
it not, but this ally's on our block.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
This the next one in the also in the Longa
doc in southwestern France, called the Maison Bar below lock
Conk teen and it's a twenty twenty four vintage and
it's seventy percent chardonnay. Nice blend. In my opinion, this.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Has got a lot more aromatics because of the vina
I have the Leveona. It gets more aromas of peach air.
We've been eating a lot of pears lately. White flow
hours more a little bit of so you get more
stone fruit as well as the citrus. Very thumb. I
don't know. It's it's basically fermenting and tanks.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
It's in concrete tanks, yeah, and then they're blended there.
The wines are fermented separately and then blended, after blended,
after fermentation, and then it doesn't spend any time in oak. Well,
it's a nice one. We actually had it with salmon
the other night. Turned out the beautiful wine pairing for that.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
I'm reading in the back of the bottle because I
always have pierries here. They're like, try it with barbecue,
so you know that means spicy Cajun for us. So
this is called me. So I'm barbelette the retail on
this one, five ninety nine, and.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Because I'm a stick one, but I can't find the receipt.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Really, we can't find the receipt, can you imagine whatever,
So we like this, Yeah, this can come back in
the house. Yeah, it can come back in the house.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
In fact, they all can. Yeah, well so far, so
we're so. That's so that was our Those were all
the wines that we had from friends. So now we're
going to head to Germany for a couple of wines.
I think we have Austria. I think we had three, yeah, yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
This one's in our glass, one of the blue.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
So we're going to talk about the Emma right cart, Yes,
Emma Wistling twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
And we had the girtz Remena in our hand that
we drank the Reasling, We'll have the pottle we did.
That's one of our regular points.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
By the way, we liked this pine a lot, and
according to my brother it's one of his favorite bies
when he goes there too.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Shout out to my brother Bob, who loves the emma
right cart as well.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
What we have in our hands is the is the grip.
It's warm, so we can't taste it.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
So it's one hundred percent goverts for minor and it's
a medium dry. They say pair it with Gouda go cheese.
The Reasling, which we have tried as Scott very yeah,
a little bit tiny bit of residual sugar for this emma.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Ye.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
Card is a producer and based in Faults, which is
in Germany. Yes, and so Trader Joe's carries two of
their ones, the goavertz Remeiner in the Raceling, which are
really two traditional wines from that region in Germany. Very
niceyea low alcohol, crisp fruity, a little bit of aromatics
(20:28):
to them.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Both of these are good with Asian dishes. Like I said,
we haven't had the Gavirci. Yet we've got to chill
it up. We couldn't get it all done. But the
Emra Reikert Reasling is really one of our regular buys
at Trader Joe and it's like, right, I think it's
less even of green flavors.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
So the next one, the blue bottle, is the one
that we're drinking right now, and it's the also from
me from faults in Germany, and it's the Joseph Handler Rasling.
It's the blue bottle in behind us. And then here's
a shot of it.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Yeah, and what can we say about this one? Abb
six It's got a lot, a little bit of RS
and it from what I'm tasting, little honey, vanilla, yeah, aromatic.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
This one's a touch sweeter that the Emma ray Cart
recently has really bone dry, which is one of the
reasons I like it so much. This has got a
touch of fruit sweetness to it, and the softens is
up a little not quite as high in the acidity
as the Amma red Cart is, but still a very
nice one. I'm thinking we could have this with those
(21:37):
dumplings that we just had for lunch.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Just had dumplings for lunch, but she just had this
with the wine. But we actually don't drink during the day,
so we're boring delightful. I would do some cheese with this, too,
lego cheese, but really a lot of Asian and Indian
dishes would be really, really, really great. Okay, what's the
(22:00):
next one?
Speaker 3 (22:01):
We're going to Austria.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
This one we've opened and had, so we are not
opening well.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
We actually I bought a bottle before we decided to
do this show, and we drank it for dinner, and
I said, you know what, let's just do all the
Trader Joe's wine.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
I think, right, So what do we have here?
Speaker 3 (22:19):
So this is Doris and Leopold. I'm sorry, Gruner Veltliner,
and this is from Austria, and Austria Austria's main white
grape is Grunerveliner. That's had a lot of favor over
the years and continues to be very well well consumed
wine in the United.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
States, Grooner's, it's Joris and Leopold. The name is dom
d A H A M and that means at home
twelve point five percent. It's very light bodied, got some
great apple grapefruit, a lot of mineral nices and slap
of minerality. Again, we eat a lot of seafood here,
so it's one of our usual grilled shrimp or real
(23:00):
fish or saute fish dishes. They also recommended, but we've
not done a kind of a Dutch tablet risota.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
What I like about screwtop Gruner group, Well, I like
screw talk, that's easy. But what I like about Grooner
Beltlener is that it's got a nice viscosity to it.
It's got haften structure to it.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
We've been drinking a lot of Groner when we go out.
It's also been fairly affordable when we go out in
the That has to make.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
It a really good food one too. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Now, if anyone's listening out there, we haven't been on
a wine trip to Austria, so we're going to do
a shameless request invite us please, because I'd like to
go to Austria and Germany and immerse in the wines there.
We haven't done that either, and it would be really
a great way for us to do more. Right now,
of course, we're going to go to the land of
where we go more frequently in love and are always
(23:49):
grateful to this this one is it a screw up.
I was gonna say we could taste it because glass
is empty.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Oh no, We'll just pour you something. Yeah. So this
is suave. This is from Italy, and so we've been
We've been to this region a couple of times, the
region of Swabi. It is a region, not a wine
and the doc and this is the Casa Ponte, which
is a suave classico.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
What does that mean exactly for anyone know, Skazigo means
it's a very delineated area where some of the best
grapes are grown. Cand of hold up again, I want
to just discuss the cute bottle. The bottle is a Dorbs,
it's got a docsin holding wine. It's very cute bottle.
This is a twenty twenty four. And the grape is Garganega.
(24:38):
Garganegga is the grape. It's swaby doc It's light, dry
and zesty. And when we told a wine friend who
imports wine we were doing this, he said, I hope
you've got a swaby in there, and we were like, yeah,
we do. This one is twelve point twelve percent ABV
and six ninety nine Trader Joe's and I just want
(25:01):
to underscore we got no special dealer. Trader Joe's. I
actually went up to the manager and said, we're doing
a show. We want to give us an industry disco.
They're like, nah, So we paid for our wines. We
spent under one hundred dollars because that was our budget,
and we're doing this just because we want to share
it with you and have some fun and say, go
out and have some fun with your wines, and you
(25:22):
may find this at other stores where you live and retailers.
We've asked our wine friends to suggest more, but we
just focused on Trader Joe's. Yes, we shot and what
had just pour in my glass?
Speaker 3 (25:32):
David, that's the people. Oh okay, so we're one behind
on what we're talking about. We're two behind. But again,
the people's just a lovely one.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
It's nice, it's got a bite. It's a little more
minerally than fruity.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
So let's talk a little bit about more about the Suave's.
Suave is just south of Lake Garda in the in
the Northern Areas, Northern area of Italy and the wines.
There's a lot of wine made in that area. A
lot of it tends to be read as well. Yeah, Partolino,
and but the white ones from there in Grganega and
(26:07):
ptiler or just make some of Italy's classic white ones.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
I think it's a terrific area.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Swai classico.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Yeah, I wish we could open that one and taste it.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Well, it comes with a cork and I'm not going
to do with that.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
We've been bringing corkscreamers. Some of these have quirksus the
European ones do. The next wine another great white to try.
It's grown in many areas of Italy, but mainly you'll
find most of it in Tuscana, as is this one.
It is the from Poggio a la Cassoni estate in Tuscany.
(26:42):
It's called Tara di Cassoni. Vermontino is a twenty twenty
four twelve point five percent AVV. I think Italy just
does such a great job with vermentinos.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
And Melanie, tell everybody how much you like Ermentino.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
I love Vermontina, but I love a lot of Italian
white wines. I'm going to just say right now. When
I first started in the wine business, I knew more
about the reds and was like the whites because I
was having cheap whites coming in from Italy. But the
more I have traveled and visited different regions, so many
of the white wines have sung to my soul and
(27:17):
created a sense of commitment to the whites of Italy.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
And I think if you were going to say that
there's a classic white grape for central Italy, it would
probably be Vermintidaeah, you know, whereas pinagrigio and garganega from
Suavee are more northern Italian. There's a lot of pinagrizio
grown everywhere, Yeah, but they really come from northern Italy.
Vermentino is central Italy. Also Sardinia, that island off the
(27:45):
west coast of Italy, but all throughout central Italy you'll
find Vermontino. This is This is Tuscan.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yeah, and it's a screw top, but it's got a
stone fruit in it. You're gonna get a lot of
minerality and stone fruit salinity because you're so close to
the sea. Uh. Sardinia. Vermantino de Galora is just of
the it's the docg and if you can get those,
they're gonna be more money, but they're special. Uh. This
one is I don't know where in uh Tuscany it is,
(28:13):
but probably closer to Maremma area and the sea. That's
where most of the ones for the better vermentinos are,
they say, of course in the peering. I love the pierings,
the one whos recommend go to Cristini like Pasta's. Uh
Salumi always the same anyway, Uh, this is a good
(28:33):
everyday wine. Vermantino in general is a good everyday wine.
And this one was seven ninety nine, so the one.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Of the more expensive that it was one of the
more teve the most expensive one we bought. So that's
what we've got from Well, we have one more from Europe,
which is the vino Verde, the Esperal, which we literally
buy all the time. We drank it. I buy this,
I buy this by the six pack.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Yeah, you drank it.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
We drink it all summer and it's just a wonderful
one Espiralino Verde. What I love about this wine is
that it's only and it's from Portugal. By the way,
it's only nine percent alcohol, so you literally can drink
it all day, drink it all day like it's like
drinking a session eail.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
It's like session one peppy. It's a peppy wine. So
nia verity is a region and the grape is Alvino
versus alba Reno. In Spain, it's Ala Reno. It's a
peppy young wine exclusive to Trader Joe's and Northern Portugal
(29:37):
and a lot of green apple on a lot of acidity.
Really that you know, it's a great salad, picnic sandwich.
I mean it's nine percent ABV and four dollars and
ninety nine cents retail. You can't even get a coffee
for that amount. Now, I went to it, I went
(29:59):
to go. I got a coffee because it's like coffee
Day and coffee this and that right now in New
Orleans and coffees are like five dollars a cop You
can get this entire bottle before ninety nine.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
And it's much more fun.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Yeah. Yeah, this is great with stir fries.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
So that's the Vino Verde. You know, there's I think
four million grapes that go into vino Verde. Alvarino is
one of them. Yeah, and I toured the region in
twenty eighteen and just it's a beautiful area. So we
know what the north of Porto probably is. Yeah. Yeah,
it's north of Porto and south of the Spanish border.
(30:36):
In Portugal. It's just a beautiful area and never been
lots of fun good wines, but we know the people
who have ye. So now we're going to jump continents. Yeah,
and we are going to try two wines from South Africa.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
One we've tasted one't is this cool?
Speaker 3 (30:54):
And we are? They're both Shinnon Blanc or Shinnon Blanc blends.
Actually they're both.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Shenon is a major grape also known as steen in
South Africa.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
And the first one we're going to try is the
Bali and it is if I can get it to
pull up on the screen here.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Think you told me our engineers like hold it in
front of your face. There we go. It's seventy nine
in that funny like seventy nine eight and twenty one
percent vin A five four.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Can't beat that.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Yeah, Yeah, you're going to get because you're going to
have the vina. You're going to get a lot of
more floral stone, fruit, peach, bear, honey elements that are
very akin to VNA. But you're also going to get
that tropical notes of the shardon A.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
So this is western Cape of Origin.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Which is where most of the largest wine which is really.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
The largest wine read region kind of it blankets all
of the area surrounding.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Cape ab on this day thirteen point five percent, So
this is a little higher. We've been to the Western Cape.
It's gorgeous. We'd like to go back and spend more
time in South Africa. We big fans of the wines there.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Yeah, we didn't go. We didn't go there for wine
as much as we went there for wildlife. Yeah, which
was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
This one we drank.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
So this next one and the last one in our
little setup here is the Delicious Monster, which is from
the McGregor family in South Africa.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Anyway, we'll put these up on the connected table. This
is a sixty percent Sheddon, twenty percent muscot, and twenty
percent shorten ay.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
This had a lot of aromatics to it was a
lively one.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
It was a lively one. It was good. It was
very we hate the word very refreshing, my dad. But
it was a lot of tropical and stone fruit obviously
a little bit of residual shu. The muscat really really terrific.
I don't think we had the right pairing with it.
I would have this with Thai food, Thai food all
the way, but our goat cheese. Tom made it pasta dishes.
(33:12):
I think we probably had it with salmon. That's all
we seem to eat right now at home is salmon.
But what can I say? Because when we're not a
trader Joe's, we go to Costco and get the big
slabs up salmon, or we.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Go to our local fish mark. How do we get
all the local fish? Which we do on a regular
basis house cook that in.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
House cook we do. We have a wonderful what's the
dame of the place? We have shapeer seafood. They are
so amazing. Get right by the lake. We love, love love, Yeah,
is that it?
Speaker 3 (33:45):
That's it? We did it.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Can we have a glass of something else?
Speaker 3 (33:49):
Yes? This one?
Speaker 2 (33:50):
This is the one. My glasses the pickpol already had it.
So we are going to list all of these wines
on the Connected table dot com. And like I said,
we get nothing from this other than the joy of
sharing it with you. We'd love to hear from you
to see what you have to say. If you like
(34:10):
this concept. We'll do one with reds. We'll do some
with sparkling. I don't know if we'll find sparkling wine's
a slow in price but we'll keep exploring, right.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
Yes, one thing we didn't try was the pumpkinspice hardon mate.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Oh yeah, you know there's some weird ones.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
I think that was five ninety nine two. But you know, principles.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
You know what we did try and didn't like, but
a lot of people do is the sparkling almond. They
do it almond sparkling wine at Trader Joe's. I thought
it was weird, but some people like it. No, we can't.
We can't criticize other people's tastes because if somebody likes something,
it's their choice.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
Because I've been saying for twenty five years that if
wine is good, if you like it, So if you
like it it's yours, it's then it's good for you.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Well, I shopping for wine with you.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
I like drinking wine with them. Yeah, so we we'd like.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
To drink wine with more of you. So tell us
what you think about this show and maybe we'll do
another one like this. Absolutely all right, Well, we want
to thank you for joining us as you've been listening
and watching us on the Connected table. This show is
twelve white wines for under one hundred dollars that we
picked up during a visit to Trader Joe's. Thank you
(35:28):
David for paying for it, and thank you all for watching.
We want you to remember that we're here to help
you step out of your comfort zone and expand your
eating and drinking and exploring horizons all the time, which
we tried to do. We get a lot. We have
a lot of fun doing it, but you know it's
(35:48):
even more fun doing it with you, and even more
fun sharing it with all of you. So always stay
insat She'll be curious, and thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
A gas Stossi stop cots a
The topics and opinions express in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not
those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No
liability explicitor implies shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio
or its employees or affiliates. Any questions or comments should
be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
(00:21):
W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Hello and welcome to the Connected Table Live. We're your hosts,
Melanie Young and David Ransom. You're in sociably curious culinary couple.
We love to travel the world and bring you the
people in places we meet, where we eat, drink and
explore and hopefully inspire you to step outside your comfort
zone and explore the world and savor it like we
(01:04):
do because we're insatiably curious. We are, and we're gonna
try something new today.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
We don't have a guest, we don't have a guess.
It's just us.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
It's just us, but we're doing something kind of fun.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
Normally when we go on a trip, it's to another place,
to another country, to another to a wine making region,
and we report on what we find while we're there
and usually have a guest on to talk about them
making their wines. Well, this one's a little different because
the trip that we took was to Trader Joe's to
(01:34):
find out what kind of wines they have there, and
so today we're reporting back on that.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
So here's the premise. We're trying something new and if
you like this format, we'll do more of them. We
like to mix it up. We've been doing this for
twelve years. So we all know that wine consumption is
down wah wah, and people are drinking less, but people
are also watching their pocketbook. Yet they just want to
enjoy wine. They don't want it to be complicated, you know,
(02:00):
for every day drinking. David and I like to just
have everyday wine that we can enjoy. Sure, we like
to go into our cellar and grab like we did
last night, that nineteen ninety seven Brunello de Montalcino. But
that's not every day.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
No, we drink every day. One's just like everybody else.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Yeah, you know, whether it's on the porch or at
the pool, or casual meal or whatever, and we're on
a budget. Hey, we're journalists like you, we're on a budget.
So we decided that we would follow what we do anyway.
We would go to Trader Joe's, where we do a
lot of shopping here in New Orleans. There's wine sold
at many supermarkets, but we tend to go to Trader Joe's.
There's some other wonderful as well as well as very
(02:37):
good wine shops who are our friends. But for this
economical I don't say budget economical everyday wines, we'll just
go pick them up at Trader Joe's. So we're going
to walk you through twelve wines and maybe a bonus
thirteen wines.
Speaker 3 (02:52):
White.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
We decided to start with white. White wine sales are
up right now and it's still hot in New Orleans,
and they're all under ten dollars.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Actually they are under nine. Yeah, so even more of
a bargain. So we picked up a dozen wines a
Trader Joe's while we were there, and we thought we'd
give this a whirl. And all of them were nine
dollars or less. Most of them were around six or
to seven, so really good deals, and all of them
were from Europe. We didn't try any of the American mines.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Yeah, and there's a reason for that. We try to
steer away from your basic shortenay whatever. We try to
find wines that had a sense of place the best
we could. We know these are probably all manufactured somewhere,
but a sense of pace was important. We chose white
because white wine sales are up, and frankly, we don't
have a lot of white wine here at our house.
(03:41):
So and it's hot, so we want to drink white wine.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
It doesn't seem to last long. It didn last long.
Speaker 2 (03:46):
It's so hot. It's October one and it's still in
the nineties, and it's We just like white wine, and
I think a lot of our colleagues and friends will
agree that if you just want something light and apper, TV,
you want to start with something white. And also with
all that Asian food.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
Now, Trader Joe's does sell more expensive wines, yes, and
brand names that you would know, but they have a
lot of wines that I'm assuming come from cooperative wineries,
wine making facilities that are inexpensive and made in the
regions that they come from, and very inexpensive but also
very high quality. Many of these doing.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Our research, and we looked at a couple of sites.
This is not we're not the first to review wines
from Trader Joe's Reverse Winesnop who one of a writer
in a front of ours on press trips has done
a great job too. But these wines again under ten dollars,
and many are exclusive to Trader Joe's, which means they
have a deal and you're right it could be a
(04:41):
cooperative whatever. But looking them up and doing our research,
there's some interesting producers in here as well. And David's right,
there are wines that are more and there's a whole
category of rents which we didn't try because we thought
we'd start with white.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Maybe we'll get to that this winter.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Well, if you like the show and give us feedback
at the Connected table on Instagram, or write to us
and tell us you like this, we'll do some other ones.
It's just a little step outside our comfort zone of
interviewing leaders in the industry.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
So the wines came from a variety of countries. A
lot we're from France. They're twelve lines, so a lot
came from France. Thirteen sorry, came from France. We had
also a couple from South Africa and some from Germany
as well in Austria and Austria and Italy, all good
wine producing countries, and we haven't okay.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
We haven't tasted them all because it's a lot of wines.
We've tasted about half. But we're going to hold the
bottles up. Then it's a little combersome because they're right
behind David's computer, but we're going to talk about them,
and we're going to start with France.
Speaker 3 (05:42):
I think we should cheers first because day drinking with
David and Melanie.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Yeah, and we are going to try to taste a
few as well.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Very nice. So let's talk about the first one, shall we? Yes?
So this is a J. L. Quinsan leis abiatal. How
about Tiala Sorry, Macon Village from twenty twenty three. This
was one of the more expensive ones. I think it
was like seven dollars.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
A bottle and it's what I think the only one
hundred percent shortenay we actually opted for.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Uh, this is it. It's actually up in the background too,
but this is an actual bottle. The Macon Village Shortenay
twenty twenty three. Mecon Valanche is all Shortenay.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Right, and where are we talking about in France.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
We're talking about.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Burgundy, the southern part of Burgundy, so it's really neat
about you know, Burgundy wine. So the north they're very expensive,
but to the south also one hundred percent shortenay. The
Macon has some gems, really great est. My dad, who
was a wine educator, always said, go for the Mecons if.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
That's what you want, if you like French shardonnay, if you.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Like French shortenay. And it's very different it is.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
In Burgundy, but it's a lot more expensive than are
a lot less expensive than the good white Burgundy that
they get from some regions.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
Now, we did taste this wine because we love this wine,
and it's only thirteen percent AVV, which is, interestingly, David,
is the highest of the abbs, most of them. We're
ten to eleven in this group. It is you know,
basic permitted and stainless aged and stainless eighteen eight to
ten months steirring on the leaves to soften it. It's
(07:16):
fairly classic and very enjoyable. We did drink this one
and it would pair with a lot of things.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
Yeah, and you know, my confie Lodge tends to be
easily parable because yeah, that too, and it doesn't spend
a lot of time in oak. Most of them this
is staying they do. They do it all and stainless,
so it's really expressing the shortening grate.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
Yeah, the lea stirring softens. It's a very pleasant wine
and you can't beat it. How much was this eight?
Speaker 3 (07:42):
I think it was. I think it was six ninety
nine or seven something like that.
Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, I mean we didn't keep.
Speaker 3 (07:47):
It depends on what state you're buying in because the
prices do vary by state at Trader Joe's for the
ones that you get that we're talking about.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
So so if.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
We're talking seven ninety nine here, it could be six
ninety nine somewhere else.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Yeah, whatever, maybe more in New York, who knows. Fun fact,
Trader Joe's where we go and Metarie just opened a
big location and it was huge news in mid city,
so it's it's a big store here. Anyway, that was
the Macon. Then we're continuing through France.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
First, what do you think about the one?
Speaker 2 (08:18):
I liked it. I liked it. We had this earlier
and we had it. I think we had it with
a chicken. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Nice nice citrus notes, nice, nice little nice limits. A
little bit of apple in there too, green apple. Yeah,
I can't remember we had a city to it. I
think all these ones have good at city, they all
have most.
Speaker 2 (08:35):
Of them have good a city. Yeah, most of the
ones we've tried. I've always liked Macon.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
So so that's the jail Quinsan liz Abatillas.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
And in general in general, if you're looking for an
affordable wine from this area of France, Macon is a
good bet. There's probably others. Like I said, we went
to Trader Joe's.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
And this one's pretty average for white wine. It's about
thirteen percent of ball.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Yeah, there's dry, fruity, floral, that wonderful blend. Now we're
taking you completely somewhere else in France, which I think
is one of the most versatile regions period. It's the
Laois Valley, and I think we have two wines in
the Loire in this mix.
Speaker 3 (09:11):
We actually have three three and they are and we're
going to go west to east in the Laire Valley,
not east to west, which some people would think we
go downstream. We're going to go upstream. So the first
one we're going to take you to is the Vignyo
la Chateau. Musca Day, surely, which is a surly aged
(09:35):
Muska Day. Muska Day's great is Milon de Borgogne, super
high acidity, lots of citrus notes, a wine that you
and I love to drink during the summer. Yeah, and
it's still summer here, that's for sure, and it's.
Speaker 2 (09:48):
Six twelve percent ABV. Now, Muska Day is, as David said,
closest to the Atlantic. You're gonna well, we went to
the Syria. We went to the oyster beds. It's a
classic peering with fresh oysters.
Speaker 3 (10:02):
Which you get here right. The Atlantic Ocean.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Absolutely just loves the seafood loves it and also any
kind of fish dish. The sur lee is really important
because that means it stirred on the lee, which softens
it up because it's a very crisp, dry, high acid wine.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
You know, it was fun when we when we went
and visited Muska Day, which was I think four or
five years ago. We went out to the oyster beds
and they actually had a had a food truck in
the form of an old Citron delivery van that they
had converted into a food truck and they were serving
us oysters that were literally coming out of the oyster
beds right there. This is a drinking and drinking Muska day.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
This is a great partif wine as well. It's just
got that wonderful Chris dry acidity. As we said, a
lot of lemon characters, a little bit of grass. Definitely
a salinity because you get that sea breeze and you
always look for several and men and surly that's a
characteristic of this area. Again, the grapes melon de Bogonia.
What's neat about the loires all how different grapes. Yeah,
(11:01):
in East West definitely a favorite region of mine, Yes,
for sure.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
And you know, most of the time Muska Day is
served young, but it has the ability to age for
a long time depending on how they make it. This
is a twenty twenty three, so this is a twenty
twenty three, but I've actually had twenty five year old
Musca Days that have been popped open for me and
(11:26):
they're still drinking beautifully. That's right.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
We did taste some age. This is a terrific wine.
And the price point six ABV. If you're into that,
I am twelve percent because on those hot days you
do not want to hide alcohol wine. The second of
the two loars that I think that's because that one
is the terrain. So this is Vignobo Terrain Sauvignon Blanc
(11:49):
twenty twenty four from the Central War. I'll hold it,
he said, to hold it. There were great there, right,
And so the Law Valley is the Wall Valley is
known for snyr Block. You've got your Central War, You've
got your Eastern Ware, which is the Songsaire and the Steelier.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
This one is a little bit in the middle.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
Yeah, this one, it was vibrant. You either love it
or you don't because it's very intense. It's more in
your face than the ones to the eastern part of
the Flintier ones. It's got a lot of citrus and
very pronounced acidity, with a lot of floral notes, a
little bit of pepe dis chat. You know that grassiness.
(12:30):
There was lemon and there was glass, but that lemon grass.
Speaker 3 (12:33):
It's classic.
Speaker 2 (12:34):
Yeah, it's pretty classic. A lot of pronounced citrus and
grassy and hay, very classic. And goat cheese, leaks, vinaigrette,
grilled seafoods. One of the suggestions from the back of
(12:54):
the bottles. They say maybe Italian sausages kind of fatty
or it's an interesting area. The region is called Turan.
It's a subregion of the Central wir where you're going
to find saubion blocs. We've been there and it's a
major It's it's eclipsed by Sunsair, which is much more prestigious,
and the ones are more expensive and very different because
(13:15):
you're gonna get more of a flinty note. They're all
part of the massif Central. I don't think we have another.
I think we're moving into the Langa Doc now I.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Think we are. We don't. We don't have a Salsare
to try, which would be the eastern end of the
Lawire Valley, but that's also Souvenium law.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
They're also very popular and probably at a higher price point.
But if you can get your hands on an affordable
sun Saier, grab it because that's one of the best
sauvion blanc in the war. And even though we don't
have one in the bunch here, if you can find
a Shennon, which is the other great white of the
Laire Valley, go for it. We will talk about some
South African s. Sheennon's further on in the In this episode,
(13:56):
now we're going to take you to the Launa Doc,
which is the southwestern part of France. Again, David and
I have been to all these regions. The Langa Docs
used to be like the center for bulk wine, right,
It's like it produces like a lot of bulk wine
and probably got a short trift for that reason on
terms of the wine's reputation. But we had the chance
to visit langadac Ruslona hosted trip and learned a lot
(14:19):
more about the region and the quality wines and the
unique wines in this area. And there's some really nice wines.
So one we have is a class sect. There's some
wonderful small producers, family owned producers down in the Langa
Doc and Russio in southwestern France and Longa Dooc is
i think the second largest wine region in France. Yes,
and it produces a lot of wine, a lot of
(14:41):
the lot, a lot of the non classified wine or
the payid doc comes from that region if you have
any if you have that in your purchasing repertoire, shall
we say, some some very good wines down there as well.
And one of my favorite regions one. I've written a
lot about yea Pine, which is down in the It's
(15:04):
along the coast, just kind of north of north of
Perignon and in kind of the curve of the French coast,
and it's just wonderful stuff. Peak Pool very acidic, very fruity,
nicest salinity to it because it's literally right on the
(15:26):
coast and it's there a famous lake, the Tang Lake,
so there's a whole region around there. Pickbull actually means lipstinger.
So the pick poles when the hens would go pecking
in the in the gravel, and they called the lipstinger.
The wines are this one's wines are sourced from higher
elevations of the pick bullpen a appellation. Uh, it's always in.
(15:51):
What's interesting about pick pull is the bottle again a
whole of this. The bottle is always green. With this,
you really can't stay it on the scrave. But the
it has like a Maltese cross. There's a symbol of
all Peak Pool to pinnas from this appellation. It is crispy.
These are always crispy, refreshing. I love them. They're always
(16:14):
really reasonably priced. I think a lot of times I
did an article for a wine magazine where they asked
me to compare it to Pino Grigio. I think it
was like, if you like Pino Gregio dry piple.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Well, I think this one's a lot more people. Is
very very aromatic as well, much more aromatic, which so
and you kind of get that that Greek character to it,
the herbal notes that you that you find in the
in the plantings that are in that region. It's a dry,
dry region with a lot of scrub land, yes, as
well on the coast, so you kind of get those
(16:44):
notes in the wine too. I love people well, and.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
I think it's important to underscore that most of the
people is in this appellation. You can get a little
bit of it also in the Southern Rome, and I
know it's one of the umpting grapes in the in
in the blends of like certain wines there, but it
is predominantly from the Longa Doc area. And if you
do go there and really grown in that one region, yeah,
(17:08):
get some enjoy it, enjoy it with oysters. See again
this these are white wines, so we're talking seafood fish.
A lot of this wonderful Cajun wines and dishes and
Creole dishes we have here in Louisiana really terrific. And
we're still staying in the Longa dooc with this netch
wine which we have an empty bottle because we've already
drinked had it.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
We had this, we had the next dinner. Yeah, it
was great.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
I'll try to hold it up and it's target because
we're on a screen. We don't if you can see
it not, but this ally's on our block.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
This the next one in the also in the Longa
doc in southwestern France, called the Maison Bar below lock
Conk teen and it's a twenty twenty four vintage and
it's seventy percent chardonnay. Nice blend. In my opinion, this.
Speaker 2 (17:49):
Has got a lot more aromatics because of the vina
I have the Leveona. It gets more aromas of peach air.
We've been eating a lot of pears lately. White flow
hours more a little bit of so you get more
stone fruit as well as the citrus. Very thumb. I
don't know. It's it's basically fermenting and tanks.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
It's in concrete tanks, yeah, and then they're blended there.
The wines are fermented separately and then blended, after blended,
after fermentation, and then it doesn't spend any time in oak. Well,
it's a nice one. We actually had it with salmon
the other night. Turned out the beautiful wine pairing for that.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
I'm reading in the back of the bottle because I
always have pierries here. They're like, try it with barbecue,
so you know that means spicy Cajun for us. So
this is called me. So I'm barbelette the retail on
this one, five ninety nine, and.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
Because I'm a stick one, but I can't find the receipt.
Speaker 2 (18:49):
Really, we can't find the receipt, can you imagine whatever,
So we like this, Yeah, this can come back in
the house. Yeah, it can come back in the house.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
In fact, they all can. Yeah, well so far, so
we're so. That's so that was our Those were all
the wines that we had from friends. So now we're
going to head to Germany for a couple of wines.
I think we have Austria. I think we had three, yeah, yeah, and.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
This one's in our glass, one of the blue.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
So we're going to talk about the Emma right cart, Yes,
Emma Wistling twenty twenty four.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
And we had the girtz Remena in our hand that
we drank the Reasling, We'll have the pottle we did.
That's one of our regular points.
Speaker 3 (19:37):
By the way, we liked this pine a lot, and
according to my brother it's one of his favorite bies
when he goes there too.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
Shout out to my brother Bob, who loves the emma
right cart as well.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
What we have in our hands is the is the grip.
It's warm, so we can't taste it.
Speaker 3 (19:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
So it's one hundred percent goverts for minor and it's
a medium dry. They say pair it with Gouda go cheese.
The Reasling, which we have tried as Scott very yeah,
a little bit tiny bit of residual sugar for this emma.
Speaker 1 (20:08):
Ye.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
Card is a producer and based in Faults, which is
in Germany. Yes, and so Trader Joe's carries two of
their ones, the goavertz Remeiner in the Raceling, which are
really two traditional wines from that region in Germany. Very
niceyea low alcohol, crisp fruity, a little bit of aromatics
(20:28):
to them.
Speaker 2 (20:29):
Both of these are good with Asian dishes. Like I said,
we haven't had the Gavirci. Yet we've got to chill
it up. We couldn't get it all done. But the
Emra Reikert Reasling is really one of our regular buys
at Trader Joe and it's like, right, I think it's
less even of green flavors.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
So the next one, the blue bottle, is the one
that we're drinking right now, and it's the also from
me from faults in Germany, and it's the Joseph Handler Rasling.
It's the blue bottle in behind us. And then here's
a shot of it.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Yeah, and what can we say about this one? Abb
six It's got a lot, a little bit of RS
and it from what I'm tasting, little honey, vanilla, yeah, aromatic.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
This one's a touch sweeter that the Emma ray Cart
recently has really bone dry, which is one of the
reasons I like it so much. This has got a
touch of fruit sweetness to it, and the softens is
up a little not quite as high in the acidity
as the Amma red Cart is, but still a very
nice one. I'm thinking we could have this with those
(21:37):
dumplings that we just had for lunch.
Speaker 2 (21:39):
Just had dumplings for lunch, but she just had this
with the wine. But we actually don't drink during the day,
so we're boring delightful. I would do some cheese with this, too,
lego cheese, but really a lot of Asian and Indian
dishes would be really, really, really great. Okay, what's the
(22:00):
next one?
Speaker 3 (22:01):
We're going to Austria.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
This one we've opened and had, so we are not
opening well.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
We actually I bought a bottle before we decided to
do this show, and we drank it for dinner, and
I said, you know what, let's just do all the
Trader Joe's wine.
Speaker 2 (22:14):
I think, right, So what do we have here?
Speaker 3 (22:19):
So this is Doris and Leopold. I'm sorry, Gruner Veltliner,
and this is from Austria, and Austria Austria's main white
grape is Grunerveliner. That's had a lot of favor over
the years and continues to be very well well consumed
wine in the United.
Speaker 2 (22:39):
States, Grooner's, it's Joris and Leopold. The name is dom
d A H A M and that means at home
twelve point five percent. It's very light bodied, got some
great apple grapefruit, a lot of mineral nices and slap
of minerality. Again, we eat a lot of seafood here,
so it's one of our usual grilled shrimp or real
(23:00):
fish or saute fish dishes. They also recommended, but we've
not done a kind of a Dutch tablet risota.
Speaker 3 (23:08):
What I like about screwtop Gruner group, Well, I like
screw talk, that's easy. But what I like about Grooner
Beltlener is that it's got a nice viscosity to it.
It's got haften structure to it.
Speaker 2 (23:18):
We've been drinking a lot of Groner when we go out.
It's also been fairly affordable when we go out in
the That has to make.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
It a really good food one too. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Now, if anyone's listening out there, we haven't been on
a wine trip to Austria, so we're going to do
a shameless request invite us please, because I'd like to
go to Austria and Germany and immerse in the wines there.
We haven't done that either, and it would be really
a great way for us to do more. Right now,
of course, we're going to go to the land of
where we go more frequently in love and are always
(23:49):
grateful to this this one is it a screw up.
I was gonna say we could taste it because glass
is empty.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Oh no, We'll just pour you something. Yeah. So this
is suave. This is from Italy, and so we've been
We've been to this region a couple of times, the
region of Swabi. It is a region, not a wine
and the doc and this is the Casa Ponte, which
is a suave classico.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
What does that mean exactly for anyone know, Skazigo means
it's a very delineated area where some of the best
grapes are grown. Cand of hold up again, I want
to just discuss the cute bottle. The bottle is a Dorbs,
it's got a docsin holding wine. It's very cute bottle.
This is a twenty twenty four. And the grape is Garganega.
(24:38):
Garganegga is the grape. It's swaby doc It's light, dry
and zesty. And when we told a wine friend who
imports wine we were doing this, he said, I hope
you've got a swaby in there, and we were like, yeah,
we do. This one is twelve point twelve percent ABV
and six ninety nine Trader Joe's and I just want
(25:01):
to underscore we got no special dealer. Trader Joe's. I
actually went up to the manager and said, we're doing
a show. We want to give us an industry disco.
They're like, nah, So we paid for our wines. We
spent under one hundred dollars because that was our budget,
and we're doing this just because we want to share
it with you and have some fun and say, go
out and have some fun with your wines, and you
(25:22):
may find this at other stores where you live and retailers.
We've asked our wine friends to suggest more, but we
just focused on Trader Joe's. Yes, we shot and what
had just pour in my glass?
Speaker 3 (25:32):
David, that's the people. Oh okay, so we're one behind
on what we're talking about. We're two behind. But again,
the people's just a lovely one.
Speaker 2 (25:43):
It's nice, it's got a bite. It's a little more
minerally than fruity.
Speaker 3 (25:47):
So let's talk a little bit about more about the Suave's.
Suave is just south of Lake Garda in the in
the Northern Areas, Northern area of Italy and the wines.
There's a lot of wine made in that area. A
lot of it tends to be read as well. Yeah, Partolino,
and but the white ones from there in Grganega and
(26:07):
ptiler or just make some of Italy's classic white ones.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
I think it's a terrific area.
Speaker 3 (26:13):
Swai classico.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
Yeah, I wish we could open that one and taste it.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Well, it comes with a cork and I'm not going
to do with that.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
We've been bringing corkscreamers. Some of these have quirksus the
European ones do. The next wine another great white to try.
It's grown in many areas of Italy, but mainly you'll
find most of it in Tuscana, as is this one.
It is the from Poggio a la Cassoni estate in Tuscany.
(26:42):
It's called Tara di Cassoni. Vermontino is a twenty twenty
four twelve point five percent AVV. I think Italy just
does such a great job with vermentinos.
Speaker 3 (26:53):
And Melanie, tell everybody how much you like Ermentino.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
I love Vermontina, but I love a lot of Italian
white wines. I'm going to just say right now. When
I first started in the wine business, I knew more
about the reds and was like the whites because I
was having cheap whites coming in from Italy. But the
more I have traveled and visited different regions, so many
of the white wines have sung to my soul and
(27:17):
created a sense of commitment to the whites of Italy.
Speaker 3 (27:21):
And I think if you were going to say that
there's a classic white grape for central Italy, it would
probably be Vermintidaeah, you know, whereas pinagrigio and garganega from
Suavee are more northern Italian. There's a lot of pinagrizio
grown everywhere, Yeah, but they really come from northern Italy.
Vermentino is central Italy. Also Sardinia, that island off the
(27:45):
west coast of Italy, but all throughout central Italy you'll
find Vermontino. This is This is Tuscan.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yeah, and it's a screw top, but it's got a
stone fruit in it. You're gonna get a lot of
minerality and stone fruit salinity because you're so close to
the sea. Uh. Sardinia. Vermantino de Galora is just of
the it's the docg and if you can get those,
they're gonna be more money, but they're special. Uh. This
one is I don't know where in uh Tuscany it is,
(28:13):
but probably closer to Maremma area and the sea. That's
where most of the ones for the better vermentinos are,
they say, of course in the peering. I love the pierings,
the one whos recommend go to Cristini like Pasta's. Uh
Salumi always the same anyway, Uh, this is a good
(28:33):
everyday wine. Vermantino in general is a good everyday wine.
And this one was seven ninety nine, so the one.
Speaker 3 (28:41):
Of the more expensive that it was one of the
more teve the most expensive one we bought. So that's
what we've got from Well, we have one more from Europe,
which is the vino Verde, the Esperal, which we literally
buy all the time. We drank it. I buy this,
I buy this by the six pack.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Yeah, you drank it.
Speaker 3 (29:00):
We drink it all summer and it's just a wonderful
one Espiralino Verde. What I love about this wine is
that it's only and it's from Portugal. By the way,
it's only nine percent alcohol, so you literally can drink
it all day, drink it all day like it's like
drinking a session eail.
Speaker 2 (29:17):
It's like session one peppy. It's a peppy wine. So
nia verity is a region and the grape is Alvino
versus alba Reno. In Spain, it's Ala Reno. It's a
peppy young wine exclusive to Trader Joe's and Northern Portugal
(29:37):
and a lot of green apple on a lot of acidity.
Really that you know, it's a great salad, picnic sandwich.
I mean it's nine percent ABV and four dollars and
ninety nine cents retail. You can't even get a coffee
for that amount. Now, I went to it, I went
(29:59):
to go. I got a coffee because it's like coffee
Day and coffee this and that right now in New
Orleans and coffees are like five dollars a cop You
can get this entire bottle before ninety nine.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
And it's much more fun.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
Yeah. Yeah, this is great with stir fries.
Speaker 3 (30:15):
So that's the Vino Verde. You know, there's I think
four million grapes that go into vino Verde. Alvarino is
one of them. Yeah, and I toured the region in
twenty eighteen and just it's a beautiful area. So we
know what the north of Porto probably is. Yeah. Yeah,
it's north of Porto and south of the Spanish border.
(30:36):
In Portugal. It's just a beautiful area and never been
lots of fun good wines, but we know the people
who have ye. So now we're going to jump continents. Yeah,
and we are going to try two wines from South Africa.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
One we've tasted one't is this cool?
Speaker 3 (30:54):
And we are? They're both Shinnon Blanc or Shinnon Blanc blends.
Actually they're both.
Speaker 2 (31:02):
Shenon is a major grape also known as steen in
South Africa.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
And the first one we're going to try is the
Bali and it is if I can get it to
pull up on the screen here.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Think you told me our engineers like hold it in
front of your face. There we go. It's seventy nine
in that funny like seventy nine eight and twenty one
percent vin A five four.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
Can't beat that.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Yeah, Yeah, you're going to get because you're going to
have the vina. You're going to get a lot of
more floral stone, fruit, peach, bear, honey elements that are
very akin to VNA. But you're also going to get
that tropical notes of the shardon A.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
So this is western Cape of Origin.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Which is where most of the largest wine which is really.
Speaker 3 (31:58):
The largest wine read region kind of it blankets all
of the area surrounding.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Cape ab on this day thirteen point five percent, So
this is a little higher. We've been to the Western Cape.
It's gorgeous. We'd like to go back and spend more
time in South Africa. We big fans of the wines there.
Speaker 3 (32:15):
Yeah, we didn't go. We didn't go there for wine
as much as we went there for wildlife. Yeah, which
was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (32:21):
This one we drank.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
So this next one and the last one in our
little setup here is the Delicious Monster, which is from
the McGregor family in South Africa.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
Anyway, we'll put these up on the connected table. This
is a sixty percent Sheddon, twenty percent muscot, and twenty
percent shorten ay.
Speaker 3 (32:46):
This had a lot of aromatics to it was a
lively one.
Speaker 2 (32:50):
It was a lively one. It was good. It was
very we hate the word very refreshing, my dad. But
it was a lot of tropical and stone fruit obviously
a little bit of residual shu. The muscat really really terrific.
I don't think we had the right pairing with it.
I would have this with Thai food, Thai food all
the way, but our goat cheese. Tom made it pasta dishes.
(33:12):
I think we probably had it with salmon. That's all
we seem to eat right now at home is salmon.
But what can I say? Because when we're not a
trader Joe's, we go to Costco and get the big
slabs up salmon, or we.
Speaker 3 (33:27):
Go to our local fish mark. How do we get
all the local fish? Which we do on a regular
basis house cook that in.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
House cook we do. We have a wonderful what's the
dame of the place? We have shapeer seafood. They are
so amazing. Get right by the lake. We love, love love, Yeah,
is that it?
Speaker 3 (33:45):
That's it? We did it.
Speaker 2 (33:46):
Can we have a glass of something else?
Speaker 3 (33:49):
Yes? This one?
Speaker 2 (33:50):
This is the one. My glasses the pickpol already had it.
So we are going to list all of these wines
on the Connected table dot com. And like I said,
we get nothing from this other than the joy of
sharing it with you. We'd love to hear from you
to see what you have to say. If you like
(34:10):
this concept. We'll do one with reds. We'll do some
with sparkling. I don't know if we'll find sparkling wine's
a slow in price but we'll keep exploring, right.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
Yes, one thing we didn't try was the pumpkinspice hardon mate.
Speaker 2 (34:24):
Oh yeah, you know there's some weird ones.
Speaker 3 (34:26):
I think that was five ninety nine two. But you know, principles.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
You know what we did try and didn't like, but
a lot of people do is the sparkling almond. They
do it almond sparkling wine at Trader Joe's. I thought
it was weird, but some people like it. No, we can't.
We can't criticize other people's tastes because if somebody likes something,
it's their choice.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
Because I've been saying for twenty five years that if
wine is good, if you like it, So if you
like it it's yours, it's then it's good for you.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Well, I shopping for wine with you.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
I like drinking wine with them. Yeah, so we we'd like.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
To drink wine with more of you. So tell us
what you think about this show and maybe we'll do
another one like this. Absolutely all right, Well, we want
to thank you for joining us as you've been listening
and watching us on the Connected table. This show is
twelve white wines for under one hundred dollars that we
picked up during a visit to Trader Joe's. Thank you
(35:28):
David for paying for it, and thank you all for watching.
We want you to remember that we're here to help
you step out of your comfort zone and expand your
eating and drinking and exploring horizons all the time, which
we tried to do. We get a lot. We have
a lot of fun doing it, but you know it's
(35:48):
even more fun doing it with you, and even more
fun sharing it with all of you. So always stay
insat She'll be curious, and thank you for joining us.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
A gas Stossi stop cots a
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.