Napa Wines Just $4.99 A Bottle!

Well, that's what the October 2006 Northern California edition of Trader Joe's® Fearless Flyer is promoting.

The label is Napa River Wines and they're producing a Chardonnay, a Merlot and a Cabernet Sauvignon. I will allow you to read the sales pitch yourself ... or not.

Anybody try these yet? Anbody know who the éminence grise is behind the Napa River Winery?

Just curious ...

Pretty wild, huh? Apparently the spot price for Napa cabernet has dropped to $2000 per ton, the others are even cheaper. Presumably the Trader Joe's stuff is the (perhaps literal) bottom of the Napa Valley barrel, but still, I'll try a bottle.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... LD81Q1.DTL

There may not be a Napa winery behind the Napa River name, actually. Anyone who sees some, report back what the city on the label is.

Walt

Dan Berger mentioned this in his newsletter today (10/5/06) in an article on p.2 entitled "Challenges for Napa." It is a Bronco offering for just Trader Joe's. He also says that the glut of Napa grapes is going to surface in other near future offerings, and that along with some other things may tarnish Napa's immage. This is occuring when Sonoma just got a bill signed by the Govinator to santify the Sonoma name, and that they just hired a high-profile marketing director for its new wine commission.

Score:
Napa -1
Sonoma +2

Well, at Trader Joe's in Cinci, they are $6.49 per bottle and over-priced at that IMHO. I bought one each of the cabernet, chardonnay, and merlot. So far I have only tasted the cabernet, but it was thin, grapy and alcoholic. After 1/2 glass we dumped it and opened something else.