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Rediscovering Walla Walla Syrah: Trader Joe's Hidden Gem

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Sometimes the most remarkable wines are hiding in plain sight on grocery store shelves. The Trader Joe's Reserve Walla Walla Syrah 2023 represents everything worth celebrating about today's value wine landscape – exceptional quality from a prestigious growing region at a surprisingly accessible $10 price point.

This blue-labeled bottle comes from Washington State's elite Walla Walla region, an area that wine connoisseurs know produces wines that rival Napa's finest. What makes this particularly interesting is the story behind Syrah itself – once the darling of critics in the early 2000s before falling into relative obscurity after the 2008 economic downturn. Despite its current status as what wine insiders call a "hidden wine," Syrah continues to deliver remarkable quality-to-price value for those in the know.

The wine itself presents a fascinating duality: elegant, rounded fruit flavors upfront that transition to a slightly rustic edge in the mid-palate. This tension creates a complex sipping experience rarely found at this price point. Expect juicy notes of black cherry, tart cranberry, plum, and a distinctive cooling blueberry finish that appears after the spice elements have made their statement. It's crafted by DNA Cellars (Dennis Patton and Andrea Silverstein), who bring over 65 years of combined winemaking expertise and are responsible for some of Trader Joe's most successful wine collaborations.

Looking for a perfect summer wine that offers both easy drinking and genuine complexity? Pick up this Washington State gem next time you're at Trader Joe's – and don't forget to look for that distinctive blue label. After you try it, visit CheapWineFinder.com to discover more exceptional values that prove great wine doesn't have to break the bank.

Check us out at www.cheapwinefinder.com

or email us at podcast@cheapwinefinder.com

Speaker 1:

Hey, welcome, it's the domain Dave. Again CheapWineFindercom. We do wine reviews for value price wines and today we've got the Trader Joe's Reserve Walla Walla, syrah 2023. It's got a blue label which is a little bit different. I guess they've been color coding the different places. Walla Walla is partly in the Columbia Valley of Washington and partly in Oregon, but this one is in Washington.

Speaker 1:

Syrah is a grape from, well, actually, the Rhone Valley of southern France. It was all the rage in Australia in the 2000s. They called it Syrahs back then. It's still Syrah and it was the critics' darling. There was more value-priced wines with 90-plus points and it was everywhere into about 2008. And then the big economic meltdown of 2008, though I read there were problems going on before that. That kind of caused the collapse. Ever since then, syrah has been kind of a hidden wine. It was there's a, you know, merlot kind of fell apart after the movie Sideways, when one of the characters said he loved Pinot Noir and hated Merlot and all of a sudden Pinot Noir, which was not a big grape, became one of the top three or four grapes and Merlot kind of fell to the side. So it's weird.

Speaker 1:

But there you go, and here we have a Trader Joe's Reserve Walla Walla Syrah. It's from DNA Cellars. That's Dennis Patton and Andrea Silverstein. They've got like 65 years plus experience and they've done a whole bunch of some of the best Trader Joe's wines in the past 10 years or so. I got a link to their website and they kind of proudly put a bunch of those labels on their website. You know often people who do Trader Joe's wines, you know, kind of keep it on the down low. Nope, they're proud of it and they should because their wines are some of the better ones. So this is a.

Speaker 1:

I don't know anything other about this wine other than it's from Walla Walla. You don't see too many value price wines from Walla Walla. I have read that Walla Walla Cabernet Sauvignon is rivals Napa Cabernet Sauvignon, that it's an elite growing area and Syrah has always been big in Washington State. I mean it's a great place for it to grow. So there you go. So you've got some things going for it here. You've got a good area for the grape, you've got a good producer who can make value-priced wines.

Speaker 1:

And let's take a sip. It's kind of rounded and rich up front and then in the mid palate it starts to get a little rough edge, which I kind of like. Syrah kind of reminds me of Zinfandel in that it can be spicy and fun, and this one's kind of got elegant up front and a little rustic in the back and it comes together, which for me is fun. It gives you two distinct elements in one wine wine and it kind of it's fine as long as the rough edge ain't too rough edge and you get it got a lot of odd flavors or weird tannins and what have you. But no, this one's just fine. I'm gonna take another sip. Actually, yeah, for ten bucks is a really nice wine. It's a really nice wine.

Speaker 1:

It's a good Syrah. It's got rounded red flavors. You're getting rounded juicy flavors and a little bit of sourness. Fruit, maybe black cherry, maybe cranberry, tart cranberry, maybe some plum. It's got some blueberry on the edge on the very end. I mean, after all the spice. Then you get a little bit of cooling blueberry, which is a nice little effect. You know to actually taste all these things. You got to actually, for about 35, 40 seconds, just contemplate your navel a little bit and drink the wine and then you're done. You can just sit there and enjoy it. But it's um, but you get all these flavors.

Speaker 1:

And one thing that's kind of fun, cuz we've been doing this website since 2008 is that value price, not. Wines now are worthy of taking the time out to taste them. They're not just well, that's that. That tastes fruity and sweet and nice. They're actually well-made wines in their own right. Are they the same as the Spencer Wines? No, but in their own right they're good wines. So there you go.

Speaker 1:

I don't have too much to say about it. I didn't know too much about it. All I know is that it's from a good area, from a good producer, and it tastes for 10 bucks. It's a solid wine. So you got the trader joe's reserve walla, walla, syrah 2023. Look for the blue label if you're looking for a summer wine that's easy to drink and has some interest. It's a good wine. So, adios, keep it cheap. Uh. Domain dave cheap wine findercom. The website has all the links to everything. It's not a bad place to go if you want to learn a little bit more about it. And then we go plug in the microphone and we talk a little bit. So, adios, keep it cheap and I'll be talking to everybody in a couple of days. It's hot, sticky outside, so drink and air conditioning. Adios, bye-bye.